3 lessons I learned from holding my breath for 4 minutes

1. Every thought takes energy.

When you are holding your breath for a long time, every ounce of energy matters. Every twitch, every feeling, every thought takes this precious energy. In this down of potent down-regulation, very still, very quiet, when a thought emerges I could feel the energy it took. Often the pattern emerged as first a feeling, then a thought, then a movement. 

If a thought clearly uses energy, how much energy does a day in nonstop thinking burn?

2. Will Power has a limit

During my breath-holds, as the minutes grew, my willpower runs out. It has a limit. What I found that needed to emerge was trust, safety. Trust that I was okay, trust in my body, trust in the un-comfort of not breathing. This trust didn't come from willpower, it came from practice, it came from familiarity. The will to begin the practice was needed, then establishing the trust, slowly and patiently was being called for.

3. The body gets good at what it does or doesn't do

When I started this practice I could hold my breath for 80 seconds. Not bad mind you, but the thought of 4 minutes was out of this world. The top blessing I've received through all the years of weird learning and practice is confidence in the learning process. That what seems unattainable will become if an intelligent process is followed. The laws of adaptation are predictable, the laws can be trusted. The body becomes good at what it does or doesn't do.