Mindful Breathing

This is a classic four-stage mindfulness of breathing (anapanasati), recorded live. (Check out my other meditations on Insight Timer!)

Transcript

So I'd suggest starting just by checking out your posture.

You're looking for a way of sitting that's relatively upright,

That allows you to breathe freely.

So pay attention to the upper front of your chest,

The upper stern and the clavicles.

As you breathe in,

Just feel the lift that naturally comes.

And just see if your body can keep a little of that openness as you breathe out.

Not that we're holding the body rigid.

There should actually be very little effort.

And we should actually be relaxing as much as we can,

Just letting go on the out-breath in particular.

And you can get a good feel of what this combination of being upright and open and also relaxed is like from the word dignity.

Being with dignity.

One thing I'd suggest paying attention to is the joint between your skull and the first vertebra.

And see if you can relax that joint.

Just thinking about a sense of space opening up between the skull and the first vertebra.

You'll probably feel that the chin comes down a fraction of an inch as you're doing that.

Just checking out very briefly the rest of the body,

Just making sure that your arms and your hands are relaxed.

You're not clenching the hands,

You're letting the arms be quite still.

And checking out the legs and the feet.

And if there's any sense of unnecessary effort going on there,

Then just seeing if you can release that effort.

Just letting that effort dissolve away.

And beginning to pay more attention to the sensations of the breathing.

And by that I don't just mean the breath.

Very often people think of this as mindfulness of the breath.

That is the touch of air inside the body as it flows through your passages.

But instead just see if you can be open to any and all sensations connected with the movements of the breathing.

So that can include of course the feeling of air flowing through your passageways in and out of the body.

But it can include the muscles on the abdomen,

The skin on the abdomen.

Sensations deep inside the abdomen.

Sensations on the sides of the abdomen,

The back,

The lower back,

All the way down to the spine.

Sensations anywhere in the chest,

Including the front of the chest,

The side of the chest,

The back of the chest.

On the skin,

The muscles,

Even inside the chest cavity.

Maybe a sensation is connected with the breathing in the shoulders,

Shoulder joints,

The upper arms.

And in the throat,

Inside the head,

The nostrils.

Even on the skin of the face,

On the upper lip.

So there's a lot you could pay attention to.

And I'd suggest paying attention to as many of those sensations as you can without it feeling like you're stressing out about it.

And I think that's excellent.

And in one traditional form of the meditation we employ counting.

So we're going to particularly pay attention to our out-breaths for the next few minutes.

I'll start suggesting that you do that.

So just start noticing in particular the phase of breathing out.

What happens in the body as you do that?

Notice how it feels as you breathe out.

And what we're going to do is to count our out-breaths.

So after your next out-breath just saying to yourself at the end of the out-breath,

One,

At the end of the next out-breath,

Two,

And then three.

And just counting the out-breaths in that way until you've counted ten of them.

If you count ten out-breaths then just starting again counting your out-breaths from one.

And we'll just do that for a few minutes.

If you lose the place with the counting then just starting again,

Starting counting again from one.

And in this particular approach to mindfulness breathing,

We have a different way of counting in the second stage.

So for now just let go of the counting and just notice your breathing.

Just noticing the sensations of the breathing in as many places as you can.

And then particularly noticing your in-breathing.

Just noticing what happens in the body as you breathe in.

Noticing the feeling tone of the experience of breathing in.

Just being open to any other effects connected with that experience.

We're going to count our in-breaths again in cycles of ten.

And this time just placing the number just before you breathe in.

So we're saying one and then breathing in and breathing out.

Two,

Breathing in.

Three,

Taking an in-breath.

So on.

Okay.

And then in the third stage of this approach to this practice,

We did like-or the counting.

And the lower breathing in a sense is divided into in-breaths and out-breaths.

The actual experience is unbroken.

There's never any point at which there's no sensation.

So we're noticing here the continuity of the breathing.

That sensation changes moment by moment as we're breathing in.

