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Breathing Meditation

“Take a deep breath” - We have probably all heard this advice before and for good reason; In addition to calming the body, breathing meditation reduces the activity of the sympathetic nervous system, helping to:

  •  - Lower blood pressure, heart rate, and blood cortisol levels
  •  - Improve blood circulation
  •  - Reduce perspiration
  •  - Slow the respiratory rate
  •  - Decrease anxiety and stress
  •  - Promote overall relaxation and feelings of well-being

Herbert Benson, MD, a researcher at Harvard University Medical School, summed up the benefits of breathing meditation with the term “relaxation response” which applies to breathing as well as other mindfulness meditation. Benson stated that the relaxation response “is an opposite, involuntary response that causes a reduction in the activity of the sympathetic nervous system.”

In addition to the physical and psychological benefits of using the breath in meditation, it helps us to focus the mind and become more conscious of the present moment and the richness of that moment. It also helps us to pause and gather our thoughts before we act, (avoiding the all too common “knee jerk” self defense reaction) assisting us to respond in a calm and collected manner.

Breathing meditations are easily adapted to be used in a number of different situations. Some situations where breathing meditation can be beneficial are:

  •  - For relaxation
  •  - To let go of negativity
  •  - Bring inner peace
  •  - Learn about the body
  •  - Connect the mind and body

Learn More About Breathing Meditations:

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Count Your Breaths and Find Peace

Count your breaths to calm yourself

In our busy world, we sometimes take the miracle of breath for granted. Breath brings life, and it unifies mind and body. Practice counting your breaths to count your way to peace.

In this meditation, you’ll discover that simply focusing on your breathing can lead you to a place of deep peace that is always within you.

When to Use This Technique

Use this meditation anytime you want to experience peace. We suggest that you begin practicing in a place with minimal distractions.

As you become more adept at this meditation, you’ll find that it’s useful in any situation when you want to reduce stress. For example, have you found yourself holding your breath when you feel stressed? By becoming aware of this, you can start breathing again, and this will reduce your stress. Then by focusing on the quality of the breathing, you can further reduce your stress.

Why it Works

Though breathing is an involuntary function, our awareness of our breathing can significantly affect its quality.

Counting your breaths will bring your focus to your breath instead of on any thoughts or feelings that are affecting your breathing.

The Technique

  • Sit in a comfortable position and take a moment to relax. Rest your hands on your lap and place your feet flat on the floor.
  • Look downward and close your eyes. This helps reduce visual distractions and slows your brain waves.
  • Allow yourself to breathe normally. If you can, breathe through your nose. You can breathe through your mouth if nose breathing is uncomfortable.
  • As you inhale, place your attention on your breath. Feel the sensations at the tip of your nose.
  • As you exhale, follow the breath as it leaves your body. Feel the sensations at the tip of your nose.
  • Continue to breathe in this manner. Don’t try to influence your breathing, but ideally, you’ll breathe quietly and slowly although the depth and rhythm may vary.
  • When you’re comfortable, start counting your exhalations.

On an exhale, say “one” to yourself, and on the second exhalation say “two,” and so on up to five. Then begin a new cycle, again counting “one” on the exhalation. You’ll know that you’ve become distracted if you go past five.

  • If thoughts, emotions, or sensations arise, let them be. Simply return your focus to your breath and continue counting.
  • As you become more relaxed, try switching your attention from your breathing to noticing the quiet stillness. As you practicing paying attention to the stillness, your mind may become quiet on its own.

If this happens, stay with the silence until thoughts return, and then once again bring your focus back to breathing.

If you don’t experience this space, don’t worry. Just continue to breathe and count.

  • The stillness between thoughts is the mind becoming centered.

Enjoy the feeling of this space, but don’t be concerned if you lose awareness of it.

This space is a natural aspect of your mind. You become aware of it most easily when you allow yourself to be aware of the silence.

  • You cannot gain this space; nor can you lose it. Awareness of this space comes to you when you cease effort.
  • This space does not come and go; it is your thoughts that come and go. This space is always with you. It is your place of peace.

If you would like to try other breath work check out our Breathing Meditations category

What We Learned Today

Focusing on your breath can lead to an awareness of the quiet space in your mind. This is where you can experience true peace.

A Question that Sometimes Comes Up Is

I was unable to find the silent space you described. Please offer suggestions.

The easiest way to find this silent space is not to look for it. Let go of any expectations.
The purpose of this meditation is to focus on your breathing by counting your breaths. Simply continue to breathe and count in cycles of five without any expectation. With practice, you’ll find the quiet stillness in your mind.

