Flourishing Life Society
  • Flourishing Life Society
    • Addiction Recovery
    • Books to Flourish
    • Human Flourishing
    • Mindfulness Archive
    • Personal Development >
      • Personal Development Archive
    • Non-Profit Donation Links
  • Psychology of Wellness
    • Basic Emotions >
      • Emotional Data Base
      • Emotional Fitness
    • Psychology Article Archive
  • Flourishing Relationships
    • Intimate Relationship Articles >
      • Repair Attempts
    • Society and Others Archive >
      • Politics Archive
  • Health and Fitness
  • About Us
  • Link Page
Home | Personal Development | Mindfulness Archive | Mindful Breathing

Mindful Breathing

A Self-Care Practice

BY: T. Franklin Murphy  | March 2018 (edited February 19, 2022)
A person meditating on the edge of a cliff. An article on the art of mindful breathing to heal the soul
Adobe Stock Images
The breathe brings life to the body, feeding the heart and brain. Mindful breathing brings attention to the life giving breath.
When breathing stops, life ends. The breath initiates the delivery of oxygen to the organs and muscles. The heart, the lungs and the brain work in an orchestrated effort to bring oxygen to essential life functions. Ancient wisdom and modern medicine understand the crucial live-giving function of breath. But breathing can be much more than an unconscious biological function. Breathing functions both under conscious and unconscious control, during sleep and during wakefulness. Conscious breathing is a portal into mindfulness, inviting peace to our bothered soul.

Mindful breathing is the foundation to practices of meditation, yoga, mindfulness and relaxation. Purposeful attention that focuses on breathing creates an anchor, holding the mind and body securely in the present, free from aggravating thoughts and disrupting anxieties.

​Over the last several decades conscious breathing has expanded from mystic spiritual practices to proven medical wellness programs—therapy, heart coherence, emotional soothing and emotional-regulation. Many scientific studies confirm what eastern wisdom has known for millenniums--mindful breathing is good for the body, spirit, and mind.

Key Concept:

Mindful breathing is healing for both the body and mind.
​Our busied mind lunges into anxious and destructive thoughts, jumping from the anxieties of futures and guilt over unchangeable pasts. Hurried, overwhelmed and bewildered our lives need rescue.  We need space to recover from the vicissitudes of living.  Many joyously have discovered mindful breathing as a place to re-energize the soul, giving health to heart, mind and soul.

How to Mindfully Breath

Mindful breathing brings breath from the darkness of unconsciousness to the light of awareness. To create awareness intentional action must intervene and focus attention. Thought is gently guided to the inhaling and exhaling of breath.
 
If this is a new practice, some preparation assists the beginner as they enter the mindful world of sensations. Mindful breathing is a state of being—not doing. An environment free of distractions—phone beeps, screaming children, and annoying husbands. In time, with practice, mindfulness can intrude on distractions and provide a needed respite from lives demands; but for the beginner, successful mindfulness demands coaxing from an already calm environment.
 
Once situated, comfortably seated, let the breath come to you, focusing awareness on the sensations of normal breath. First seek out the most salient sensations (mouth, nose, lungs, abdomen). Notice the coolness of the incoming air, the expanding of the chest and abdomen. For many, these feelings create calmness and settling. A glowing warmth of momentary escape from thought graces our bodies and mind.

Key Definition: 

Mindful breathing is a meditation practice that focuses attention on breathing, noticing the rhythm and the flow as air enters and exits the lungs.
There is no perfect form to this simple practice of breathing. Non-judgmental, non-forced. We breath and attend to the sensation of breathing. We take note of changing sensations—tightness in muscles, sounds of released air, and tingling on skin.

Books on Mindfulness

​The mind will wander, as we grow accustomed to the breathing. It is what our brain does. When behavior becomes repetitive and neutral, instead of novel and demanding, our thoughts wander. The movement of thought from the subtleties of breathing sensations to compelling anxieties is not because of our inability to concentrate. The drifting of the mind is a necessary element of mindful breathing. Once we observe the wandering, we kindly, without judgment, gently bring attention back to the breath.

​The normal shifting from mindful attention to free-flowing thoughts and then redirection back to the anchor of breath becomes a model for mindfulness in living.
 
The practice of mindful breathing can be a short five-minute session and the slowly expanded as comfort dictates. We bring the practice to the edge of our abilities and no further.
"The drifting of the mind is a necessary element of mindful breathing. Once we observe the wandering, we kindly, without judgment, gently bring attention back to the breath."

Expanding the Practice

Mindful breathing stands alone with its own benefits, neither needing expanding or changing. While during practiced, neither goals or expectations should be projected on the breath. These wishes intrude, interrupt the process and create constant evaluations. In stead of enjoying a peaceful retreat from the normal anxiety of the working mind, we inject harsh judgments into the practice, criticize our efforts, and end up in another fitful spat with the essence of our being.

​We pepper our psyche with questions, “Why can’t I do this right?” “Why can’t I sleep?” “Why am I feeling this?” This is the judgmental thoughts of the examining mind we are working to diminish. Expansion must be gentle and not forced. Deeper explorations into the feeling of being are conducted with the same compassion as mindful breathing—nonjudgmental and kind.
 
The expansion of the practice allows the mind to explore other sensations beyond the movement of air through the body. Our mind can drift to an expansive universe of feeling—anxieties, sorrows, and excitements. The focus, however, is not on the external events creating the emotion, but the particulars of the emotion itself. How does the emotion feel? Where do I feel the sorrow? If the emotion was a color or shape how would I describe it?
 
