Cultivating awareness of the breath is a surprisingly powerful spiritual practice, given its simplicity. You don’t go anywhere, put on special clothes or learn words of a foreign language. All you do is shift your attention from all the different things going on outside, to one particular thing happening inside: this amazing and mysterious process called breathing.

It’s not about becoming so “mindful” of the breath to the point of zoning out and doing nothing else. Rather, it’s a kind of tuning in, even in the midst of activity: much like having a conversation with a friend at a noisy cafe.

In a similar way, you can have a dialogue with your breath. Using questions such as “Where am I most aware of my breath right now?” or “What kind of breath would feel good right now?” opens up a space for inhabiting the body, and for inhabiting this particular moment, with compassion and gratitude.

 

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ANNA ROHLEDER

Whether through travel or spiritual exploration, Anna is always seeking new perspectives. She is a professional writer and editor who has covered subjects ranging from art to advertising. Her blog on spiritual subjects, now archived, can be found at http://ahoneybeesfoot.wordpress.com.

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