Thomas Leigh Diary

How I meditate #4: natural breathing technique

Ok, so You now know how to approach Your Own body - and "Your Own" thoughts - in order to make Your meditation much easier. But this is not all what You can use to help Yourself in achieving deep and quick relaxation.

First let's remind why relaxation plays a key role in meditation practice? This is not only a question of feeling nicely. The reason is:

The more relaxed You feel - the less You feel Your body. The less You feel Your body - the more You will be able to reach "Your Inner World" (the place where the actual meditation takes place).

So in upcoming parts of this series I'm going to tell You about some relaxation techniques. Let's begin with a very basic one - and probably the easiest.

Breathing

As You know, We usually don't need to pay attention to Our breath - because all thing happens "by itself" (under control of Our subconscious). But there is one interesting thing about the breath: that when You pay attention to it, it may work similarly to hypnotist's pendulum: it can "slow You down", deepen Your relaxation and draw Your attention away from possible distractions (both external and internal). Also it helps You to concentrate.

So how would You use this in practice?

I used different variants - experiment and choose the one with which You are feeling the most comfortable.

1. Just observing.
   
   Start to pay attention to Your breath: become aware of how Your body is breathing right now. Don't affect it by any way - just observe, as You observe someone else breathing. Observe and be curious. How that person is breathing? How that person will be breathing after a while?
   
   Try to take that attitude as if You never had that experience of breathing, as if You never became acquainted with it. So it would be a completely new thing to experience. And remember: don't affect this external thing - just observe it and stay curious.
2. Slowing down.
   
   Start to pay attention to Your breath: become aware of how Your body is breathing right now. And decide to affect the breathing pattern - by slowing it down. Slow Your breath as much as possible: inhale very slowly, and exhale very slowly. But don't put any force into it - take as deep breath as You can do effortlessly, but don't force Yourself to inhale as much air as possible. Just do it to that degree when it is not needed to put any force. Exhale the same way.
   
   In order to make this easier, You can count while breathing - for example You can count from one to five while inhaling, and the same while exhaling. But again: experiment in order to find the number with which You don't put any effort into breathing. It should be just smooth and comfortable.
   
   And one more thing: the time between inhalation and exhalation. Try to make that time happen. And when it happens - also try to elongate it to the point when it is still not required to use any force. So You can count while this time also - but counting isn't really necessary, it is just a tool to help in the beginning. When You gain some practice, You can do it without counting.
3. Natural breath: the fusion.
   
   It is kind of hybrid technique made out of two previously described. It consists both observing and slowing down aspects. Perform it as follows:
   
   Start to pay attention to Your breath: become aware of how Your body is breathing right now. Don't influence it for a while. And then - slowly, very slowly and carefully - start to slowing it down without using any force or effort. Just make Your inhaling, exhaling and time between the two as long as possible till You can do it effortlessly. Then, when You feel You've set the pattern and Your body follows it - switch to observing again. Don't try to elongate Your breathing, just observe it - as Your relaxed body breaths slowly and serenely. Don't decide when to inhale and exhale - let the body decide for itself. Let it go. Observe and be curious: when it will decide to take another breath? When it will decide to exhale? How long it will decide not to breathe at all (the time between)? Observe and let the body perform the whole process by itself. Put Yourself completely outside of this. Don't be engaged - just observe this external, self-conducted process.

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That's all by now - but as a curiosity I will tell You this: what surprised and impressed Me most while using this method (variant 3) was that My body doesn't need to take another breath just after a previous one. Actually it is often that way that it doesn't need to take another breath for quite a while. And that amount of time surprised Me most when I realized that in that time it really doesn't have that need to breathe! Observing the body while this time is really interesting for Me - because it is still effortless (another surprise). In the beginning I very enjoyed observing how long My body exists in that state (in My case I believe it takes a few or over a dozen seconds). And when I think about it perhaps I would consider it as "another kind of inhalation" - when My body inhales something else than the air (because I am aware that it feels very well in that state, very pleasant - those moments are very peaceful and regenerating). It is also surprising that breathing can be pleasant ;) .

All right, in the upcoming part I will describe in depth more relaxation techniques.

Thomas