The radical, healing act of breathing meditation

Meditation, self-love, and health

This post is updated from its original.

There are many ways to meditate, as many ways as there are people, perhaps. Meditation just means practicing awareness in the present moment. Many people use different meditation practices to support healing chronic illness, anxiety and depression, and even chronic pain. Visualization is one awareness practice that can be a wonderful healing tool. So are the various kinds of brain retraining available. Guided meditations can be an incredible tool. And basic, traditional, breathing meditation can also be profoundly healing.

Practicing breathing meditation is an exploration of the wilderness within, the spirit experienced alone. It’s personal and creative. Everyone can practice breathing meditation. You aren’t alone if your inner voice is unruly. You aren’t disqualified if you can’t sit cross-legged. Every single breathing meditation practice is a success no matter how annoying, and a radical act of self-love.

The basics of breathing meditation

Breathing meditation is the intention to be still and feel your body and your breath. This can be done sitting, lying down, or walking slowly. Then, breathing meditation is the practice of observing and accepting absolutely everything that comes up, no matter what. Whatever on earth comes up for you, notice it, accept it, and return to feeling your body and your breath.

This sounds simple, but it is the opposite. It’s a radical departure from the norm. It flies in the face of all our patterns, no matter our history.

Most of our waking lives are spent judging what we want and don’t want, and trying to get what we want. Literally most of our waking seconds are spent doing this in one way or another. Meditation shines a light on this human habit we all share.

What is that voice in your head saying? What does it want and not want? How do your thoughts pull emotions up from the depths of your body? What do the emotions feel like? It takes patience to get carried away by the unruly mind, again and again, and to come back to awareness of the body and the breath. It takes a sense of humor, kindness toward yourself. It’s a complete departure from the norm of human culture, the chasing and grasping. It’s a radical act of love.

Touching the ghost: why meditation is worth it

As time goes on, meditation opens a little space around this mental chatter. As you come back to your body and your breath, over and over, meditation asks questions. Who is the “you” practicing? It’s not that chatty voice. Who is the awareness observing your inner life? Who is left, when you let your thoughts dissolve?

Stepping into this unknown is an act of faith. For many, the silence, the openness, the love required to practice, the energy of awareness itself, is profoundly healing.

In breathing meditation, I add the component of paying attention to the space around me as well as my body and breath. When I do this, I begin to feel a vast, loving energy that permeates everything around me. You might call it Divine Intelligence. There’s nothing more healing to me than relaxing into this limitless Source. I can let go of my identity and all my concerns for the time I spend resting here. I feel a sense of oneness, of non-duality, and my body and my life feel truly temporary.

Until my brain interrupts me once again with a grocery list, or a fantasy conversation, or a Harry Styles song on repeat.

I just hope to get better at spending time in this open, quiet place, and experiencing the ways it changes me. What you find in meditation will be unique. The mystery is yours to explore.

To space and possibility within,

Shona