Breathing Through My Mouth

I suffer from vasomotor rhinitis and my nostrils have been blocked since I was born. I breathe through my mouth. When I was learning how to swim this became an obstacle because I would keep swallowing water when I surfaced to breathe in fresh air, and it took me more than a decade to stabilise my frog style technique so that I could swim longer distances while breathing through my mouth.

Still, I need to be honest that the Mindef Medical Officer did not see my condition as being serious enough to warrant an excuse, so I did go through my BMT as expected. The private doctors told me that I could go for surgery to rectify my nasal condition, but I told them it's ok, I'll live with it since I'm born with it.

As I age, I do suffer from plenty of discomfort breathing through my mouth, but I survive. As a Zazen student, I also experience plenty of difficulty watching my breath as I meditate, because unlike most people who breathe through their nostrils, for me I simply cannot breathe through my nostrils so my breathing is mostly unnatural and awkward.

I'm grateful to my condition nevertheless, because it teaches me not to take each breath of mine for granted. I count my blessings that at least I still can breathe through my mouth, it might seem uneasy but better to breathe through my mouth than to die of suffocation. I have everything to be thankful for no matter how bad my breathing gets.

Cheers.