The breath can be such a fickle object. One moment you are aware of it, and the next moment you have completely forgotten about it, swept up by a myriad of thoughts and dreams.
The nature of the breath makes it one of the best objects of focus for meditation. So it is crucial we learn how to use this tool effectively and become best friends with it. But in our lofty goal of trying to sustain awareness over time, otherwise known as focus, quite often the mind rebels. Like mastering any other activity, we should learn techniques to help us stay on our target.
The essence of staying focussed on your breath involves balancing your awareness – not being too tight (tense) and not being too loose (relaxed). The following techniques provide an antidote to both mindsets. Different techniques will work for different people at different times. So learn them all and choose the ones that work for you in your particular situation.
Chunk your focus by staying aware of one breath at a time
Sometimes are goals are simply too lofty. We focus too much on the destination rather than what’s on the road right in front of us. Our aim is to stay focussed for 5 minutes or on the next 10 breaths straight. Depending on the type of person you are, this could be both a mind too tight and mind too lose type situation.
The remedy for this is such a simple trick but oh so effective. It involves chunking your awareness into manageable pieces. After all, our real goal should be to stay aware, from moment to moment.
So let’s make this our only goal – simply aim to stay aware from moment to moment. Make your only aim to be focussed on this next in-breath. Then only this next out-breath.
So as time progresses, your goal is more manageable:
- Just this in-breath
- Just this out-breath
- Just this in-breath
- Just this out-breath…
Sometimes we get ahead of ourselves and our mind wanders. This will help stop that mindset – one step at a time, one breath at a time.
Focus only the out-breath
This strategy works very well when our mind is too tight, trying too hard to achieve focus. Simply try to stay aware of the entirety of the of just the out-breath, from the beginning to the end. Let the mind completely go when you breathe in. Don’t even try to stay focussed or aware during the in-breath – let it take care of itself. If it works better for you, you can even do it the opposite way, focussing only on the in-breath, and completely letting go during the out-breath.
Continuing in this way you will find that you will more easily be able to maintain awareness of one side of the breath. And even more peculiarly, when you are not even trying to stay aware of the other side of the breath, the mind will tend to maintain awareness of the present moment. This is because you are giving it some space within a state of mind that is probably a little more on the tense side.
Focus on the end of each out-breath and in-breath
Our minds get bored easily. Especially if our breathing is long and deep, we can lose our awareness in the length of these breaths. When this happens, our minds can become too loose, and lose clarity on its goal.
In this technique, you really up your concentration at the end of each out-breath and in-breath, trying to catch the moment when it turns around. Similar to the previous technique, let your mind hang fairly loose, but this time during the middle of each breath. This is also a form of chunking, where your goal with each breath is simply to really observe how each breath ends.
Switch between breath awareness and body awareness frequently
When things get really tough, this is one of my favourite ways to maintain awareness of the reality of the present moment. Sometimes the mind just refuses to stay firm on the breath and you have to keep positioning reality in its face.
When you find the mind simply won’t stick to the breath, switch your awareness to any part of the body where they are strong physical sensations, then back again to the breath after a little while. Most people prefer the hands as it is fairly easy to keep your awareness there. Depending on how fleeting the mind is, switch your awareness from your breath to your body and back again every 30 seconds. You can even do it more often if required. Keep doing this for as long as you feel you need to – usually for about 5-10 minutes or so. Then just gently come back to your breathing.
Remember the most important thing is just to stay aware of the present moment. It could be the reality of the breath, or the reality of the body. Either way, you are training your mind in seeing things every moment as they are, not as you would like them to be.
Change focus to a less subtle sensation related to the breath
This is usually my go to method when I find my mind too relaxed, with my sense of awareness waning. As we meditate we become calmer, and as such, the breath becomes subtler and subtler. It becomes harder to grasp and stay aware of unless our concentration is well established.
In order to maintain awareness of the breath, we can switch our attention to a location where it is more obvious. For example, if we have been focussing on the feeling of the breath inside the nostrils, we can move to the feeling of the breath at the belly. This is a more gross, obvious sensation which is easier to focus on. When we feel our focus has stabilised, we can move back to the more subtle area.
Usually the order of breath subtleness, from most subtle to least subtle, can be roughly (but not strictly!) categorised as follows:
- The area above the upper lip, and below the nostrils
- The rim of the nostrils
- Inside the nostrils
- The movement of the shoulders or the expansion and contraction of the chest and ribcage
- The rise and fall of the belly
This can be different for everyone though. Feel free to experiment with what works for you. Meditation is all about discovering yourself.
Breathe a little harder
Similar to the previous technique, this can be used when the breath starts becoming much subtler and your awareness drops as a result. If you find you are forgetting about the breath and constantly wandering, make your breathing a little harder and faster to make it more obvious. Don’t go overboard – just slightly harder – enough so you can be aware of it.
Do this for a few minutes at a time and then revert back to your normal, natural rhythm of breathing. Remember your goal is simply to maintain awareness. So while we are taking the breath away from its natural rhythm, we are at least maintaining awareness of the present moment.
Label your thoughts and emotions
Sometimes when we are trying to focus on our breath, a whole host of emotions, thoughts and feelings start to surface, seeminginly getting in the way of our ability to focus. This is actually a good thing – it is a sign of progress in meditation. Focussing on the breath tends to still our mind, and just like when the dirt settles at the bottom of a still body of water, we start seeing what’s underneath the surface. Sometimes we don’t like what we see but becoming aware of these feelings is the first step to freedom.
