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We all know how to do it, right? We all breathe, all day, every day and every night. Taking a breath is the first thing we do as our physical bodies arrive into this world, and the last thing we will do before we leave it. So why are so many of us so bad at breathing? Why are you even bothering to read this article, about learning how to breathe…properly?
Learning how to breathe… properly, is the first practical step to living-in-the-here-and-now
Learning how to breathe…properly, is the first step in the mindfulness practice that will help to free your mind from the emotions and dramas your body creates.
What Is Mindfulness?
“Mindfulness is the practice of becoming aware of one’s present-moment experience with compassion and openness as a basis for wise action.”
“Mindfulness means maintaining a moment-by-moment awareness of our thoughts, feelings, bodily sensations, and surrounding environment, through a gentle, nurturing lens.
Mindfulness also involves acceptance, meaning that we pay attention to our thoughts and feelings without judging them—without believing, for instance, that there’s a “right” or “wrong” way to think or feel in a given moment. When we practice mindfulness, our thoughts tune into what we’re sensing in the present moment rather than rehashing the past or imagining the future.”
It’s really hard to do most sports or tricky activities without learning how to breathe…properly. Learning to breathe…properly, in the rhythm or technique specific to that activity is part of the technical challenge that leads to excellence. For example, the very precise breathing rhythm associated with a good front crawl, with choral singing, with long distance running, or with playing a wind instrument. There are more advanced techniques such as circular breathing techniques, for a didjeridoo, or the breathing without moving that I demand from a good laparoscopic camera person!
No one ever taught me to breathe properly while I am operating- it took me years to realise that I hold my breath for tricky bits of adhesiolysis, and brace my left knee for hours. I am now so used to holding my breath when I concentrate that it is usually the pain in my knee that brings me back to reality, not the gentle gasping for oxygen associated with prolonged low level hypoxia….
My horsey friends will all joke that we hold our breath for the show jumping element of eventing. 9 fences, about 45 seconds, it is easy to allow our breathing to get tight and shallow due to nerves. Not quite so easy to manage a full 5 minute cross country course without taking a proper breath…talking to the pony helps there.
It is impossible to develop a meditation practise without breathing well. The first part of learning to meditate is learning to focus on the breath.
For me, the hardest part of learning to meditate was learning to breathe…properly
Breathe in deeply. Let the air gently fill your lungs. Pause, then release. Feel the tension in your shoulders drift away. Inhale again, then exhale… yeah….right…..
The more I thought about my breathing pattern, the more erratic and evasive a good deep breath became. I play a wind instrument, so I’m really good at controlled breathing out, but bizarrely not so good at slow breathing in; in breaths were a short sharp gasp (get as much in as you can) for the next complicated passage of notes.
Yoga helped a bit, as did Pilates. In class, I am always the dork at the back, out of sequence, out of balance and out of breath.
As with everything else, meditation skills improve with practise. I set my alarm for 7 minutes at first, which felt like an eternity after 2, and I just sat on my mat, not quite Vaipassana Lotus style, because my hips don’t go there yet, but cross legged with upwards facing palms.
I have to really count my breathing, like a metronome- in for 3, hold for 3, out for 3, hold for 3, etc etc. I can do a relatively slow count of 3 consistently. I can do 5s for a bit but I can’t sustain that pattern easily enough to let the clock tick down. Counts of 3 allow me to get into a theta brain wave pattern.
As wit many other skills, the important thing initially is just to do the practise, in a state of mind that doesn’t care about the result. Some days it can feel like I am just going through the motions, or even going through my to do list. In the beginning I used to get so impatient I would have to peak at the clock and then be disgusted to find that only two minutes had passed.
And then gradually something strange started to happen. The alarm going off would take me by surprise. I would feel like I had nodded off, but I knew I hadn’t really been asleep. I would drift back into my body to find myself completely relaxed, in lotus position! Turns out I was getting good at this mediation thing!
Signs you went into meditation
And then one day driving to work I felt myself experience such profound joy that I wanted to sing out to the world. It’s hard to explain pure joy. It’s not justa mood. It’s not an “I feel happy”. It’s not laughter, or smiles, it’s not a “body feeling good” after a brisk walk in the fresh air. It’s a profound upswelling of well being that has no basis in the experience of that day so far. It comes from nowhere, yet totally changes the light of the day.
And that feeling of joy is why I now try to meditate every day.
Just try it…you might surprise yourselves.
And if nothing else, you will finally be learning how to breathe….properly, for which your horses can only be grateful.
Live in joy. in love,
Even among those who hate.
Live in joy, in health.
Even among the afflicted.
Live in joy, in peace,
Even among the troubled.
Look within. Be still.
Free from fear and attachment,
Know the sweet joy of the way.
—The Buddha, from the Dhammapada, Thomas Byrom, translator
Thank you as always for reading. I truly appreciate each and every one of you. To those influencers who comment, share the site with friends or help to promote in any other way, I remain eternally grateful. To those supporters generous and able to offer funds, whether small or large, karma is finding its way back to you with a rainbow of horses and abundance beyond dreams. Thank you all for joining in the adventure.
