Breathing Awareness Practice – Feel Your Breath

Breathing awareness meditations can be done anytime. You can practice them for one minute or for hours at a time. This is a good exercise for mild focus and watching where your mind is going. It is helpful in working with and letting go of stress through-out the day. Breathing awareness works with focus, awareness, understanding the mind, and seeing your options and different choices. You may find that much of your stress can just be let go.

Take a break for a minute, let go and just be with your breath. 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.

Breathe normally without changing the breath. 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 wandered, 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 and then return to your breath. This can occur time after time but is perfectly normal. It is a process, and the thoughts pulling you away from the breath are normal and necessary.

Breathing exercises put you in the present moment, and help relieve stress as you become relaxed and calm. Give it a try several times throughout the day when you have a spare moment. Once you’re comfortable doing it, try it the next time you feel stressed. You may be surprised at how helpful it can be.