Mindfulness of Breathing

A short mindfulness of breathing meditation in the four traditional stages, with some guidance and periods of silence.

Transcript

This is a guided meditation for the mindfulness of breathing.

Starting by preparing for meditation,

Checking your posture,

Making any adjustments so that you're as comfortable as you can be.

Letting your posture support positive qualities in the mind of ease,

Letting go and also wakefulness.

Letting the eyes close or having them partly open and lowering the gaze.

Getting a sense of how you are just now,

Physically and emotionally.

You can gently note what you find if you want with a mental label like tiredness,

Tensing,

Contentment.

Or you can just feel into your experience in a wordless way.

So preparing by acknowledging whatever's present,

Whether it's pleasant or unpleasant.

And now connecting with the intentions for this meditation.

To be present with the breathing,

To appreciate this mysterious process that keeps us alive moment to moment.

And to be patient and unjudging when you find that the mind has again wandered away from the breathing.

We can't make the mind be still through force,

Not for long anyway,

And not without side effects like headaches or a rebellious mind that's grumpy about being told what to do.

But we can create conditions for the mind to become stiller by relaxing the body and meeting our experience with a broad kindly awareness.

And outside of meditation,

Having enough downtime and playtime and leading an ethical life.

These will support the mind to become calm,

Contented and bright.

So now bringing awareness into the sensations of breathing.

Allowing the large diaphragm muscle beneath your lungs to move downwards,

Pressing down causing the belly to expand,

Allowing the chest to expand and the lungs to fill with air.

Having a sense of your whole body breathing.

The mindfulness of breathing.

So in the first stage,

Breathing in,

Breathing out and then placing a silent count of one after the exhalation.

Breathing in,

Breathing out and counting two and so on up to ten.

And then starting again from one.

And don't worry if you get a little distracted or lose count.

Just notice that you're aware again and quietly return to the Our awareness is more with the exhalation and that can naturally encourage us to let go.

Noticing any distractions with a mindfulness which is not forceful or aggressive in its own right.

Now in the second stage,

Placing a silent count of one just before the in-breath.

So this time you're anticipating the in-breath with a count and then breathing in and then breathing out.

Counting two and then breathing in and breathing out.

And again counting from one to ten.

The counting can be a helpful anchor but keeping in light and in the background.

It's mindfulness and in this second stage.

Our awareness is more with the inhalation and that can naturally be more energising.

Getting the energy to rise up,

To expand.

And now in the third stage,

Dropping the counting and resting in a broad awareness of the sensations of breathing throughout the body.

If you want you can invite your attention to follow the breathing.

Seeing if there's a sense of enjoyment or appreciation in the breathing and encouraging that.

The pleasure of just breathing.

The relief of its simplicity.

How it serves you,

Helps your life force.

In this meditation the key task seems to be mindfulness of the breathing.

But as the practice deepens another task emerges.

To be patient and unjudging when the mind is not mindful of the breathing.

This is what we are practicing again and again.

And now in stage four take your time to gradually narrow the focus of your awareness.

Moving it slowly towards the point where you first feel air entering the body.

That might be just inside the nostrils or somewhere around the top lip.

Allowing awareness to gather here and focus on these sensations.

Allowing your awareness to be sensitive,

Receptive to subtle sensations that you don't normally notice.

And if you notice that your mind's wandered,

At that moment awareness has returned.

And just quietly return to the breathing.

Letting subtle sensations be doorways into deeper calmness.

Now taking your time to come out of the meditation and spending a few moments reflecting on the practice you've just done with a curious and appreciative awareness.

See if you can describe your experience rather than evaluating it.

And conclude with appreciation in your own way of the practice and of yourself making the positive choice to do this meditation.

Reviews

Perfect sequence of practice for mindfulness of breathing. Nice balance of guidance and silence, with an introduction to a few techniques. I'm hoping she has this same meditation sequence offered in longer sessions (30,.45).

Just right. Just enough. Just is. Thank you from my breath to your breath.

So glad I found one like the ones i know from my Buddhist centre thank you !

Thank you, really happy to have found you. Bringing home the depth of the meditations done at the Triratna centre (Clermont-Ferrand). Would love to be guided through a similar one with longer pauses for each stage. Mind you, I can just pause the timer:) Thanks💫

Thanks Saravantu! Lovely to meet you in this way. I'm in the Manchester sangha. I particularly enjoyed your words encouraging us to play!

Excellently clear and peaceful. An ideal introduction to true meditation. Thanks. Namaste.

Very clear, gentle instruction. Good introductory mindfulness of breathing meditation. Thank you!

A simple no frills meditation...no ambient music and an English voice...unfortunately a find American and Australian remind me of new age!...Just me I suppose...

The stages of breathing process was good.It helps you yo anchor in the present moment. It helps you to focus on breathing gradually
I am happy with this meditation
Thanku

Very good directions here, I felt like this session came with many wonderful lessons as well. Incredibly helpful, thank you.

Lovely compassionate voice

Easy to follow and so valuable in helping to 'tame my wayward mind' . Thank you so much .

I loved this! Such an unobtrusive guide. Will definitely do again,

Wonderful! You are led in stages through the meditation and given a wonderful mindset at each stage.

Lovely calm voice. Easy to follow. Great length. Thank you 🙏

Thank you Saravantu, this has helped me to be patient with myself when I meditate.

A great start to the day

Very nice guidance. Brought me back to basics and had some really mind opening lines in there too.

My mind is all over the place! Great meditation though

Excellent meditation. Will definitely be using it again.