MEDITATION COMES TO PATERFAMILIAS. Some eight or ten years ago, I heard a broadcast on NPR which recommended something like meditation for people having trouble going to sleep.
The recommendation was a four step process which would help you pay attention to your breathing. The four steps were simple:
STEP 1. Breathe in for a count of four.
STEP 2, Hold your breath for a count of four.
STEP 3. Breathe out for a count of four.
STEP 4. Don’t breathe for a count of four.
From time to time I tried this when I was having trouble getting back to sleep. Sometimes it worked; sometimes it didn’t.
Every so often, Mary Jane, panicked, wakes me up because I’ve stopped breathing. I say I’m breathing and go back to sleep.
A week ago or so we discovered why she has thought that I have stopped breathing (think of STEP 2 and STEP 4.)