How do I meditate on the breath?

How do I meditate on the breath?

There are two ways that I recommend for beginning and intermediate meditators: 1) simple and 2) controlled.

For the simple breath meditation, the best way for me to teach you is for me to step you through it.

You ready?

One second…OK, good to go.

Start by closing your eyes. Then lengthen your spine and rest your shoulders. Sway gently from side-to-side and find your center point.

Notice how it feels to breath. Be curious. Ask yourself, “What does it feel like to breathe right now?”

Spend a few moments naturally being aware of the breath.

After you’ve checked in with the breath, take a journey with it. Follow the next inhalation from the moment it strikes your palette. Follow it up nostrils, down your throat, and twirling around your mouth. Follow it as it goes further down and fills your lungs from the top down to the bottom.

As you breathe out, follow it back out. Feel the air moving from the base of the lungs up and out your windpipe, the mouth, the nostrils, and then flowing out over the palette.

Repeat this five times. At first, you’ll lose it or get distracted. That’s normal. Just try your best to follow the sensation of the breath as it moves through the respiratory tract.

Once you’ve finished five rounds, continue breathing and see where you feel the breath most acutely. Was it at your palette? On the roof of your mouth? In the chest? If you’re not sure, keep breathing in-and-out naturally until it becomes clear to you where you feel it strongest. If you feel it strongly in two points, pick either one.

Once you’ve discovered that location, focus your mind on the sensation of the breath there as you breathe in-and-out. Don’t follow the breath as it travels. Don’t switch the location around. Stay right at that point and feel what it’s like as the breath comes-and-goes.

As you breathe in, count 1. As you breathe out, count 2. Continue counting in this way while also being aware of the sensations. Once you reach 10, start the counting over again. If you lose your place, start all over again. Continue like this for a few minutes.

This is breath meditation and it’s about as simple as it gets.

If you want to do it again, the steps are as follows:

1. Set the Posture: Sit or stand upright. Let your shoulders roll down your back. Sway back-and-forth to find your center then hold it there naturally.
2. Check-in with the breath: Be aware of how the breath feels in the body naturally without focusing on any particular spot. Observe how the whole breath is naturally for about 10 breaths.
3. Follow the breath: Follow the breath starting from the inhalation. Feel as it goes from the tip of the nose into the lungs, feeling each step acutely as possible. Then follow it out. Observe this for 10 breaths.
4. Settle on the breath: Notice where you feel the breath the strongest. Select one point. Focus your mind there and keep it there, observing the sensations of the breath come-and-go.
5. Count the breath: Count from 1-10, 1 count for the in breath and 1 for the out breath. Once you reach 10 or lose count, start at 1 again. Repeat until the end of the meditation session.

You can adjust step 5 easily by simply counting every in breath, every out breath, or every other set of breaths. Once the mind can stay with the breath without interruption for 5 minutes, drop the counting and focus completely on the breath. You can also focus on the breath without counting before, but counting gives the mind a simple task to do so it’s not running around making plans for next week or lacerating you for what you did yesterday. The counting is also a useful barometer of sleepiness and restlessness.

The next one is accessible for beginners, but it can sound a bit strange: breath control. The breath and the mind are intimately connected. Control the breath and you control the mind. Notice that when you’re angry or lustful, your breathing is rapid and shallow. When you’re calm and focused, your breath is long and smooth. While the breath can mirror your moods, it can also dictate them. Lengthen your breath and you’ll quiet your mind. Stop your breath and you’ll stop your mind. Try it out for yourself.

Right now, stop your breath.

Hold it.

A little longer.

Release.

When you held your breath, what were you thinking?

What’s next.

You sure?

I think so.

Let’s try again. Take in a big, deep breath. Once you feel your lungs full, hold it until it feels uncomfortable. Then release.

As your exhalation reaches it’s end, hold the breath again. Keep it until it feels uncomfortable then release.

Was your mind clear when you held your breath?

Wow. That’s wild. My mind was completely silent.

I'm pretty sure your mind wasn't completely silent, but it's a good taste of inner silence and that taste attests to the breath's power. Slow your breath and you slow your thoughts. Stop your breath and you stop your thoughts.

But if I stop my breath, won’t I die?

