Thread: When I meditate I notice I only take little (short) breaths, is this normal?

After about a minute of meditation, my breath becomes very short and feels like eventually run out of oxygen.

I'm not breathing from my chest though, my belly raises more then my chest (my chest barely moves)

Is this normal during meditation?

Well, you can't stop breathing. So you don't need to fear of running out of oxygen... When your mind settles, your breathing becomes shallow too. Or the breath can be used to calm the mind too. After only a minute of meditation that sounds like you notice the change in your breath the first time? For example in jhanic practice losing the physical sensation of breath altogether is a sign of that you are in your way to the deeper concentration and finally to the access concentration. But it all depends on what kind of meditation are you doing?

This seems unusual. Maybe your focusing on it too strongly?

Perhaps if you just keep going things will settle naturally.

I don't think it is very likely you will actually pass out.

yeah u probably focus on it too intensely, try to forget about it.... let it flow it self and just relax

I have the same problem

That could have to do with the position you're in,like maybe slumping down forward and putting pressure on the chest or something? The way I was taught was to take long slow and fairly deep breaths into the belly first, and when that's full then the chest fills as well, and then let it out the same way, in reverse order (first from chest then belly). But I don't really think about that while Im doing it - it's automatic. I just make sure to take long slow relaxed breaths. Sometimes I do seem to take shorter ones - probably because of some level of stress or something, but if so I just go with the flow - the body has different needs at different times and you need to allow it what it needs.

I find that small breaths, both rapid and slow, aren't necessarily a bad thing depending on exactly how it is you're breathing... although feeling like you are going to run out of oxygen makes it sound as though this isn't the case for you. I know a lot of them time that people say to focus on your breathing when meditating, but I feel like if your breathing is causing feelings of running out of oxygen or otherwise dominates your attention in the sense you aren't consciously intending for it to (at least to the extent or in the exact manner that it is), then it pretty much defeats the purpose of the exercise (not that this is the problem for you, just saying). Afaik the focus you put on breathing is more of way to calm and center yourself by getting into a rhythmic kind of flow/trace-like kind of state where future-based thoughts disappear and you can simply experience the sensation of being.

As far as it being normal? Not normal per se, but definitely not abnormal (at least in the sense that you should be alarmed or feel like you're weird). Shallow breathing where I feel like I'm running out of oxygen (and also sometimes where I don't feel like I'm running out) happens to me when relaxing myself using a loosely meditation based method of relaxing when trying to sleep or trying to just calm down and relax in general. Sometimes I continue breathing just the same after realizing it on purpose---surprisingly enough, the running-out-of-oxygen sensation rarely gets any more intense than it starts out when I first notice it and even sometimes goes away within a minute or two.

Something interesting and useful I remember reading once was that breathing in such a way where you feel, just subtly or mildly, like you are running out of air is actually a way to maximize oxygen intake and even had potential for helping people go to sleep. I can't remember what study I found this in at all, so I'm afraid I don't have any sources I can share, but at the very least, I remember why it works. People mostly think of carbon dioxide as just a waste product that's expelled when we exhale, but that isn't true. It's actually critical to maximizing oxygen intake.

The reason why is that oxygen acts as a mild stimulant and is a moderately potent vasoconstrictor, meaning that it narrows the blood vessels. Carbon dioxide, conversely, acts as a mild depressant and is moderately potent as a vasodilator, expanding the blood vessels. Too much oxygen intake without any time allowed for the build up of blood levels of CO2, therefore, actually decreases how much oxygen we can reintroduce to the bloodstream by breathing; in other words, this is what it is to hyperventilate and why it can cause people to faint or cause panic and anxiety (which in turn causes more hyperventilation in a feedback loop where they just keep fueling each other). It's also why people who hyperventilate will breathe into and out of a brown paper bag. Since they can't slow down their hyperventilating on their own, they capture and re-breathe the CO2 they're producing in the paper bag so that their blood vessels can expand enough to allow optimal oxygen intake again.

In the Breathing Book the author talks about how laying down flat is the way to breathe deepest. I actually do all my meditation laying down because my lungs get really nice and full. It is a good feeling. I heard this called Pirhana Yamic breathing. I don't know what that means but I know I like Yams, but I am afraid of Piranhas. When I am upright it is usually harder to breathe as deeply.