January 3 – How do you know that you’re breathing?

Dear Friends,

I normally don’t meditate in the morning as I often feel rushed to get my dogs fed and get myself to work, but for this month, I’m going to try a simple 5-minute mindfulness of breathing exercise every morning, when the alarm first goes off. (I have back up alarms so I won’t fall back asleep.) Five minutes doesn’t seem like a lot, but in the past, I have found that starting my day with even just a few mindful breaths really helps set the tone for the day.

Mindful breathing is often a starting point for meditation practices. There are many good reasons for this. For one, your breath is always with you – no fancy equipment needed. You won’t stand out in a crowd if you take a few mindful breaths. Just the act of bringing one’s attention to the breath can bring some calming and ease. Your breath is in the present moment – we generally don’t think about that “great breath last night” or “I can’t wait until I breathe tomorrow!” (Well, maybe if you have a stuffy nose, you might be thinking of how pleasant it will be to breathe when a cold or allergies go away…)

The breath isn’t magical – if you do have a stuffy nose, or if you find you get all stressed when you think about breathing, you can focus on body sensations or sounds or other things. We’ll discuss some of those other techniques through this month. But for today, let’s focus on the breath.

There are plenty of guided breathing meditations out there. In the Insight Timer app on my phone, I did a quick search for “breath”, and there are lots of results, of varying lengths from a few to many minutes long.

Here’s a brief article from Mindful magazine that describes the basic steps and includes a 15 minute recording:
https://www.mindful.org/guided-breathing-meditation-cultivate-awareness/

Or a similar list of steps and a 5 minue recording is available in this article, from the Greater Good in Action site:
https://ggia.berkeley.edu/practice/mindful_breathing

When I first started mindful breathing, rather than observing it, I found I would try to control my breath. I put way too much effort into it! One thing that helped me let go of the controlling was this question: “How do you know that you’re breathing?”

By focusing on that question, I still do all the things that the guided meditations suggest, but I do it with a sense of curiosity and play. For me, it became less about rigidly following instructions, which can be stressful, and more about discovery. How do I know that I’m breathing? I can feel my chest rise and fall. My shoulders move. My upper arms resting against my torso get pressed out and in. There’s a little bit of coolness and warmth alternating at the tip of my nose. There’s even some pulsing or tingling I can occasionally sense in my fingers and toes. It’s fascinating!

So today, why not try a little bit of mindful breathing. At the start your day, or the end your day, or any places in between. Red light? Great! How do you know that you’re breathing?

With best wishes,
Andrea