CMP Introduction To Mindfulness Of Breathing

Welcome to Community Mindfulness Project's Introduction to Mindfulness of Breathing.

In this discussion,

We'll talk about what mindfulness of breathing is,

Why we do it,

And how we do it.

And we'll also give some tips for integrating it into your engaged life.

So what is mindfulness of breathing?

Mindfulness of breathing is a practice that helps stabilize our attention and focus a scattered mind.

Placing our attention on the breath allows us to be aware of our present moment experience.

It's been extensively studied over the past two decades and significant benefits have been identified,

Some of which we're going to talk about.

It is a deceptively rich and complex practice,

Masquerading as something quite simple.

As the saying goes,

It's simple but not easy.

In a mindfulness of breathing practice,

We place our awareness on the sensations that arise in a given part of the body as a result of the action of breathing.

Each time our mind wanders away from the sensations of the breath,

We celebrate the fact that we noticed that the mind has wandered off,

And then we return our attention to the sensation of the breath.

So why do we use the breath as our object of attention in this practice?

There are several reasons that the breath makes a really effective object of attention,

Ranging from the practical to the physiological to the psychological.

So for one thing,

We cannot live without our breath.

So paying attention to it is a beautiful reminder of the here and now.

Breath is life,

Moment to moment.

In addition,

The act of breathing provides a neutral,

Gentle,

Moving target of focus.

The movement of the body that results from each in-breath and out-breath creates sensations in many areas of the body,

And the regularity of the breath and of these sensations provide a constant anchor for our attention in the present moment.

The other thing is that the body breathes by itself,

And as such,

The breath is an antidote to our natural tendency towards believing that we have to be in control.

So something fundamental is happening at the core of our being that depends very little on who we are or what we want to achieve,

Etc.

So we can bring attention to the breath as an observer,

Letting go of all control of it,

Feeling the sensations that arise from breathing with a sense of curiosity and letting be.

The other thing is that the breath is portable.

This training can happen anywhere and anytime.

Breath is always happening in the now,

And we live only in the now.

So it's a really helpful anchor for that.

And then paying attention to our breath integrates our mind and our body,

And we spend much of our time up in our head less tuned in to the signals that our body is sending us.

Paying attention to our breath opens the conversation with the body.

Science has also shown that we are at our happiest when our mind and our body are integrated.

Additionally,

The breath serves as a sensitive monitor to our emotional state.

Developing the habit of paying attention to our breath enables us to be more aware of our inner weather patterns.

Lastly,

And very importantly,

Each breath has a beginning,

A middle,

And an end.

And this serves to remind us that thoughts,

Feelings,

Situations all have beginnings,

Middles,

And ends.

They will arise,

They will be present,

And they will pass by,

And something new will follow.

And as the saying goes,

If you can breathe through it,

You can live through it.

So this can help us to feel unstuck from a particular situation,

Thought pattern,

Emotion,

Etc.

So what are the evidence-based benefits of a mindfulness of breathing practice?

What has science proven to be a benefit of the practice?

Much of the research on mindfulness practices has been focused on mindfulness of breathing.

And some of the benefits that have been identified include the fact that it teaches disengagement from habitual thought patterns through repeatedly noticing when attention has wandered,

Acknowledging that this has happened,

And returning to the object of focus,

In this case,

The breath.

It enhances our focus and our productivity.

It improves memory and performance.

It expands cognitive flexibility and creativity.

There's sort of a bit more space in the mind for creativity when we begin to identify when we're caught in looping thought patterns,

For example,

And come back and stabilize our mind on something that's taking place in the present moment.

It increases our overall health by activating the parasympathetic branch of the nervous system.

This helps to reduce heart rate,

Blood pressure,

And the stress hormone cortisol.

It promotes a greater sense of well-being,

Happiness,

Experience of awe,

Sense of purpose.

It helps to raise our emotional intelligence,

Our EQ.

It boosts our emotional resilience,

Our sense of grit,

Passion plus perseverance.

It can help improve quality of sleep.

It enhances kindness and compassion,

Interestingly.

So these are some of the benefits of the practice.

What are some of the technical tips for engaging in a mindfulness of breathing practice?

One thing that's really important to note is that if bringing attention to the breath causes a level of anxiety that is counterproductive,

You can use sounds or physical sensations as your anchor in the present moment and your object of attention.

Another thing to note is that our field of attention,

Which is the area within which we pay attention to the bodily sensations associated with breathing can be broad or we can make it narrow.

