Meditations where the point of focus is the breath are highly popular for people new to meditation. There are also very sophisticated practices in yoga around the breath called pranayama. Patanjali, a famous meditation master from ancient India, said “the mind may also be calmed by expulsion and retention of the breath”. The term prana refers to the energy of life that surrounds us. Since we inhale prana by breathing, breathing is not just how we get the oxygen we need to survive, but it’s also the way that we replenish our life force energy.  

Beginning practices are usually quite simple. You can simply repeat to yourself as you are inhaling “I am breathing in” and as you are exhaling “I am breathing out”.

The pranayama exercises are associated with the practices of hatha yoga, the physical yoga most of us are familiar with where we practice postures called asanas. Breath is controlled in different ways: usually through restricting nostrils using your fingers, or changing the shape of your throat to constrict breath as it leaves the body. Pranayama is meant to help cultivate physical precision which leads to inner precision.

In general, it is useful in meditation to learn how to initiate breath from the diaphragm in order to breathe deeply. Sometimes, it is helpful to count breath as you inhale from the diaphragm, move up into the abdomen, chest, and shoulders, and then reverse the process as you breathe out.  When yoga teachers refer to a “4 count” or “6 count” breath, this is what they are referring to.

Our recommendation at Living Flow is to use the breathing meditations as a way to relax and prepare the body for deeper experiences in meditation. Sometimes a few minutes of breath concentration, followed by switching to a technique that focuses on the energy centers, or visualizations, can be extremely effective.

Meditating on the breath as the only point of focus becomes limiting eventually, as most people struggle to get beyond the relaxation portion of the practice. Sometimes we could really use the relaxation though!