Moving a focus on emotions, especially for those disconnected from feeling, can be excruciating. Too much exposure, too early can be destabilizing. When feelings overwhelm, we gently move away from the feeling and back to the sensations of breathing. We walk to the edge and return to security. The crushing emotions may be the thorn disrupting our lives; our constant avoidance of feeling is the impetus behind inflexibility, non-adapting mechanisms to life.

​We don’t poke, push or rile the delicate being into unnecessary experience. We simply allow the mind to drift to these irritants and become acquainted with their presence, going to the edge and returning to safety.

Mindfulness in Life

These organized and purposeful mindful journeys prepare the explorer for a giant leap, moving from the comfort of a pristine controlled environment of designed meditation to the dynamics of the world. Just as practices of exercise, healthy eating, and learning expand beyond the gym, dinner table and class so does mindfulness. Our well-practiced mind dances through feelings during interactions. Instead of blindly responding with vigor, we notice how a word or event triggers a feeling.

​We can gently explore the anger or hurt, rolling it around in our mind, examining the feeling for appropriateness before responding. Our practice has created space between emotion and action, bringing previous unconscious irritants to the surface, piercing through hard protective armors that were once appropriate but now weighty and bothersome, interfering with intimacy, and protecting against nothing.
 
Emotions may stay, we can’t wash away all the intrusive feelings programmed by the past. But when we can explore them with safety, we gain flexibility for more adaptive responses. We redirect action to positive self-fulfilling behaviors. Instead of blind imaginations of unfulfillable fantasies, we move towards goals; Instead of angry displacement, we notice the emotion and cause and artfully find pleasurable and beneficial escapes to soothe. Mindful living intervenes with the chaos and creates the flourishing life we desire to live.
Please support Flourishing Life Society with a social media share or by visiting a link:
Twitter Reddit LinkedIn Email
T. Franklin Murphy
T. Franklin Murphy
Wellness. Writer. Researcher.
​T. Franklin Murphy has a degree in psychology. He tirelessly researches scientific findings that contribute to wellness. In 2010, he began publishing his findings.

Index:

Flourishing in Life
  • Personal Development
  • Mindfulness
  • Addiction Recovery
  • Wellness 
Psychology of Wellness
  • Emotions​
  • Personality
  • Defense Mechanisms
Flourishing Relationships
  • Intimate
  • Parent/Child
  • Society
Health and Fitness
Books to Flourish
Research
About Flourishing Life
Flourishing Life Society Link to research articles
Internal Link: Flagship article. Ten Beacons of Light. Improving our lives isn't from following items on a simple list. Science, however, has provided some helpful clues to our pursuit of wellness. These ten beacons of light provide direction, lights that illuminate a path to growth.
Banner link to Flourishing Life Society's Mindfulness articles
Wellness Links:
External Link: Anxious? Try a Safety Signal
External Link: What Happened to My Mood When I Started Painting Once a Day
External Link: A sharper mind: tai chi can improve cognitive function
External Link:  My Pain was a gift
External Link: If You’re Bad at Meditating, Can I Suggest Knot Tying?
External Link: A Scarcity Mindset Will Destroy Your Dreams
External Link: The Art of Soothing

​Other Flourishing Life Society articles of interest on this topic:

A Flourishing Life Society article link. Self Deprecating
Living is serious business, give yourself a break. Harsh judgments hurt the soul and slow progress.
FLS link. Context Dependent
Internal FLS link. Noble Eightfold Path: Ancient Buddhist wisdom that provides a practical guide for growth in the modern world.
Books, conferences and education are wonderful; but deeper wisdom comes from grander sources.
Our emotions can be great teachers or callous task masters. We need emotion as part of the rich experience of humanness to guide us through the complexities of connection and survival but we must monitor feeling to keep us on task.
FLS link. The Joy of Being. We find joy in living through a more serene path than accumulation and achievement. We find joy in relishing small moments of simply being.
FLS Link. Fredrickson's Broaden and Build: Positive emotions promote growth by encouraging approach and observation.
Mental Recovery. Heavy demands exhausts our energy and we need to rest or risk mental and physical illness. A Flourishing Life Society Article Link
We face face the reality of nasty habits before we can begin to change.
FLS link-- Emotional Regulation: Emotions energize and push for action. Healthy regulation capitalizes on the richness of emotion and directs the energy towards life objectives.
A flourishing Life Society article link. Emotional Overload
Flourishing Life Society article on Focusing. Link to article
Flourishing Life Society link to Inner Peace. Creating Inner Peace with Reflection.
The ancient practice of yoga is much more than an exercise routine. Yoga brings together the mind, body and spirit in a whole body cleansing experience.
Living a virtuous life is never accomplished in perfection; we integrate ethical standards one small step at a time.
The breathe brings life to the body, feeding the heart and brain. Mindful attention to this life giving process can change our lives.
Picture
Flourishing Life Society
  • Human Flourishing
  • Psychology of Wellness
  • Flourishing Relationships
  • Psychology Definitions​
​Other Links
  • About US
  • Companion Site​
  • Most Popular Articles
  • Psychology Topics A-z
Articles:
  • New Articles​
  • Last year's Publications​
​Favorites:
  • Self-Actualization
  • Emotional Safety
  • Alexithymia
  • ​Emotional Detachment
  • Masochistic Personality
  • Reciprocal Deteminism ​
News Letter

    New Article Updates

Subscribe to Newsletter
  • Flourishing Life Society
    • Addiction Recovery
    • Books to Flourish
    • Human Flourishing
    • Mindfulness Archive
    • Personal Development >
      • Personal Development Archive
    • Non-Profit Donation Links
  • Psychology of Wellness
    • