Massive Brain Fog recovery

[kenvj]

I've just recovered from really massive brain fog and slowly getting it all back together again.
This story really begins over 20 years ago when I was studying classical piano. I began to have brain fog and drowsiness - the more I played the worse it got. I could find no explanation for it except possibly CFS but I didn't have much physical fatigue so I discounted it. It became so bad that I finally had to give up playing the piano which was very hard to do.
At a later date, with the advent of digital camera's I became immersed in digital photography and the use of Photoshop on the computer. This went well for a while and then when I started to get really serious and spent quality time on the computer back came the brain fog, drowsiness and fatigue, I became so physically tired I couldn't get out to take photographs so I gave it all away. I was diagnosed with CFS and nothing I did seemed to help.
Eventually I found Gupta and everything went so wonderfully right! The brain fog was gone and I had more physical energy, I realized that good breathing was part of my recovery. I finally got myself a keyboard and began to enjoy myself. I started to get a bit of drowsiness again but I could cope with it, I thought the keyboard was involved but I was not prepared to give it away. Eventually I started to get into more complex music which required much more concentration to read and back came the brain fog - it became really really bad until of course I had to stop playing the keyboard. I desperately wanted to know why the piano, the computer or the keyboard caused such a problem?
I had occasionally thought that when I was practising I thought I might have been holding my breath - could this have anything to do with it? I Googled "breath holding, piano and computer" and I found this http://mindblog.dericbownds.net/2008/01 ... reath.html
This was the problem, when I was playing the keyboard I was concentrating so much that I was hardly breathing at all, I simply stopped breathing. I have worked on this, observing my breathing even when playing (not easy) but I'm getting dividends. The brain fog has disappeared and I am now able to play without too much worry. This breath holding could well be a problem which has not been really looked at in CFS. The problems it causes with the nervous system is very considerable. Have a read and think about it!

[niaholt]

Hi Ken,
This is fantastic news. How right you are. However what makes some people breathe normally whilst doing tasks and others not. I lay down to do my breathing exercises and can do them sometimes for 2 hrs straight. When I get up and go to attend kitchen duties, I find the old pattern sneaks back. If I put that BP demo site exercises on , the sound keeps me reminded to breathe as it makes the wooshing breathing sounds. I beleive bereathing is the most significan thing we can do to help get balance to the 2 nervous system pathways.

[springlight]

Thanks for posting this - interesting article & a fascinating site!

[annie]

Thanks Ken, good post as ever. I forget to breath in, am fine with the long, slow outbreath then tend to leave myself empty. When I do a relaxation tape or similar, i can feel awful later, i think this comes from the same tendency. Maybe a birth imprint or maybe i'm just too yin!

[ldg]

Thanks for the reminder. I will put a post it note on my computer now.

[kenvj]

Quote Annie- Thanks Ken, good post as ever. I forget to breath in, am fine with the long, slow outbreath then tend to leave myself empty. When I do a relaxation tape or similar, i can feel awful later, i think this comes from the same tendency.

Hi Annie - I also am a slow breather and when I did Transcendental Meditation I would breathe so slowly that I was sometimes at a standstill. I don't think this is good at all - now when I do meditation focussing on my breathing I will count - 1, 2 IN and 1,2,3 OUT and 1 second pause if I feel I'm breathing too slowly. I think breathing too slowly is just another way of not getting enough oxygen.

[niaholt]

I am beginning to think the breathing difficulty is caused by the over active neurotransmitters. After my tests came back showing me the gross over activity, the resultant anxiety is working behind the scenes causing us to hold our breaths as the body is responding to fight or flight. What is behind the cause.......my Doc told me gut dysbiosis resulting in toxins affecting the level of neurotransmitters...hence extra brain activity that has flow on affect to everything in the body.

[annie]

i think i have been breathing badly all my life. i remember when i swam i could hold my breath under water for ages, problem is that i now do the same and i am not under water! i definitely starve myself of oxygen.
your man could well be right nia, i don't feel i am in flight or fight all the time, though my body may well feel it unconsciously. i do often feel better after a breathing session. sometimes feel better after a good cry too, all those gulping in air breaths. when i feel really awful, it feel such an effort to breath.
how are you doing with your new protocol nia? all very exciting after those test results.

[Gattone]

interesting i had a tendecy to breathe too much in no w instead like annie i breathe out and nothing in
i 've been diagnosed with cronich bronchitis anyway, it may be a contributing factor seems that my body is constant lack of oxygen