Breathing Meditation

[John]

I have started breathing meditation. Very simple, no frills.

However, I have very bad anxiety that can really cut off my breath. I get very tight and cramped in my chest and throat. I mean super tight.. and achey and fatigued. So my breath gets really shallow. And then it literally becomes hard to find. It gets caught in all of that stuckness in my chest..

So I simply try to focus on whatever tiny bit of it I can catch... Alas it is difficult and I would appreciate any advice!

Thanks in advance,
John

[Prabhaker]

2 hours ago, John said:

I get very tight and cramped in my chest and throat. I mean super tight..

As the breath goes in, your belly starts rising up, and as the breath goes out, your belly starts settling down again. Try to see children, very small children, taking their breaths. They take them in a different way. Look at a child sleeping. His belly comes up and down, not the chest.

Watch the breath in the belly. When the breath goes in, the belly goes up; when the breath goes out, the belly goes in. You go on watching your belly. If you have a really good belly, it will help.

[John]

@Prabhaker But I'm saying that the anxiety is trapping my breath before it even gets to my belly. 

My belly moves up and down only very, very slightly.

If I try and push the breath down there it ends up feeling like a yoga exercise in breathing rather than a meditation.

[Prabhaker]

10 minutes ago, John said:

My belly moves up and down only very, very slightly.

If I try and push the breath down there it ends up feeling like a yoga exercise in breathing

Don't try and push the breath down there, 

Watch the breath in the belly. When the breath goes in, the belly goes up; when the breath goes out, the belly goes in. Don't control it, just watch.