So here I have been, waxing philosophical about Patanjali, the great sage of Yoga, and his fundamental insights about the human mind.
Well, I’ve been a hypocrite. Because, as I have been noticing all this week, I am barely remembering to breathe. And breathing properly is the way to calm and clear the mind, as Patanjali taught us. So my mind, you can infer, is anything but calm and clear. I am too worried (about something that I may or may not share anon).
A few years ago, I took videos such as this one seriously, and actually did pranayama (breath exercises).
But paying attention to breathing is amazingly hard work. So, because I’m lazy, I gave up.
Then life pitches you a few tough ones, and off you go, breathing like a dog: shallow, top-of-the-lungs, in-out. You become a wreck.
It’s a pity that breathing, or the concentration that it requires, is such hard work. Otherwise, I might actually learn the lessons by Patanjali that I like to tout. Ironic.
Hannibal and Me: life lessons from history 
There is breathing, and then there is merely remembering to breathe at all. Just think, if you hadn’t been practicing…
I use affirmations (and breath) to relax. Sometimes they work; other times, they don’t.
My affirmation this week has to do with operating in an unsavory business environment.
Your message about being shocked, shocked!! helped me in a big meeting I had this week.
Another skill I have developed is to view many situations in an anthropological way. I become Margaret Mead.
Does this help? ( I realize I have opened the door for a retort…)
Do you agree, Cheri, that even these affirmations are just such surprisingly hard work? I used to get psyched up for it, now I can’t go there. Too tired. Which is so ironic, of course….
Intrigued how you were being shocked-shocked!–at your meeting…
Mr Crotchety: yup, step one, as Socrates said, is to know how little you know. In this case, it was to observe and note that I’m barely breathing. I guess most people who are not, aren’t even aware of it…
No, I don’t agree. My affirmation this week was the following: Be brave and stay with the day.
Sounds silly, but when fear about my business climate crept in, I plugged in my affirmation. About 20 times that day.
.. Master, you have the lightness of a cloud and the strength of an elephant. Tell me, when the Veil of Ignorance lifts, will Maynard Keynes play ping-pong with Islam or enterParadiso? I am in need of quantitative easing.
Or should I first receive instruction from Mr Crotchety and Cheri?
Mr Crotchety and Cheri seem already to have influenced you. 😉