If you did it right now, you’d just pass out. As you practice more, though, you might reach a point where the breath stops and the mind is absolutely still. The breath doesn’t literally stop. You’d die. I don’t know how to explain this phenomena scientifically. I’ve heard a lot of woo-woo claims about it but I have yet to come across any rigorous studies of the topic, so I’ll refrain from further comment. Suffice to say that it feels like you aren’t breathing and outsiders can’t observe any passage of breath even if they put their hand beneath your nostrils.

Because of the link between the mind and the breath, many contemplative traditions used it as a hack. Slow the breath down and you slow the mind. Cue breath control. In this practice, you force the breath to slow in order to still the mind. Its popularity in Taoist, Buddhist, Hindu, and shamanic traditions bears testament to its power. Contemporary research also agrees: controlled breathing produces better results than natural breathing.

There are a number of breath control options, ranging from hanging yourself upside down from a tree to controlling the length of the breath and retentions in increasingly complex ratios. For beginners, I suggest the Wim Hof method because it’s simple, intuitive, and effective. The basic steps are:

1. Breath in naturally: Breath in-and-out naturally for 30 breaths and let your mind rest on the feeling of the breath coming-and-going from the body. No need to focus on any point or part of the breath. Just breathe and let your focus stay with the body.
2. Out Breath Retention: After you exhale your 30th breath, hold the breath. Keep it for as long as you can. Be aware of your body. Your heart. Your fingers. Every inch of flesh. Whatever. When you start to feel uncomfortable, breathe in.
3. In Breath Retention: After you’ve inhaled completely, hold the breath again. Count to 15 or 20 seconds. Be aware of your body. Release.
4. Repeat: Repeat steps 1-3 for as long as you feel comfortable.

A word of warning’s necessary here. This and other breath control methods are powerful and, as with any strong medicine, carry risks, especially when misused. To reduce those risks, there are two no-duh principles: 1) don’t overdo it and 2) listen to yourself. These are no duh principles because they’re…no duh. But if you don’t want to risk your sanity, you really gotta follow them.

Principle 1: don’t overdo it. There are a few ways you can overdo breath control practices. Don’t force yourself to hold your breath too long. In this case, really stop when it feels uncomfortable. Don’t white-knuckle it to try to speed things up. Don’t push it because “no pain, no gain.” Breath work isn’t your biceps. Take it slow. Also in line with that, start small and gradually increase time as you grow more comfortable with the practice. For someone with a steady mind, 20 minutes a day’s a good starting point and very gradually increase the time, perhaps 5 minutes every other week until it starts to feel too much. Don’t jump from 30 minutes a day to two hours. For folks struggling with mental illnesses, I suggest avoiding this altogether unless you’re working with a professional. Done in excess, breath control can fry your nervous system and bring-up demons buried deep beneath the surface that you aren’t ready to face. I’ve seen meditators go off the deep-end first hand from practices like this, so be careful.

Principle 2: listen to yourself. Again, no duh, yet so few follow this advice. In this case, follow it. Don’t meditate with a fixed number in your mind and push yourself to get there. If it’s feeling like it’s too much, stop. If you feel agitated or reluctant to keep going, take a break. If you feel things getting shaky, take a break. This is another one of the reasons why I’m so skeptical of the stopwatch approach to meditation. Living life through a clock tends to frame experiences in terms of hard numbers which are ignorant of what you’re going through right-then-and-there. “I meditate for 40 minutes every morning, so god dammit, I’m gonna do that even though my mind’s scrambling for an escape.” That mentality works in many areas of life, but not when dealing with such potent practices. Be gentle. Listen. And trust your gut here over your head.

That’s some pretty ominous stuff.

It’s serious stuff. For thousands of years, almost none of these practices were taught openly. They were ideally given when the student showed themselves ready. Look back on the older meditative texts and you’ll be hard-pressed to find anything concrete, especially when it comes to powerful practices like breath control. They’ll include enough for a yogi in the know to understand but too little for an outsider to decode. One reason the older generations were so hesitant to write down or teach these practices publicly was because they knew the risks and wanted to protect the unprepared from harm. There are other ignoble reasons - rivalry, arrogance, manipulation, dogmatism, but the point stands. These and other practices carry risks and should be done with the caution and respect they deserve.

Whether you go with counting the breath or controlling it, the breath remains a classic because it works. Simple. Easy. Powerful. And something you have with you 24/7. Waiting for a pick-up or the secretary to call you in. In between reps at the gym. Before going to bed. There are myriad opportunities to return to the breath throughout the day and perfume your day with grounding, ease, and clarity.