Speaker 1 · 0:01Right now, as you breathe, can you sense into this one inhale? And this one exhale. How does this breath feel in your body? And how does this breath, as it is right now, relate to your present moment state of mind? Although simple, mindfulness of breathing is quite powerful. This thousands-year-old practice of sensing into each breath has withstood the test of time and today remains with us as one of the most foundational and most profound mindfulness practices. Breath awareness strengthens concentration, equanimity, compassion, joy, and wisdom. And because the breath is always with us in each and every moment, it's forever available to anchor us to the present moment. Welcome to the Mindfulness Exercises Podcast. May this be a source of inspiration and motivation in your mindfulness practice and teachings. In today's episode, we hear from Sean Fargo on the power of breath awareness. Sean shares his insights on the practice of mindful breathing, what mindfulness teachers should be aware of, and how the practice of mindful breathing even saved his life.
Speaker 2 · 1:58And so when I lead these types of meditations that are just very simple, I try to infuse a sense of care and calm and like spaciousness in my voice to help us just to settle in something very simple. And if a strong emotion shows up or if recurring thoughts that come up, we can allow that. That's totally fine. We can tend to them and befriend them and then slowly and gently come back to breathing and have that sense of like softening into the experience. And if the experience has some unpleasantness or some distraction, we can include that in our experience, not fight it. Tend to the distraction, meet it where it is, befriend it, and then slowly and gently come back to breathing. You know, it's just like mindfulness of daily life. Things happen, whether we plan for them or not, whether we like them or not. Can we meet each moment with a sense of friendliness, openness, or allowance, or just non-judgment, and then choose where we bring our attention rather than get caught up into reactivity or fighting it or judging it or fixing it out of reaction.
Speaker 1 · 3:33The profound power of breath awareness indeed rests in its simplicity. Breath's continual presence is a wonderfully calm, gentle reminder of the stability of our own true nature. It's no wonder the Buddha himself taught that mindfulness begins and ends with the breath.
Speaker 2 · 3:59The Buddha said that he got enlightened through mindfulness of breathing. And for those of you who are interested in what he did, you can look up anapanasati if you want to. Usually it's one word anapanasati, but I just broke it up into two words because you could refer to it as two words, but anapana is like breathing, anasati is mindfulness. So where is your awareness of breathing? Is it the belly, you know, lungs, nostrils, whole body? You know, typically it's like belly or nostrils, but what is it like to bring awareness to the whole body as you breathe? You know, mindfulness of breathing with awareness of the whole body breathing. Something to play with and explore, you know, and this connection of all things. Breath entering the body, exiting the body, feeding the whole body, feeding our whole life has profound implications. This breath is feeding our life, and we're surrounded by it.
Speaker 1 · 5:36Breath introduces us to the thread of connection between all things. By observing the breath, we arrive at a direct experience of the nature of reality. Along the way, we might also observe how desperate and impatient we are for this experience of wisdom. Perfectionism arises. And yet, achieving perfection in meditation requires nothing from us but the willingness to let go of how we think things should be.
Speaker 2 · 7:32How tall is it? What's the shape of it? Is there an emotion maybe lurking somewhere around there? Is there a judgment of the striving to be good? Sometimes, if there's a should or a need, then it's like, of course, this is a good thing. Or is there a judging of it being bad or wrong? Like this shouldn't be happening. I'm a bad meditator, or whatever it is. Like, so noticing is there a sense of good or right, or a sense of wrong or bad? And just kind of noticing that, and not like judging the judgment, but just opening to it.
Speaker 1 · 8:16Mindfulness teaches us to accept our whole experience just as it is. We may experience what's happening as pleasant or unpleasant, but either way, we let go of the need for things to be different. That's not to say that we must steadfastly remain with an uncomfortable experience, if it's beyond our window of tolerance. When mindfulness of breath just isn't working, there are other options.
