This is the kind of thing I assume everyone has tried to do

[moominmolly]

[Poll #1172427]

Comments

[twoeleven.livejournal.com]

[x] and when i was meditating more, i used to be able to twiddle my blood pressure in real time. completely freaked out a doctor w/ that. :)

[arachne8x.livejournal.com]

Now I really want to strap on my heart rate monitor... thankfully its out of batteries, because I need to go to bed.

[beowabbit]

It actually never occurred to me to try. I suspect that the work/meditation of trying to measure my heart rate would affect my heart rate, but I’m not sure in which direction the net change would be.

If I had to guess, I would say I’d probably have a pretty easy time increasing my heart rate by changing my mood (e.g., getting myself into a panic) or by relaxing, but not by just directly willing it to change.

(I didn’t answer the first part of the poll, because just sitting here I can’t tell what my heart rate is reliably enough.)

[queenofhalves]

i can do both, but neither very effectively or quickly.

[youngwilliam.livejournal.com]

I'm rather bad at it if I'm just trying without any equipment, but I've found I can get pretty good at it if I'm hooked up to a heart-rate monitor with an audible "Beep!"

Unfortunately, most of the the few times I've been hooked up to a beeping heart-rate monitor were situations where no-one wanted me to show what funky biofeedback tricks I could do.

[the-xtina.livejournal.com]

I peculed B when I was last in the hospital - he could see the heart monitor thing, so I slowed my heart rate while he watched.  Hee.

[qwrrty.livejournal.com]

I had already tried slowing my pulse on purpose but never thought to try speeding it up. I wasn't sure how, so I just tried to get stressed out about not being able to do it. Raised my pulse from 66 to 84 in about thirty seconds. Score!

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

*snort* yay!

[weegoddess.livejournal.com]

Oh sure. It all has to do with controlling one's breathing. And it helps to think of um...things that would increase a person's respiratory rate.

[chenoameg.livejournal.com]

Trying to make me speed it up made me feel stressed (in not a good way), so I stopped. I may have succeeded at raising it, but I didn't count, so I voted no.

I have a great blood pressure story -- I've given double units of blood with a plasma foo-pherisis machine. They don't want to suck the blood out of you, so they match the speed of the machine with your blood pressure. If your pressure goes down the machine beeps and the phlebotomist comes over to lower the speed of bloodsucking.

I'm such an extrovert that when the phlebotomist came over I would get a blood pressure increase from talking to her, so the machine would stop beeping. Then I would go back to my book, and my breathing would slow, and my blood pressure would go down.

I figured out what was happening and fidgeted while reading before the beeping/not beeping drove the phlebotomist crazy.

[dancingwolfgrrl.livejournal.com]

I think I first tried this when I learned about biofeedback; by that time I'd already messed around with trance a bunch (I was a weird kid) and figured there was no reason I wouldn't be able to do it.

[wispfox.livejournal.com]

It's faster when I breathe in than when I breathe out. Always. It's strange. :)

[chenoameg.livejournal.com]

I vaguely remember something from a college class that such heart beat change is lifelong and synonomous with being "high-reactive". (the temperment part of shy, as opposed to the personality part.)

[wispfox.livejournal.com]

Huh. No clue. :)

i *hate* being Cos, but...

[amber-phoenix.livejournal.com]

i can speed it up or slow it down at will *sometimes* but not every time i try.

[bluepapercup]

I used to entertain myself in high school study hall by putting my head down on my arms to listen to the ticking of my watch and then try to synch up my heartbeat with the ticking. It was very difficult, but I did manage it a few times!

[laurenhat.livejournal.com]

I don't know what counts as moving. I can do either, but I'm tensing/relaxing various muscles and altering my breath.

[dnereverri.livejournal.com]

I've often wondered if my tendency to make myself relax (==slow down my heart rate) when I have my blood pressure taken is severely sabotaging my medical examinations, or only minorly sabotaging them.

[harimad.livejournal.com]

I can speed it up (easy) or slow it down (harder) but the skill is not as broad or simple as the poll question makes it sound. The range of slow-down is narrow, and usually restricted to calming/quieting down from the walk to the dr's room so that when my 'resting' pulse & bp is tested, it's really a resting measure.

So I need an "I am cos" answer to "I am cos."