Meditation Articles Series

Where are you twenty-four hours of the day? Hopefully in your body, although in a society that puts so much emphasis on consumerism and television, the chances of always being present in your body, in the present moment, may be slight. Drugs, alcohol, and food taken in excess, or anything else done excessively, even exercise; can take us away from listening to, and being aware of our bodies. I read about a triathlon competitor whose goal is to win gold at the Beijing Olympics. His schedule is highly strenuous. He said that all he did was to train, eat and sleep and he was continuously exhausted and pushing himself to the limits. What is his body telling him? He has a major goal and is prepared to ignore the signals his body is giving him. I wonder what the long-term effects of that will be. If we aren’t listening to our bodies and what they are trying to tell us, we end up in a state of imbalance, which leads to dis-ease.

Being aware of the breath keeps us in our bodies

In a lot of meditation techniques the point of focus is the breath. The breath is a reliable indicator of how we are functioning in our lives. Right now pay attention to the breath. How are you breathing? Deeply or shallowly? Do you sometimes forget to breathe for long periods of time? Which parts of your body are the most tense right now? Could you take the breath to those parts of your body and release the tension you are holding there by just breathing in and out of those areas?

Learn to Meditate over Five Days

In Learn to Meditate over Five Days the one pointed focus is the breath. Watching the breath as it comes and goes, gives you the opportunity to neither coerce nor control the breath, but simply let it be. If you have taken the opportunity to subscribe to these free Learn to Meditate lessons on our website, you may now be finding that you are breathing much more freely and easily, not just in your meditation practice but in your daily living as well. You may find that you catch yourself breathing shallowly when you’re tense or uptight. Taking some full deep and clearing breaths will help you to re-centre. Being aware of the breath throughout the day helps you to stay calm, alert, relaxed and focused. Being aware of the breath, being in your body is definitely a good place to be.