As we navigate the rhythms of our breath, we navigate the rhythms of our lives. The journey through controlled breathing to Witness Consciousness is about spiritual enlightenment and encompasses significant mental and physical benefits. Knowing the intricate relationship between breath, emotion, and mental clarity allows us to cultivate inner peace, resilience and connectedness.
This article explores:
Meditative posture,
Cross cultural similarities for simple breath meditation, which focuses purely on nostril breathing,
Prescribed breathing techniques; and
Mindfulness practices
Breathing and Controlling the Breath
In many meditative cultures, the breath is equated to life itself. For instance in Sanskrit, prana means both breath and life.
Our breathing in relation to body sensations, emotions and mental fluctuations are all interrelating.
- When the breath is calm, the body, mind and emotions are calm.
- Our bodies when agitated or exhausted make more laboured breaths
- Our bodies breathe quickly when emotions such as shock or fear arise
- Irregular breaths abound when the mind is intensely concentrating.
In contrast, when we are calm in our bodies, minds and emotions, we come into contact with our spirit selves, we are breathed by spirit and directed by her. This calm breathing allows us to enter effortlessly into Witness Consciousness. A state where we are unaffected, an entirety to ourselves - We know and experiences ourselves in the wisdom of wholeness. We stand apart from situations, not emotionally invested as we observe objectively and respond peacefully.
The breath is a subtle barometer of our body and minds energies. When out of a calm state you may choose to observe it first. Concentrating on the breath alone allows you to affect the autonomic nervous system and reroute your energetic body. Being aware of the breath allows us to regain our awareness of self in the present moment.
If we were to do just simple breathing meditation it would calm us and make us more affective after our practice as we go abut our day. We could continue along this path without a teacher and reach a state of awareness and even Enlightenment without any form of guru.
On the other side of the scale we could engage in mindfulness meditation, sharpening our awareness of our body’s physical reactions to any given scenario, our body’s mental and emotional reactions as well.
Meditation in general has been shown to further our spiritual development, as well as improve mental and physical health, which in turn can help you live a longer life.
Meditation has been used to treat conditions of IBS, Migraines, Anxiety and Pain. By being calmer we also make wiser life choices and our heartbeats are slower, in turn preserving our body for a longer life. Meditation is training for the principle of mind over matter to come into play, while also allowing space for our sensation awareness to be observed with heart and mind choosing ecological responsiveness.
I believe both simple breath meditation and mindfulness though on opposite sides of a spectrum can both intersect, creating refined and aware individuals further along the path of Enlightenment. I love to explore polarities, you may have noticed.
How To Breathe
What follows are fundamentals for both simple breath meditation and mindfulness meditation:
Good Posture -
Lotus and Half Lotus are great options, especially with our left heel deeply pressing on our perineum's. If this is uncomfortable, feet on the ground while sitting on a chair, if you can sit with your sit bones on the edge of the chair, it helps to keep an erect posture.
Facilitates equilibrium within our bodies (spine and organs)
Facilitates an upward movement of life force (spinal fluid, prana a chi)
Helps us stay awake during meditation
Keep your chin parallel to the ground (fist in neck crease lightly to assist finding this posture)
Straight back (imagine a string pulling on the top of the spine or skull
** Poor Posture = Easier to breathe through the mouth
Good Breath -
Breathing in and out the nose
Accessory inhibitory muscles are used less with nose breathing, causing less stress on trigger points and less chronic tension
Nose breathing is more relaxed
Mouth breathing is associated with stress
In through the nose and out through the mouth is more filtering of air before allowing it into our lungs
Eyes - Closed, Open with peripheral vision and focused are all relevant options
By closing the eyes we eliminate many distractions. 75% of normal brainwave activity is thus eliminated, allowing more room for inward consciousness
If meditating with open eyes, use peripheral vision with a soft gaze
In some meditations we are charging objects up and otherwise filling ourselves with the energy of objects. This is more relevant when conducting rituals.
Often I meditate eyes open and bring focus on an object with intention and a soft peripheral gaze simultaneously. The soft peripheral gaze allows me to stay connected to the macrocosm. Eyes closed allows me to focus on my personal microcosm. A focused gaze allows me to share energy more directly. Practicing all separately allows me to do all together.
Tongue
In all our nostril breathing meditations we make sure to rest our tongue on the ceiling of the mouth. This helps to keep the mouth closed and completes channels for energy to move around the body.
Bodily Urges
If you are itchy, scratch.
