Mindfulness Of Breath Part 1

This talk about mindfulness of breathing is preceded by the shorter "Connecting to the Breath" meditation (incuded in my library) and followed by the longer "Mindfulness of Breathing" meditation. It gives options to connect to the breath as well as how to address judging and/or controlling mind.

Transcript

We'll talk about the mindfulness of breathing.

We just did a short breathing meditation.

Well,

It was a Centurian meditation where we used different ways to connect to the present moment.

One of the ways to connect is through a breath.

The reason why we use the breath so often in the guidance is because it is always present,

Is always with us and because of that our brain often takes it for granted and disregards it easily,

Which gives us an excellent opportunity to practice putting our attention in the area of choosing instead of being on other pilot.

Another excellent opportunity to put our attention on a breath is that each time you take a breath you can begin again.

You can redirect your mind by giving it a small achievable goal like letting you stay fully present for the next three breath cycles.

The cycle is inhale,

Exhale would be a cycle.

You can also choose to,

If you want,

In the back of your mind,

Maybe using 5% of your attention into softly counting your breathing cycles and to see how many you can stay with without losing your full attention.

And again this is just suggestions,

There is no must haves in meditation practice.

But if you have a particularly busy mind sometimes it helps to give it some redirection and I know I really benefited from doing it at the beginning and sometimes even now I would use that technique to kind of give my mind something to focus on.

Another reason why breathing is such a good tool to train our attention and our kind attention or just compassionate presence is that breathing can often feel quite subtle and it's okay to stay there.

You can use that opportunity to sense craving of the mind for more intense stimulation or input.

It's also okay to deepen your breath to make it easier for you to connect to it and then you can either,

Once you get a sense of it,

You can allow your body to resume breathing itself or you can just watch what does it feel like when you are participating.

And if it's particularly difficult for you,

There could be some energies present or your mind is super busy and it's really hard to concentrate on the sensations of where do you feel the breathing in your body.

One of the tools is to use your hands and you can put one or both of them either on the chest or your belly and they can provide you that extra feedback.

Not only gives you sensory feedback and support but there's also a sense of holding and this felt sense of kindness when you can breathe into the warmth of your hand.

There's a sense of being supported.

And breath is just such a wonderful tool to see that everything changes because breath is different depending on our physical,

Emotional state.

The good thing to know is there's always a purpose for it and we can be mindful of that.

Can we be with it without judging mind trying to convince us that it should be different?

It's okay for our breath to be slow.

It's okay for it to be fast,

Shallow or deep.

This could be a good interesting inquiry to see can you use your breath qualities such as depth and rhythm as an object of your attention without controlling or changing it.

And this is an opportunity for practicing kindness because if you notice or when you notice that the judgment arise or you notice that you've been controlling it,

How are you meeting yourself?

How are you meeting that experience?

Can you be with it as a kind,

Compassionate witness?

And I think there are situations where you,

When you put your full attention to your breathing can be quite difficult.

It could even bring distress or even anxiety.

And again,

This could be a good opportunity to practice how to be with that kindly and compassionately.

As long as you know that you have a choice,

You can,

If it's not overwhelming,

If it's just a matter of discomfort,

You can work with increasing your window of tolerance.

You can direct your attention from areas of discomfort to areas that feels pleasant or neutral and you can,

Example would be connecting to soundscape of your environment or connecting to some of your body parts through quick body scan like your legs or your feet,

Your hands perhaps.

And once you feel more settled,

You can choose to check in with your breathing to see if you can be with that for a few breaths.

And if that still feels uncomfortable,

You can again move your attention to where you feel a little more settled and then check in again.

So again,

There is that sense of trust that you can begin developing with yourself where you can feel that you can stay with the area of discomfort as this,

You know,

As a compassionate witness.

And then you notice that,

You know,

Maybe there are times you can stay with it more and there are times you don't want to be near it and that's okay.

Just know that you can redirect your attention and pay attention to something else that's not so overwhelming.

And again,

Whatever is arising,

You can also see if you can breathe through it and what happens.

Depending on your mental or physical state,

Even your location,

The breath changes reacting to the,

Responding to your circumstances that you can control.

The one thing that you do have control is where you put your attention.

And that's why it's an empowering practice because you can make,

You can practice making conscious choices.

Each time you notice your attention drifted to something else,

You have that magic moment of awareness where you can choose to return your attention to the area of your choosing.

And each time you get distracted with your mind,

You know,

Taking you on the story of the thought,

You can have an opportunity to begin again with the next breath.

And again,

The very fact you're noticing and returning to the practice is what makes a mindful moment.

And the mindfulness practice is just the collection of those mindful moments.

And meeting with moment with kindness also strengthen your relationship with yourself.

It's like you watching yourself having an experience,

Being seen and heard and validated is whatever's present.

And all you need for that is your kind acknowledgement.

Breath is intricately connected to the way our nervous system balances itself.

We can think of it as an on and off switch.

There is a direct correlation between the length and depth of our inhale and degree of our sympathetic activation.

Think speeding things up.

It's also true for exhale and parasympathetic response.

Think slowing down.

When we get startled,

For example,

We instinctively inhale,

We stop off the lungs.

So we activate the bodily response to danger.

Physiological response to exhale is a sense of relief and letting go.

A sense of settling.

Signaling to our heart to slow down as well.

It can come in handy when you feel a little sleepy or tired.

In which case you can increase the length and depth of the chest inhale to bring more energy and vigor in.

Alternatively if you feel activated or restless,

Taking a few deliberately long exhales can help your body to wind down a bit.

It also helps you by when you do that,

It activates the pragmatic breathing.

So you can,

And again you can practice.

The reason I'm sharing this with you is just some awareness and some of the empowering techniques where you,

When you meditating or when you're living your normal life,

You know,

You can just practice.

How does your body respond?

Don't just take my word for it.

This is experiential practice.

It's a process of figuring out what holds true for you.

So I hope you practice this with breathing meditation and I'll guide you through a longer breathing meditation in a little bit so we can put it to practice.