Meditation Breathing Techniques

Sit yourself down for meditation, give yourself a moment to get comfortable. In fact, meditation can be done laying down as well as sitting, standing, and posing. As you sit start by counting each in breath and out breath up to 70. What this means as that as you inhale, take a 70% deep breath into your belly, using your diaphragm to breath not your chest or shoulder. (Breathing into your belly is one key to calmness as breathing into your chest and shoulders is inefficient, as most of our lungs are below the ribcage.)

Breath in: count 1 (one)
Breath out: count 2 (two)
Continue to 70

Your mind is focused on breathing and counting and not on scattered thoughts, it is training your brain and spirit to remain on task and with intent.

Next in line is controlling the breath with intent. So this is where you control the length of each inhale and exhale, with different times providing different meditative assertions and benefits. Here you will draw in the breath and while doing so count up to 5, to start with. So what you are really looking for in this exercise is controlling the rate of inhale and exhale. Clearly you can slow or speed up your counting to accommodate your breath. But the point is to control your breath over the span of time you are concentrating on. So to take about a 70% full breath over 5 seconds is going to a faster intake of breath then doing it over 7 seconds. So start where you feel comfortable in the breath and then work to extend the lengh of the breath over the entire inhale and exhale. 5-7 seconds per in breath or out breath, that is 10-14 seconds total complete breath cycle, is a very calming pace. Remember to keep breathing into your belly. This is called diaphragmatic breathing, as you are using your diaphragm and not shoulders or chest, a point I am repeating for a reason. Breath into your belly, breath in through your nose, you nose hairs and the moist environment of your nose filters the air you breath.

The mouth is for eating. The nose is for breathing. The mouth is for eating. The nose is for breathing. :)

You can take the two suggestions above and tweak them in terms of time and concentration to fit your own level of awareness. After feeling comfortable spend some time doing what is considered deeper and fuller breathing, some call it yogic breathing after the spiritually enlightened yogi's in India.

Breath into your stomach, as spoken about above, but then continue to fill the middle and then upper regions of your lungs once the bottom portion is full. So you process the breath like you would be filling up a container full of liquid. The bottom fills first, then them middle and finally the top. Visualize this as you breath. When releasing the breath use the full lung to expel the air. That is imagine you are pouring out a container. If you think about it the liquid is pouring out equally really from all portions of the container. Imagine this with your lungs, that you are releasing the air from the whole lung at the same time. This does not mean breath out harder or faster, just do try to empty the top portion of your lungs or the bottom. Another visualization is that you are not squeezing from the bottom of the toothpaste, but instead pressing the whole thing, from top to bottom at the same time. Practice this to obtain deeper awareness and a more healthy breath.

Breathing properly, whether it be full body yogic breathing or diaphragmatic breathing, should be an all day, a habitual thing. Obviously do not be discouraged if you find yourself stressed and breathing into your shoulders. Take a moment and breath into your belly. Make a conscious effort to do this regularly and eventually that is exactly what it will become: Your regular breathing. Healthy and calm.

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For those that have been exploring these and other meditation breathing techniques, you may find an interesting experience happening to you. During meditation, when your conscious is aware but deep you can feel as if you have stopped breathing completely. The best way to describe to those not yet having experienced it is to say that it is a stillness in being, a calm restful sensation. You are no longer aware of your breathing, it has become another factor in your external existence, that outside of your spirit. With the word 'spirit', do not take it too literally if it throws you off, think of a spirit as another term for your energy self. The heat, the warmth, the love that radiates off of your body... not to mention electomagnetic, infrared and other very measurable energies. This is your true self and breathing is what keeps your physical body connected to the energy body, that is why it is the root of meditation focus. It brings you to the place where your conscious, sub-conscious and conscious minds meet. Eventually you feel complete and the breathing is no longer pushed to the foreground.

If you have experienced this, please write in the comments section!

Walking is a great way to help you exercise your breath control, increase fitness and heart health, as well as provide a nice steady rhythm for meditation. Walking every day, or at least almost every day, is one way to give yourself some "me" time, not be too physically stressed and allow for some meditation time. Here is one technique I use to fulfill these goals.

Decide on a nice brisk 35 minute walk.

Before starting out take in 7 nice deep breaths fully into your stomach
Repeat this mantra as you walk and try to make it last over seven (7) of your steps: "Everyday in every way I'm becoming better and healthier."
Think of your steps as beats, tapping along to this song... some of the words will land right on a step and others will not. I tend to hit the ground at "every" and "day" foot in the air for "in" then landing with my right on every again and on my left for "way" and timed out over the rest of the mantra sometimes saying words while my foot is landing and other times while it is being raised in the air.

7 is a very important number in much more than just chakras and meditation and eastern philosophy. Much of our lives, like days of the week, revolve around the number 7. The nice thing is it that focusing on seven provides a balance to your walking because each step cycle of seven repeats itself on the opposite foot than the one before, so you constantly balance your two sides as you repeat this mantra. If you start on your right foot make sure to either start again right away with the left as the cycle repeats or give yourself another two steps to to start over, like a break between each statement. But the key is to be switching which foot you are starting with each time. Have fun! It can be a little tricky and first and I recommend you try your own variations to get into your personal vibration and rhythm.