Breath knows no reason

"The reasonable man encounters circumstances and adapts himself to them. The unreasonable man persists in trying to adapt circumstances to himself. All progress depends upon the unreasonable man."

- George Bernard Shaw

Still breathing in 2010 under a glorious Blue Moon

When I was 18 I never thought I would make it to 30. Now that I'm 60 in 16 days, I am more amazed than ever at how great life is...

Just thinking about breathing taps the gratitude reflex; it really makes me realise and understand how much is always being done for me; and how giving the universe is.

2010 is going to be a very special year. It got off to a great start with a Blue Moon and Lunar Eclipse on New Year's Eve.

My picture of the Full Moon is taken from outside our house looking North across the River Thames.

One breath at a time....

That's how life comes and goes... Glad to be back on the blog after quite a while...

I Ching Astrology

Check out this site that I have developed with Jon Sandifer. I Ching Astrology is the most ancient of all astrological systems.

Happy New 2009

Back on the blog after a couple of months. Been a good year for me - and probably the planet - a time to take a good look at myself and what I am doing, and how I am doing it.

Breath and heart are still relentless in their loving of me - keeping me going through the ups and downs.

I am grateful, truly...

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.

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!