This entry was posted on Apr 30, 2025 by Charlotte Bell.
We’ve all seen idealized photographs of meditation. Maybe it’s a younger lady on a abandoned seashore, palms in a meditation-friendly mudra, having fun with a sundown. Or possibly it’s a picture just like the one on the high of this put up—an individual with serene countenance, fingering mala beads in deep contemplation. It’s true that meditation will be peaceable. However generally, it’s marked by cascading ideas and reminiscences, uncooked feelings and/or bodily discomfort. It’s vital to do not forget that in mindfulness follow, the latter expertise doesn’t imply you’re doing one thing fallacious. These ideas, reminiscences, 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 follow designed to calm the physique and thoughts.
Once I train mindfulness programs, many new meditators doubt their means to follow. They’ll say, “Each time I sit right 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 isn’t about stopping your ideas. It’s about coping with your ideas in a skillful approach.
We will be conscious of the course of of pondering, as an alternative of getting caught up within the content material of our tales, reminiscences, 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 will be with the pondering course of with extra equanimity. That’s the place the breath consciousness follow I’m about to explain will be invaluable.
Breath Consciousness to the Rescue
On an 18-day retreat at Spirit Rock Meditation Middle just a few years in the past, this breath consciousness approach helped me navigate what I can solely describe as a “huge reminiscence dump.” Beginning within the wee hours of the morning one evening, reminiscences started flowing, fully uncontrolled, at a tempo I didn’t suppose doable. Life occasions I hadn’t considered in many years had been flashing by my consciousness nonstop, and at warp velocity. None of it was traumatic, nevertheless it grew to become exhausting after some time.
After a number of hours of experiencing this reminiscence dump, I remembered a breath consciousness follow that I assumed would possibly be capable to gradual issues down a bit. It’s a quite simple follow that I’d heard on an instruction CD by creator/Perception Meditation instructor Joseph Goldstein. After only a few minutes of follow, the entire rapid-fire film slowed down, and I felt a deep sense of calm.
How you can Observe Calming Breath Consciousness
- Collect your props: a Meditation Cushion and Zabuton. For those who don’t have a Zabuton, you’ll be able to place your Meditation Cushion on high of a pair folded Yoga Blankets for further padding below your knees or ankles.
- Calm down into your sitting place and tune into your respiratory. 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 respiratory, 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. Once I follow 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’ll be able to follow for just a few rounds initially of your meditation, or you’ll be able to follow it for the whole period.
This breath consciousness follow could appear too easy to be efficient, however I’ve discovered it to be a necessary software in my meditation toolbox. You’ll be able to follow it any time—once you’re feeling impatient whereas sitting at a stoplight, once you’re within the midst of a difficult scenario, once you’re feeling stress or nervousness, once you’re mendacity awake at evening, and naturally, when your thoughts is wandering throughout meditation. You’ll be able to follow it initially or finish of your yoga follow. It’s an particularly good solution to start your Savasana (Ultimate Rest).
About Charlotte Bell
Charlotte Bell found yoga in 1982 and started educating in 1986. Charlotte is the creator of Conscious Yoga, Conscious Life: A Information for On a regular basis Observe and Yoga for Meditators, each revealed 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 Pink Rock Rondo, whose DVD gained two Emmy awards.
