Awareness of Breath Meditation Instructions

I wrote these notes last night in a very stream of consciousness type of way.

They were for a client who is stepping into their first experiences with meditation.

I want to share them here for any value they may provide.

If you're interested to follow along and try this out, I'd also be grateful if you provided me with some feedback on how they worked for you.

I'd like to refine them to their most base layer without losing clarity or meaning.

As always, thank you for your support!

Awareness of Breath Meditation Instructions

1. There are many forms of breathing technique that are not meditation

2. There are many forms of meditation that are not breathing

3. This is a practice that uses breath as a point of focus in a meditation

4. The goal is to strengthen attention, control of attention, and ultimately the expansion of attention by holding focus on the sensations of the breath experienced in the body

5. It's not necessary to create a certain type of breath

6. There is no good or bad way of doing this

7. It's simply an observation without judgment or effort

8. If you're sitting, and breathing, and observing, then it's happening. You're meditating.

9. You can allow the quality of your meditation to inform your contextual understanding of your self, but there's no grade. This is not a performance or competition.

10. You are how/who/what you are in this moment.

11. It's about checking in with your self/being/system. Not meeting an expectation. Of course, it may be less pleasant to encounter an accurate representation of ourselves when we're stressed, angry, sad, or afraid, but our overarching goal is to cultivate a more accurate perception of our selves and the reality we perceive.

12. To begin, find a space where you're less likely to be interrupted. This isn't a requirement, but it's helpful to support your practice in the early stages. In future sessions, you can use external stimulation or interruption as a helpful element to expose your conditioned nervous system reactions. But that's for later :)

13. Try being seated comfortably, in a dignified posture, spine straight, shoulders relaxed, hand in hand open on your lap, or hands with palms down resting on thighs, feet flat on the ground, face, lips, and tongue relaxed.

14. Eyes gently closed, or mostly closed to your comfort. This helps to reduce visual stimulation which may distract you from your practice. This also isn't a requirement but it's helpful to support your practice in the early stages.

15. Begin by bringing awareness to the fact that you're breathing.

16. Ask yourself, how is it that you know you're breathing.

17. How do you know this from a place of experience, not conceptualization?

18. Where are you experiencing the sensations of your breath in your body?

19. Often we feel these sensations in the nose/nostrils, the throat, the lungs/chest, or the stomach.

20. It's not important where you feel the breath. It can be one place or multiple places.

21. Wherever it is, focus your mind's eye, your attention, on the physical sensations of your breath in your body as you breathe in and as you breathe out.

22. Remember that you're not trying to manufacture any breath. It doesn't matter if you're breath is fast or slow, shallow or deep, consistent or varied.

23. You can incorporate this info into a larger picture of self for other purposes, but for this exercise, we're simply observing, without categorization or judgment.

24. As you breathe in, be aware of the physical sensations of breathing in.

25. As you breathe out, be aware of the physical sensations of breathing out.

26. Hold your focus on these sensations.

27. At some point you will lose your focus on these sensations.

28. By definition, when you lose awareness of these sensations, you won't be present/aware that you lost awareness. Funny right? :)

29. So there will be a period of time where your attention has drifted away from focusing on the physical sensations of your breath and has instead landed on something else.

30. It could be a memory from the past, a thought about the future, another physical sensation in the present, or some other sensory input (sounds, smells, sights, etc)

30. Then your awareness will catch up, and you'll recognize its focus is on something other than the physical sensations of your breath

31. At this point simply return your focus/attention back to the sensations of your breath

32. Breathe in, experiencing the sensations of breathing in.

33. Breathing out, experiencing the sensations of breathing out.

34. Hold your attention here.

35. At some point you'll again lose your focus without your awareness.

36. When your awareness catches up and you realize where you are, return your focus back to the sensations of your breath.

37. Repeat this over and over.

38. It may be 10 times in 5 minutes. It may be 10,000 times.

39. It doesn't matter.

40. The practice is the practice.

41. Each time you lose track of your awareness creates the next opportunity for you to find it again.

42. Each time you find your awareness is an opportunity to return to the embodied awareness of sensations of the breath

43. Holding, Losing, Finding, Returning

44. This is the loop. This is the repetition.

45. Nothing happens.

46. It's simple and boring. But don't confuse this with easy or without value.

47. Set a timer so you know when you're finished.

48. Otherwise your mind will come up with all sorts of things you should be doing otherwise. It's amazing the things we'll do to avoid being with ourselves.

49. Practice every day and it will transform your life.

50. Awareness, Presence, Patience, Purpose, Compassion, Connection, Understanding, Joy, Forgiveness, Peace, Laughter, Lightness, Love, Empathy, Strength, Clarity, Confidence, Depth, Focus, Meaning, and Courage