If you are uncomfortable move your body.
This is a practice in which we are not forcing/torturing ourselves. Over time, these annoyances can disappear as we acknowledge them and give power to being softer with ourselves.
Some teachers of simple breath meditation would dictate drawing attention back to the nose no matter the distraction.
Some teachers of mindfulness would ask for your attention to reach the disturbance in a part of the body, be mindful of it, breath lovingly into these points and be aware of their passing
Adopt a strict standpoint if you choose; I choose to be relaxed in what arises for my own exploration.
Simple Breath Meditation Ideologies –
There is much overlap between, Hindu, Buddhist, Taoist, Jewish and Christian traditions in the way of simple breath meditation. Simple Breath is about breathing without directing the breath in any particular way. This article also discusses prescribed techniques.
In simple breath meditation there is no doing, there is just being. Things start to happen of their own accord without our conscious direction. We are able to realise ourselves in such a state, instead of forcing an outcome, we are able to just be. As time goes by the depth of our inner experience will increase and our consciousness changes. Not through use of techniques, but practice.
Buddha says concentrate on the nosetip (not to the point of straining, but more an exercise of awareness). This is where the breath is and hence we can become more focused on it in this way. At this point the meditator is focused on the gate of the city and aware of all that enters and exits the consciousness. In some meditation practices, the tip of the nose can serve as a focal point for what is known in Sanskrit as Trataka (concentrated gazing), which helps to improve mental focus and cleanse the mind of distractions. If your focus shifts you can draw attention to the breath or even touch your nose-tip to become aware of it again. Nasikagra Drishti is a yogic practice where the gaze is focused on the tip of the nose (parimuka). This technique is used to enhance concentration and control the mind. By fixing the gaze in this manner, practitioners aim to calm the mind and stabilise their thoughts.
Benefits of Simple Breath Meditation
Meditation is training for everyday life
Breath is life and cannot be held onto, hence we realise that life is transient, coming and going and as a result we can be at peace with our experience in the knowledge that moments are also transient.
We cultivate the ability to be aware of changes, while not being caught up in them. We can move in relation to what happens around us and in flow with the universe without forcing a direction.
By regularly practicing meditation we become aware through our progression that persistence is powerful. Water takes centuries to wear away a rock.
By concentrating on the nose or a hand posture we are able to anchor ourselves to the meditative state and bring ourselves back to the calm awareness that we have cultivated easily and quickly.
We increase our ability to be objective, separate from that around us, but still aware of objects and occurences. We see deeply into things and ourselves, becoming more compassionate to all.
When we have had things come up from our subconscious through our past experiences/practice, we can examine them and more truly know ourselves. There is hence much less floating in our subconscious that we are unaware of.
Hindu Tradition –
Chakras and Nadis are perfected as we perfect our breath.
Chakras are a source of specific spiritual energies within our energy system
Nadis are channels within which energy / spiritual life-force circulate
By touching the nose our eyes can more easily focus here. There is no need to go cross-eyed, merely for our awareness to sit at this point.
There is an offering of the exhalation into the inhalation, allowing the breath to become more smooth and soft until there is no pause. A smooth transition replaces otherwise jutting breaths and they seem too arise from one another, each bearing life to the other.
While energy flows throughout the body and we are able to feel it and even perceive it as colour or sound, focus is traditionally to be kept at the tip of the nose. Anything that comes up, including colour is traditionally in simple breath practice a distraction.
“The Self is not attained by doing anything, but by remaining still and being as we are” - Sri Ramana Maharshi
“Activity is a creation; activity is the destruction of one’s inherent happiness. If activity is advocated, the advisor is not a Master but a killer. Either the Creator, Brahma, or Death, Yama, may be said to have come in the guise of such a Master. He cannot liberate the aspirant; he can only strengthen his fetters” - Sri Ramana Maharshi
Using traditional Indian Spiritual terms, Karma is an action or decision made. It can be waking up and choosing between smoking or exercising. Our activities create Karma, be it positive Karma or otherwise. Simple Breath Meditation is like the carbon neutral option for Karma in the meditation world.
Buddhist Tradition –
While four pillars of mindfulness exist in Buddhist tradition; Simple Breath Meditation is seen as the sole method for revealing the truth of the body, feelings, mind and mental phenomena. There is as such no need for other inquiries, as the Buddha teaches. By holding attention to the breath and nosetip alone, all will be revealed. When Buddha sat, all the forces of the cosmos came to distract him from his inner quest, visions appeared, but he was not distracted.
