An Introduction to Breath-Based Meditation Practice

Breath-based meditation is foundational in many meditation systems including ones from Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Jainism, Sikhism, and various yogic schools. The reason the breath makes such a good meditation object is that it’s ever-present, immediate, vital, and links the unconscious and conscious mind. In other words, you can breathe automatically without even thinking about it; and yet, you can also consciously control your breath whenever you choose to. Breath-based meditation is also handy because you can perform it in different bodily positions including sitting, supine, standing, walking, and even running.

Breath-centered meditation practice is often the starting point for students and monks alike, since it helps to ground and center the mind, which Zen practitioners call gathering the mind. But this is not to say that breath-based meditation is any less advanced than other kinds of meditation. You can go very deep, that is, into highly absorptive states of consciousness, with any of them. I like to introduce these practices to clients who are open to them. Many not only find them calming in the moment, but also go on to adopt them for at-home meditation practice.

Nine Traditional Breath-Based Meditation Practices

There are literally hundreds of different breath-based meditation practices, and every religion, school, sect, and teacher has their own renditions. We will review nine traditional breath-based mediation practices in this series including:

• The Three Vital Breaths
• Counting the Breath
• Bamboo Breathing
• Counting Bamboo Breaths
• Pausal Breathing
• Long-Straw Breathing
• Following the Breath
• Becoming the Breath
• Tan Tien (Dantein) Breathing

Each of these practices can be conducted in several different meditation positions. In this series, we’ll examine three such positions that are especially effective and versatile. You can apply them almost anywhere and don’t need special equipment or accessories. The positions we’ll review include:

1. Tradition Seated Position (chair)
2. Qigong or Ready Position (standing)
3. Supine “Active-Relaxation” Position (floor)

Progressing in Your Practice

Each one of these practices is complete in and of itself. You don’t need to do them all, and no one of them is particularly better, or more powerful, than another. You can cultivate a deep meditative state with any of them. A word to the wise, though—when you take up one of these practices, stick with it for a month or two before switching. Practice makes perfect and it takes time to feel the beneficial effects. You’ll get further by not bouncing around and sampling, but rather by improving the quality of a single practice. With that in mind, there are clear signs that indicate you’re making progress.

Lower respiratory rate

The average adult breathes 12 to 20 times per minute. However, as you become more experienced with breath-based meditation, your rate will markedly drop. Experienced meditators breathe as few as 1-to-3 times per minute.

Greater tidal volume and vital capacity

The amount of air you inhale and exhale during normal, quiet breathing, as well as the amount you breathe during a forced inhalation and exhalation will both increase. And both are indeed vital health indicators.

Lower resting heart rate

All other factors in your life being equal, meditation can reduce your resting heart rate 10% to 25% over the course of time.

Lower blood pressure

Your systolic and diastolic blood pressure correlate with your stress level and will gradually drop the longer you consistently meditate.

Improved focus

When you first begin your meditation practice, it’s normal to drift off frequently and forget all about your breath. But don’t give up. Over time, you will be able to stay with the breath for longer and longer stretches of time, eventually for an entire 20-to-35-minute period.

Improved sleep quality

Better sleep hygiene comes about naturally as a result of lower stress and anxiety and reduced feelings of insecurity engendered by meditation.

Deeper samadhi

Samadhi is a state of deepened consciousness achieved through meditation, the final limb in Ashtanga yoga and final pathway in Buddhism’s noble eightfold path. Signs that your samadhi is blooming include:

1. Deep physical relaxation as evidenced by reduced muscular tension and lower skin resistance.
2. Feeling rooted, stable, and balanced, sometimes to such a degree that you can hardly move.
3. A feeling of emotionally and mentally letting go, free from the inclination to strive or strain.
4. A floating feeling, as if you were weightless.
5. A feeling of oneness, that is, the sense that the environment and you are not two separate things. All you experience is in fact you, as nothing can exist apart from your body-mind.
6. A more stable mood state in general, particularly less anxiety and insecurity.
7. A sense of presence, of being totally here and now, free from grasping for the future or regretting the past.
8. A sense of equanimity, a settled, calm, unflappable mind-state.

Breath Is All You Need

Sometimes people think breath-based meditation practice is only for beginners. Not so. Meditating on your breath can and will take you as far as you need to go on the pathway to samadhi (absorption) and dhyāna (concentration). If you don’t believe me, take it from the Buddha. According to his report, on the night of his enlightenment under the Bodhi Tree, prior to gazing up at the shimmering planet Venus, he was engaged in following his breath—a practice we’ll explore in this series.

This post is the first in a series of ten posts on breath-based meditation. Stay tuned!

Discover more from Bill Light Integrative Wellness Coaching

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.