Re: My breathing after the trauma.

I've got one of those scars, too. I call it 'the zipper'.

Other women get 'the smile' so they can supposedly wear bikinis.

As I understand it, there are layers of muscle fibers, running in different directions. I've also heard that male excess stomach weight gathers inside the abdominal muscles, and that a female's is on the outside. I don't know how true this is.

As for breathing exercises, I was taught some yoga-style breathing when I was a little kid. Still, my experience has led me to put greater store in gentle exhaling.

When one exhales, gently, but fully, it is a certainty that the intake will go completely to the bottom of the lungs...not to just the top 1/5 as the average person usually breathes.

And, if a person remembers to exhale on the exertion, when doing a movement, all kinds of good things happen, including the burning of excess fat and improving muscle strength.

Also, I read where a burly truck driver was tested on lifting 10 pounds, by a string through a pulley, with one finger, when his hand was resting over the edge of a desk.

He couldn't do it, at first. After a few days of trying, his body supplied the finger with the energy needed. Pretty smart body, I thought.

Altogether, I say, the body will heal itself, as long as we don't make inappropriate demands of it. In other words, get out of the way!

Forget all the exercises you used to do. You are now in a completely different mode, one you know nothing about.

Listen! Let your thinking brain give up pushing you. Just smile to your body mind, and let it strengthen you in ways you never heard of.

Besides, what else can you do? You are here, like it or not, and your system is working, or else you'd be dead. Go with that! Enjoy it...enjoy what you have, and care for it.

Down off my soapbox now. I won't say another word unless you ask me to. (Smile!)

My very best, Minx.

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