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Relax and Breathe

class 1 girl outside breathing

Relaxing and breathing are excellent ways to begin practicing meditation. Both are important techniques in almost all types of meditation. And you breathe all day long, so fitting in moments of mindful breathing isn’t difficult to do.

When to Use this Technique

This meditation focuses on the physical sensations of breathing. The technique doesn’t take effort. You can practice in many everyday situations, such as when you’re waiting in a grocery line or waiting for a bus or a dinner companion.

I sometimes feel that I’m wasting time when I’m forced to wait for something. But by doing this meditation, I can put the time to good use. So next time you find yourself waiting for something, don’t take out your phone to surf social media. Instead, use the time to practice mindful breathing.

Why it Works

As you switch your attention from thinking to breathing, you’ll find yourself becoming more centered because you’ll be quieting your thoughts. It works no matter how you’re feeling, but if you’re troubled, you’ll find yourself becoming calmer because you’ll be quieting the part of your brain responsible for the “fight or flight” response.

The Technique

The easiest way to make a daily habit of meditation is to keep your sessions shorter rather than longer, especially when you first start learning to meditate. For this reason, I suggest you start your first week by spending only one to three minutes in your daily practice.

Preparation

It will be easier to meditate by choosing a quiet place with few distractions. After trying this meditation once or twice in a quiet place, you may find that you can meditate in more crowded or noisy places.

The Meditation

  • You can sit, stand up, or lie down when doing this meditation.
  • If the situation allows (perhaps you’re sitting and waiting for a dinner companion), close your eyes. Take a moment to let your body relax. Rest your hands open on your lap or at your side.
  • Take one or two deep breaths to help settle in.
  • Breathe as you would normally. You can breathe using your mouth or nose. As you gain practice with this meditation, you might find it interesting to try both ways and to notice the difference.

Notice the Sensations of Your Breathing

  • As you breathe, bring your attention to the sensation of breathing. In other words, instead of having your attention on your thoughts about breathing, focus on the sensations of your breathing.
  • Where in your body do you feel the air as you breathe in and out?
  • What does it feel like as the air travels over your tongue and down your throat?
  • Can you feel the air as it travels down to your lungs and back up out your nose?
  • Do you feel a sensation of warmth or coolness?
  • Do you notice your lungs rising and falling? What about your belly?
  • Are you breathing shallowly or deeply? What does it feel like if you try breathing the other way?
  • Your mind may use words to describe the sensations of your breathing. That is a common response. If that happens, just bring your attention back to feeling the sensations of breathing. There is no need to pay attention to the words.

Next Steps

After you practice this meditation a few times, you may want to lengthen the time you spend in meditation. Or if you find that short sessions are right for you, try adding a second session later in the day.

The next time you find yourself waiting for someone or something, relax and breathe. It will pass the time and release tension before it has a chance to build up.

What We Learned Today

Relaxing and breathing are basic techniques in many types of meditation. You can practice relaxing and breathing, and notice the sensations of your breathing, in many everyday situations.

Try this for a week and see how it works for you.

FOLLOW UP
Question that Often Comes Up

I forgot to practice for a couple of days. How can I remember to practice?

Forgetting to practice is a common problem. It may help to plan a specific time of day to practice, such as when you first wake up. Or you might decide to meditate when you do a certain activity, for example, when you’re waiting for a bus or doing the dishes. It may also help to have a special place to practice. When you pass this place, you’ll remember to meditate.

To your health,

Connie

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Meditation and Childhood ADD / ADHD

Little boy meditating

Raising a child can be difficult enough but raising a child with special needs can be especially difficult. A child with ADD or ADHD will often not be able to sit still, have a short attention span, and be very restless. The symptoms of the disorder often affect their learning and social and relationship skills. In other words, their whole world takes on a whole new level of complexity, above and beyond the normal trials and tribulations of childhood.

So what can be done as a parent to help alleviate some of your child’s symptoms? Teaching your child the basics of meditation is certainly a great place to start. Not only does meditation help a child to calm down, focus, and be still, it will also help them to learn how to take control of their emotions and behaviours. This is most commonly accomplished by slowing the breath, relaxing the muscles, and using visualization techniques.

So you’re probably wondering how you would do that exactly. Consider this your crash course in Meditation for Kids 101.

