Insight Timer

So honoured to have been invited by Insight Timer, the wonderful meditation app. to share my guided Breath Awareness Meditation with their community of more than 450,000 registered users.

And this morning, I woke to find my offering listed with some of the most inspiring teachers like Tara Brach, Sarah McLean, Sharon Salzberg, Diana Winston and Davidji.

Beyond excited.

Come along and join the Insight Timer Community here

Breath Awareness

I am really enjoying the book "How God Changes Your Brain" by Andrew Newberg, M.D and Mark Robert Waldman.  I don't think I would have ever picked it up myself, but I am being guided in new meditation studies and this is just one of nine books that I will be diving into over the next few months.

The two chapters that I am currently digesting are .. Exercising Your Brain (Chapter 8) and Finding Serenity (Chapter 9) .. and both are full of practical insights, and really interesting science with a focus on the link between spirituality and neuroscience.

In 'Finding Serenity' we are introduced to twelve exercises .. distilled from the world's spiritual practices to enhance the neural functioning of the brain.  When I was first introduced to meditation as a teenager .. breath awareness was my first instruction.  Over the years I have explored further breath awareness practices in traditional (Buddhist, Zen, Insight, Vipassana) and secular (science based) meditation teachings. Nearly every meditation technique includes some breath awareness.  From 'How God Changes Your Brain':

What's so spiritual about breathing?

In Western cultures, breathing would not be considered a spiritual activity, but in Eastern traditions it is the core of spiritual practice.  Why? It's partially a matter of semantics. The Sanskrit word for breath is prana, but prana also means "life force" or "vital energy".  In the Hindu and Taoist traditions, the breath is also a metaphor for "spirit" and"soul".  Thus, by regulating your breath, you deepen your spirituality.  Buddhism shifted the focus to the mind and devised breathing meditations that would give you greater control over mental and emotional states.  This, it turns out, is neurologically effective.  In Eastern traditions, developing consciousness and mental control are genuine spiritual pursuits, and it all begins with the breath.

I recorded a guided Breath Awareness meditation HERE a few years ago .. it can be found on my Find The Stillness CD .. you might like to experience this guided meditation today ..

Self care practices

Are you on our FREE Monday Meditation Musings email list? This is a FREE weekly email designed to provide an inspirational (and meditative) kick-start to your week .. a little meditative nourishment! 

You can sign up for Monday Meditation Musings here. 

This week .. a brief Meditative Exercise that is deeply relaxing and refreshing for mind and body.

Have you noticed how often you hold your breath?

Breath Magic : Ground Yourself

Breath Magic #7

Consciously directing our awareness AND
breath to different parts of our body can improve energy flow,
release tension, ground and energises us.

Like sending smiles to our body and organs from the inside.

Take some time today to remove your shoes and stand
on the grass imagining your breath flowing down
through your feet and toes, down deep into the earth.

GROUND YOURSELF

into the body by flowing with the breath into sacred earth


{You can follow our Breath Magic series for the month of January via our Facebook Page here}

Just Breathe ..

(Pic: Note To Self Just Breathe by Holly2007)

My first meditation instruction occured when I was a teenager .. and it was all about the breath. 

Using the breath as our anchorin meditation is what I call a 'foundation practice' .. providing a solid foundation of focus and awareness before we move into other meditation practices.  

The breath is an ideal anchor .. it is readily available to us (you don't need to remember to bring your breath with you to meditation class!) and is a great biofeedback tool (so you know how you are travelling in any moment).  Using the breath to balance body and mind is an ancient practice (in yoga called pranayama or breath mastery) and many of our Meditative Exercises that we learn in class are based on these tried and tested practices. 

Incorrect or inefficient breathing makes us feel anxious, tired, foggy in the mind and distracted.

Good breathing (diaphragmatic) makes us feel more at ease at it restores our body's natural regulatory system .. 'feeding' the brain with vital oxygen which is often the reason behind that foggy, distracted feeling.

Great to see the breath a mainstream article on the breathe in this weeks The Age

"Moving your diaphragm when you breathe communicates to every cell of your body that you are 'safe'," says biochemist and author, Dr Libby Weaver.