This entry was posted on Apr 30, 2025 by Charlotte Bell.
We’ve all seen idealized photographs of meditation. Maybe it’s a younger girl on a abandoned seashore, fingers in a meditation-friendly mudra, having fun with a sundown. Or possibly it’s a picture just like the one on the prime of this put up—an individual with serene countenance, fingering mala beads in deep contemplation. It’s true that meditation may be peaceable. However typically, it’s marked by cascading ideas and reminiscences, uncooked feelings and/or bodily discomfort. It’s vital to do not forget that in mindfulness observe, the latter expertise doesn’t imply you’re doing one thing incorrect. These ideas, reminiscences, feelings and discomforts are merely what’s current. They’re, in a really actual sense, what there may be to be aware of. However when these experiences grow to be overwhelming, mindfulness has an answer: a breath consciousness observe designed to calm the physique and thoughts.
After I educate mindfulness programs, many new meditators doubt their capability to observe. 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 once they meditate; they’re as an alternative observing for the primary time what’s been occurring of their minds all alongside. I clarify that mindfulness isn’t about stopping your ideas. It’s about coping with your ideas in a skillful method.
We may be aware of the course of of considering, as an alternative of getting caught up within the content material of our tales, reminiscences, worries and dramas. Mindfulness of considering is definitely one of many 4 foundations of mindfulness. However typically, we have to sluggish the method down in order that we may be with the considering course of with extra equanimity. That’s the place the breath consciousness observe I’m about to explain may be invaluable.
Breath Consciousness to the Rescue
On an 18-day retreat at Spirit Rock Meditation Heart a couple of 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, reminiscences started flowing, fully uncontrolled, at a tempo I didn’t assume doable. Life occasions I hadn’t considered in many years had been flashing via my consciousness nonstop, and at warp pace. 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 observe that I assumed would possibly be capable of sluggish issues down a bit. It’s a quite simple observe that I’d heard on an instruction CD by writer/Perception Meditation trainer Joseph Goldstein. After only a few minutes of observe, the entire rapid-fire film slowed down, and I felt a deep sense of calm.
The way to Apply Calming Breath Consciousness
- Collect your props: a Meditation Cushion and Zabuton. Should you don’t have a Zabuton, you possibly can place your Meditation Cushion on prime of a pair folded Yoga Blankets for further padding underneath your knees or ankles.
- Loosen up into your sitting place and tune into your respiratory. Discover the place you are 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.
- 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 observe this, I merely say to myself “calm” every time I inhale and “calm” every time I exhale.
- Really feel your physique/thoughts receiving this suggestion with every inhalation and exhalation.
- Apply this so long as you want. You may observe for a couple of rounds firstly of your meditation, or you possibly can observe it for your complete period.
This breath consciousness observe could appear too easy to be efficient, however I’ve discovered it to be a necessary device in my meditation toolbox. You may observe it any time—whenever you’re feeling impatient whereas sitting at a stoplight, whenever you’re within the midst of a difficult scenario, whenever you’re feeling stress or anxiousness, whenever you’re mendacity awake at evening, and naturally, when your thoughts is wandering throughout meditation. You may observe it firstly or finish of your yoga observe. It’s an particularly good solution to start your Savasana (Closing Rest).
About Charlotte Bell
Charlotte Bell found yoga in 1982 and commenced educating in 1986. Charlotte is the writer of Conscious Yoga, Conscious Life: A Information for On a regular basis Apply and Yoga for Meditators, each printed by Rodmell Press. Her third e-book 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 Crimson Rock Rondo, whose DVD gained two Emmy awards.
