Simple Breathing Meditation Technique

This simple breathing meditation technique which you are about to learn is one of the oldest and the simplest of all the meditation techniques I know of. It is one of my favorites.

You can do it at any time, anywhere. It is quite effective also as newcomers to meditation find it easier to grasp, understand and do.

The immediate effect of this meditation technique is a feeling of being centered, calm and at peace. I’ll talk about other benefits later on in this article.

Right now lets go and see what are the general prerequisites of meditation. Understanding these prerequisites of meditation will help you reach the meditative state much more quickly and will help immensely in your meditation practice.

Simple Breathing Meditation Technique

Sit down making a comfortable posture. Your back should be straight, neither too stiff nor too loose. Your posture should not make you feel lazy or sleepy and neither it should make you feel uncomfortable.

The spinal cord in this natural position acts as a channel for the energy to flow from your root chakra (base of spinal cord) to your crown chakra (top of your head).

If closing your eyes helps you achieve a better focus then close your eyes otherwise just look straight ahead without actually looking at any thing specific. I usually close my eyes as it helps me in focusing my mind better.

Now put your attention on your breath. Breathe normally through your nostrils. The rhythm of your breath may change as you start focusing on it. Sometimes it may get heavier and sometimes lighter and faster.

Don’t worry about the change. Just keep your attention focused on your breath. Just be with your breath as you inhale and exhale. The object of meditation is the sensation of breathing.

As you go deeper into the meditative state, you will automatically feel other thoughts leaving your mind. At first you may feel a sudden rush of thoughts trying to get your attention. Don’t let it bother you. Don’t resist your thoughts either.

If you will resist your thoughts they will usually lead you astray. Just accept them, acknowledge them and as you see your attention wandering, bring it back gently to your breath again.

After some practice the mental chatter will stop and the distracting thoughts will leave you alone as they won’t find any host willing to give them a place to linger on.

Think of the distracting thoughts as dust. In our normal state of awareness the dust is always there and we don’t notice it because we are too busy interacting with it subconsciously.

Once you still your mind, its like holding the wind all of a sudden. As the wind dies down and you become more aware, you tend to notice the dust acutely. Just remember that it was there all along. It’s just that you noticed it just now. The dust will settle down by itself as there is no wind to carry it around anymore. Just be patient.

In the beginning you can keep an alarm clock with you, set to 15 minutes and you can come out of your meditation when it rings. With practice you will actually be able to instruct your mind to come out of meditation after a desired span of time. If you find it impossible to sit still for 15 minutes, start from 5 minutes.

What will you feel after meditating?

Seriously, I don’t know. Everyone is unique and meditation adapts itself to everyone differently. But from my past experience I can safely say that you will feel more at ease with yourself.

You will feel a certain kind of clarity inside you. You will feel energized, calm and at peace with yourself.

Keep doing it everyday and you will start experiencing the subtler effects of meditation more intensely. Your dreams will change. Mine did when I started meditating. My dreams became more clear, more memorable and more understandable.

As you keep practicing meditation, you keep opening yourself to spiritual possibilities of all kinds. You start getting glimpses of your inner world. The mundane things stop bothering you, actually they simply vanish from your life as your understanding of life deepens.

I can go on and on, describing the benefits of meditation but you’ll only know them once you experience them yourself. So today when you are free, give it a shot.