Remembering the woman who taught me to drop my shoulders
Jane Martin is the reason I stepped into COPD advocacy
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Living with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) means becoming a student of your own breath. You learn its moods the way folks in the mountains learn the weather. By watching the sky, feeling the air shift, and listening for what isn’t said, they keep themselves and their animals safe.
Breath has its own kind of Appalachian stubbornness. It can be steady as a creek in spring or tight as a hillside path after a hard rain. Over the years, I’ve picked up tips from doctors, respiratory therapists, and fellow patients, but one of the most important lessons I ever learned came from a woman named Jane Martin.
Jane worked for the COPD Foundation for many years, writing books and teaching people how to live better with the lungs they had. Her advice was never dressed up or complicated. It was plainspoken, practical, and delivered with the kind of calm that feels like sitting on a porch with someone who has seen a lot and still believes things can get better. Her self‑help books read like conversations. They are steady, encouraging, and full of small truths that settle into you the way mountain wisdom does.
One day, in the middle of a discussion about breathing techniques, Jane told me something so simple I almost brushed it off: “Before you start pursed‑lip breathing, drop your shoulders.”
How to breathe, how to believe
It sounded too small to matter. But when I tried it, I felt the difference immediately. My oxygen saturation sometimes rises a couple of points when I let my shoulders fall. Two percent isn’t dramatic, but in the world of COPD, 2% can feel like the difference between bracing yourself and believing you can get through the moment. It’s like loosening the reins on a skittish horse when suddenly everything moves easier.
But Jane didn’t just teach me how to breathe better. She taught me how to believe better.
Years ago, the COPD Foundation asked us to present a webinar together about the COPD Action Plan. I had never spoken publicly about my disease. I didn’t think my voice mattered. I didn’t think I had anything worth saying. I was afraid I’d lose my breath mid‑sentence or forget what came next. Fear has a way of climbing into your shoulders and staying there.
Jane didn’t let me face any of that alone.
She walked me through the material, not as a superior or an expert, but as a partner. She showed me how to pace myself, how to breathe between thoughts, how to trust that what I knew from living with COPD was just as valuable as anything written in a manual. And when the day of the webinar arrived, she sat with me — calm, steady, and sure — as if to say, You belong here.
We presented together, two women with different backgrounds but the same mission: helping others breathe easier. Somewhere in the middle of that webinar, something shifted in me. I realized I wasn’t just a patient trying to get through the day. I was an advocate. I had a voice. And Jane had helped me find it.
I don’t think she ever knew it, but she is the reason I stepped into COPD advocacy with something like courage. Her books helped thousands, but her influence on me was personal. She taught me that sometimes the smallest adjustments — in posture, in attitude, in confidence — can make the biggest difference. That’s mountain wisdom, too: small things matter.
Even now, when I feel my breath tightening or my anxiety creeping upward, I pause. I feel my shoulders rising without permission. And I hear her voice, steady and sure. Drop your shoulders, Caroline.
And I do. And the breath comes. And the courage comes with it.
Jane has retired from the COPD Foundation, but her work continues to help people all over the world. Her books — which you can find collected on her Amazon author page — still offer the same steady guidance she gave me. They’re a testament to what one person’s quiet wisdom can do.
COPD may shape my days, but I’m still here, still learning, still finding new ways to breathe through the hard moments — one dropped shoulder at a time. And as an advocate, I hope to pass along even a fraction of what Jane gave me: the belief that every person with COPD deserves tools, hope, and a voice that feels heard.
Note: COPD News Today is strictly a news and information website about the disease. It does not provide medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. This content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always consult your physician or other qualified healthcare provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read on this website. The opinions expressed in this column are not those of COPD News Today or its parent company, Bionews, and are intended to spark discussion about issues about chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
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