With Mercury about to enter retrograde motion, work threatening to overwhelm, and family and fiends keeping me on my toes, this week, like many recent weeks, has been about staying afloat and getting through the damn days. On a recent rainy morning, the sky all dim and overcast, the struggle of merely getting out of bed was more than real, and rather than fight it, I immediately went into what not constitutes my stress-reaction ~ a slow mode of Ujjayi breathing.
Narrowing the wind-pipe, I slowly inhaled, the distant sounds of the ocean replicated as Andy stirred sightly beside me. Pausing for the slightest bit at the crest, I then slowly exhaled, taking about twice as long as the inhale – about seven seconds in and fourteen seconds out. Beginning the day in this manner, and continuing this style of breathing as I prepared for the office, would set the tone and see me through whatever the world had in store. It’s a benefit of consistent meditation to be able to slide into such a mode whenever a bit of calm is needed, and I was suddenly grateful for the practice.