Speaker 2 · 8:58You know, with mindful breathing, we just want to breathe sort of natural breath and notice the sensations of that. But some people, myself included, from time to time, it may feel forced or you may feel claustrophobic or tense. So it's fine to segue into a different practice altogether. That said, I also just want to uh share that mindfulness is not like the only option. So you can try other techniques or modalities like certain breathing exercises, breathing techniques, or uh exercise in general, or visualizations, or there's all sorts of things you can do. But in terms of mindfulness, you know, sometimes mindful walking, a lot of professionals love mindful walking, so sensing into the bottoms of the feet as you walk. That's kind of part of the self-awareness uh layer, like in the beginning, like mindful breathing, then maybe mindful walking, so sensing into the bottoms of your feet as you walk. And you can do that walking to the boardroom, you can do that walking to the restroom, you know, walking to lunch, walking to your car, sort of a stealth practice. And Sharon talks about this in her book, but even just like, you know, right now I'm standing, like you can just stand and just bring mindfulness to the body, to the feet, to the knees. Um, you can have your eyes open or closed or looking downward. I recommend teaching mindfulness and breathing, but if it's difficult for people, you know, they can try something else.
Speaker 1 · 10:46The challenges we face in meditation can also be more subtle. Is it possible, for example, to observe the breath without changing or controlling it? And if self-criticism arises, can we replace it with kind curiosity? Taking a break from the practice is one solution. Sometimes, remaining present with our challenges and observing them directly can help us let them go.
Speaker 2 · 12:02Like they're just able to kind of tap into it suddenly without knowing exactly why or how. One recommendation I have would be maybe to try a different practice just for a little bit to kind of switch things up and then return to it later. So you might want to try some body scans or mindful walking or movement or something like that. But sometimes it's helpful just to kind of switch practices temporarily and come back to it later and see if that helps. And also, I think it's helpful to remember that this is common, this isn't anything sort of wrong with you or anything like that. This is just kind of the name of the game for a lot of people. And if you do continually find yourself kind of forcing the breath or unable to sense into just normal, relaxed breathing, you can just stay with the controlling and use that as a mindfulness practice where you're sensing into what it's like to feel sort of this rigid breathing, and see if you can be curious about those sensations of the rigid breathing itself, rather than judging it to be maybe wrong or bad, or it should be different. And if those judgments do arise, noticing those, you know, being with those, and then just keep coming back to the rigid breathing. I'm calling it rigid, you may call it something else, but use the rigid breathing as your practice and explore that and seeing if you can soften the judgments and replace them with curiosity for how it's showing up. And sometimes that can kind of unlock that sense of control or irregularity.
Speaker 1 · 14:01By observing the breath directly, we learn that it's always changing from day to day, moment to moment. Our breath is new and unique. Intentionally exploring these differences and even different breathing techniques can offer us profound insight into the connection between our breath and our state of mind.
Speaker 2 · 14:32The more I practice, the more I appreciate sensing into breathing, and the more I'm actually exploring different breathing techniques. And so I highly encourage people to explore sensing into the breath at different times as often as possible, and experiment with different breathing techniques, they can be very helpful. You know, there's all sorts of different breathing techniques to either stimulate the sympathetic nervous system or the parasympathetic nervous system, depending on whether you need some energy or calm. There's no right or wrong. The main thing is to continually notice what it feels like to be breathing. And so you can do that noticing sensations around the nostrils or your mouth. You can notice the rise and fall of the belly or the sensations around the belly, diaphragm, chest. If people ask me for my opinion on what to try or to emphasize, I would say, well, you may want to breathe in and out of the nose for simplicity's sake, and most people do that in mindfulness circles, and really sensing into the sensations of the air moving in and out of the nostrils can be conducive for cultivating concentration because it's a rather small area to notice, and so you're concentrating your awareness at the nostrils, and so a lot of sort of senior practitioners will notice the sensations of the nostrils to build concentration and kind of emphasize that practice for days or weeks on end for really boosting your concentration, which fuels our ability to stay present.