Breathing Meditation:

It’s no secret that in meditation breathing is often the starting and finishing point for all types of meditation, acting as an anchor to help keep us focused on the moment. To simplify this for kids, ask them just to notice what happens physically when they breathe in and out – for example, notice how their chest rises and falls. If your child is quite young, it may help to have them place their hands on their chest/tummy while breathing to physically feel what is happening when they inhale and exhale.

Breathing meditation for restless children

  • Keep in mind that a meditation for children (especially restless ones) should be kept short. Start with 1 minute and adjust up or down depending on how your child reacts to it.
  • Show your child how to do this meditation and do it along with him.
  • Have your child put his hands on his belly and notice how his hands rise and fall as he breathes. You can make this into a little bit of a game by getting him to show you just how big he can make his tummy and then as he breathes out how small he can make his tummy.

A variation on this for older children would be to ask them to breathe in happiness, or another feel good or calming emotion every time they breath in.

Muscle Relaxation:

As they become familiar with their breath, and focus on it, their body, and muscles, will naturally relax, releasing tension. You may need to help them become familiar with their muscles, so they can clench and then release each muscle, one at a time (for example, close the fingers in their hand tight and then release them).

Do this along with your child, showing him the way to Squeeze his

  • Hands really tight and let them relax
  • Arms in tightly to his body and then relax
  • Shoulders right up to their ears, then relax

If your child is still engaged with the activity by the time you get to this point you can add more body parts to make the meditation longer, for example you could have him squeeze his legs tight into his chest, then relax them out on the floor; squeeze his mouth shut tight, then let his mouth drop open. (warning this one might cause some giggling); squeeze his eyes shut tight then relaxed open.

Visualization:

Luckily imagination and childhood go hand in hand, so encouraging your little one to escape into their imagination should be fairly easy. Unlike adults, children don’t think rationally or analytically so imagination is an easy state to transition into. To encourage visualization, ask your child to go a place in their imagination where they feel safe and happy. It can either be a made up place (an elephant riding on the moon) or somewhere familiar to them (the park, grandma’s house). In adult meditation, this type of visualization is often used to help you prepare better for a goal (like visualizing a successful job interview), but in childhood it serves primarily for relaxation and calmness.

  • Have your child either sit quietly or lay down on the floor with his eyes closed.
  • Ask him to imagine a place that makes him feel safe and happy.
  • Guide him through the sensations that would be associated with being in that place, for example what does he hear, see, feel or even smell?

If you would like more ideas and information check out this book Focusing and Calming Games for Children: Mindfulness Strategies and Activities to Help Children to Relax, Concentrate and Take Control

Once you’ve taught your children these techniques, it is a good idea to find a way to add it to their daily routine, for example, before they go to sleep at night. That way these mini meditations will become a familiar habit they can return to them on their own when they need to concentrate, exercise impulse control and problem solving, or simply calm down from feeling anxious or angry. Having this control over their emotions will allow them to better communicate their feelings with you, their siblings, with friends, and at school.

To your inner peace – Anna

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Mindfulness Meditation in the Workplace

Mindfulness at Work

Woman meditating in her officeWe’ve all been there. Those days at work when nothing seems to go right and you’re stressed out, can’t concentrate, and have zero patience with your colleagues or superior.

For the days that aren’t so great, mindfulness meditation can help to reduce stress, boost concentration, and promote compassion and clarity, leading to a healthier, more productive, and a more empathetic work environment.

  • Reduce stress: High levels of stress flood your body with stress hormones, all day long, leading to exhaustion, premature aging, and increased frequency of illness and absenteeism. Even in high stress work environments – like the stock exchange – where stress is crucial to high achievement, meditation can be of great benefit in helping to manage stress in the particular moment.
  • Mental clarity: When you’re stressed you often don’t give a task 100% of your attention. Practicing mindfulness can make you more present when completing tasks by increasing focus, eliminating distractions, and improving concentration, and in turn improving your overall work performance. It will also help connect you better to the overall goals and visions of your workplace.
  • Compassion and empathy: Having a positive attitude towards others can go a long way in helping to diffuse or prevent any workplace conflicts that you may find yourself in or irritations that you may have with coworkers. Mindfulness meditation can help create an environment of tolerance and non-prejudice and improve teamwork efficiency. It can also help with self compassion and awareness, which goes hand in hand with confidence. Being confident means you will be better equipped when it comes to review time, asking for a raise, or if you are on the job hunt and going to interviews.

So the next time you’re at work and you start to feel like things are piling up, or you’ve done the same task three times, take a minute to practice the following mindfulness meditation, which can be done at your desk, in a meeting, or on your commute home.

