Breathing as a response to it all

[ivankiss]

I'm going to be honest with you. I'm not really a fan of traditional meditation practice. I'm not the guy who will sit down in a lotus position and meditate for an hour every day. I tried it and it did not work for me. I built too much resistance around the whole process. It felt fake... like I had to force myself. Not saying it's wrong or anything. It's just not my cup of tea.

What I like doing is meditating randomly. Whenever and however I feel like. I really enjoy walking meditations. Sometimes I meditate while waiting in line at the grocery store. Other times while I'm taking a crap. Right before I fall asleep or as soon as I open my eyes. While I'm washing the dishes or playing my guitar. It matters not in what position my body is or even what activities I'm engaged in. Only one thing matters. And that is: breathing consciously. Breathing through all the doing, all the thinking all the feeling all the perceiving. Breathing through it all.

So just like that it happened that I was breathing through some shit earlier. Some rather heavy stuff - to be honest. And I realized something cool. Breathing can be playful and fun, too.

I remember in my past; so many times I tried to force a deep, steady, slow breathing pattern upon myself in order to attain a higher state. And boy was I pissed at myself for doing that. Again; felt very forced and fake. Disrespectful and arrogant. 

I discovered that I don't need to make a big deal out of this at all. It can be easy and simple. It's like a little game that I play now. And the game is: whatever arises - breathe through it. Respond to it with a breath. This requires me to truly be in tune with what's arising. The pattern, as well as the depth of my breathing is constantly being (re)adjusted. I love playing with it. The breath of fire is my favorite. I can totally lose myself in it. There's nothing that can stand in its way. It pierces through everything.

Instead of trying to counter a negative thought loop with positive thoughts, or trying to fight feeling bad by doing something that should lift my spirits... I can simply respond to it all with conscious breathing.

Start with a clean slate.

[ivankiss]

Another thought came to mind:

Everything you know, every realization or insight you ever had, anything you became conscious of... can and most likely will be used against you (by you, of course) in your darkest hour.

What you cannot use against yourself is the breath. It is the only 'thing' that can set you free. Thas is; while you're still breathing.

Edited January 6, 2021 by ivankiss

[seeking_brilliance]

Agree, I've found myself doing this too, yes even on the toilet ??

 

[ivankiss]

?❤

[seeking_brilliance]

Holy shit... 

[Nyseto]

Meditation is not what we do, but what we are. If breathing helps you recognize the presence of awareness, all power to you. Eventually you'll just go directly to it without having to breathe or do anything. It's what you are, afterall.

[ivankiss]

@Nyseto Nice. Thank you.

[abrakamowse]

On 1/5/2021 at 7:38 PM, ivankiss said:

the game is: whatever arises - breathe through it. Respond to it with a breath.

That's very helpful. I feel the concept similar to the idea of wu wei or non doing, where you try to go with the flow with every circumstance that arises.

[gettoefl]

what i would say about meditation is, whatever the mind tells you is a complete lie ... meditation after all is its death sentence

this is not for most of course but for me for almost a year i force meditate for 4 hours / day ... and each day becomes little easier and better and richer

mind still tells me hey slack off a few days buddy but mostly i do keep on with it

i like very much what you said about breathing, this is all i do when i meditate, just breathe as beautifully as i can