Mindfulness of Breathing Meditation

Breath focused meditation is common throughout the world and has been practised for thousands of years. Using the breath as a focal point is perhaps one of the most common meditation practices because the breath is such a fundamental part of our human existence. It connects us with our physical life and gives immediate feedback about the state of being we are in. It’s also a very visceral experience which can be easier to focus on than something like a mental image.

 

This meditation practice helps to not only reveal the distracted nature of our mind, but also to bring us more into the here and now, in other words, to be more present. It cultivates greater awareness or mindfulness in everyday life, and like noticing our distracted mind, it reveals many other facets of our experience. Even the process of seeing begins to have an effect on us and brings more freedom, calmness and letting go.

 

The mindfulness of breathing practice is about bringing our awareness to the pure sensation of our breathing as described below in four stages. We’re not trying to visualise it or think about it, we’re not trying to relate to it from our intellect. We are simply training the faculty of mind to continuously observe with interest what our experience is, rather than be lost in it, which is what we usually are. The continued regular practice of this activity helps to untie our disparate energies in a process called integration.

 

In this particular version of the mindfulness of breathing practice there are four stages, which are preceded by a preparatory stage we call a body scan. This is the bridge between coming from the activity of our day into a state of being that is conducive to cultivating absorbed states of mind. It helps to ground us and reconnect with the other parts of our experience that we don’t usually notice. Once this comprehensive ‘check in’ is complete, we are hopefully more relaxed and prepared to then begin the four stages of the practice.

 

My Mediation Introduction article addresses other preparatory aspects of meditation or ‘sitting’ practice as we call it, like where to meditate, when, how often, what to sit on and so forth. Please feel free to investigate the whole Meditation section of this website for further useful information to support your practice.

 

Preparation and body scan

Once we are ready to begin meditating wherever we are situated, we can close out eyes, take couple of deep breaths and consciously decide that whatever concerns we currently have on the boil, or activities of the day that are calling for our attention, we can just put them aside for this precious time that we’ve put aside for meditation, knowing that we can pick them up again after we’re finished.

 

We can then start tuning our senses into our environment. A sense of the space we are in, what noises can we hear, the temperature of the air against our skin, our weight bearing down on our seat, cushion or meditation stool. We’re trying to invite a sense of receptivity, an open acceptance of input from our senses that is free of judgement, but also with a sense of kindness.

 

Meditation involves both an active component and a receptive one, so we can bring a sense of kind acceptance for who we are, this body that we carry around, it’s aches and pains, it’s impermanence.

 

With that sense of receptivity, we can now start drawing our attention inwards to our body, the purpose of which is to systematically bring awareness to every aspect of our physical experience. This is a way of not only grounding and settling the mind, but to check in thoroughly with our state of being on all fronts.

 

Body:

We begin by bringing our attention to every physical part of our body. This can be done in any way but I’ve found it most helpful to flow through all parts of the body in a systematic fashion. There’s no specific order to this but I’ve always begun with the feet, bringing awareness to the sense of the soles of the feet, then ankles, calf muscles, knees, thighs and so forth. It’s just a momentary check in with the physical sensations at the area of the body, perhaps even noticing the pulse of blood, skin sensations, joints etc.

 

We then connect with the feeling in the buttocks, the weight of the body bearing down on our seat. Then move awareness to the lower back, flowing up to the shoulders, paying particular attention to any tension being held around the shoulder and neck area and letting them completely relax. We then flow down through the arms, elbows and into the hands, especially the sensitivity of the palms and finger tips.

 

Next we bring our attention to the lower abdomen, noticing that we can feel the breath there, then moving up through the stomach, diaphragm, ribs and chest, paying close attention to all the movements associated with the breath. We then move up to the neck, scalp and then all the facial features. At this point we now broaden our awareness out to a sense of our whole body all at once, a broad overall sense of the entire body we’ve just brought our awareness to.

 

Feelings:

We now bring our attention to bodily internal feelings, or ‘feeling tone’. This traditionally relates to the three areas of feeling that give rise to more complex emotions and underpin our judgements, preferences and biases of everything we perceive based on whether that perception triggers a pleasant, unpleasant and neutral feeling. So the point of this is to briefly check on the state of our overall feeling tone.

