Mindfulness of Breathing
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When you practice watching your breathing, over time your power of attention becomes really strong. With a strong mindfulness muscle, you become more perceptive about your thoughts, emotions, and actions.
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The Link Between Mind and Body
Breathing, simply breathing, can be a link between the body and the mind. Sitting and paying attention to your breaths helps slow the mind and has lasting benefits of relaxation and clarity. Your mind is not separate from your body. When your mind is tense and full of racing thoughts, your body becomes tense and stressed out.
Breathing is a very special part of simply being. There are things in your body that you can control as well as things you can’t control. For example, you can control moving your hand or fingers, but you can’t control your own heartbeat. The heart controls its own beat independent of your intent. However there are a few things in a body that are both automatic and within the range of control. Blinking your eyes is an example of this. You blink your eyes automatically, without even thinking about it. Your body sets itself to blink regularly in order to keep your eyes moist. But you can also control your blinking when you try. If you try to blink “five times fast,” you can do it. Breathing is like blinking. You breathe most of the time without even thinking about it, automatically. But if you try to “take a deep breath,” you will do it, consciously.
In this way, the breath can be a link between your body and your mind. In fact, you may find that breathing often reflects your state of mind. For example, when you are afraid, your breathing becomes short and tight, concentrated in the chest area. When you are startled, you might take a quick, intake of breath into your throat area. These adjustments of your breathing may be automatic, but you can also control your breath consciously to affect your state of mind. Try this: Place one hand on your belly and one hand on your chest. Now take a slow breath in. First, let your belly hand rise. Then, draw the air into the chest and let your chest hand rise. Now slowly breath out, letting the chest hand fall first and then letting the belly hand fall. You may feel the effects in your mind: calm, relaxed, unworried. That’s why when you are faced with an upsetting situation, you might say to yourself, “Slow down, take three deep breaths.” It really does work. Those three deep breaths can calm the mind down. |
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Breathing can change how your body reacts. This is one of the reasons that watching your breath is useful in meditation. The breath becomes an anchor for your attention. It has an incredibly deep affect on the mind, letting it become calm, allowing clarity in thought. But that attention to breathing can take another leap. Your attention allows you to become mindful of your own mental states, emotions, and thoughts. Flex the mindfulness muscle and your attention becomes stronger, you are more aware, and hopefully, more open to the broad mind.
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