Five Different Meditations That Use the Breath

The first is the most obvious and perhaps the most powerful for overcoming stress, anxiety and even depression: deep breathing. Called pranayama (breath control) in ancient yoga traditions, taking control of your breathing pattern has an immediate effect on your mental state and nervous system.

Oska Phoenix has written about four types of controlled breathing techniques to try
HERE

Breathing techniques have numerous proven health benefits and people like Wim Hof ​​have shown that breathing techniques combined with cold water treatments can ward off disease and strengthen the immune system.

More and more
Research shows the ability of deep breathing exercises to reduce stress and insomnia, help manage emotions and improve your attention.

I always start my meditation practice with a few low, slow, deep breaths to consciously relax my body and bring my mind to the present moment. It really helps to deeply relax my body and mind.

Your breath can also be used to ‘recharge’. The
dopamine breathing technique given by Marcel Hoff (Wim Hof’s brother) energizes the body and releases the feel-good and healing hormone dopamine, which not only feels blissful but also has powerful healing properties.

Deep breathing is so closely linked to your physiology that you can use it as a reliable regulator of your nervous system and subsequent emotional states. Whether you want to change a frustrated state of mind, calm the nervous system or develop super-focused, clear breathing exercises, it’s all possible.

The polyvagal theory demonstrates the role of the vagus nerve in regulating our body’s response to the world. In short, simply humming stimulates the vagus nerve and activates the relaxation response that directly counteracts the fight/flight/freeze trauma responses. This is just a mechanical response of your body’s nervous system. You don’t have to believe in it, you just have to do it and the results will be noticeable almost immediately, helping you relax and regulate your emotions.

Humming also slows and lengthens your exhalation, which is a key factor in reducing stress and calming your mind. Humming or Auming (slowly saying OM) with another person helps create a harmonious energy field that seems to enhance the calming effect and also connect you intimately with the other person or people.

Chanting Aum by starting with a deep Ahh sound rooted in the base of your torso, then moving the O toward your heart, and then ending with Hmm on the top of your head, creates this amazing movement of energy through your body , known as kundalini. Whatever it is, it feels great.

Singing Aum also has the remarkable effect of connecting you to the reality of life that consists of energy. Generally we see the world made of matter, but when we connect with the sound of Aum we can discover and experience a wonderful insight that the world is more like a vibration that modern science, especially the field theories, agrees with.

Mindfulness is truly the basis of all meditation techniques. Learning to pay attention in a non-judgmental way helps you stay calm, be at ease, and develop what meditation teacher Alan Wallace calls attentional stability.

This essential practice for sanity and mental stability ensures that a mindfulness practitioner is not controlled or bullied by thoughts and distractions. Instead, one can remain calm and focused in a relaxed manner, which supports intelligence, creativity and the ability to respond kindly rather than react emotionally.

Mindfulness is the fundamental mental health practice of being fully present without reacting compulsively, creating space for self-awareness.

Mindfulness of breathing is especially powerful for relaxing and letting go of control, allowing for a natural and healing balance to rebalance body and mind.

There are a number of techniques to focus on breathing, such as counting the breaths, noticing the air flowing through the nostrils, which is cooler when you inhale and warmer when you exhale, or noticing the breathing process in the whole body.

One of the most powerful ways to perform all of these exercises is not to control the breathing, but simply observe it using one of these different techniques. Breathing is one of the few physical processes that can be controlled both automatically and consciously. Learning to watch the breath without controlling it in the slightest can be difficult, but if you can completely let go of control and simply notice how the breath itself is breathing, it is a wonderfully relaxing experience. To master mindfulness, Buddhists call the perfection of tranquility.

When you can’t control your breathing, you can really be the relaxed observer and find that still point within yourself. This strengthens the important meditation skill: being able to observe thoughts as they come and go without being disturbed by them.

Contrary to the popular misconception that you need to stop or control your thoughts during meditation, learning to simply observe without manipulating them is a natural great freedom of mindfulness that begins with quietly observing your breathing.

Another powerful tool for mindfulness and turning negative self-talk into positive self-talk is the use of affirmations. By using your thoughts instead of being bullied by them, you can cultivate confidence, clarity, and present-centered awareness.

You essentially use your thoughts to keep you more aware and focused in the present moment. You comment on what you are doing and record your breathing, for example. You think to yourself: ‘Inhaling I walk, exhaling I am present and relaxed.’ You can do it for almost anything you do, wherever you are. The goal is to keep you focused on the situation at hand.

This can be adapted to develop good qualities using affirmations. For example, you can repeat to yourself as you exhale: “On the inhale I am completely confident, on the exhale I am relaxed and confident in my abilities.” Or it can be used to develop mindfulness during a meditation session by silently thinking to yourself “breathe in, breathe out” as you do so. This is what I always recommend to beginners who have trouble taming their thoughts at first.

Or you can try a purification technique: by breathing in and saying to yourself, “I absorb peace, clarity and wholeness; by breathing out I release all my anxiety and stress.” This is a wonderful technique that can quickly have results on your state of mind. You can also try: ‘Breaking in I am grateful for everything I have, as I breathe out I send love back into the world.’

You can also imagine breathing in light, love and abundance and breathing out black smoke, which represents stress, frustration and resentment. The options are truly endless, meaning you can get creative with the whole process and see what works best for you.

There are many different techniques that use the breath and I’ll end with one of my favorites and a method designed to help you pinpoint and experience the essence of your being, which is the highest form of meditation.

The essence of your being is described in Buddhist and Vedic teachings as limitless, empty and clear. A common metaphor is to call the essence of your mind “heavenly” in nature. Tibetan Buddhists say that consciousness and emptiness are one thing. To go beyond theory and directly experience the essence of your being, you can practice air breathing.

To practice air breathing, start by imagining your exhalation dissolving into the air in front of you. You can do this exercise in a small room or in a nice outdoor area because you always have the sky in front of you. Take a few breaths to focus on dissolving your exhale and becoming one with the space in front of you.

Then, as you inhale, imagine that the inhaled oxygen dissolves into the inner sky in the same way as consciousness. You can imagine the inside of your body as completely spacious, blue and sky-like. The more you can imagine and identify with a heaven-like inner consciousness, the better. But don’t worry too much about visualizations; it is more about perceiving these experiences than vivid images.

As you continue to breathe air, your inner world begins to feel spacious, open, and bright, just like the air. Ultimately, you get the feeling that the outer heaven and the inner heaven are one and all boundaries dissolve to reveal the mystical experience of non-dual consciousness.

If you would like some more guidance on practicing different types of breathwork, you can check out my online breathwork course –
HERE

Chad Foreman is the founder of The Way of Meditation and has been teaching meditation since 2003, determined to bring authentic meditation practices into the lives of millions of people in the modern world. Chad is a former Buddhist monk who lived in a retreat hut for six years and studied and practiced meditation full-time. He now has over twenty years of experience teaching meditation. Chad likes regularly
Meditation retreats on the Sunshine Coast, Australia
Online meditation coaching, provides three online programs –
The 21 Day Meditation Challenge to gradually guide people from the basic principles of mindfulness and relaxation to profound states of consciousness.
Breathwork
to help manage stress and go deeper into meditation and
The bliss of inner fire
This is a Buddhist tantric method to clear energy blockages and connect with the clear light of bliss. You can also get Chad’s free ebook now Insights on the go.