Saturday, January 05, 2013

Remembering to Breathe

One of the stranger things about having an upper respiratory infection is that there are times when you cough so much you forget to breathe. This might sound silly to someone who hasn’t had to deal with the problem much, but it happens. When it does, I have to slow down and concentrate on the normally automatic act of breathing.

Breath control and meditation go hand in hand, so that has been a huge help in the latest bout that went from bronchitis to pre-pneumonia. Thankfully the latter stage has been too mild to bother going in to see a doctor with only a small amount of blood present in a couple of coughs. It is when it is brown that I worry. Experience teaches you a lot, especially about things you’d rather not know.

I’m still coughing, but things are much improved though my reserves of stamina are kaput. Not that I had a lot in the first place, but they got me home from visiting Indiana between the holidays. Ricola cough drops have been helpful and I better remember to take some with me to church tomorrow.

2 comments:

Hanny said...

This made me think of a sermon I was listening to on my phone, and I was surprised by how many people I could hear in the background coughing.

Patrick D. Boone said...

When I first started going to church, that used to bug me. As time went by, I realized how much a comfort being at church was when not feeling well and understood. There's good reason we are commanded to forgive -- we are awfully quick to judge.