Mindfulness of the Body: Breath Awareness

The Buddha mentioned: “There may be one factor that, when cultivated and recurrently practiced, results in deep religious intention, to peace, to mindfulness, and clear comprehension to imaginative and prescient and data, to a contented life right here and now, and to the end result of knowledge. And what’s that one factor? Mindfulness centered on the physique.”

Most religious programs contemplate considerations of the physique to be subservient to these of the thoughts and coronary heart. However within the observe of mindfulness, consciousness of the physique is essentially the most essential basis. If you wish to be really current, mindfulness of the physique is crucial. The physique is all the time within the current. It could possibly’t be in any other case. Once we are awake in our our bodies, we’re really within the right here and now.

Within the Satipatthana Sutta, the sutta on the observe of mindfulness, there are thought of to be 4 foundations of mindfulness. I launched these in a earlier put up. I contemplate mindfulness of the physique to be the “basis of the foundations.” It is because all the pieces we expertise on this life is skilled as sensation within the physique. At any given second, there are six issues we will concentrate on: seeing, listening to, smelling, tasting, feeling or touching, and pondering. All these are skilled as sensations in our our bodies.

Breath Consciousness: Anchoring Mindfulness of the Physique

How will we observe mindfulness of the physique? The foundational observe of mindfulness of the physique is breath consciousness. People breathe a mean of 23,000 instances a day. Our our bodies do that all on their very own, with out our steerage or consciousness. Nevertheless, we will use our respiratory as an anchor for our consciousness.

Usually, once we sit all the way down to observe mindfulness, it may be tempting to resolve to be aware for all the interval of observe—10, 20, half-hour or extra. When our minds inevitably slip off into pondering, typically inside seconds of sitting all the way down to observe, we will really feel like giving up. As an alternative of committing to one thing that’s doubtless unattainable, I recommend working towards this straightforward, and highly effective, method:

At the start of every inhalation and exhalation, decide to being conscious of simply this inhalation, and simply this exhalation. That’s it. You merely recommit to being conscious of every a part of the breath because it arises.

I really feel lucky to have realized this instruction early on in my observe, greater than 30 years in the past. I nonetheless use it, just about each day.

Find out how to Apply Mindfulness of the Physique and Breath

1. Sit comfortably on a meditation cushion or chair.
2. Shut your eyes, or go away them barely open and have a look at the bottom a foot or two in entrance of you.
3. Tune into your respiratory, feeling it in your physique.
4. As you grow to be conscious of your respiratory, notice if there’s an space within the respiratory passage the place the breath feels most clear for you. This could possibly be your nostrils, chest or stomach. Settle your consciousness there and easily really feel the sensations of inhaling that space.
5. Decide to staying conscious of simply this inhalation, after which simply this exhalation.
6. When your thoughts wanders off, which it most definitely will, while you discover it, merely redirect your consciousness again to your breath. Chances are you’ll want to do that many, many instances in your observe. Every time you discover your thoughts has grow to be misplaced, and also you carry your self again to the breath, you’re slowly however absolutely creating a behavior of being current. So don’t despair if you happen to discover your thoughts wandering off many instances throughout a observe. In some ways, the observe is about noticing that your thoughts has grow to be distracted, and frequently corralling it again to your breath.

Refining Breath Consciousness

There are a number of different conventional strategies that may assist you to refine your consciousness of the breath. You’ll be able to add these to your breath consciousness as a approach of framing your observe:

• Discover whether or not your inhalations and exhalations are comparatively brief or comparatively lengthy.
• Pay attention to the start, center and finish of every inhalation and exhalation.
• As you inhale and exhale, make the suggestion to calm the physique and calm the thoughts. For instance you possibly can notice: inhaling-calm, exhaling-calm.

Mindfulness of the Physique: A Huge Topic

Once I started scripting this put up, I meant to incorporate all of the other ways of working towards mindfulness of the physique. However once I acquired into the weeds of it, I noticed that it’s too massive a topic for a single put up. In future posts, we’ll discover different methods of working towards mindfulness of the physique. For now, let the easy breath be your mindfulness anchor.

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 Apply 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 Crimson Rock Rondo, whose DVD gained two Emmy awards in 2010.