Beginners' Mindfulness: Anchoring To Breath

A 5-minute mindfulness of breath practice to create the neural pathways and develop the habit of mindfulness. An introduction to mindfulness, including neuroscience and a look at some of the benefits, is part of our new course Psychologically Informed Practice for Leaders and Lovers, here on Insight Timer.

Transcript

Ensure you're seated comfortably. And just become aware of your breath. So it can be tempting as you become aware of your breath to want to try to control the breath in some way. But that's not what we're practicing here and now. Instead just notice your breath. Notice how it feels as you breathe in and out. Really tune into that felt sense. The feeling of the breath. Notice where in your body you're aware of your breath. Do you feel it in your abdomen or higher up in your chest and shoulders? How other parts of the body move as you breathe in and out? And all this time if your thoughts go elsewhere as sometimes thoughts like to do. Just when you notice that bring them back. Come back to your awareness of the breath. Aware when you're breathing in. Aware when you're breathing out. Maybe noticing what happens in your nose or your mouth as the air comes into the body from the space around you. And flows back out into the space around you from the body. And again just coming back to where you're most aware of your breath. And just putting your attention there. So we use your breath as an anchor. So it's not that you don't ever think of anything else or lose the moment because we all do. It's that when you notice you're doing that you can use your breath to focus on. And that brings you back to this very moment of breathing in and breathing out.

Reviews

Very enjoyable. I wouldn’t change a thing