Count your Breaths Meditation
This is the simplest and easiest breathing meditation which you can use everywhere and at all times. It is a good exercise to clear your head and to soften stress and tension….
| Count your Breaths Meditation |
| Kind of meditation |
Concentration/observation |
| Degree of difficulty |
Beginners |
| Recommended duration |
5 to 45 minutes |
| Posture |
Sitting or walking |
| Advantages |
- It improves your concentration
- It gives you a clear, calm mind
- It improves your breathing
- It helps against stress
|
| Remark |
An exercise for beginners, but also for more advanced students. |
In the following meditation our breathing is the object of our meditation. We try to focus on the rhythm of our breathing. To make our focus easier we count every breathing in and every breathing out. Every time when we wander away in our mind we return to our breathing and we start our counting all over again.
Do not be alarmed if your thoughts wander away all the time and you cannot even get as far as ten without thinking of something else. This is quite normal and just goes to show how active our mind is. In the course of time you will gradually get better at focussing your attention on your breathing for longer periods of time and make your meditation deeper. It may make your concentration easier if you pronounce the number during the whole length of your breathing in or breathing out. For example: siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiix. After some time it is also possible to do this exercise by just counting your breathing in or your breathing out. It is also possible that after some time you find this exercise so easy that you want to stop counting and just think of the words "in" and "out"
When you are more advanced you can also stop counting altogether and start repeating an affirmation like "relax" or "let go"
You can do this count your breaths meditation very well while walking. Just walk more slowly than you usually do and concentrate your attention on your breathing. Count the number of steps you take during a breathing in and during a breathing out and whenever your concentration gets less deep, try to get a firm grip on it again.
As is the case with every form of meditation we try not to judge, we try not to get angry when things do not go so well and we try not to be too goal-oriented. Let us begin!
Exercise: Count your Breaths Meditation
- Sit down, close your eyes and concentrate on your breathing. Be aware of every breathing in and breathing out.
- Breathe automatically and freely, do not try to control your breathing. Pay attention to how the air slowly passes through your nose, fills up your lungs and goes out again.
- Try to find out whether you breathe through your belly, your diaphragm or the upper part of your chest.
- If, after taking a few breaths, you feel fine and at ease you start to count.
- Breathing in, one.……..breathing out ,two….….breathing in, three……..breathing out, four… breathing in, five….. breathing out, six
- If you start to think of something else instead of your breathing or you start to feel something else instead of your breathing, be aware of this and just return to your breathing……breathing in, one…..breathing out, two….. etc.
- Notice the sensations of your breathing. De depth, the speed, see if your breathing becomes increasingly slower and quieter, if your breathing more and more goes to your stomach or your chest, if your body becomes more relaxed through your breathing, …etc.
- Breathing in, 49…..breathing out, 50…..breathing in, 51……breathing out, 52….etc.
- Try to become totally one with your breathing.
- If all of a sudden you notice twinklings in your body or relaxation reactions in your muscles, that is fine……notice it and return to your breathing.
- Breathing in, 88…..breathing out, 89….. breathing in, 90…..breathing out 91…..etc.
- All right, now slowly take your thoughts back to the rest of your body and the sounds in the room. Move a little, stretch your muscles a little and open your eyes.
- Finished!
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