There's an in-breath which is fullness,

Turns into an out-breath,

Changing moment by moment,

Until an out-breath stops turning into an in-breath again.

So just letting the mind be fascinated by this continuity of ever-changing experience.

So just letting the mind be fascinated by this continuity of ever-changing experience.

So just letting the mind be fascinated by this continuity of ever-changing experience.

So just letting the mind be fascinated by this continuity of ever-changing experience.

So just letting the mind be fascinated by this continuity of ever-changing experience.

So just letting the mind be fascinated by this continuity of ever-changing experience.

So just letting the mind be fascinated by this continuity of ever-changing experience.

So just letting the mind be fascinated by this continuity of ever-changing experience.

So just letting the mind be fascinated by this continuity of ever-changing experience.

And seeing if you can maintain that continuous awareness of this unbroken ebb and flow of sensation.

Moving into the fourth stage of the practice,

We begin to narrow the focus of our awareness.

Just think about gradually shifting,

Gradually shifting the sphere of your awareness upward.

So you're starting to become more aware of the sensations higher up in the body.

Moving up toward the head.

Moving up toward the nostrils.

Beginning to settle in to noticing the sensations of the air passing up and down the nostrils.

And then beginning to focus in gently,

A little bit more closely toward the sensations around the rhythms of the nostrils,

If you can do that.

Again,

Just noticing the continuous nature of the sensations accompanying your breathing.

So just letting the mind be fascinated by this continuity of ever-changing experience.

So just letting the mind be fascinated by this continuity of ever-changing experience.

So just letting the mind be fascinated by this continuity of ever-changing experience.

So just letting the mind be fascinated by this continuity of ever-changing experience.

So just letting the mind be fascinated by this continuity of ever-changing experience.

So just letting the mind be fascinated by this continuity of ever-changing experience.

And from this fourth stage,

I suggest you begin broadening your awareness up again so that you're more aware of other sensations connected with the breathing.

Becoming aware,

In fact,

Of all sensations arising moment by moment in the body.

From the feet,

The legs,

The trunk,

Arms,

Hands,

Head.

Noticing the feeling tone of your experience.

Noticing what your mind is doing.

What the qualities of your attention are.

Whether you're tired or alert.

Whether your mind is busy or quiet.

Beginning to pay more attention from sensations arising from the outside world.

The sound,

The light.

The contact that your body is making with your seat,

With the floor.

The air touching your skin.

And bringing this awareness more fully into the world around us.

And then the body very gently.

And then when you feel ready,

It's allowing the eyes to open.

Thank you.

Reviews

Thank you so much, Bodhipaksa. Very helpful meditation 🙏🏼

An exquisite breath meditation with increasing attentional precision allowing tranquil, steady concentration to arise. Thank you.

Very well paced. Plenty of silence balanced with simple guidance.

Loved it. Simple but effective. Thank you

Thank you for this

Rock solid. I enjoy the space during the time and the simplicity of approach leading to improved foxus

I love the time this meditation is, perfect timing for me to actually connect with my breath.

This was a very peaceful meditation. I found the spaces with no direction enhanced the experience. Beautiful balance between guidance and quiet. Thankyou.

Lovely meditation.

Very beautiful and relaxing meditation. Thanks for the easy instructions.

I am very grateful for this practice, thank you very much.

Wonderful voice and deeply restorative.

Really nice way to work on concentration

This is a keeper for me. It was just what I needed to reset my mind and attention.

Liked the longer silences in between the instructions.

Yes 😊😊😊😊😊. Thank you so much.

Lovely guidance into for ways if breath meditation. Not too much talking. No closing bell.

A very structured awareness of sensation of meditation. Little guidance on intrusive thoughts, however that leaves space for personal techniques.

Audio quality at the beginning is worrying, but proves to be clear and fine throughout.

Smooth rhythm to keep us on track. Great review...💖🙏

I thought this was excellent. Will be bookmarked to be used again. Thank you.