About Breath

My attempts to “stay awake” by pausing to count out 10 breaths throughout the day have had limited success. The red entries still seem to outnumber the green entries. But I tend to keep an optimistic perspective on these things, and try to use the information to help develop strategies that might increase the frequency of those green 10x entry counts.

Mushtaq offered an interesting sufi-studies post on breath work a few years ago that he subsequently posted on his blog regarding the pathological types of breathing, drawing from the work of Scott Sonnon.

My mind map of the Scott Sonnon pathological breathing types:

(Click image to enlarge)

This gave me just what I needed to provide a shift in perspective on this activity. Instead of focusing on trying to just observe my breath, I started to focus on “how” I breathed. I started to realize that when I slipped into the “waking dream”, I could recall a breath pattern. Unfortunately, it seemed to happen before I could “think” about it. (Another clue dangling just beyond my reach).