When certain thoughts or feelings start to well up, gently label them and come back to the breath without any sense of frustration whatsoever. Just label any thought as “thinking, thinking” and label any emotion such as anger, frustration, sadness or anxiety. Simply accept the fact “right now there is fear in the mind, let me return to the breath”.
Research shows that as we put labels or words on our negative emotional experiences, we activate areas of the brain that break or inhibit strong emotional responses, which turn down emotional stress and turn up executive function. This enables us to see the experience for what it is – just a temporary emotional state, with no real power over us.
Train your long lost sense of curiosity
In this modern, constantly changing world, we are continuously seeking the next piece of stimulus – the next click, like, page scroll, episode. We rarely allow ourselves to be bored. So when we meditate, a mind that is used to constant distraction will easily get bored and look for entertainment.
We need to train our ourselves to develop curiousity of the present moment, no matter how mundane it seems to us. If you get bored easily, this is a skill that is essential for you to work on and develop.
Choose an area where the breath is easily observable, such as inside the nostrils, and check to see what is actually happening there. Really divide and dissect this area and see what it’s like to be alive and breathe. Is the breath warmer when it leaves the nostrils than when it entered? What other sensations are associated with breathing? If an alien was to ask you, “what is this thing you call breathing?”, how would you describe it?
This is less of a technique and more of a state of mind. A state of mind that you need to cultivate – otherwise known as ‘beginner’s mind’.
Get curious about the different ways the breath can be felt in the body.
- Where do you feel the breath the most?
- Where do you feel the breath the least?
- Look at the different aspects of the breath that you can be aware of:
- Is the breath long or short?
- Is the breath deep and shallow?
- Is the breath passing through the left nostril or the right nostril?
- What is the temperature of the in-breath and out-breath?
- Does the heart beat faster or slower during an in-breath?
Even the state of boredom is something that can be observed objectively – what does it feel like? What is happening in the body when you are bored? If you truly look underneath the abstract feeling of boredom, you might find a whole new world of interesting sensations.
Surrender and just watch the wandering mind
This is really two techniques in one. It is very similar to traditional Zen practice where one simply sits and observes all phenomena that enter the mind, one by one.
- The first step is to just completely and utterly surrender to the fact that at this moment, the mind is constantly wandering, and accept it unconditionally. Completely let go and don’t try to control anything – say to yourself “mind, I will let you wander…I will let you do what you want. You might be pleasantly surprised at how the mind reacts to this. You can do this for 30 seconds or so then bring your attention back to the breath. Or alternatively, after surrendering you can also try the second part.
- Enter a state of pure moment to moment awareness – this takes a little practice but it basically means becoming the watcher of all phenomena passing through your mind. The trick here is to let go completely and just watch the mind and see where your mind wants to go – let it go anywhere it wants – but watch it! Observe it flickering from one object to another – and you will see that it eventually settles down, sometimes even on the breath. Come back to the breath after a minute or so of pure awareness practice. You may find the mind much more willing to stay on the breath.
(Optional) Bonus Technique: Counting
If you’ve done some guided meditations before, you may have noticed that I didn’t include counting as a technique. There are various reasons for this and counting breaths is actually not a bad practice for beginners but, in general, you don’t want to become dependent on it as a long term meditator.
You can easily become concentrated when counting, just like any prayer or mantra, however in meditating for genuine and lasting happiness, that should not be our goal. Our goal during breathing meditation is not concentration but objective observation of reality – of sustained awareness of the bare and natural breath (which is our reality in this moment). By staying aware of natural reality, we accept this moment as it is, training ourselves to be peaceful in all circumstances.
By counting breaths you are adding a fabricated and artificial attachment to the breath and you easily lose sight of reality of the breath by getting attached to numbers instead. Again, it is okay sometimes, especially when first start out, but don’t become too dependent on it. You don’t want your mind to have to count numbers to achieve focus, but rather naturally.
In saying this, there are various ways you can count your breathing. Here are some of the more widely used methods. Use whichever works for you:
- Count 1 on each inhale. Count to 10 then start again at 1.
- Count 1 on the inhale, 2 on the exhale. Count to 10 then start again at 1.
- Count 1 on the inhale, 2 on the exhale. Count to 10 then going backwards back to 1.
Final Thoughts
The breath is such a wonderful object of meditation. It is always with us. And it is just apparent enough to be grasped by awareness, but subtle enough to allow the mind to focus and achieve a state of calm. More importantly, it is closely connected to both the mind and the body, making it the perfect tool to explore the nature of mind and matter.
So when things get tough, don’t despair – use these techniques to stay diligent and on course. Some of them are a little more natural and some are a little more ‘intrusive’, requiring a little more force than the natural, normal breath. This is okay, as long as we are trying to stay aware as long as possible, continuously returning to the breath. Just like any gym workout, this is a training in resilience, patience and compassion.
Meditation is dynamic – always changing, just like life. Each technique suits different circumstances and states of mind. Ultimately, you have to make your own decisions from time to time – so choose the technique that feels right to you at the time. Stay diligent, maintain your effort and keep going.
Stay aware, equanimous and don’t worry – everything is fine, be happy!