The traditional Buddhist meditation technique is Mindful Breathing Practice. The goal is to attain a state of deep peace in the present moment, characterized by total immersion of the mind in its object and progressive elimination of thoughts and emotions. The benefit of learning Mindful Breathing Practice is being able to use it to cope with stress and improve relationships in our everyday lives.
Preparation and posture
The meditator selects a a quiet place and sits in any comfortable position that can be sustained for 10 – 20 minutes. What’s key is to keep a straight back throughout Mindful Breathing Practice, as it prevents the mind becoming sluggish or sleepy.
Attention and focus
In Mindful Breathing Practice the attention is focused on the nostrils, as it is there that the entry and exit of breath can be observed. The mediator will observe and follow the natural course of his or her breathing process. No attempt to stop the breath, or to deliberately alter the timing or rhythm will be made.
At first, our mind will be very busy, and we might even feel that the meditation is making our mind busier; but in reality we are just becoming more aware of how busy our mind actually is. There will be a great temptation to follow the different thoughts as they arise, but we should resist this and remain focused single-pointedly on the sensation of the breath. If we discover that our mind has wandered and is following our thoughts, we should immediately return it to the breath. We should repeat this as many times as necessary until the mind settles on the breath. — Breathing Meditations
Settling into the stillness
When the distracting thoughts subside and the meditator’s mind becomes still, a deep sense of quiet joy and peace arises from within.
Breathing in, I know I am breathing in.
Breathing out, I know I am breathing out.
Breathing in, I see myself as a flower.
Breathing out, I feel fresh.
Breathing in, I see myself as a mountain
Breathing out, I feel solid.
Breathing in, I feel myself as still water.
Breathing out, I reflect things as they are.
Breathing in, I see myself as space.
Breathing out, I feel free.
Breathing in, I know that I am breathing in.
Breathing out, I know that I am breathing out.
As my in-breath grows deep,
My out breath grows slow.
Breathing in makes me calm.
Breathing out brings me ease.
With the in-breath, I smile,
With the out-breath I release.
Dwelling in the present moment,
I know this is a wonderful moment.
Feelings come and go, like clouds in a windy sky
From: Mindful Breathing Gathas
As Mindful Breathing Practice leads to a calm, recollected state of mind in which there is also vitality and clarity, the benefit is being able to use it to cope with stress arising in every day life, and to improve relationships through conscious living.
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Hi TT! Been following your blog silently for quite a few months now. This post compelled me to leave a comment however! Thanks for sharing those affirmations from Mindful Breathing Gathas. They’ll be very useful in training the mind to let go. Take care…
.-= Kaddu´s last blog ..Diwali 2009 – Photographs =-.
@Kaddu
Thank you so much for visiting, for your kind words, and also for your comment. Please come again soon.
P.S. Happy Diwali!
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Timethief, a great post! We all need a reminder now and then about mindful breathing and perhaps mindfulness in general. If we don’t empty ourselves to be IN the moment now and then, we lose our moments–as they blur together and escape notice and memory.
I had to breathe mindfully today, to cope with a migraine. I’m better now, thanks to homeopathic meds, deep breathing, and a hot compress.
Thanks for the post and links!
.-= Lynda Lehmann´s last blog ..The Real Magic =-.
Whenever I have a migraine I immediately use this practice. And you are so very tight – we lose our now moments because we do not allow ourselves the time to make the shift required to truly “be” in them. Thanks for your comment and best wishes to you.
Just like what Cindy said, you are a gift to us TimeThief.
Your blog is a gift to myself and many others.
Namaste
I once did a breathing meditation (different than that mentioned in your post,) during which I was able to slow my breathing to one or two breaths a minute. It was very calming.
.-= Lana´s last blog ..2nd Anniversary & Other Stuff =-.
I know the breathing meditation to which your refer. In fact, I know several of them. The foundational one is this one and until one has mastered observing their breath without altering it in any way trying other breathing meditations is not recommended. We humans LOVE to seize control but unless and until we learn how to simply “be” and observe our breath as it is we don’t develop the patience required for undertaking other techniques.
Hi TT! Hoping you’re doing well. I just noticed you haven’t been around BC – work takes up most of my time at the moment, so I guess I will be the last person to know what is happening. Miss your posts, anyway.
I do a lot of meditation for I believe that most of our physical ailments are due to the daily stresses of life. Harbouring stress leads to my psoriasis outbreak. Since I was 21, I have been able to control my skin problem with the use of meditation and herbal teas. If you could see me personally, you wouldn’t think I suffer from my skin disease. Not only it is good for relieving stress but it is good getting in touch with ourselves, our mind and our soul. There are a lot of things we could learn from our higher-selves, if we took the time and effort to calm down and listen inwardly.
.-= Funkkeejooce´s last blog ..Me and Ma =-.
What a small world this one is. I also suffer from psoriasis and use the same natural approach to healing and keeping it at bay as you do. Currently I’m experiencing a “gift” from my youth stored in my body for many years that likewise affects both skin and nerve. I had chicken pox as a child and now I have Shingles. Although I am supposedly on bed rest I do get up from time to time to keep abreast of my blogging. ;)
Meditation is wonderful, as is any form of exercise or relaxation. Anything that diverts your thoughts and preoccupations and enables you to enjoy the here and now.
My practice includes many different types of meditation but all are founded in observation of the breath as the path to mind training, and that’s why Buddhists teach this meditation first.
