Firefighters stay low because the clearer air is near the floor. Sometimes getting down is how you get through.

When everything is thick, the instinct is to stand tall and push through, which puts you in the worst of it. Getting low is not retreat, it is moving to where conditions are survivable so you can keep going. The version of that in a bad week is dropping to the simplest possible shape: plain food, early sleep, the shortest list. Less height, more progress.

In the next stretch that feels unbreathable, get deliberately smaller: cancel what can be cancelled, eat something simple, sleep early, do only the next task. Hold there until the air clears. Height is something you add back afterwards.