Mindful Breathing Practice

Practicing mindful breathing helps us get better at all the techniques of mindfulness.  It is a great practice to do every day for a few minutes.  The more you do it, the better you will get at it.  It is similar to learning a physical skill such as running, bicycling, or sports: repetition improves your skill, strength, and stamina. In the case of mindfulness practice, things like your ability to stay focused, be present, and notice more of what goes on around you and inside you is what will increase the more often you do it.  In addition, you can use mindful breathing (and other mindfulness techniques) to calm down and relax such as when you are stressed, to help you go to sleep at night, or to help focus better for things like work, tests, sports, or homework.

Ways to practice mindfulness of the breath can be found in many contemplative traditions, and, increasingly, in a variety of medical and educational applications.  As long as we are alive we are breathing so we will always have breath available to focus on.  It is always changing and we can always find more details in how our bodies feel and what our minds are up to while we are breathing so it is a rich environment in which to practice.  Finally, by focusing on the breath itself, it helps to ground us in something real and physical, calming racing thoughts, slowing the heart beat, and bringing equilibrium back to our body, mind and emotions.

Mindful Breathing Technique

1. Decide how much time you will be practicing for today.  Two to five minutes is a good place to start.
2. Put your Mindful Body on by finding a quiet place and sitting in a chair or cross-legged on the floor.   Sit up straight and put your hands on your thighs.  Imagine the top of your head is hanging from a string attached to the ceiling.
3. Let your eyes close or, if it’s more comfortable, look gently downward in front of you.
4. If you have a bell, ring it and listen to the sound.  When you can’t hear the sound anymore, raise your hand.
5. Place your hand on your anchor spot, the place where you can feel your breath – your chest, your belly, maybe even your mouth.
6. Feel the air going in and out.  Focus on that feeling.  If a sound or a thought comes up, notice it and gently return to the breath.  Try not to get involved in the distraction, try not to decide whether it was good or bad, just notice it.  Thoughts are normal, your job while practicing is just to notice that you’re thinking but not dwell on or judge them.  Often the thought will disappear on its own just by your act of noticing it.
7. You can try saying “breathing in, breathing out” to yourself as a reminder if you get distracted.
8. If you have a lot of thoughts or thoughts that keep replaying, try imagining placing the thought in a bubble and letting it float away, or imagine the thought is floating along in a stream and you are watching it go by.
9. Be like a scientist or an artist: try to stay interested, engaged and curious.  Notice as many details in your breathing as you can.  Remember to breathe normally.
10.  At the end of the time, ring the bell again and open your eyes.  If you don’t have a bell, just open your eyes.  Notice how you feel.