Your breath is more than air August 30 2018

The intention for this meditation is to train and calm the mind. Since your mind can have only one thought at a time while you are thinking about the flow of the breath in and out other thoughts are blocked.
Part of your mind has the role of producing thoughts.  These thoughts are usually a reaction to other thoughts or circumstances that arise.  They may be about the past or future and are usually scattered and become disruptive to the task or activity that you are engaged in.
When your mind is calm you can more easily concentrate on what you choose to be doing without distracting thoughts popping in and out.
This meditation can be used in one minute while standing on-line at the grocery or take out drive-up window.  Also, it can be used as a formal sitting meditation to go more deeply into the workings of your body-mind-spirit.  With practice this meditation becomes effortless as Spiritual Gravity nudges you deeper and deeper.
Place attention on your breath going in and out.
  1. As you breathe in count in one and as you breathe out count one, continue counting breaths up to 5 or 10.
  2. As you breathe in think “calm” and as you breathe out think “now” ( 5-10 breaths)
  3. As you breathe in and out visualize waves moving up and down along a pole (at a seaside dock) as you think rising and falling. (5-10)
  4. As you breathe in and out feel cool air coming in your nose and throat and warm air flowing out. (5-10)
  5. As you breathe notice the beginning , middle and end of each breath. (5-10)
  6. Continue awareness of breathing and as thoughts come up try naming the group that contains that thought. Groups might be, thinking, planning, itchy, sounds etc. Once named return to awareness of the in and out flow of the breath.
In addition to a formal sitting meditation this meditation has popped into my awareness spontaneously. A few days ago I started a project of beautification of my backyard.   I had built a rock garden with areas of rock separated by small cement dividers. I was in the middle of pressure cleaning the cement divider’s top, front and back surfaces. It was very repetitive, the sun was hot and the air humid.
I started with an intense focus on the change of color as the pressured water spray cleaned the block. After some time as my attention waned and I started to contemplate the heat, humidity and how much more cement needed to be cleaned: I noticed my breath. I started to count the breathes in and out as I watched the edge of the water spray clean the cement. I started with the counting of the five breathes in and out and planned to follow that with the thoughts “calm and now” etc.
As I lost track of the counting and then remembered (possibly minutes later) I continued wherever in the sequence I had left off. I completed all 25 (5 times 5 notes of following the breath). This spontaneous starting of the breath counting has arisen several times when I found myself in any circumstance where my mind started to drift to daydreaming, planning or analyzing. In addition to keeping me focused on the task it has reduced the number of thoughts of mild irritation that routinely arise while “waiting” for any job to be finished.

As I had fewer “negative thoughts” I sense that my body started to release more good neuro-peptides like a runners high rather than those related to stress.
Sometimes the sequence of 25 is forgotten and returned to multiple times and not completed until hours later or not at all. By having five groups of five it was easy to recall wherever I had previously dropped off.  Any moments of attention to the breath are cumulative building peace and calm one breath at a time.
* Read more of the story development on    SPIRITUAL GRAVITY
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                CLICK HERE For 10-4-17
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                 CLICK HERE FOR 2-18-2018 

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  1. […] incorporates and builds upon the previous level. Meditation depth level 1 (see previous blog Your Breath Is More Than Air 8-30-2018) Meditation depth level 2 For each step below maintain awareness for one breath flowing in and […]

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