This entry was posted on Apr 30, 2025 by Charlotte Bell.
We’ve all seen idealized photos of meditation. Maybe it’s a younger lady 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 generally, it’s marked by cascading ideas and recollections, uncooked feelings and/or bodily discomfort. It’s necessary to do not forget that in mindfulness observe, the latter expertise doesn’t imply you’re doing one thing flawed. These ideas, recollections, feelings and discomforts are merely what’s current. They’re, in a really actual sense, what there may be to be conscious of. However when these experiences change into 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 potential to observe. They’ll say, “Each time I sit all the way down to meditate, my thoughts goes loopy. My pondering amps up greater than ever.” To that, I inform them that they’re not pondering extra once 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 just isn’t about stopping your ideas. It’s about coping with your ideas in a skillful method.
We may be conscious of the course of of pondering, as an alternative of getting caught up within the content material of our tales, recollections, worries and dramas. Mindfulness of pondering is definitely one of many 4 foundations of mindfulness. However generally, we have to gradual the method down in order that we may be with the pondering 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, recollections started flowing, utterly uncontrolled, at a tempo I didn’t suppose potential. Life occasions I hadn’t considered in many years have been flashing by means of my consciousness nonstop, and at warp pace. None of it was traumatic, nevertheless it turned 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 gradual issues down a bit. It’s a quite simple observe that I’d heard on an instruction CD by creator/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 Observe Calming Breath Consciousness
- Collect your props: a Meditation Cushion and Zabuton. If you happen to don’t have a Zabuton, you’ll be able to place your Meditation Cushion on prime of a pair folded Yoga Blankets for further padding beneath your knees or ankles.
- Calm down into your sitting place and tune into your respiration. 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 respiration, noting every inhalation and exhalation.
- Now, as you inhale, make a mild 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.
- Observe this so long as you want. You possibly can observe for a couple of rounds originally of your meditation, or you’ll be able to observe it for the whole period.
This breath consciousness observe could seem too easy to be efficient, however I’ve discovered it to be a necessary device in my meditation toolbox. You possibly can observe it any time—once you’re feeling impatient whereas sitting at a stoplight, once you’re within the midst of a difficult state of affairs, once you’re feeling stress or anxiousness, once you’re mendacity awake at evening, and naturally, when your thoughts is wandering throughout meditation. You possibly can observe it originally or finish of your yoga observe. It’s an particularly good method to start your Savasana (Ultimate Rest).
About Charlotte Bell
Charlotte Bell found yoga in 1982 and started instructing in 1986. Charlotte is the creator of Aware Yoga, Aware Life: A Information for On a regular basis Observe and Yoga for Meditators, each printed by Rodmell Press. Her third ebook 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 gained two Emmy awards.
