Meditation is a mindful practice that involves finding a comfortable seated position, closing your eyes and finding your breath.
Meditation can be difficult for beginners who don’t know how to “stop thinking”. The process becomes much simpler when we instead focus on our breath.
Because that’s easier said than done, today we’ll run through our guide to meditation breathing.
Notice Distractions from your Meditation
The point of meditation is to centre our mind around one object to notice when the mind is distracted. That way we learn to understand our subconscious and automatic thought patterns.
Our breath is the reference point for meditation. Experiencing mindfulness teach us to still the mind, while it would normally ebb and flow with constant interruptions.
Once any thoughts apart from our breathing enter our mind during meditation, we know to simply return our focus to the breath.
Anapanasati was the original meditation method taught by the Buddha that relied on the same principle of breathing focus.
Tame the Elephant
In traditional texts, meditation has been compared to the process of taming an elephant. This process tends to follow four phases.
- Tie the animal to a post with a strong rope
- The elephant is not happy, pulling against the rope, screaming and trampling until it realises it can’t escape. Then, it calms down.
- At this point, you can begin to feed the elephant and handle it with a higher degree of safety.
- Eventually the rope is no longer needed, and you have a tamed elephant working for you.
In this analogy, the elephant is your mind. The rope is mindfulness, and the post is the object of our meditation. In other words, our breath becomes a fixed location that keeps our minds from wandering.
The elephant that emerges from this process is a well-trained, concentrated mind that is able to side-step the illusions that typically obscure our reality.
Why Focus on Your Breath during Meditation?
Our breath is the best object of meditation for many reasons:
- It’s portable, easily available and free
- Breathing is good for the body and happens naturally anyway
- Every human being has it and brings it everywhere
These three reasons make breathing ideal as the object of a meditation practice.
Living in the moment
Breathing is also non-conceptual, so we can experience it without thinking about it. We can be present without the need for thoughts, as we experience the sensation of breathing.
In fact, breathing only occurs in the moment. Unlike memories of the past and plans for the future, our breathing always occurs in the “here and now”. When we focus on our breath, we are automatically focusing on the present. In this way, our breath is a slice of reality.
Interconnectedness
The breath moves in and out in cycles. As we inhale and exhale, our breath represents a miniature model of life. Just as every living thing breathes, understanding this experiential process gets you one step closer to other living beings.
This might be why many people discovered an inherent interconnectedness with the world from meditation.
The breath is also a core component of yoga. Learn to experience your breath with a yoga taster class.
How to find your breath
To find your breath, you must first notice the physical sensation that passes in and out of your nasal. Though the exact point each person will feel the sensation may differ, you can easily find it with a quick exercise.
Start by inhaling deeply through the nostrils and noticing any physical sensations, often near the outer edge of the nostril or upper lip.
Notice this same point when you exhale through the nostrils. You will follow the entire breath cycle during meditation from this single point on your body.
The sensation at this point is the “experience” you should focus on throughout your meditation, allowing you to avoid any distracting thoughts. Without it, you’ll find yourself chasing the breath through the body – from the nose to the throat, lung and diaphragm.
Much like a carpenter focuses on one point while sawing through a piece of wood, you should focus on one point in your nose while breathing.
Experiencing your breath
Breathing may seem mundane and uninteresting if you haven’t taken the full time to appreciate the experience. However, every breath is unique in its length, depth and smoothness.
When you observe the breath closely, you find these categories combine to create intricate differences in each breath. The breaths then create unique patterns, becoming a sort of symphony.
The depth and speed of your breathing will change depending on your emotional state, and you may find noticing these patterns interesting and insightful.
Settle the Monkey Mind
As you begin meditating, you will likely find yourself being distracted by thoughts, day-dreams, worries or anything else on your mind.
This “monkey mind” is something every meditator must learn to handle, though it may not happen in your first (or even first few) session. You’re rewiring your brain to take a step back, and that might take more than a 30 minute session.
Don’t worry about becoming an expert meditator overnight. Whenever distracting thoughts come up during meditation, you should take note and return your mind to the meditation.
Don’t become upset or judge yourself for straying. Simply notice that you’re distracted and return your mind to the sensation of breathing.
Focusing on our breath during meditation may help us calm anxiety, practice non-judgment and better manage our expectations. We can even use a similar breathing method in body scan meditation to develop body mindfulness.
In this way, we develop mental health and cognitive distance with mindfulness.
Set Realistic Meditation Goals
When you’re first trying out meditation, it can be easy to set high goals and be very hard on yourself. You try to focus on your own breath continuously without a break. This is usually much harder than it sounds.
Don’t be too hard on yourself for not getting it right away. Every time you meditate, you strengthen your mental abilities.
It helps to set realistic meditation goals at first, such as following one mindful breath at a time. Each breath is a small unit of time to practice mindfulness.
And each meditation session is divided into a number of breaths.
Breathe Mindfully
When you follow the guidelines we’ve discussed in this post, it should be easier to be mindful of the present moment.
Focusing on the sensations of breathing will help keep you focused during meditation.
Rather than becoming distracted by memories from the past or plans for the future, experiencing your breathing will keep you centred in the present.
Finding your breath is the first step to mindful meditation.
Learn more about meditation in our Beginner’s Guide to Meditation.