I practiced the Buteyko method for many years when I was in states of high anxiety and frequent panic attacks, and it was incredibly helpful. I had a syndrome called new daily persistent headache, which means a sudden-onset headache that becomes constant from that instant forward, as in 24/7, for years. It's hard for people who haven't experienced that to understand I mean that literally. Buteyko breathing was the only thing that ever cut down on that headache, and a couple times I was able to suspend it for an hour or two, which when you have a literally constant headache for years, is a big deal.

My big takeaway from it was that breathing and neurological state are deeply connected and actually relaxed, natural, healthy breathing (and the corresponding state of the brain and nervous system) is something that most people have probably never even experienced unfortunately. We all think our state is normal, but I assure you, it is very far from the state where your control pause is 40s-60s or more, it's a radically different experience.

Also the nuance of what the control pause and how to measure it correctly is lost on I would say, even most people who attempt to learn Buteyko. The control pause is how long you can, under normal breathing, suspend breath with zero discomfort, and then prefectly resume normal breathing without any change from before. If you took a bigger breath to start, or when you start breathing again it's even slightly heavier, it's not a control pause measurement, it becomes an ego metric juiced to make you feel better about a number while avoiding the disappointing facts.

Buteyko claimed that healthy breathing had a 40+ second control pause. Which if you think about the real meaning and how to measure it, is a super long time. And I got there sometimes, it's a major learning experience about what deep alignment and relaxation of the brain/nerves can really feel like.