Mindful Breathing Practice

In order to come back to deep stillness, the practice of mindfulness is highly beneficial. The mundane can be happening all around us, but if our energy is focused on the practice of meditation, with an awareness of the breath, we are able to come back to the flow and connect to the spaciousness of being.

Transcript

Alright.

Just making sure that you're ready for the transmission,

Making sure that everything is peaceful around you and conducive to coming back to a stillness,

A deep stillness within you,

And that is the meditational practice,

That is the mindfulness practice that we now can communicate to our hearts so we can just create this intention that we are now coming back to this still peaceful space within ourselves that is mindfulness,

That is meditation,

But also it's important to communicate this to all and everything,

So the people around you,

The situation that may disturb you,

It's important to create a clarity so that the space that allows meditation to happen is not disturbed by the mundaneness of everyday situations.

Of course there might be noise,

There might be unexpected phone calls or someone ringing at the door,

All these things are okay,

But what is important is that we create a clear reference for the mind that now,

This time now is especially important for meditation,

So the mundane world can happen and you can be aware of what's happening,

But really all the energy can come back to creating this focus that is meditation,

That is mindfulness.

And it's therefore important to find a quiet place because sometimes things are too stimulating if there is too much noise or activity in the background,

It's difficult to relax into meditation.

So find this relatively quiet place outside,

Just making sure that everything is turned off outside,

Meaning the world around you,

Just making sure your phone is turned off,

That you're ready to also communicate this quiet place,

Communicate to find this quiet place inside of yourself.

And the way to do this is just by being comfortable,

So finding a comfortable position that allows you to breathe easily,

Because today what we're doing is coming back to the awareness of the breath.

So if you're comfortable,

Whether you're lying down or sitting up on your yoga mat or on the sofa or on a chair,

You're comfortable,

Then just make sure that your shoulders are relaxed,

The sternum is pointing outward so that the chest is open and receiving the wonderful vibration of healing that is within the breath and the lower back relaxing,

The body relaxing.

Get very comfortable in the posture,

Very noble,

Very,

Very healthy and very vibrant.

Posture can be just tiring,

So you're just managing to get through the day,

Your body's just managing to sit in a way that seems comfortable,

Or you can really be active in creating comfort.

The way to do this,

Just spending a few minutes slowly scanning your body.

As you scan your body,

Observe if there are any subtle tensions or obvious tensions and release them on the out breath.

Make sure that you check your eyes,

Scan your eyes,

Your mouth,

Your shoulders,

Your hand,

Your belly,

The organs within your body.

Spend a few moments doing this.

Deep breath as you scan your body.

Scanning the body.

All the way down from the top of your head down to the tips of your toes.

It's very interesting when you do this,

Become aware that the body is very complex,

So be aware of all the subtleties within the physical body and scan this,

Meaning that you're aligning your intention to be present to the physical communication,

The energetic communication of the body.

You're aligning yourself to be present and receptive to the subtle messages that come your way.

So scanning is an observation,

But a more active form of observation.

Deep breath as you continue scanning your body and releasing tension.

All the way down from the top of your head down to the hips.

All the way down from the top of your head down to the hips.

Deep breath.

Every time you take a deep breath,

Just move the energy down to the abdomen,

The belly area.

So make sure you're breathing deep breaths into the belly area.

And as you breathe out,

Just create a sigh within your body.

So it's not just a sound,

But within your body,

Letting go of the energy that sometimes is held because of the subtle constrictions that happen on the physical material level.

As you breathe in deep full breath,

And as you breathe out,

Just letting go and sensing,

Creating this wonderful letting go sound,

A sigh.

Breathing out.

Let your belly loosen.

Make sure that as you loosen this space,

There is more room for your breath to move around within this deep form of breathing,

Within this structure that allows for this deep movement of breath.

So as you let go of tension,

Sometimes around the abdominal muscles,

There is tension or lack of tension.

And as you breathe out and sigh and let go,

You create more space for the energy to move the body in a very different way.

Explore the movement of the breath within you.

So breathe down,

Breathe more to the side of the abdominal walls,

Breathe into the belly.

Just experiment and see how the breath feels as you do this.

Explore the movement of the breath and just notice what is happening as you breathe in and breathe out.

Do this for a few minutes.

By doing this,

You are really creating an awareness,

Somatic awareness,

Where your body communicates the energy and its deep sensations and understanding of what is happening,

The stress or the anxiety or the tension that is around you,

Communicating this to you in a way where you can release the energy rather than hold on to the energy.

Hence why it's important to expand,

Breathe deeply and on the out-breath sigh.

When you do this,

You will notice that right at the end of the out-breath,

There is a pause.

This pause is very important because when you release all the tension,

You will notice that you can begin to enjoy this pause.

So it's almost as if the space between the out-breath and the next in-breath just stops for a moment.

There is a profound sense of stillness that you can explore in this sort of space that is very,

Very different than the in-breath and out-breath.

It's almost like a deep,

Relaxed space where you can just let go completely.

Explore this space,

Explore this pause and enjoy it.

There is no need to control anything.

Everything is spontaneous.

So let go of control but just experiment and see what happens when you breathe fully,

When you relax your abdominal muscles,

When you let go and you create a space where breathing can happen,

In my opinion,

More correctly.

Out-breath.

Deep breath.

There is no need to control anything.

Meditation is all about the flow.

So your breath doesn't naturally flow.

The breath communicates whatever is happening inside of you or around you.

So when there is tension,

Your breath constricts or isn't able to expand in your body in the same way as a natural breath.

So it's important to let go of control and to come back to the flow.

But this is done with intention,

Hence why it's so very important to breathe deeply,

To be aware of what deep breathing means,

To give space and room so that the breath can fill the abdomen,

So that you can breathe very deeply.

