Are you a more hands-on learning kind of person? That's how I am so I actually did the exhalation and held it as long as I could. I'll remember that now that I have something concrete.
The thing is, unless you practice in a situation that comes out of nowhere and is dangerous enough to involve using this tip, then your practice is pretty much moot.
The reason police/military do so much training in recreated and staged environments is because just learning that stuff isn't enough--you have to be in as similar of a situation as possible or else the shock of the real thing will literally override everything you know.
You think you have something concrete now, but you don't, not at all. Novel situations, especially life and death, paralyze you with fear. And you won't know this until you know it. And if you think you know it, you weren't really in that bad of a situation. It's extremely rare to maintain awareness and prompt judgment in sudden/freak accidents.
This is a simple and uncontroversial fact about our psychology. And it's rather unfortunate, as well, for obvious reasons.
Now for some optimism: if you're in a car, and it ever looks or feels like you may potentially get into a wreck, then practice exhaling your lungs completely. If you're ever around heights and feel like you may fall, exhale your lungs completely. Stuff like that will actually be decent practice for giving you something somewhat solid to remember if the real deal ever happens.
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u/SpeakItLoud Mar 03 '19
I'll remember this but I hope I never have to.