So yesterday I had a deliberately unproductive day.  I haven’t done that for years.  It was wonderful.  I watched some dumb comedy and fell asleep in the middle of it.  That was so delightfully unproductive.  And yet, at one point, I sensed a low level static of dissatifacatoriness.  I explored it and realized it wasn’t useful.  It was a vague feeling of unease.  I thought to myself that taking a mindful, deep breath might be in order.  And the energy level of the dis-ease went from a one to zero.  (I use the equivalent of the 0-10 pain scale to gauge emotions.)  The dissolution of this dukkha (feeling of unease) in and of itself was a wonderful feeling.  I sensed a virtuous cycle arising, and indeed, I practiced mindful breathing several more times throughout the day.  This is the first time I fell into the virtuous cycle of practicing mindful breathing, realizing that it works, and realizing that it will be easier the next time.  Since just yesterday, I’ve been mindfully belly breathing sporadically throughout the day.  And doing so seems to be warding off my all to familiar low level feeling of unease.  Of course the humor of this is that I’m now 64 years old and nearly eight years into my Buddhis practice, and I’m just now developing a practice of mindful breathing.  I am, indeed, a member of the slow learners’ club.