Mindfulness of breathing
Wednesday, June 25th, 2003 19:20![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kittiwakeLast week I started a Meditation & Buddhism course on Tuesday nights. We will be learning two meditations and the first of these is Mindfulness of Breathing. Last week we did the first two stages and this time we did the whole thing.
Stage 1 - count when you finish breathing out (from 1 - 10, then start from 1 again)
Stage 2 - count before starting to breathe in (from 1 - 10, then start from 1 again)
Stage 3 - drop the counting and concentrate on your breathing
Stage 4 - concentrate on the very start of the in breath and the very end of the out breath
Stages 1 & 2 may sound more or less the same but they aren't. Last week I found stage 2 very difficult, as I kept thinking "Is it time to count now? Am I ready to breathe in yet?" and found that I was breathing too fast as I
wasn't leaving enough of a gap before starting to breathe in. But I've been practising during the week and it was a lot easier last night. Whenever your mind wanders or you're distracted by a noise or you lose
count, you should just bring your attention back to the breathing.
The meditation teacher said that a lot of people have unrealistic expectations of meditation producing a totally blank mind, but even if your mind is constantly wandering off, you should just keep bringing your attention back to the breathing and don't worry about it. One of the things we will be doing next week is having a posture session, where they will be helping each of us to find a comfortable position for meditating.
They also hold a drop-in meditation session at the Nottingham Buddhist Centre on Tuesday evenings, so I intend to start going to that after this course is finished. I'm hoping that meditating in the evenings will be help me in conquering my insomnia, by letting me relax enough to go to sleep quickly.
Stage 1 - count when you finish breathing out (from 1 - 10, then start from 1 again)
Stage 2 - count before starting to breathe in (from 1 - 10, then start from 1 again)
Stage 3 - drop the counting and concentrate on your breathing
Stage 4 - concentrate on the very start of the in breath and the very end of the out breath
Stages 1 & 2 may sound more or less the same but they aren't. Last week I found stage 2 very difficult, as I kept thinking "Is it time to count now? Am I ready to breathe in yet?" and found that I was breathing too fast as I
wasn't leaving enough of a gap before starting to breathe in. But I've been practising during the week and it was a lot easier last night. Whenever your mind wanders or you're distracted by a noise or you lose
count, you should just bring your attention back to the breathing.
The meditation teacher said that a lot of people have unrealistic expectations of meditation producing a totally blank mind, but even if your mind is constantly wandering off, you should just keep bringing your attention back to the breathing and don't worry about it. One of the things we will be doing next week is having a posture session, where they will be helping each of us to find a comfortable position for meditating.
They also hold a drop-in meditation session at the Nottingham Buddhist Centre on Tuesday evenings, so I intend to start going to that after this course is finished. I'm hoping that meditating in the evenings will be help me in conquering my insomnia, by letting me relax enough to go to sleep quickly.
