Take the baseline

Breathing is the only life-sustaining function you can consciously take hold of. Your heart will not take instructions; your breath will — and it is wired straight into the machinery that sets whether your body reads the world as safe or threatened. That makes it the most direct handle on your own state that you own. This week you learn to use it.

But no instrument gets adjusted before it gets read. Today you change nothing. You only watch.

Sit comfortably, set a five-minute timer, close your eyes, and watch your own breathing as if it belonged to someone you were observing professionally. Where does it move — chest or belly? Through the nose or the mouth? Roughly how many breaths in a minute? Does the inhale or the exhale feel longer? Do not fix anything. Every time you catch yourself improving the breath, smile and go back to watching.

Write today's reading: breaths per minute, where it moves, anything odd. This is your baseline — by Friday it will be interesting.