Nearly every guided meditation and meditation teacher out there tells you to focus on the breath. It's something so basic that you may have never asked why. The breath calms us down, right? Doesn't that make it the obvious focal point for meditation.
Though a common assumption, that's not entirely true. The reason we focus on the breath in meditation may surprise you.
The Breath Is a Link to Your Nervous System
The breath is a way to regulate our nervous systems. In fact, it is the only non-chemical way to do so. Our breath is directly linked to our autonomic nervous systems. And when I say linked, I mean it literally.
As you are reading. put your hand on your diaphragm in your mid to lower abdomen and pay attention to its position. Your diaphragm is below the lungs and heart and they all rest against your spinal column. The diaphragm is controlled by the phrenic nerve and, in turn, it can activate the vagus nerve.
This connection means that your breath sends signals to the your body and mind constantly. Any change in breath can create a domino affect that can affect your behavior, mood, emotions, and thoughts.
The Breath Does More Than Calm Us Down
When I said above that it's not "entirely true" that the breath calms you down, I wasn't lying. In most daily experiences, we focus on the breath to calm down. That usually means we try to "catch our breath" by slowing down our rate of breathing and breathing more deeply.
Whether we notice this or not, in situations like this we may be focusing on the exhale in our breath. Focusing on the exhale and slowing down our rate of breath will calm us down. The exhale is linked to our parasympathetic nervous system. When our exhale becomes slower and longer than our inhale, it sends a signal to our body and brain that we are safe and can enter "rest and digest" mode.
The inhale, though, can do the opposite. If we try deeper and faster inhales, we may notice our heart rate start to increase and other bodily systems activating. While many lawyers try meditation and breathwork to calm down, there are some styles of practice intended to rev the body and mind back up.
Why Understanding the Breath Matters
So why is this important to know? It is useful for several reasons. First, remembering the breath's role as a bodily function may help you see it more functionally in your meditation practice. If your breath is not smooth or slow or even, it can be very easy in meditation practice to get upset about that or feel like you are doing something wrong. Remembering the role of the breath from a functional anatomical perspective may help reduce judgment.
Another reason that understanding the purpose of breath focus helps is that it can help us give ourselves what we need. If you experience difficult feelings or thoughts during meditation, you can learn to use the breath like the break pedal in your car. Not only will focusing on the breath disrupt the thoughts and emotions; it can help you slow down and ease back in your body.
In the same way, you could use breathwork to re-energize yourself when you are in a slump. Instead of a coffee, you could try some breathwork with more intense inhales and see how it affects you. If pranayama is not your thing, try some physical movement or exercise to achieve the same thing. Even a walk around the block is likely to automatically trigger bigger and deeper inhales which will energize the body and mind.
You Have Options for Breath Focus
As I have written before, the particular location of your focus is not essential to notice these things. You can focus on your breath at your nose, sinuses and throat, chest or shoulders, or belly. To bring attention to the energetic impacts of your breath though, pay particular attention to your inhale v. exhale, the lengths of each, and any pauses in between.
With this background, hopefully it is clearer now why meditations and teachers so frequently direct you to focus on your breath. Of course, it is always with you and that makes it a great focal point for formal and informal practice.
Practicing breath focus or breathwork, though, gives you a tool for self-regulation that can serve you well in formal practice and in life. If you can learn to notice your breath, you can also learn to manage it. That can give you greater agency for handling the stresses and energy slumps of life. And if you can do that, it opens doors for facing many other challenges with a little more skill and ease.
To try some breath focus practices, check out our meditations on Insight Timer or here:
Want to learn more about mindfulness and compassion? Check out my new book, How to Be a Badass Lawyer, for a simple guide to creating a meditation practice of your own in 30 days. And to share mindfulness with your little one, check out my new children's book, Mommy Needs a Minute.
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