No matter where we choose to place attention,

And I'll go into a few of the options in a second,

We're using the tactile sensations,

The felt sensations in the body that arise from breathing to wake us up to our present moment experience.

So the three most common areas of the body or fields of awareness in a breathing practice are awareness at the belly or at the abdomen.

And in this practice,

We narrow our scope of awareness to the belly or the abdomen.

Some people like to imagine it about an inch below the belly button and other people find it helpful just to be a little bit less focused in the practice,

Taking movement in the abdomen as a whole.

We allow the belly to relax and to move naturally with the breath.

And we hold our attention in that region,

Noticing any sensations that arise in that area as a result of breathing.

Narrowing the field of our attention in this way introduces a slightly greater degree of rigor to the practice.

We can take that even a step further by bringing awareness to the nostrils or the area right between the nose and the upper lip.

This is the most subtle of the practices and is not always immediately accessible either because the area of attention is very narrow and movement in this area is smaller than at the abdomen or simply because some people have a nose structure that makes it difficult to discern sensation in this place.

Working with a subtle practice like this where we're holding our attention on a very narrow area for a sustained period of time on sensations that may be much less obvious allows us to notice not only the tactile sensations of breath,

But also our reaction to the challenges of holding attention on an area that may produce very little discernible sensation.

And then there's full body awareness.

And in this practice as the body moves with the breath,

We may notice the expansion and contraction of the abdomen,

The rise and fall of the sternum,

The sensation of clothing touching skin.

And as a breathing induced sensation arises and becomes prominent,

We can place our attention on that sensation.

If another sensation then becomes more prominent,

We deliberately shift our awareness to the more prominent sensation.

And throughout this practice,

We maintain a wide lens of awareness for any sensation that arises from the act of breathing.

This practice may feel diffuse or scattered because the area of focus is so large.

But as with the other two practices,

You won't know what it will be like until you try it.

And even then,

Any of these practices is only what it's like in that moment.

The next time you try it may be different.

So during a mindfulness of breathing session,

It is recommended to place awareness on an area of the body and hold it there rather than jumping around from narrow focus to wide focus from belly to nostril.

This allows us to cultivate persistence and the sense of resilience that arises after having stuck with the practice,

Even when it's challenging.

Remember one of the attributes of a mindfulness practice is sustained attention.

The heart of the practice comes when we recognize that the mind has wandered and time and time again we return to the object of our attention.

If attention is moved from one area to another to another during a relatively short practice,

We have fewer opportunities to return to any one object of attention.

And this reduces the opportunity to cultivate a sense of resilience.

All of this is done with an attitude of openness,

A sense of being rather than doing or needing to accomplish.

We are being with the breath in the present moment.

So often new meditators will say,

I'm bad at this.

I can't stop thoughts from popping up.

There is no such thing as a bad meditator or a bad meditation.

The moment we recognize that the mind has wandered is the magic moment of the practice,

The moment of awareness.

And then when we smile and we redirect attention to the breath,

We are paving the neural pathway to a more focused,

Stable mind.

In other words,

We're wiser and stronger than before our mind wandered.

And that's a great way of reframing this to support us in the practice.

Thoughts will arise.

Our minds are thought generators.

It's their job.

We have choice and agency though,

Over what we do with those thoughts.

Over time with the practice,

We become aware that the mind has wandered and redirect our attention more and more quickly.

And thoughts become no more of a distraction than fish swimming in a fish tank,

For example.

So how do we integrate this practice into engaged life?

You can season your day with three intentional breaths where you notice the body breathing,

Not directing the breath,

But watching the breath as it takes place.

You can do this at a traffic light,

In line at the grocery store,

When you're washing dishes,

When you wake up in the morning,

Or when you go to bed at night.

All you're doing is seeing how close you can get to the pure experience of breathing,

Even if it's just for a round or two of breaths.

You can also try something called finger breathing.

And this is where you place the forefinger of one hand at the base of the thumb on the other hand.

And on the in breath,

You move the forefinger up the side of the thumb.

And on the out breath,

You move it down the other side of the thumb.

And then you do this with each finger on that hand,

In breath up one side of the finger,

Out breath down the other side of the finger,

And then you switch hands.

So we hope that this discussion has served you in some way.

We invite you to check out our guided breathing meditations at communitymindfulnessproject.

Org,

As well as many other meditations of various lengths.

We have lots of discussions there,

Like this one on different kinds of practices.

Work recommendations are there and other resources.

And in the meantime,

Take good care of yourself.