Timethief, I have to agree with your comment that healing is a life long process, but I must also ‘fess up to the constant desire to already be the reconstructed “me” that I long for. That’s part of being human though, I’m sure. :)
Miss you at BC by the way. Take care, won’t you. :)
.-= Tony Single´s last blog ..A Hopeful Poem =-.
I share that same desire. It is a motivation from the heart as well as coming from the ego. So IMHO that puts us on the right road ie. the high road. Thanks for commenting and give Cassie a big HUG from me.
It was a basic tenet with Gautama Buddha that we look clearly at every idea or teaching or ideology or anything at all in this world, including his own teaching or discoveries and if they do not correspond to our own reason,then we should drop them.My life until I retired allowed little time for meditation. I’m sure this is as true for most people today as it was in the days of Greece and Rome or Atilla the Hun. But, knowing, even as a child the need to try to get beyond thought I substituted what I can only call visual meditation for any kind of formal approach to meditation. By visual meditation, I mean I just looked at things without trying to necessarily form any opinion of them. Sometimes it worked…sometimes it didn’t. As you and I have found our way, so everyone, eventually, must be a lamp unto their own feet. To get them started though, I think teaching them traditional methods is as good a way as any to get them started on the path. Namaste
.-= Count Sneaky´s last blog .. =-.
I began candle meditation in yoga class in my twenties, and have learned many different meditation approaches since that time. I believe that this Buddhist breathing meditation is the easiest one to learn first. The next one I choose to teach is a combined visualization and breathing meditation called “blue sky mind meditation” and it is found in this post Prayer or Meditation.
I like doing meditation. Will try this – Mindful Breathing Meditation, too. by the way, you have very informative site about medidation, so I will visit it again when I have time.
Orxan
Thanks for the visit and comment. Please come again soon.
Thank you for sharing such an easy-to-understand guide — sometimes, the idea of meditating can be imposing, but you kept the concept simple. I really like your style of writing . . and great choice of subject matter!
- Marie (Coming Out of the Trees)
.-= Marie´s last blog ..June 20, 2009 =-.
Wow! Thanks for the kind words. I mean who doesn’t appreciate positive feedback. Be well and happy.
I’ve selected your blog as one of a group I’ve recently discovered, which deserve special mention. Pick up your award from my blog http://chasingeducation.com
Happy Blogging
- elle
Thanks so much for including my blog. I have taken part in them meme and passed the link love along. Hopefully those I sent it to will keep the momentum up.
As I was reading this post I find myself following the step… Thanks very enlightening.
.-= sibel´s last blog ..The Birth of Israel at Palestinian Peoples Expense. Over 60 years. =-.
@sibel
I’m so glad that you felt the desire to develop the practice and use it. It does take some time to settle into a meditation practice but it’s well worth it to do so. Best wishes to you and thanks for commenting.
Hi TT,
Great snapshot of the practice of breathing meditation. It is very awkward at first and may take several attempts before the benefits are felt from the practice. The rewards of sticking to it are incredible.
The simple act of focusing on our breathing opens up our minds to see how thoughts and feelings that we give tremendous emphasis to when we are “thinking” are able to be seen as just what they are; thoughts and feelings. This allows us to release the hold they have on us, letting us live a more rich and full life.
Don’t worry if you don’t get the same results every time you practice. This is normal. The more we practice, the more we benefit.
Thank you for this.
Namaste
.-= Roger´s last blog ..A hint of winter =-.
The fleeting thoughts that flutter through my mind, the thoughts I take no hold of reveal they are my own creations. They are just thoughts and just feelings that have no hold on me. Like clouds they scud through the blue sky of my mind and disappear from view leaving me in a state of peaceful spaciousness.
The Dalai Lama just visited my city last weekend and I have been reading some of his works. In “The Universe In A Single Atom” he writes, “The great advantage of choosing one’s breath as the object of mindfulness training is that breathing is an instinctive and effortless activity, something which we do as long as we are alive, so there is no need to strive hard to finde the object of this practice.” That is the simplicity and beauty that I find at the heart of Buddhism. This post answers many of the questions that someone thinking of trying mediation might have. You are the gift that keeps on giving, tt. cgn
.-= Cindy´s last blog ..Creativity and aging =-.
@cindy
Thanks so much for sharing that quote with me and my readers. No striving required just sit and follow the breath.
Mindful breathing is something I should remember throughout the day while I am with my kids. I have taught my chuldren that this is a way to calm themselves yet I do not remember to do it.
.-= Shane´s last blog ..Thinking of Cruising? Friends of the Earth Rates Environmental Friendliness of Cruise Lines…but is there more to the story? =-.
I’m happy to hear you have taught your kids this technique. It’s not surprising that you tend to neglect mediating yourself either. Meditating is a discipline and in the beginning stages we have to compel ourselves to repeat the practice over and over until it becomes a part of our lives. When we do persist in meditation the benefits received operates as a motivator.
I love it!
I use it all the time as a quick booster through my day – well a version similar to it – I make up my own affirmations.
I also want to make a silly note – there are more types of meditations and as an artist uses many brushes to paint, you should use your meditations accordingly.
And of course; practice makes perfect :)
Namaste!
.-= Buddha of Hollywood´s last blog ..Training Wheels =-.
Healing is a life long process that requires us to meet the challenge to become our own healers. There are time sthroughout the day when I need to recall an affirmation or create one, and also times I need to chant and meditate too. Learning how to ride free is a challenge and I’m going to rise to meet it, just as you are doing.
Namaste