Before we begin, you need to realize that there is no perfect way to do mindfulness meditation. Different people have different ways or forms of doing mindfulness practices. Some people do it in the form of a prayer, some infuse it with yoga meditation and others build their practice around different accouterments such as incense and candles- and sit for hours on end gazing. We will discuss Meditation focusing on the breath.
You will find many different mindfulness meditation variations and techniques all over the place but all you need is a simple intention, the basic technique and a tiny bit of time.
That said, follow the below steps to practice mindfulness meditation:
Find a comfortable sitting position
You can just begin by sitting on the floor cross-legged or in a chair. Straighten out your back and neck and put your hand in your lap. Look down about three or so feet in front of you.
Close your eyes
If you don’t feel like closing your eyes. It’s also okay to keep them open, especially if you are comfortable gazing at a steady point away from you or at the floor (this is necessary to create focus).
You can also let your eyelids fall. They can stay about half open, keeping in mind that you are more likely to fall asleep if you keep your eyes closed as you meditate (which can be a problem). On the other hand, trying to keep your eyes half-open may feel odd at first and distract you. For now, whatever feels fine and effortless is ideal.
Focus
Hold it for a moment. Before we continue, you need to keep a few things in mind:
Different types of meditation prescribe different ways of focusing your attention. Some of them include the following:
- Focusing on the breath
- Focusing on a mantra
- Focusing on your steps
- Focusing on your thoughts
This book is the first in upcoming series on how to manage stress, cultivate happiness and peace of mind. Upcoming books will go more in-depth on topics described in this book including different types of meditation in different Buddhist traditions.
Meditation focusing on the breath
Among the simplest forms of meditating is focusing on your breath. You need to pay attention as you breathe in and breathe out. As we are going to see shortly, mindfulness meditation does not require you to breathe in any particular way but breathe as you would normally, but paying attention to it. If your mind wanders, bring it back to your breath.
In mindfulness meditation, you are concentrating on something very lightly and loosely as you become mindful of all that arises within your range of awareness (such as being aware in an all-inclusive and open way). While that sounds nice when you are just starting. It might not be the prettiest. This is how it looks:
…you focus on your breath then four seconds later, you lose concentration, you wake up three minutes later (and take a few seconds to ask yourself what happened). You return to your breath and then lose concentration, wake up two minutes later (maybe curse a bit) and go back to your breath…
As you start, know that this is very normal and appreciate the fact that your mind, with time, will start quieting and becoming clear.
Lastly, you need to note that you can focus in any form (not just sitting down), which includes standing anywhere such as in your living room, outside, or in your office even for a couple of seconds. It means there are no restrictions to the practice even though it is usually done as a form of sitting meditation for a couple of minutes at a time.
That said, let’s continue (with the steps).
Turn your attention to the process of breathing. This Meditation is focusing on the breath. You now need to follow each inhalation and exhalation from start to finish, firmly but softly. As I mentioned, you should not try to control your breath here but observe it silently. This silent observation will slowly and gently start calming your breathing naturally. While this is easier said than done, particularly in the beginning, you still have to make an effort.
Count inhales and exhales
This is simple. You breathe in and count one, breath out, and count two. Continue counting until you reach ten. If you are distracted by a thought, start the count over, starting from one. When you get to ten successfully, thank yourself and start over and try counting to ten once more. Don’t worry if you never reach ten. You know that with time, you will.
You can take days or weeks; just try to achieve that goal (of counting to ten with very little or no effort) regardless of the amount of time it takes.
After that, count each inhalation and exhalation as one. When it becomes easy and completely effortless, stop counting and just follow your breath. Progress as slowly as you can. We call this technique Meditation focusing on the breath.
Acknowledge your feelings, thoughts and any sensation that arises
You have to understand beforehand that while being mindful, you’ll get various feelings, thoughts, and sensations, which may make you lose your concentration on your breath. As you are just getting started, you are likely to be interrupted now and then and feel as though you are not doing it right. Understand that staying concentrated on the breath is not easy for anyone particularly when they are just getting started.
Go back to being mindful of your breath
As I said, be prepared to lose focus on your breath several times at first. Just remain focused, and after a short while, your mind will start growing quieter. That is how Meditation focusing on breath works.
Don’t forget that the practice will get better usually in a very short period – in just a couple of weeks, you should begin noticing a remarkably calm and very quiet mind.
This post contains excerpts from my upcoming series of books on stress relief techniques, Meditation, and Yoga. Upcoming books will go more in-depth on the topics described in this post. If you like this post, please subscribe to my blog here, get FREE E-BOOK NOW, and get a notification when the next book in series is published.
Check out my other post on Meditation.
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