And as you breathe out and let go,

You will naturally come to a pause,

A space of stillness,

A moment where nothing happens,

Where everything just moves into itself.

So the flow in itself is so very powerful that there is no observer outside of the flow saying I am connecting to the flow.

You are in the flow.

It's almost as if when you are in a deep,

Deep dream,

You can't really step outside of that deep dream and say,

Oh,

I'm dreaming.

The deep dream,

Which usually happens in a very profound state of REM sleep,

Is in itself complete,

Just like deep sleep,

Just like profound meditation,

Just like breathing in and letting go and coming back to this pause,

Stillness within the moment.

The natural inclination for the mind is to try to control,

Oh,

This is interesting,

This stillness,

I need to know a little bit more.

What is it all about?

As soon as you involve the mind or as soon as the mind gets involved and tries to control the situation,

Then the breathing just becomes regular.

This is,

Of course,

Very difficult to change.

It's difficult to force yourself to be spontaneous in your breathing.

But you can do this and we can do this together by breathing in a very flowy way.

So we can count as you breathe in.

We can count,

Depending on what is comfortable for you,

We can count to five,

Four or five.

Double count,

So this means you count one,

One,

Two,

Two,

Three,

Three,

Rather than one,

Two,

Three,

Four.

You count slowly and breathe in.

So this helps to anchor the mind as it usually gets very bored and wants to wander off and explore other things because you're focused,

You're breathing in,

Deep breath,

One,

One,

Two,

Two,

Three,

Three,

Four,

Four.

Then as you stop for a moment,

You remember that you have to let go and breathe out.

Usually the out breath is a little bit longer than the in breath,

So you may want to go up to six or seven,

Just see what is comfortable.

Again,

It's not about forcing anything,

It's just about feeling comfortable and relaxed.

So as you breathe out,

One,

One,

Two,

Two,

Three,

Three,

Four,

Four,

Five,

Five,

Six,

Six.

You can experiment and see what feels most comfortable.

What is important is that you breathe in and breathe out in a very flowy way.

Some people will call it a disciplined way because the mind will respond to your thoughts.

So if your mind drifts into a feeling or a situation and you're in meditation,

It becomes even more sensitive.

Your body and the energy field becomes more intense and you become more sensitive to the communication.

So you will notice that your breath changes in your meditation,

But by breathing in this way you allow yourself to remind the mind,

That part of yourself that very often drifts into other thoughts or other feelings to anchor itself within the flow,

Not to wander off here and there and everywhere.

And the counting in itself is a sort of spiritual discipline and spiritual discipline is really very important when it comes to creating the space so that the body communicates,

Not just whatever is going on,

But communicates from a space of tranquility,

Stillness,

From a space of coherence,

From a space of deep relaxation.

And that communication is understood through the breath.

So when the breath is regulated in this way or when you're in the flow of the breath,

Then it's not so easy to be distracted.

You begin to examine the breath more intensely,

Your focus then contains within it a level of curiosity that helps you to move beyond the sleepy stage,

Which very often stops your meditation from going deeper,

Either falling asleep or just drifting into this sort of very relaxed,

But sort of more like sleepy state of consciousness.

Meditation is about sharpening your attention so that you're really very,

Very focused and your posture is not,

You're not sleeping,

You're not scrunched and falling to one side,

But you're rather sitting in a very noble way,

Just like a peaceful warrior.

You're breathing in and you're allowing yourself to transform.

So you're not being very rigid.

You're not a warrior in the sense of wanting to fight.

You're just very clear in the way that you're connecting to your body and connecting to your energy.

So the background awareness,

The background sensations are there,

But you relax through them.

And by doing this,

The background sensations become even more powerful.

So perhaps the tingling or the breathing becomes more intense,

More clear,

More present.

It's important that you connect to the breathing through spiritual discipline,

Which means that you're creating a structure.

So counting the breath like we just did helps you to create this structure and helps you to sit quietly with whatever is coming up.

And you will notice that many things come up,

But this detachment creates the space for the flow to happen rather than for the mind to then get attached to whatever is coming up,

Try to control it,

Try to make sense of it,

Try to put it into context.

This happens after the meditation,

What I call the integration part of the meditation.

When you write in your journal or when you sit for the last few minutes and just integrate the experience rather than during the deep aspect of meditation.

So just spending a few moments breathing in,

Breathing out and counting your breath up to four,

Five,

And breathing out,

Six,

Whatever is comfortable,

Just experiment.

Keep your breath.

Deep breath.

Usually we practice this form of breathing for five,

Six,

Seven minutes.

You will intuitively know when it's right to come back to stillness.

And it's more natural,

More easy to do this when you breathe in this way,

When you create this flow within you and spiritual discipline that allows you to be more in alignment to this flow rather than to the mind or the reactions that happen within the mind.

Takes a little bit of practice.

So as much as you feel,

Just spend the next few moments breathing in and breathing out,

Relaxing,

Connecting to the stillness within.

Deep breath.

And make sure that today,

Whenever you feel stressed or whenever there is too much happening around you or inside of you,

That you come back to this spiritual discipline where the breath helps you to connect to the spaciousness of being,

Which means that you connect to that point within yourself that's just happening as you let go of the out breath.

There is a moment of stillness.

So whenever there is stress,

Whenever there is tension,

Just take a deep breath,

Breathe into the abdomen,

Breathe out,

Let go,

Let go of the tension.

Just stop for a moment and be still and then breathe in and continue with your day.

Thank you.

Reviews

I was so relaxed after listening. Thank you, Tony. I love your meditations.

Lovely, thank you Tony!