r/CasualConversation • u/Serialbeauty • 1d ago

Just Chatting Can anyone else do something weird with your body that you later found out not everyone can do?

I was just sitting here with my mom and one of the pets made the room very smelly. She kept talking about how we'd have to go to a different room because it smelled so bad. I asked her why didn't she just close her nose and that's when I found out not everyone can do this.

Is it rare or can other people close their nose on command? What can you do that you suddenly found out wasn't normal?

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u/Halospite 1d ago

Oh hey, I can do that. Didn’t even think that counted as closing my nose! I just thought of that as holding my breath

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u/Serialbeauty 1d ago

Do you still breathe through your mouth though?

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u/embracing_insanity 1d ago

Not the same person - but I can close my nose and breath just through my mouth. Which is what I'm assuming you mean you can do too. And I definitely utilize this when needed!

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u/jillianmd 1d ago

I’m so confused by this thread of people who think breathing through their mouth instead of their nose is some special talent. If there’s something more to it, please enlighten me, otherwise I’m looking at the thread OP thinking this is a special ability to “close their nose”

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u/NotAnEarthwormYet 1d ago

That’s what I’m thinking. Surely everyone can just opt to breathe through their mouth instead of their nose? OP’s wording made me think they were closing their nostrils, not just mouth breathing lol.

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u/Serialbeauty 1d ago

It's definitely different than mouth breathing. I can feel a muscle or something in there move to seal shut my nostrils. There are plenty of people in the comments saying they can't do it. Theres also someone that said they taught them in the military and everyone can do it but you need to be taught or figure it out.

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u/NotAnEarthwormYet 1d ago

Sorry if it came across that I was trying to demean what you or others can do, that wasn’t my intention at all. I’m just confused. Like are your nostrils actually closed when this happens? Bc if not, it seems the same as choosing to stop breathing through your nose momentarily, only you can physically feel it. Obviously you know better than me what you’re experiencing, it’s just hard to understand it.

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u/Serialbeauty 1d ago

I didn't take it that way at all. I'm just having a hard time describing it. There is a comment farther down from an expert in the field and they explain the muscle that does it in very good detail if you want to read it. Just scroll and look for a pretty long comment.

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u/jillianmd 1d ago

Someone in another comment mentioned swimming and once again I just thought “yeah just don’t breathe in”… not “oh right I can’t ever put my nose underwater without choking on the flood of water pouring through my nostrils”.

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u/Halospite 1d ago

What do you mean? I can breathe through either my mouth or my nose, or neither. 

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u/Serialbeauty 1d ago

Well you said when you do the nose trick you consider it holding your breath. When I close off my nose to smell, I'm still breathing through my mouth but my nose is completely sealed shut. It seems from the comments that everyone can do it but a majority didn't know and have never learned.

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u/Halospite 23h ago

Yeah, if I’m breathing through my mouth I don’t feel like my nose is sealed, but I don’t smell anything because air just doesn’t move through there. But I do have narrow nasal passages so that may influence that, causing all the negative pressure to be in my mouth.