Blended Focus and Awareness Meditation

This breathing exercise is simple, but much harder to do than it sounds. If you can breathe through your nose, stay with nose breathing the whole time. If not, be comfortable and just breathe through your mouth. If you are a mouth breather, try closing your lips slightly so that a slight pressure develops while you breathe. This helps to slow your breath down, making it similar to nose breathing.

This exercise can be done at any time with your eyes open or closed. It can be done in any position: sitting, standing, or lying down. Place the tip of your tongue on the roof of your mouth behind your front teeth. Be aware of each in-breath and each out-breath. Feel the subtle changes in each breath. Give your whole attention to your breath. Focus on one point in your body where you feel the breath the strongest. Outside the nose, inside the nose, back of the throat, the chest, and the belly are common places to feel the breath. Some people may feel the breath moving through all areas of the body, and this is fine, too.

Try to breathe normally without changing the breath. Most of us never give any attention to our breath but, when we do, it is hard to let the breath happen naturally. If thoughts, emotions, or sensations take you away from your breath, this is normal. Our minds are extremely busy and move back and forth between thoughts frequently. As soon as you realize your focus has been hijacked, just let go and move your concentration back to your breathing. If whatever pulled you away is strong, let your attention stay on it until it lessens or goes away on its own and then return to your breath.

Thoughts are absolutely natural, and thinking them away will just cause them to grow bigger. Thinking, judging, and becoming frustrated because you cannot keep the thoughts, emotions, or sensations away will make them stronger. All we need to do is become aware of them and, when you are ready, let them go.

Over time, the effort required to keep your attention on your breath will become less and less. What once required extreme effort will become second nature. You will start to feel the breath and not have to think about it. The main point is to give your attention to your breath in whatever way works best for you.

If you let go as quickly as possible to your wandering mind and immediately come back to the focus point, you will develop stronger focus. If you watch where your mind wanders and keep your attention there as long as the mind wants, stronger awareness will develop. Focus on the breathing object for strong focus. Focus on the wandering mind for strong awareness. Try to always know what your mind is up to.

In the beginning, do this for a few minutes each time. Do it as often as you can throughout the day. Do it when you wake up, on breaks, or just before falling asleep. If you only have 20 seconds, a few breaths will be helpful. If you only do it once a day that is better than none, but the more you do this the better the results.