“The Blessed One sat down, folding his legs crosswise, setting his body erect, and establishing mindfulness in front of him–that is, establishing his awareness parimukha–in front of his face at the tip of his nose.” - Dhatuvibhanga Sutra (M 140:4)
“He sits down, folding his legs crosswise, setting his body erect and establishing mindfulness in front of him [parimukha].” - Maha-Assapura Sutra (M 39:13)
Breath according to Buddha when perceived consciously and not lost to the peripheral becomes the sole subject of our meditation, thus allowing us to fully experience the whole body.
Arahant Upatissa commenting on the words of Buddha enumerates the two factors of Breath Meditation:
“mindfulness established in front–fixed at the nosetip.”
“The yogi…considers the sensation of the incoming and the outgoing breath through mindfulness that is fixed at the nosetip.”
He cautions us that the meditator:
“does not consider the breath when it has gone in and also when it has gone out.”
Instead, “he considers the sensation of the incoming breath and the outgoing breath at the nosetip, with mindfulness.” -
Santikaro Bhikkhu commenting on Buddhist non-attachment:
“We should always remember that meditation is the cultivation and practice of non-attachment. The Buddha taught only the middle way, it is neither an intense practice, nor can it be done without effort. It is neither detached pushing away, nor egoistic clinging; it is a practice of non-attachment. Learn to let go of attached feelings and ideas of ‘I’ and ‘mine.’ Stay balanced in the breathing with mindfulness/awareness, not sitting down with ideas like, ‘I am sitting, I am watching, I am breathing, I am meditating. I am this, that is mine, my breathing, my body, my mind, my feelings, I, I, me, me, mine, mine.…’
“We begin by letting go of our coarse attachments: attachments to the body, to aches and pains; attachments to agitation and impatience, to boredom and laziness; attachments to external disturbances and petty annoyances. Then, we find ourselves becoming attached to more subtle things, such as happy feelings. Once we let go of these, we discover attachments to higher, brighter, clearer, more refined states of awareness. Letting go of these, we begin to have some insight into reality and so we become attached to the insights. Finally, we learn to let go of everything.”
As a result we learn to live selflessly and in the moment. We become less attached to outcomes. If we drifted away from the meditation this is okay, our attention to this is the new moment and hence there is no failure. In fact our attention to this ensures our focus becoming stronger and being less likely to wane in the future. The meditation hence makes us more aware of the present moment.
Taoist Tradition –
Practitioners of Taoism consider it as the totality of Reality. In Taoism, we learn to cultivate through the path of no resistance. All of our troubles come from our resistance, avoidance and denial of the Tao. If we stop doing and making, then everything will occur spontaneously.
Taoist texts label the tip of the nose as The Spirit Stove, symbolising the importance of this point by likening it to the furnace in the practice of alchemy, with the human body as a place for spiritual transmutation.
Lao Tzu:
“Undivided attention to the breath, letting it be spontaneous and subtle, enables us to become as infants. Breathing and being as infants we have cleared away mind mirages and as a result our consciousness is as a flawless crystal.”
Chang San-feng:
“Tuning the breath is not difficult. Once the spirit of mind is quiet, breathe naturally. I just keep this naturalness, and also focus attention downward [into the nosetip]. This is tuning the breath.”
Jewish and Christian Tradition –
The Jewish Tradition also requires a concentration on the breath as it enters the nostrils. God “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life”–not into his body, mouth, or lungs, but the nose–“and man became a living soul” (Genesis 2:7).
Jewish scholars believe that the breath and spirit are the same as it is through the breath that man becomes a living soul. The “Breath of life,” is used to equate breath with life itself (Genesis 6:17; 7:15, 22). This tradition sees the goal of meditation as enlightenment or becoming filled with the Holy Spirit.
Prescribed Breathing Techniques
According to the traditions we have now examined, by following exercises we become bound to them, hence in a state of bondage. Simple Breathe meditation is seen as truly liberating, an acceptance of the present moment, with no need to change it. If you choose to only observe the breath that is fine, and I will now provide a range of breathing exercises.
These are tools to help us in the moment. They can be used as part of a daily practice when waking to be more effective about our day and to respond to life more calmly and hence to live life in a more meditative state.
