Breathing Meditation -
Breathe Peace In
Why Practice Breathing Meditation
We breathe every day to keep alive. Yet when you start practicing breathing meditation, you start to appreciate how different it is from everyday breathing. Although acquiring a proper breathing technique while meditating sounds easy, for most people, it takes awhile to master.
A good breathing technique will vastly improve the quality of all the other
meditation techniques. It is the first stage of meditation where the aim is to focus on the breath.
So it is like a warm up for any meditation in order to get the body to relax and your mind to be still.
Benefits of Breathing Meditation
Breathing Meditation will help you become healthier and happier if practiced regularly. It will also help you to feel emotionally balanced as well as improve your physical and mental health.
A good breathing technique will help calm the mind and develop a feeling of inner peace
- Find a quite place where you will able to hear your own breathing
- Get into a position that feels 100% comfortable for you. You can close your eyes if you feel this will improve your focus.
- Fully relax your body and start to breathe from your abdomen using your diaphragm. Let you belly expand as you inhale and collapse as you exhale.
- Breathe in a rhythm that feels comfortable for your and allows you to become aware of the feelings and sensations of your body.
- Breathe through the nostrils, without attempting to control your breathing. Without any effort on your part, your breathing will slow of its own accord.
Don'ts
Once you' have settled and relaxed into your breathing, do not try to change how you are breathing.
Don't worry if your mind begins to wonder, it happens even to those who have been practicing breathing meditation for a long time.
It is normal; just gently bring the focus back on your breathing. With practice these episodes will be fewer and shorter in duration.
Not Easy
'Just concentrate on your breathing.' When I first read the above instruction, I thought it would be easy until I tried it. As soon as I was nicely comfortable, this seemingly easy task become quite difficult.
First, it was the doubts about whether I was breathing correctly or not. Even when I managed to focus for a few seconds and started experiencing the feeling the calmness, thoughts about other things would come in and I felt I had to start all over again.
It was then I fully appreciated that thinking is almost an addition. I realised that when I decided to concentrate on my breathing, I somehow felt it was a waste of time as there were interesting things to think about.
Perseverance Pays
The good news is, with practice, the balance shifts and the intrusion of other thought gets less and the periods of that feeling of oneness with your body, gets longer.
As mentioned before, especially at the beginning, don't try to control your breathing, just try to breathe as naturally as possible. You may unconsciously try to do this but just revert back to your natural rhythm of breathing and just try to 'feel' your breath.
Don't get frustrated, be patient with yourself. After all, meditation is a life skill and as you know, life skill require practice.
You will find that you will enjoy those initial brief moments of stillness, however brief, that you will want to do it every day. As you do this, these moments of escape from the comparative turbulent world will get longer.
Surely, you can find 10 or 15 minutes out your day where it is just you and your breath.
Enjoy it, you deserve it!!!
Return to Home Page from Breathing Meditation