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Natural breath awareness

Just watch · change nothing

Every other page here asks you to breathe in a certain way. This one doesn't. You only watch the breath your body is already doing: the breath in, the small pause, the breath out, the pause. Breathing teacher Matteo Pistono calls it "allowing the breath to breathe you". It's useful when trying hard is the problem, like lying in bed waiting for sleep.

How to do it

1. Sit, or lie on your back. Knees bent if your lower back likes it. A hand on your belly if you want to feel the movement.
2. Take a moment to notice how your body feels, and what your mind is doing. No need to fix anything.
3. Breathe in and out through the nose, and turn your attention to the breath.
4. Find where you feel it most: at the nostrils, in the belly, or somewhere else. Let your attention rest there.
5. Watch the breath in, the small pause at the top, the breath out, and the small pause at the bottom.
6. Notice what it's like. Cool or warm? Short or long? Smooth or a bit bumpy? Just notice.
7. When your mind wanders, and it will, let the thought go, soften your body, and come back to the breath.
8. Stay for 5 to 10 minutes, or as long as it feels easy. Then stop watching and notice how you feel.

Tips

• At first you'll probably start controlling the breath, making it deeper or longer. That's normal. When you notice it, let go again.
• Soften your eyes, temples, jaw and shoulders, and let the belly be loose.
• Short and often works well: even one breath watched like this, a few times a day, counts.
• In bed, there's no goal. If you fall asleep in the middle, that's fine.

Sources: M. Pistono, Breathe How You Want to Feel (Allowing the Breath to Breathe You) · J. Hall, Breathe (Simple Breath Awareness).

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