breath

Sigh of Relief

This morning I had to have blood drawn. I don’t enjoy this process. I went to the normal lab I love, but the woman I know and like wasn’t there. It was 7:30am. I’d been fasting so in my rule book I had reason to be crabby, but I wasn’t. This new woman behind the counter was. She took my paperwork and sighed with utter exasperation, as if my passing her the paper was putting her over the edge.

“Sorry, it’s been a long day, “she said. I replied, “It’s rough when it’s long before 9am.” But I really didn’t mind. It was unprofessional, but I appreciate people have bad days and it’s not the end of the world. I’m also really into breathing, and I know that sigh when you let all the air out audibly is good. So I naively presume she’s feeling better. She had a good sigh. The world must be back to normal.

Nope. She continues sighing as she fills out my forms. I hope with each sigh that before she gets in the back room with me and a needle she’ll let out all her frustration.

She calls me into the room. And I give my usual […]

Sigh of ReliefMaggie Downie2017-09-12T19:31:14-04:00

Take Breathing for Granted? Not Anymore. Layrngospams Make Me LOVE Breathing

I love being able to breathe. Now you’re thinking “Thank you, Captain Obvious.” But it isn’t obvious. Most of the time I don’t notice I’m breathing. I take oxygen completely for granted. And anyone who exercises knows it’s really easy to hold your breath. We hold our breath when we learn something new or do anything challenging. It’s like we can’t chew gum and walk at the same time. Focused breathing is hard. But breathing should generally be automatic.

The reason I’ve really appreciate breathing lately is because I started having layrngospasms. What’s that? It’s when your vocal cords slam shut and you can’t breathe. Much like when food or water goes down the wrong pipe, except you aren’t eating or drinking. Most of the time you wake up from a dead sleep and (as I learned yesterday at my ENT) it’s caused from acid reflux splashing against the larynx—a normal occurrence that is currently really irking my vocal cords. For most people, most of the time the larynx is a little more chill about acid reflux.

It’s terrifying. It sounds like I’m retching or like I’m a cat coughing up a fur ball, but there is no fur ball. This is […]

Take Breathing for Granted? Not Anymore. Layrngospams Make Me LOVE BreathingMaggie Downie2014-11-05T15:23:03-05:00

A Good Exhale

Sometimes even a pilates instructor needs to be reminded about the basic principles of the pilates method.

One day when Matt and I were in Switzerland we walked a half an hour from one village to another. The walk down was fine, it was downhill, but coming back up was a struggle for me. It was a short walk and roughly at 5,000 or 6,000-feet of elevation so I was surprised to be struggling, but I just couldn’t catch my breath. I’d even stop walking and couldn’t quite catch my breath.

Finally Matt said to me, “Stop trying to inhale and exhale as hard as you can three times.” I did it and after the third exhale automatically took in a huge, deep breath that made me feel better. (Matt had terrible asthma as a kid so he’d learned some tricks.)

In classes I will sometimes tell people to worry about the exhale because your body won’t let you die and will eventually inhale. Joe Pilates emphasized the exhale more than the inhale and tried […]

A Good ExhaleMaggie Downie2017-09-12T19:31:49-04:00