The average person takes approximately 23,000 breaths per day. Because breathing is an automatic process, we’re not aware of the majority of these breaths. One of the principle tools of mindfulness is to focus the attention on the breath. That’s not to say that we should be aware of every single breath we take (we wouldn’t get anything done if we did!). The goal, instead, is to periodically concentrate on our breathing throughout the day, whether during a formal mindfulness practice (such as a sitting meditation), or during an informal mindfulness practice (such as taking a few breaths with our hand over our heart).
You will often hear mindfulness teachers say “the breath is your anchor” or “return to the breath” when your mind wanders.
Breathing Mindfully Is Helpful in 2 Main Ways:
1. It gives us something to focus on. For example, when our minds are jumping from one worry to the next (aka “monkey mind”), we can simply “return to our breath” to break the negative thought loop.
2. It interrupts our sympathetic nervous system’s “flight, fight or freeze” response and puts us in “rest and digest” mode (which is governed by our more laidback parasympathetic nervous system). When we’re anxious, we tend to breathe faster (or hold our breath), revving up our anxiety even more. By breathing mindfully, we can soothe our nervous system, and slow things down.
The Easiest Way To Turn Our Attention to Our Breath Is To Change Or Manipulate It.
In this post, we’ll focus on one of the many tools that enables us to do this, called the “5-Finger Breath.” The Navy Seals are even known to use this breathing technique. Get Wise(r) about it below…
Here’s How to Do The 5-Finger Breath (Young Kids Can Try This Too!):
1. Fan out the fingers of one of your hands like a starfish.
2. Take the pointer finger of the other hand and gently trace the fingers of your starfish hand, slowly moving up and down each finger.
3. Breathe in when your pointer finger moves up a finger. Breathe out when your pointer finger moves down a finger.
4. Repeat this breath 5 times.
5. Notice how you feel. Is anything different?
“Feelings come and go like clouds in a windy sky.
Conscious breathing is my anchor.”
~Thich Nhat Hanh
