How do you go with the flow of life? So that with each change or fluctuation of circumstance you adapt like water in a river. Ancient Chinese sages spoke of paying close attention to where you are now in order to better predict what would be useful for the future.

In that case you were ready when the changes occurred.

Paying attention to where you are and what is happening is a pretty obvious thing but in reality it’s not that simple.

Somebody once said ‘Happiness is choosing what you get.’ I’m not sure what the people of Yemen or other conflict zones would think about that.

Nevertheless, In any situation there is always a way to proceed. (see above) Perhaps that’s what Krishnamurti meant when he said, ‘The only difference between you and me is that I don’t mind what happens.’

‘That must be so nice for you!’ you might say. I mean really .. sometimes the enlightened can be so exasperating!

Perhaps the real question is how do you maintain composure when things aren’t going well? Or perhaps when best laid plans are sidetracked?

I spilt bleach over a 2 metre section of our living room curtains yesterday whilst cleaning window frames. We’ve discovered a mould problem at home. It seems we have to fit a few other projects into our schedule for a little while. In any case, spilling the bucket of bleach (I know, I know .. why wasn’t I using vinegar? Why was I pulling a ladder with a bucket of bleach on top too?) created a kind of tipping point.

So I was definitely unprepared for that circumstance and hardly not minding what happened. There I was, expletively kicking chairs out of the way as I cleaned up the mess and mourned the loss of our once theatrical backdrop.

Portrait of a Woman, 1638-39 by Guido Reni - Birmingham Museums Trust - via UnSplash

So much energy devoted to useless raving rather than the actual situation and even though my 18 year old was looking at me with the kind of level stare that made me completely aware of how stupidly I am behaving, I found myself continuing.

Of course it wasn’t the spilt bleach but an assessment of transient idiocy. It was like old reactions thundering into the present with an apparent life of their own.

So this week we’ll be looking at what prevents us from seeing what is actually going on through the prism of our breath. What are we holding onto that interferes with our ability to access the air that is freely there? In particular we’ll be looking at our exhalation.

Are we missing out on valuable respiratory real estate as a result of unconscious habits? Does this have an influence on how we react in stressful situations?

Last week we spoke of how higher levels of carbon dioxide can trigger shortness of breath and induce panic in some people. Could this be a normal state of being for some of us when times are stressful? Paying attention to the rhythm and rate of our breathing can be a useful indicator of how things are going.

Carl Stough had an interesting take on this. He was a choral director who developed an approach to breathing that focussed on efficiency of function and in particular of being able to exhale more of the carbon dioxide rich residual air in our lungs than many people were used to in their everyday breathing.

He developed, along with his wife, Reece Stough, a Method called Breathing Co-ordination. They used it to develop vocal ability within his choirs but soon realised that inefficient breathing was at the heart of many problems. We’ll explore one of his/their ideas this week and observe it in relation to our ability to move.

Of course, I celebrate my idiotic behaviour and the thwarting circumstances of life. As Leonard Cohen sang in ‘Anthem’, There is a crack, There is a crack in everything. That’s where the light gets in.

I hope you’ll celebrate yours. Then we can all breathe easy.

This blog post relates to the sixth lesson in the breathing series. You can find that lesson by clicking here

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Breathing 6 - Breathing co-ordination