Breath Blog

Friday, October 31, 2008

Pause for a Samhain breath....


Our ancestors would have been celebrating the ancient festival of Samhain around about now - giving thanks for the year's harvests and preparing for a period of darkness, hibernation and contemplation.

The leaves are down here - mostly - making glorious tapestry on the riverside tow-path - see above. The fall/autumn seems like a planetary exhalation as all is spent and come to fruition... So I pause and think of the magic gap of stillness between each inhalation and exhalation - a point of sublime stillness and vibrant energetic life...

We're celebrating tomorrow night in the Druidic tradition with fire and mead.

Thursday, October 30, 2008

The blessings of Buteyko

I've been a Buteyko fan for six years, and have benefitted from doing the now deceased Russian professor's exercises on a regular basis. Together with traditional Chinese herbal medicine, his breathing exercises have got me off steroids - drugs that had the most debilitating effect on my dad and mum-in-law before they died.

It's all about stopping mouth-breathing and hyperventilation. But the secret of my success with it has been taping my mouth at night. Yes, as scary and claustrophobic as it might sound, taping my mouth with a large swathe of microporous tape...

This is not on the Buteyko tin as far as I can gather, but was recommended at the course I attended.

Why I raise it now is that last night I went to bed with a cold and taped my mouth with a four to five inch strip of one inch wide tape. Because mouth breathing was not an option, my brain had to keep my nose unblocked and I had a good night's sleep - with little ambient snoring according to my wife. And today the cold is gone.

I can remember waking after a night of mouth-breathing because of a blocked up nose, and it felt like my mouth had been scoured with wire wool.

The point of all this is that Prof Buteyko has bought the science of breathing into the western healing arena and I owe him a big thank you!

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Why vote for Buddha...

Killing the Buddha is a notion that appeals to my childish, anarchistic inner-rebel. But it is a profound notion: that all my ideas, notions, feelings and beliefs about spirituality could be masking me from the truth.

Being in the moment is a tricky thing, because there are many different types of moment. I cannot get in synch with the billionths of seconds that are the increments of time within atoms, so I always come back to my breath - a metronome I can understand and resonate with.

Here are a couple of thoughts from others on the subject:

"Why kill the Buddha? Because the Buddha you meet is not the true Buddha, but an expression of your longing. If this Buddha is not killed he will only stand in your way."

From "Killing The Buddha"

===================================================

"The Buddha starts by sweeping away the past as the container of wisdom. It doesn't matter what people tell you or what's been written down; you don't have to believe something just because it's got the weight of history and tradition behind it, he says.

He goes on to assert that it's not enough that a teaching appeals to our intellect, our logic. While the ideas behind a teaching may be appealing, that doesn't mean they work in real life. What's also implied here is that, just because a teaching "feels right" doesn't mean it is right-a critical point, since we are often drawn to ideas that fit with our own preferences, whether accurate or not.

Finally, he warns against accepting an opinion just because your teacher holds it."

Excerpted from "One Breath at a Time: Buddhism and the Twelve Steps" by Kevin Griffin

Thursday, October 16, 2008

"There are no bad notes..."


... is part of the ethos of jazz, and part of the ethos of life is that there are no bad breaths.

And please, remember, we are not talking halitosis, here.

The jazz quote continues "...only poor choices."

And when it comes to breaths "...only unconscious ones."

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

More F.E.A.R


Pick of the day is

F rantic
E ffort to
A void
R eality

That is why a deep, sweet breath can be a very good wake-up call - and moves me to the deeper reality that I cannot muster one single breath for myself. Every one is a gift. But on the reality front, maybe there's some work I can do...

For more acronyms.

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

“Smile, breathe and go slowly”


After a hectic day, I remembered the words of Thich Nhat Hanh as I watched the sun set and the full Moon rise last night.

Whether it was influence of the full Moon or not, I don't know, but I woke with a sense of dread this morning. And someone reminded me - via a post here - that another acronym for FEAR is

F ***
E verything
A nd
R un

There is a point here, but, as I am not in a warzone, I'm sticking to my original - that Fear today is False Evidence Appearing Real... And am hopeful that my preoccupations and anxieties won't trip my brain into pressing the F*** It button and running from my realities...

So best remember: “Smile, breathe and go slowly.”

Monday, October 13, 2008

A breath of Swedish fresh air

Fine advise for a grey autumnal morning in England, don't you think? For me, with my paranoid disposition, it is as well to remember the acronym:

F alse
E vidence
A ppearing
R eal

And to go on from there...

Friday, October 10, 2008

Patient and flowing

It's still happening - the inflow and the outflow...

Impervious to my panic at not being able to sort out an errant digital camera and the hopeless tech support, patient and freeflowing...it is the truest gift I've ever been given - my breath....

Thursday, October 09, 2008

Buddha on the breath

At a time, o Monks, when the monk thus trains himself: Perceiving impermanence will I breathe in, perceiving impermanence will I breathe out'; 'rejecting attraction will I breathe in, rejecting attraction will I breathe out'; 'perceiving eradication will I breathe in, perceiving eradication will I breathe out'; perceiving estrangement will I breathe in, perceiving, estrangement will I breathe out': at such a time, o Monks, a monk examining phenomena observes phenomena, unremittingly, with perspicacity and insight, after having conquered worldly desires and worry. And he recognizes with wisdom, how worldly desires and worry are being overcome, and attains peace.

- Buddha Sakyamuni, (563 - 483 B.C), founder of Buddhism

Image from www.buddhist-images.co.uk

Wednesday, October 08, 2008

The Chord of Life and the Beat of Existence

Moving back into my being - I see my breath as the deep chord of my life connecting me with and participating me in life, with the sweet music of my beating heart providing musical sustenance...

Tuesday, October 07, 2008

“The big picture is without form.” Lao Tze

This is what I needed to read this morning. I only get my petty concerns, not the bigger picture.

Acceptance is the key. I can accept that I will never have everything figured out, that most things are way beyond my control... But it is more that I have to live my acceptance, than just passively accept. A famous AA speaker says: "You can't think yourself into right living. You can only live yourself into right thinking."

I can change one thing, and one thing only. Myself. And change for me is not about preference, it is about change, making a living difference...

How do I relate this to my breath? My thoughts are that my breath is just giving and without judgement. It doesn't wish me a good or a bad day. It is unconditional in its support...

As I heed it, so I learn...

Monday, October 06, 2008

Breathing, for me, has come to mean gratitude

Try as I might, I cannot take responsibility for one single breath.

The fact, for me, is that I don't breathe, I am breathed...

And that is starting to make a difference in my life, as I can see the importance of gratitude and the senselessness of feeling hard done by...

As someone once said: "The largest room in the world is the room for improvement."

More blogs about breath blog.