Mindful Monday- Developing Breath Perception

"We stop our breath as a way of attempting to bring life under control."

The Breathing Book by Donna Farhi

Another week watching and observing my breath has passed. Becoming more mindful is definitely tied to the breath. It becomes the safe haven when I can't think straight. It is ground zero when I need to recalibrate my feelings. I am in awe of the human respiratory system. I am working on breathing completely and freely.

Breathing has certain characteristics:

1. Oscillation- the whole body oscillates and moves slightly during free breathing. This movement rises effortlessly and not from suppressing movement somewhere else.
2. Diaphragmatic- The breath arises predominately through the action of the central diaphragm.
3. Internal Origination- The breath rises from within rather than being pulled inside mechanically by using the outer muscles of the body. Instead of breathing we are breathed.
4.  Multidirectional- The breath expands in all directions, radiating out, just as a full dandelion flower radiates from it's core.
5. Calm and Regular- The breath has a feeling of being and creating calm in the body and mind. It's rhythm is regular most of the time.
6. Two/Three/ Pause Rhythm- During quiet respiration it's normal for your inhalation to be about 2 seconds and your exhalation to be about 3 seconds followed by a pause. More simply, you breathe out a little longer than you breathe in.
7.  Flexible- Just as waves arise in endless variation in the sea, the breath arises with endless variation and adaptability. the breath changes as our thoughts, feelings, and movement change.
8. Effortless- The art of breathing is filled with a sense of ease and relaxation.

   Many mornings when I first wake, I feel my breath very shallow and quick. Expanding my breath, I open more deeply. During meditation, which I have successfully embraced for a full month, I kindly note how full my breath rises. Kindly is a adverb I use to follow breath. It is easy to be judgmental and assume that this very elemental action is not adequate. It has kept me alive for 62 years so I should be kind. While I exercise I watch and listen more to the in and out. I am an observer this month. Observing kindly to become more aware of my amazing body, a gift from God.

                           More mindfulness Monday posts here.

Share

"But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people;"

1 Peter 2:9

The good news of Jesus Christ is to be shared. Not pushed down another's throat but shared as a gift, most precious. I find it difficult to jump into a conversation about my Savior, even though he is vital to my happiness. Am I ashamed of him? 

Not ashamed, but I am hesitant to be thought peculiar. To stand out as someone who has values beyond honesty and niceness, can be daunting. To be chosen by God has little to do with privilege but more with responsibility. I know the mission of Jesus Christ and I covenanted to be part of his vision. I promised to share the truth that he lives. He lives, who once was dead. He lives my hungry soul to feed. He lives, to bless in time of need.

  I write on Fridays with a large group who inspire me. Only five minutes and without much thought to perfection. I write, prompted by one word that sends my thoughts to the keyboard and hopefully make sense.

Mindful Monday- Better Breathing

"But for many of us, when it comes to improving our health, changing our breathing somehow doesn’t spring to mind as readily as changing our diet or exercise habits."

This month of March, as part of my year of mindfulness, I am exploring and studying my own breath and breathing in general. As a breath holder, I manufacture some anxiety just from improper breathing. I'll catch myself breathing from the chest in quick shallow breaths and now I see how that affects my feelings. Long full breaths can lower your heart rate and in reverse short, shallow breathing can accelerate your heart and very quickly a feeling of unwellness rises to the conscious mind.

Having one nostril which is smaller,  I am wondering if doing some Alternate Nostril Breathing might encourage more balance. Here are the steps to that type of breathing exercise.

An alternate nostril breathing exercise – purifying breath:

Step one: Use right thumb to close off right nostril.

Step two: Inhale slowly through left nostril

Step three: Pause for a second

Step four: Now close left nostril with ring finger and release thumb off right nostril

Step five: Exhale through your right nostril

Step six: Now, inhale through right nostril

Step seven: Pause

Step eight: Use thumb to close of right nostril

Step nine: Breathe out through left nostril

Step ten: This is one round. Start slowly with 1 or 2 rounds and gradually increase.Never force.Sit quietly for a few moments after you have finished.

This book is a March read and I hope to find some help. Hopefully it won't take my breath away or make you feel I am breathing down your neck with too much information.

      "Focusing on your own breathing can have a significant impact on your well-being and stress levels, and can even create physiological changes             like lowering your blood pressure."

                         More mindfulness Monday posts here.

News

Take a deep breath

The news might just stop your ability to breathe. There is the presidential hoopla, gasp, the monetary crisis, gasp, the change of climate prognosis, gasp, the health scares all around, and I gasp for breath. The news is taking my breath away. 

As I sit in mediation each morning, I think of other news. 

I breathe in hope

I gather all that I know of Jesus Christ and breathe in his good news.

