Listening To ME Again

I told you on Saturday about finding clues, cues and listening to me. What I intended to tell you and what, thanks to my cognitive depletion! I did not tell you, was about my breath. My breath has become my foothold, my core being, my ground-control!
Thanks to Yoga, and my daily meditations, I can check in with my breath throughout the day and learn so much from it. My breath is longer, smaller, (who needs a lot of air, when they're sitting in a chair or walking around the house slowly!) and it gives me constant clues.
Connecting with my breath during an unusual task, one which I may not have attempted for months or years is a brilliant way to discover whether I should be continuing with the task, or leaving it for a few weeks before trying again.
Also when I am having a day which feels that little more taxing, I connect with my breath more regularly to help me decide whether an everyday mundane task should be left for someone else or for another day.
I discover the shorter, sharper breaths in the top of the chest appearing when I am pushing too far, which indicates stress in the body finding compensation in hyperventilation. I can stop it, if I know it is there, and find a cooler calmer breath.
Holding the breath is another natural state, to encourage greater strength for shorter periods of time- but it doesn't work, just strains the whole torso, and if continued can cause headache and chest pain, nausea and dizziness. This sort of breath gives less oxygen and then needs extra long breaths to compensate- what is the point in that!
In a healthy person the breath is important, but an occasional change in breath wouldn't be that important. Playing sports is an ideal example of changing the breath, whereas Usain Bolt might run 100 metres and be in a calm, laid back frame of mind with a pretty cool regular breath, he is the exception. The human body was made for the flight and fight responses. The uncanny thing about ME is that these breaths become the norm. Fight and Flight is constant, the body might not respond but the autonomic nervous system, the unconscious responses throughout the body, do. By taking control of my breath I am telling those responses to calm down, to find another host for exhaustion and over-exertion. Aerobic and anaerobic breath can be the difference between post- exertion malaise and a gentle flow to the days and weeks, leading to a slow gentle flow to recovery. I've learnt to take control of my breath, to tell the whole of my system to realise I'm not getting involved.
By simply realising when my breath becomes out of control and either calm it while I am doing an activity or realise the activity is better left for another day I'm doing myself a big favour.