1 minute breathing meditation:

  • Stop whatever you are working on for just a minute (or 2 or 3 if you can spare the time) to take a few nice long deep breaths.
  • With each breath you inhale think a phrase that is appropriate to how you are feeling right now, so for example if you are feeling anxious you could think something to the effect of “I am calm”, “Calm down” or even just the word “Calm”
  • Focus on your key phrase (like “I am calm”) and let it soak into you, allow yourself to really FEEL the statement.
  • Whatever phrase or word you select, make sure you choose positive wording. Rather than thinking “I am NOT anxious” think and FEEL the words “I am Calm” because the mind tends to ignore words like “Not” and hold onto what is left of the sentence!

In summary, practicing mindfulness at your workplace, wherever that may be, not only will help calm you, it will also help you be better at what you do and get along better with those you work with. It’s a win-win situation any way you look at it.

To your inner peace – Anna

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Meditating into Spring

spring

There’s no escaping the signs of spring all around us. The damp darkness of the winter has given rise to the warmth of sunny skies and the wet dampness in the air has been replaced with the undeniable scents of early spring blooms. Crops are starting to grow and eggs are hatching. Spring cleaning is in overdrive and it’s out with the old and in with the new once again.

This year, the first day of spring (March 20th) also marks the Spring Equinox; a time when the sun shines directly on the equator and the length of day and night is nearly equal.

So what does this have to do with meditation you ask? It`s simple….the Spring Equinox is the perfect time for us to grow as individuals, to shed our old “paint” and put on fresh colors, to repair relationships that are broken, to have a fresh start. It’s the perfect opportunity to harness our inner power to make positive change in our lives.

Embrace your potential for change with a breathing meditation. By breathing in the smells, sights, and sounds of spring and exhaling any old, stale energy or “mental clutter” you free up room to breathe in clarity and calm.

Meditation to help free yourself of emotional roadblocks

Begin by conciously focusing on the action of breathing with some basic breathing meditations. Next …

  • As you breath deeply, affirm the change you are making (for example – “I am patient” or “I am more patient”).
  • Phrase it in a positive manner such as “I am patient” rather than “I am not impatient”.

Although your conscious mind recognizes what “I am not impatient” means, your unconscious mind doesn’t notice the word “not” so it remembers “I am impatient”.

To experience what I mean, try an experiment for yourself …

  • Take a deep breath in using the negative version of your affirmation for example “I am not impatient” and notice how that feels.
  • Now take a deep breath in using the positive version of the affirmation, for example “I am patient” and notice how that feels.

Did you notice your body and mind found it easier to believe the positive statement?

Breathing the fresh spring air also fills your lungs, allowing you to exhale any stress, anxiety, or tensions that you may be feeling which will allow you to start your spring journey relaxed and focused.

Wherever your spring journey takes you, we hope that it will leave you feeling refreshed, rejuvenated, and ready to take on any new challenge.

To your inner peace – Anna

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Breathing Part 3

This meditation is great for people who hold a lot of tension in their muscles. It focuses on muscle relaxation and will likely take 5 – 7 minutes

I use this one sometimes to help me sleep, so I will give you the laying down instructions. (This can also be done sitting in a chair with your feet on the ground, hands open in your lap. If you prefer that version, adjust your visualization to match your sitting position.)

Lay on your back, close your eyes and breath in and out as you would naturally for 4 – 8 rounds, paying attention to your breath – where in your body do you feel it? What do you notice about your breathing?

Breath in to the count of 4 and out to the count of 4. Do this 4 – 6 times.

Breath in counting slowly to 4, filling first your belly with air, then your lungs, hold for 2 counts and slowly breath out.

With the next long deep breath, instead of counting, imagine the oxygen flowing to your feet, relaxing them, “melting” your feet into the floor.

With the next deep breath, imagine the oxygen flowing to your calves, relaxing them so they melt towards the floor.

Breath deeply, relaxing your knees and thighs. Let your upper legs relax so that your feet naturally fall pointing slightly out.

Continue this way until you get right to the top of your head. Progressively relaxing:
Lower back, and deep belly
Mid back and internal organs
Chest and upper back
Shoulders
Arms
Neck
Face

If there is any particular part of your body where you hold a lot of stress feel free to spend extra time letting your breath relax that area.

Remember if you have any physical discomfort pay attention to your body and adjust your position; after all it is a lot easier to relax muscles when you are comfortable 🙂