28-Day Humming Bee
Humming Bee Breath every day for four weeks. The rhythm always stays the same, and the session grows from five minutes to eight. How a day goes, who it suits and what it is based on.
3 min read
28-Day Humming Bee is a program that keeps track of you doing Humming Bee Breath every day for four weeks. Breathe in through your nose for four seconds, and breathe out for twelve seconds with a closed-mouth "mmm". The rhythm doesn't change during the program: what grows is the length of the session.
How a day goes
Today's program session sits at the very top of the technique list. When you start it, that day's length comes in by itself and you don't need to set anything. You don't choose a length when setting up the program either.
Before the session you see a short focus sentence about what to pay attention to that day. The same sentence appears once more at the start of the session.
The session grows over time
Everyone starts with five minutes for the first three days. Over the weeks the session grows to six, seven and eight minutes. If your rhythm and your hum go smoothly, the length grows earlier than planned, and after a day you found hard it gets a little shorter the next day. In sessions without the microphone the length follows the program's own plan.
Special days
- Day 14, eyes closed: after the first rounds the screen goes dark, and sound and vibration guide you.
- Days 21 and 28, last minute unguided: in the last minute the circle draws back and sound and vibration go quiet. You keep the rhythm going yourself.
The first time you meet each one, a short page before the session explains what will happen.
Who it suits
People who want to work on lengthening their exhale with sound. Humming slows and smooths the exhale by itself, so a twelve-second exhale feels easier than doing it silently. And because in this technique the microphone listens for the hum rather than silent blowing, the measurement is more reliable.
To set up the program, Humming Bee Breath needs to be unlocked. If it isn't yet, you'll find what it takes in Unlocking techniques.
If you feel dizzy or uncomfortable, stop and go back to your normal breathing.
How to set up the program, what happens when you miss a day and what you see when it ends are in Setting up a program.
What it is based on
There are few studies on bee breathing, and they are small. In most of them regular practice lasts four to six weeks. The program takes this length as its model but doesn't promise a result.
- Kuppusamy et al. (2018), Journal of Traditional and Complementary Medicine 8(1):11–16 — a review of studies on Bhramari pranayama.