It can be useful to clear out our house with a broom at times. So we may use tools, breathing techniques and rituals as we become more adept in life, as:
coping strategies;
as pinpointing strategies to see where we have held back or felt disconnected from our true selves;
grieving tools;
prana (life-force) increasing tools; and
a focused fix on a section of our psyche, our soul, or our spirit that needs healing/integrating (Magick through ritual)
Specific Breathing Techniques
Breath of Fire – Energizes the Body / Builds Prana for Rituals and Other Practices (keep reading for these)
Nostril breathing throughout this practice
Repeat 5 times
Inhale quickly (belly out)
Exhale quickly (belly to spine)
(x10)
Inhale slowly (belly out)
Exhale slowly (belly in)
(x1)
Journal
Grieving Breathing – Alleviates Sadness / Alleviates Anxiety
Nostril breathing throughout this practice
Good after Breathe of Fire - When we are well resourced the universe shows us deeper levels of what we have to work with
Good before rituals (read this for basics on creating your own rituals)
Lots of short-medium inhales until the lungs are full (sniffling in)
The eyes are closed, yet focusing 30 degrees up on each sniff
Each sniff allows a pool of gold light to enter at this point
Long nostril exhale once the lungs are full
(x10)
As you continue the exercise, sniff golden light in the heart and sacral chakras
(x10)
Journal
Soft Belly Breathing – Begin Meditation / Inner Peace / Emotional Release
Nostril breathing throughout this practice
No breaths to be effort filled
Awareness moves naturally within the body and we feel it move
Inhale slowly (belly out)
Exhale slowly (belly in)
(x5-10 min)
Journal
Specific Breathing Techniques
Sound Mindfulness Breathing – Improved Awareness / Emotional Release
Nostril breathing throughout this practice
Simple Breath Meditation focus point (nostrils)
Tune into the sounds around you
Say “new” as each new sound comes to your awareness
Say “gone” as a sound shifts or disappears
Allow yourself to sigh while maintaining awareness of sounds around you, sigh from the top and bottom of your register until meeting the sounds around you and harmonising
Journal
Body Mindfulness Breathing – Body Mindfulness / Improved Awareness
Nostril breathing throughout this practice
Closed eyes, unless reading
Deep abdominal breaths
Starting from the toes, tell each to be feeling healthier and relaxed, moving from one body part to the next in an upward direction.
When reaching the torso relax body organs as well
Tense each part of the body as you reach it and then relax it fully
Feel the sensation of each body part tensing in it’s entirety before fully feeling each body part relax.
Be aware of and feel the muscles in and around your mouth, nose and eyes relaxing.
Imagine a warm heaviness spreading throughout your body.
Allow your index fingers to touch your thumb points in a meditative pose and acknowledge the relaxed state you are in and that any time you wish to feel this relaxed again, all you must do is touch your index fingers to your thumbs again.
In this totally relaxed state, your blood vessels are dilated, and more oxygenated blood is flowing to your vital brain areas for better functioning. More sections of your DNA are activated in this state, healing your body, mind and soul, making each of them stronger and healthier than before
Now imagine a golden light entering you upon each inhale, allowing it to permeate and soothe all the cells of your body with each breath that you take. Creating more cells, with stronger membranes, that are younger and more vibrant.
Journal
Combined Mindfulness Breathing Technique – Advanced Technique
Sitting in either Lotus or with our feet touching the ground, we ground into the body and feel the point it connects with the Earth.
As we sit and do soft belly breathing, we keep our attention on the grounding point and hold it there
Next, while keeping attention on the grounding point, we become aware of where energy is floating in the body as well. We let the energy direct itself naturally.
Then we bring sound to our attention as well, tuning into different sounds as they shift and disappear, sounding with our natural sighing breath
Once all is within our awareness we let go back to simple breath meditation before bringing all the above techniques back to our awareness
If we can open our eyes and keep all within our awareness, we can move on to standing up gently and shifting our grounding awareness to our feet, maintain all these techniques as long as possible
This is an extremely advanced exercise and can be further experimented with in public to test ourselves.
Journal
Emotion Mindfulness 1 – Improved Awareness and Energy Transmutation
Start with soft belly breathing
Create a space by visualizing
An energy bubble; or
A room
Conceptualise ourselves within the bubble/room
Become aware of negative emotions:
Sadness
Tiredness
Anger
Take each emotion out of your body one by one and then out of the bubble as well
Place each emotion back into the bubble and then the body one by one, all without fighting or feeding the emotion
Stay aware of any natural changes the emotion undergoes
Letting things arise and disappear within meditates you as a person. It allows you in life to have complex feelings and emotions arise and disappear while not becoming stuck as a result of them.
