Over the last few weeks I've started practicing relaxing breathing techniques and mindfulness meditation (sometimes together, sometimes separate - the distinction's kind of fuzzy at this level). I'm liking the effects of the mindfulness stuff on my every day disposition, but the controlled breathing exercises are giving me a paradoxical reaction.
My blood pressure at an active point during the day is usually around 110 over 69. After half an hour of sitting or lying down doing four seconds in, four seconds hold, six seconds out, two seconds hold controlled breathing, it's up to 133 over 88. Twenty minutes later it's halfway back down to normal.
Anybody here with experience with breathing techniques with a guess as to what to make from that? Part of the point of regular breathing exercises is he hope of increasing relaxation by altering unconscious breathing patterns long-term... should I expect this to be bad for me, if it did happen? Or is it just my concentration that's increasing my blood pressure, and should I expect things to settle down and the effect to reverse when it comes more naturally with experience?
Links to other fora more focused on this stuff would be very welcome, too.
