Breath Consciousness: A Calming Apply

We’ve all seen idealized photographs of meditation. Maybe it’s a younger lady on a abandoned seashore, fingers in a meditation-friendly mudra, having fun with a sundown. Or perhaps it’s a picture just like the one on the prime of this publish—an individual with serene countenance, fingering mala beads in deep contemplation. It’s true that meditation might be peaceable. However generally, it’s marked by cascading ideas and recollections, uncooked feelings and/or bodily discomfort. It’s essential to do not forget that in mindfulness follow, the latter expertise doesn’t imply you’re doing one thing incorrect. These ideas, recollections, feelings and discomforts are merely what’s current. They’re, in a really actual sense, what there’s to be aware of. However when these experiences change into overwhelming, mindfulness has an answer: a breath consciousness follow designed to calm the physique and thoughts.

After I educate mindfulness programs, many new meditators doubt their capacity to follow. They’ll say, “Each time I sit right down to meditate, my thoughts goes loopy. My considering amps up greater than ever.” To that, I inform them that they’re not considering extra after they meditate; they’re as an alternative observing for the primary time what’s been taking place of their minds all alongside. I clarify that mindfulness is just not about stopping your ideas. It’s about coping with your ideas in a skillful means.

We might be aware of the course of of considering, as an alternative of getting caught up within the content material of our tales, recollections, worries and dramas. Mindfulness of considering is definitely one of many 4 foundations of mindfulness. However generally, we have to sluggish the method down in order that we might be with the considering course of with extra equanimity. That’s the place the breath consciousness follow I’m about to explain might be invaluable.

Breath Consciousness to the Rescue

On an 18-day retreat at Spirit Rock Meditation Middle just a few years in the past, this breath consciousness approach helped me navigate what I can solely describe as a “large reminiscence dump.” Beginning within the wee hours of the morning one evening, recollections started flowing, utterly uncontrolled, at a tempo I didn’t assume potential. Life occasions I hadn’t considered in many years have been flashing by way of my consciousness nonstop, and at warp velocity. None of it was traumatic, however it grew to become exhausting after some time.

After a number of hours of experiencing this reminiscence dump, I remembered a breath consciousness follow that I believed would possibly be capable of sluggish issues down a bit. It’s a quite simple follow that I’d heard on an instruction CD by creator/Perception Meditation trainer Joseph Goldstein. After only a few minutes of follow, the entire rapid-fire film slowed down, and I felt a deep sense of calm.

The way to Apply Calming Breath Consciousness

1. Collect your props: a Meditation Cushion and Zabuton. Should you don’t have a Zabuton, you’ll be able to place your Meditation Cushion on prime of a pair folded Yoga Blankets for additional padding underneath your knees or ankles.
2. Loosen up into your sitting place and tune into your respiratory. Discover the place you’re feeling your breath most clearly—nostrils, chest or stomach—and let your consideration relaxation there. Really feel the method of respiratory, noting every inhalation and exhalation.
3. Now, as you inhale, make a delicate suggestion to calm the physique and calm the thoughts. Do the identical in your subsequent exhalation. After I follow this, I merely say to myself “calm” every time I inhale and “calm” every time I exhale.
4. Really feel your physique/thoughts receiving this suggestion with every inhalation and exhalation.
5. Apply this so long as you want. You’ll be able to follow for just a few rounds firstly of your meditation, or you’ll be able to follow it for the whole period.

This breath consciousness follow could appear too easy to be efficient, however I’ve discovered it to be a vital device in my meditation toolbox. You’ll be able to follow it any time—while you’re feeling impatient whereas sitting at a stoplight, while you’re within the midst of a difficult scenario, while you’re feeling stress or anxiousness, while you’re mendacity awake at evening, and naturally, when your thoughts is wandering throughout meditation. You’ll be able to follow it firstly or finish of your yoga follow. It’s an particularly good strategy to start your Savasana (Last Rest).

About Charlotte Bell

Charlotte Bell found yoga in 1982 and commenced educating in 1986. Charlotte is the creator of Aware Yoga, Aware Life: A Information for On a regular basis Apply and Yoga for Meditators, each revealed by Rodmell Press. Her third guide is titled Hip-Wholesome Asana: The Yoga Practitioner’s Information to Defending the Hips and Avoiding SI Joint Ache (Shambhala Publications). She writes a month-to-month column for CATALYST Journal and serves as editor for Yoga U On-line. Charlotte is a founding board member for GreenTREE Yoga, a non-profit that brings yoga to underserved populations. A lifelong musician, Charlotte performs oboe and English horn within the Salt Lake Symphony and people sextet Purple Rock Rondo, whose DVD received two Emmy awards.