Speaker 1 · 16:37Studies confirm that mindfulness of breath improves our ability to focus. It also activates brain regions that help regulate our emotions and the nervous system. If we are teaching others, or for our own practice, it can be helpful to learn about the connection between breath and the autonomic nervous system. Both nostril breathing and a longer exhale induce a state of calm. Also, the more we practice, the more we can lean into our intuition when it comes to the rhythm of our breath and the pace of our instructions to others.
Speaker 2 · 17:37But like with sort of classic mindful breathing practices, we just use the nose. So if we sort of emphasize the exhale by increasing the duration or the amount of air that's exhaled, that can be helpful for our nervous systems to calm. And so sometimes if we breathe out through the mouth, that can kind of encourage that fuller exhale. So I think that's sort of the primary reason is to help us to calm our nervous systems. You know, it can be tricky sometimes to know how much to say, or when should I start talking again, or how much space should I offer? And, you know, there's no right or wrong. I think a lot of it boils down to the actual experience of the meditation and just kind of feeling into it and doing the practice yourself as much as you can while leading it to get a sense for does this feel a little too quick, or does this make sense how I'm sequencing this? And I think that it's true for a lot of mindfulness teachers that you know, sometimes we might kind of clutter the guidance with a lot of talking, because it's not really so much about your words or my words, it's more about their experience. And so to offer them the space to be able to sense into their experience can be very helpful. And it's tricky because for beginners, sometimes we need a little bit more guidance, more instruction, and then for people who have been practicing for a while, maybe need a lot less.
Speaker 1 · 19:28Balance is always essential. Our words are important, but as Sean so eloquently reminds us, it's not so much about our words, but about the practitioner's direct experience. So it's worth it to question again and again how much instruction is really needed and where we can simplify our cueing.
Speaker 2 · 19:58I guess with meditation or mindfulness, I'm usually not a fan of teachers telling people how to breathe, but again, that's personal, that's subjective. I don't even know fully why I don't like it. Maybe it's because it's not normal for me to hear that. Or, you know, not in my experience of hearing my teachers say anything like that. You know, I think if I was doing a breathwork class, yeah, I'm all for it. You know, tell me how to do it, you know, and please feel free to be as technical as you want. But in terms of a mindfulness practice, maybe other than the invitation to breathe through the nostrils, you typically don't hear instructions on how to breathe.
Speaker 1 · 20:58Letting go of precise instructions or any sense of right or wrong, good or bad, and even better or worse, leaves more room for the unique experiences of others. A breathing technique that makes perfect sense to one person could trigger anxiety in another. Some teachers, for example, cue the exhale breath first, while others start with a breath in.
Speaker 2 · 22:13So if I started by just exhaling, I could see how some people may have a fear response or some sort of trigger. You know, and I don't know if it's related, you know, one time I almost died scuba diving in the back of a cave. So I don't know if it's related to that or not, but I could see how some people may have feel triggered. Those are my personal thoughts.
Speaker 1 · 22:47We may never know the traumatic history of those whom we're teaching. So generally, it's best to allow for variation and spaciousness when it comes to guidance or instruction. Ultimately, through this practice, we hope to find comfort and refuge in the breath. Mindfulness of breathing connects us to an inner resource of infinite calm, stability, and ease.
Speaker 2 · 23:23In the sense, because I I've been scuba diving a few times, and one time and it was um I got trapped in a cave, like an underwater cave, and a bunch of people were piling in behind me and really like squeezing me in the back of this cave where I was being pressed up against the rocks. And so I knew then and there that oh, I gotta breathe. And so I just did mindfulness of breathing, and I kind of allowed the rest of my body to squish against the rock. Like I let go of all rigidity of my body, and I just did mindfulness of breathing. It's a powerful practice.
Speaker 1 · 24:04Sean's example is a powerful one, but it's not uncommon to feel as though mindfulness of breath has saved our lives in different ways. By stabilizing the mind, decreasing emotional reactivity, and giving us an ever present refuge. Mindfulness of breath changes how we show up in the world. To practice mindfulness of breathing with Sean Fargo, listen to the previous episode A Guided Meditation on the Breath.