By separating each emotion within we can individually deal with each one, we can take it out of our bubble and conduct Magick by:
Calming the energy around the emotion
Transmuting/Recycling the emotion so as to reuse the energy
This can be done by noting the colour of an emotion and the shapes it takes and ways it moves. Changing these outside the body before placing them changed within ourselves again is a way of recycling emotions energies. I often have done this in nature and allowed trees to breathe my emotions in and help by breathing out fresh energy for me to breathe in
Journal
Emotion Mindfulness 2 – Improved Discipline
By becoming aware of our habits that are based on such emotions as fear, shame, lust, and anger, we can discipline ourselves, becoming more conscious and in control of our lives.
Using your cerebral cortex to think about the emotions generated in the limbic system requires up to 5x the energy as relying on a habitual response
If we fast after 5pm for one or two days a week or even for a 24-hour period as a regular practice we gain great control over our limbic system. As a result we are not ruled by our emotions.
If we are in a social situation such as within the family home or amongst friends and decide not to talk unless spoken to, we gain limbic control, as our instant reaction would be to speak as we feel an emotional response to what is happening.
Promises:
Stay true to your promises, whether to yourself or to others.
If you stay disciplined in this way you and others can trust that you will follow through
You are also conscious of where your choices will lead you and will structure your life according to what you want out of it.
Journal
Honesty Mindfulness – Improved Brain Function and Life Stability
Some people are unaware of their own emotions or cover their emotions up. For instance some people will crave sweets when they are angry, sad or horny. There is a crossover of their emotional wires. By practicing emotional mindfulness as detailed above, we become more adept at identifying and managing our emotional states as they occur.
Sit facing a partner
Identifying how sitting in front of them makes you feel
Excited, enthusiastic, embarrassed, confident, curious, frightened, aroused?
Be honest to yourself and your partner
Consciously observe, tune into and identify your emotions as they pass
Relate them to your partner.
Reverse the roles, and let your partner do the same with you.
By consciously identifying your emotional states, you begin using more of your upper brain regions involving mindful behavior.
By consciously identifying emotions and being comfortable relating them to others, our lives become more clear and our friendships more filled with integrity
Our life as a result is based on actual emotions, not false pretenses
We understand our choices better and are able to make more informed choices in the future
People find it harder to be honest if they are experiencing fear of pain or discomfort.
Emotions such as fear, shame, lust, anger, and pleasure are found within the brains limbic system.
Higher emotions such as unconditional love, compassion, happiness and courage are found within the cerebral cortex
This means a larger area of the brain is being stimulated with these ‘higher’ emotions
By staying honest in our friendships, business dealings and relationships we are simultaneously focusing on internal growth and engaging the higher emotions mentioned above, over fear, shame, lust and anger.
Clearer thinking, heightened senses, increased memory, reliable emotions, increased courage, healthy body chemistry, reliable action (fulfill commitments), willpower and confidence are the results of honesty
By maintaining truth / not exaggerating, we avoid telling partial lies. This is important to do, as becoming comfortable with telling half-truths leads to completely lying becoming easier. There is the chance of sliding down a slippery slope.
We feel more worthy of good connections with others when we are truthful, it goes to our sense of trustworthiness.
People who feel worthy have a sense of courage
They have the courage to be imperfect
By fully embracing vulnerability we are more beautiful, it allows growth and discussion of topics, the willingness to say I love you first / take chances while still being kind to ourselves as we also believe we are enough.
Be accepting of others mistakes, they have already happened. If they feel your resistance to their truth, you may be starting them down the slippery slope of lying, bringing up emotions of fear or shame.
Omitting the truth is tantamount to lying, especially in relationships that are based on trust and the sharing of information (business, familial and sexual relationships)
Talk about experience / Journal
"If you tell the truth, you don't have to have a good memory."
... Mark Twain
Pattern Mindfulness – Perceiving and Breaking Habits
After repeating a behavior enough times our brain becomes accustomed to it and our neurology creates patterns. This is a result of our brains helping/hindering our lives by streamlining activities we often repeat.
As we become mindful of our patterns / aware of our repeated behaviours we start to have greater control over our lives. As we start to break our old patterns it becomes easier to continue to do, our will power and awareness grows.