 

This may not be obvious in the beginning of our meditation journey but we will begin to become more tuned into this as we become more practiced and sensitive to these subtler human experiences.

 

Mind:

We now check in with our overall state of mind which includes ‘heart’, so our emotions, thinking, mental feelings and so forth. What’s our mental state? Are we agitated, anxious, constantly wanting to think about something other than the meditation practice (which is about being aware, not thinking), or are we relatively calm and present?

 

Once we have traversed all these areas of experience, we just sit for a few moments with all that we’ve brought our attention to, a calm relaxed overall sense of ourselves. Once we become more practiced at meditation, we become adept at dropping into this calmer grounded state more quickly and we can flow through this grounding process very smoothly.

 

Part of being more mindful is being able to assess when you need more time in this preparatory stage to calm the self before moving on. Now having grounded ourselves and become more present, we proceed to the main practice.

 

1st Stage:

In the first stage of mindfulness of breathing, we simply bring our attention to breath. It’s a relaxed but interested observation that we’re cultivating, and not thinking about the breath. As a way of helping this initial focus we also drop in a count at the end of each out breath in our minds. We count up to ten, then begin at one again.

 

When you realise that you’ve become distracted, or have counted past ten, no matter what it is, you can simply return to one and count from there. You may feel disappointed, judgemental and so on about how hard it might be to stay focused for a full ten count, even a five count. The idea is to just notice all that unfolds with interest but without any commentary or judgement, just let it go and carry on with the practice.

 

Meditation isn’t a performance sport. The process of noticing how distracted we are, that we are self critical, that we are hard on ourselves, whatever it might be, this is all very much part of the purpose of meditation. It’s not only about training our minds to learn how to want to be more present, it’s about seeing what the nature of our mind actually is. Mostly we don’t even recognise that we are a mind, we have no idea of the state of it. Trying to focus our mind continuously on one thing points this out in stark detail.

 

To use the exercise analogy again, we may have no idea how unfit we are because we never exercise. That first time that you go to the gym and try to do a workout, you suddenly realise the state of your physical health. So to our own minds, we can acknowledge that we’ve been mostly living in distraction, with a kind but persistent intention we carry on to the next stage of the practice.

 

2nd Stage:

Stage two is very much the same as the last stage but we move the focus of the counting to the beginning of each breath. This keeps us engaged due to a subtle shift in technique and focus. We carry on the same way, maintaining a broad overall awareness of our experience, but also focusing in on our breathing.

 

3rd Stage:

By the third stage we’ve become more settled, our mind will be calmer so we simply allow the counting to drop away and continue to observe the constant in flow and out flow of the breath, as well as note anything else unfolding, thoughts, distractions, emotions and so on.

 

If you are still having difficulty with focus, you can simply stay with the counting. Meditation isn’t about sticking doggedly to technique as prescribed. Part of becoming more aware is accurately assessing your state of being and acting according to your needs. Meditation technique is just a tool to help you engage in the process of learning the art of working with the mind, and how to become absorbed. In this process, we come to know it deeply.

 

4th Stage:

The final stage of the practice involves bringing the attention to the single point where we notice the breath entering and leaving the body. It may be a fine sensation at the tip of the nose, in the sinus, or the back of the throat. The point is to bring all our focus to that one point whilst still being receptive to anything else that may arise.

 

Cultivating this one-pointed attention in meditation practice is the culmination of the progression of the technique. Once we’ve gained a bit of meditation experience, we may realise that the way in which we’ve been using our mind up to now has not been very healthy.

Typically, we just let our minds flit from one interest to the next without any discernment.

 

Coming to this practice with a sense of kindness and patience means that we relinquish some of our expectations. We simply apply the technique and trust that in time, the mind will settle and we can bring all of ourselves into the present moment. 

 

Finish:

At the end of the allotted time for the practice, if we just jump up and crash back into activity, it can be very jarring. It’s good to take a minute or two to firstly relax one’s attention and then take a few moments to note and savour the quality of mind and being we’ve cultivated, a relaxed open receptiveness to how you are.

 

Then you can might start moving a little bit, a light stretch, rotate your shoulder joints, flex some muscles, get a little bit of movement into the body that will have been almost completely still for the duration of the practice, all the while remaining present. Once you feel ready, carry on with your day but with a sense of the experience staying with you throughout the day.