I breathe out faith

I let go of my own fears and expectations and surrender to my faith in him.

I hold charity

I hold the exhale and let the word charity, the pure love of Christ, stay suspended for a brief second, thinking on that more excellent way, praying that I might have that gift today.

It works, most days, and holds the bad news at bay.

  I write on Fridays with a large group who inspire me. Only five minutes and without much thought to perfection. I write, prompted by one word that sends my thoughts to the keyboard and hopefully make sense.

Mindful Monday- Building the Muscle Of Attention

"Interestingly but not surprisingly, one of the central benefits of meditation is that it improves attention and concentration."

     February is almost passed and today I am assessing my mindful project for this month. I wanted to stop multi-tasking and develop more ability to be attentive to one thing at a time. I addressed my reading attention, my ability to stay focused on conversations, using mindfulness to notice tasks like washing dishes and even just walking. Things are improving. 

One success is my meditation practice. It started slow with a five minute span feeling so long. Gradually I moved to fifteen minutes. I use an app called "The Mindfulness App". It includes pre-set silent meditations, guided versions, and even allows me to make my own personalized design of any length. When I hear the little bell ring three times I know I am done. I take a deep breath and feel renewed. Below are some interesting facts about quieting the troubled mind.

"One of the most interesting studies in the last few years, carried out at Yale University, found that mindfulness meditation decreases activity in the default mode network (DMN), the brain network responsible for mind-wandering and self-referential thoughts – a.k.a., “monkey mind.” The DMN is “on” or active when we’re not thinking about anything in particular, when our minds are just wandering from thought to thought. 

Since mind-wandering is typically associated with being less happy, ruminating, and worrying about the past and future, it’s the goal for many people to dial it down. Several studies have shown that meditation, through its quieting effect on the DMN, appears to do just this. And even when the mind does start to wander, because of the new connections that form, meditators are better at snapping back out of it."

Hence, we meditate!

                        

                         More mindfulness Monday posts here.

Morning

Will there really be a morning? Is there such a thing as day? Could I see it from the mountains if I were as tall as they? Morning, morning, where does morning lie?

Emily Dickenson

  I did not begin as a morning person. Two things changed my physical and mental reactions to morning. My husband accepted a job which started at 6:00am and he got up at 4:30am. And, ten years ago I was asked to teach a zero hour high school religion class. Teaching every school day was rough. It meant preparing a new lesson every night. My piano teaching business was in full swing so I also taught 30 students during the afternoons. Preparation at night became too hard, so I would get up with my husband at 4:30 and start the morning fresh. I love the mornings now. Everything is quiet and serene. 
  The religion class is over but my body is wired for early rising. Lately I have been attempting meditation. My phone tells me that in the last 2 weeks I have meditated two hours and fourteen minutes. Wow! Two hours of doing absolutely nothing.  I must say I am feeling calmer and less tense. 

Morning really is my favorite time and I look forward to lighter days with the highpoint of sunrise before 6:00am. I can smell summer all ready.



    Has it feet like waterlilies? Has it feathers like a bird? Is it brought from other countries of which I've never heard? 

   Oh, some scholar, oh some sailor or some wise man from the sky, please to tell a little pilgrim where the place called morning lies?

Morning, morning, where does morning lie?

Emily Dickenson

             I

  I write on Fridays with a large group who inspire me. Only five minutes and without much thought to perfection. I write, prompted by one word that sends my thoughts to the keyboard and hopefully make sense.

Mindful Monday-Walking

"Walk as if you are kissing the earth with your feet."

Thich Nhat Hanh

I am walking mindfully this week. I have to because I have a stress injury on a tendon over my ankle. It hurts. Each step is deliberate to maintain my stability and walking carefully takes all my attention. Forced mindfulness is not ideal, but, it is a practice. 

            Here are some instructions for walking mindfully which I received from my acupuncturist.

1.Stand up STRAIGHT with your back upright but not stiff. Feel your feet touching the ground and let your weight distribute evenly.

2.Curl the THUMB of your left hand in and wrap your fingers around it. Place it just above your belly button. Wrap your right hand around it, resting your right thumb in the crevice formed between your left thumb and index finger. (This creates some balance for you and keeps your swinging arms from being a distraction.)

3.Drop your GAZE slightly. This helps you maintain focus.

4.Step out with your left FOOT. Feel it swing, feel the heel hit the ground, now the ball, now the toes.

5.FEEL the same as the right foot comes forward.

6.Walk at a STEADY pace, slightly slower than in daily life but not funereal. When your attention wanders, bring it back to the sensations of your feet touching the ground

   I wanted to learn doing one thing at a time and break my habit of multitasking, but I would not have willingly chosen walking.I am grateful to have a needful practice.

More mindfulness Monday posts here.