As Albert Einstein said, insanity is repeating the same behaviours over and over again expecting different results. There are patterns we can perceive in some of our friends that we may have even advised them to change, but they do not. Some of these friends may even be prideful of their un-mindfulness… I personally realised the waste of money and health benefits in not smoking for a while, but still enjoyed smoking sometimes…
So it would seem that I accomplished the first step for a protracted period, that being recognition of my previously stuck behaviour. If we ask our friends, co-workers or other people who see us regularly to comment on our unfavourable patterns, they can help us. It can also be helpful to remember our day before sleeping and to write down any patterns we hope to change. Also to be aware of our days highlights brings gratefulness as a practice so that we call in my positive patterns and occurrences.
Some behaviours people get stuck in:
Eating the same foods
Drinking coffee or alcohol to excess
Going to the same holiday destinations
Keeping the same haircut
Always using your currently dominant hand
Going to bed late
Driving the same way to work
Reacting in the same way emotionally to similar situations
The second step, is openness and drive to change your patterns. I suggest changing your patterns consciously to see how new behaviours suit you. The patterns you have become stuck in may only have arisen because of your family, work or social situation at a given point in time and may no longer serve you. That said, taking responsibility for changing these patterns yourself is empowering. As Spiderman's father said "With great power comes great responsibility", I like to say "with great sense of responsibility, great power is realised". Being aware of the behaviour you are experimenting with allows you to change it back if necessary as well. By varying your routine you can more easily become mindful of your actions, recognising stuck behaviours and investigating new ways of being.
Remember to Journal
Using Anchors
Anchors consist of internal or external stimuli that trigger a physiological or psychological response. If we were to do a hypnosis session I would use a word or touch to re-elicit any state that was being expressed at that time. For the anchor to be solidified we must choose a unique anchor so it doesn’t become mixed in with other stimuli and ask you to be aware of it, so that further triggering’s of the anchor can compound this state. Our products, are highly unique and we recommend using them often. The more the anchor is repeated consciously, the stronger the unique neurological pathway. When creating the anchor, we want to time it with the apex of the state we are intending to elicit, so as to have a stronger state elicited in the future. This is why when repeating the statements in our audios we suggest you bring your full emotionality.
Choose a time to remember of great confidence and productivity in your life
Remember what you were doing, how you acted, held your posture, what words may have been said, your perceptions as to others and how you were reacting to what they were bringing to the situation
Standup at this point and hold your body in this posture so as to link the state with that posture in the future.
Thumb and index finger locking so as to compound the anchor with our relaxed state of being that we generate in meditation
Feeling within for a colour that encompasses your body when in this state and having this as an anchor to reach this state again in the future is another good anchor to compound our link to this state again in the future.
With this technique we can find previously negative states and anchor a more positive state to overcome it in the future. Some of us have anchors that elicit a negative state, but we have the power with this technique to re-write our previously automatic experiences .
You can get to the point where anchors are unnecessary, you are awake to you emotions and what anchors are… your knowledge and positive state of self overwhelms the need for anchors.
When I eat good food I make sure to think about how healthy it is for my body and mind, I comment on it out loud to those around me with a state of joy. The more we can link higher emotions into our day the better. The same goes for when doing exercise or listening to positive music. I recognise how they effect my bodies vibration, my minds vibration and that of my spirit. The more positive we are during our day, the higher our immune response, the greater our ability to deal with once stressful situations as we go into flow and find nothing a problem. Many diseases are triggered after we experienced a negative life event, so by being able to keep positive we ensure our health is stronger and that disease does not affect us. I remember reading an article in my youth about a 119 year old woman who smoked, ate chocolate and drank alcohol everyday, she believed she was able to because of her constantly positive state of mind.
Conclusion
After having done so many exercises we are conscious of our breath and of it’s effect on our bodies. We can now more easily sit in conscious awareness of where our breath goes naturally, without directing it. The breath at this point has become more refined, just by our attention becoming focused upon it. By refining our attention we can restore and perfect that which we focus it on, being more in the present moment, perceiving more minute details.
In conclusion, the ancient wisdom that links breath with life remains profoundly relevant today as we find balance in our modern world. The techniques outlined serve to alleviate physical and emotional discomfort, cultivate a deeper, enduring sense of self-awareness and spiritual clarity. The benefit of simple breath meditation in contrast with prescribed breath-work techniques and the profound benefits of mindfulness practices. By returning to breathing with awareness, we ground ourselves in the present moment, fostering a life of awareness, freedom from stress, and extended vitality.
As we integrate these practices into daily life, we open ourselves to the full potential of our breath, our most accessible yet profound tool for personal transformation. Let each breath renew our commitment to a harmonious mind-body-spirit connection, leading us back to the peaceful core of our being.
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