The Power Of Breath: Training The Mind- Counting Breaths

Join Britta Eskey for part three of the Power of Breath Series, Training the Mind- Counting Breath. These are five simple yet powerful breathing practices to calm your nervous system and train and settle your mind. They are great entryways into any silent meditation practice, or can be used in and of themselves, at any time during the day.

Transcript

Today we're going to use another method to train the mind.

This is the counting method.

So again we use this when we notice that our mind is all over the place.

It's a great practice,

Especially at the beginning of meditation when you haven't meditated that long.

Or even sometimes afterwards,

You know like when your mind is just busy to focus your mind,

To settle your mind,

To give the mind something to do,

A job.

So it stays in the present moment with the task like counting.

We're going to count the breath now.

So that helps settle the whole nervous system,

The mind.

So this is very simple.

You're just going to count each breath.

So one breath in and out is one.

And then the next term,

In and out is two.

And you're going to go all the way to ten.

So you count ten breaths and then you can start again from one.

So you'll be surprised how often you don't get to ten.

Because the mind is going to go somewhere already.

So if that happens,

If you notice,

Oh I went to four and then I don't know where I went.

You just bring yourself back and you start again at one.

Just see if you can make it to ten.

And when you get to ten,

You go back to one and start counting again.

So let's just do this for a moment.

Just closing our eyes,

Finding a comfortable position to sit.

Relaxed and alert.

And then just noticing your breath in your belly,

In your chest.

And then start counting.

One.

Two.

Three.

And so on.

I'm not going to count you through it because each of our breaths are different.

So you don't have the same rhythm I do.

But I think you get the picture.

You just trust your own rhythm.

You just go naturally the way you breathe and you just count it.

And then when you get to ten,

You start again at one.

You can do this for a few minutes,

Maybe three minutes or so,

Five minutes,

Depending on how much training you need for your mind.

And then you can let it go and just go into your meditation practice.

Yeah.

So have fun with that.

It's a way to train the mind.

See you later.