Montreal, Nov 9, 2018, 11:31 am (action for when your mind and heart are racing; on a day where you feel pulled in a million directions)

Action notes: A little bit like a Conch shell. The sound of my breath started thinly around the nostrils (and a bit cold!), but as I repeated the action, the sound, as it passed over my sinuses and across my tonsils, started to sound more and more wave-like, like that sound you hear when you put your ear up against a Conch. As I focused on this sound, I also noticed that my ears were really attentive to a tone in the background of the space around me — maybe from outside? The hum of electricity? Unsure. Somewhere around the pitch of the “c” above “middle c.”

Action constraints: The action was in part motivated by the stress and frustration that I am feeling (overwhelm) today, and while it did orient me differently, pulling me (largely) out of the hamster-wheel of my thoughts, the pull of that wheel and its rhythm — the feel of rushing the action a bit to get out the door, while at the same time very much wanting to do it NOW, and see what listening might do to reorient the (so-far) direction of the day — it doesn’t feel like enough. I will try repeating the action a few time throughout the day, not so much as a “deep breathing” exercise, but as a listening one.

 

bodybreathing