Breathing & Respiration

A friend was telling me her rhythms were off. I’m wondering if that might be because she’s been holding her breath and crying more lately. It’s hard to get by an entire day breathing. The hardest things are what should be the easiest! Breathe! Hey, and this is helpful: from ftrain.com, “How to breathe deeply when you’re nervous.” This brief article provides brief (illustrated) instructions on how to reboot your autonomic nervous system’s breathing patterns, per se. These instructions are similar to advice I give people suffering from hiccoughs. What I tell them is, 1) breathe in as much air as you can and breathe in some more 2) hold it as long as you can 3) breathe out as far as you can then breathe out some more 4) hold that exhalation as long as you can. Then, just breathe smoothly and your hiccoughs may be gone. Sometimes your diaphragm just needs a good stretching. I wonder how Seth Dowell is doing (the “Hiccup Guy”). I wonder if he’s still hiccoughing?

“As we go through life, the mind becomes rigid and set. Be like a child, be fluid. Only in innocence can you express love. This is the irony, this is the paradox: You need knowledge to recover your innocence.”
~ Sanjiv Kakar

These rudimentary things – like breathing – are fascinating me right now.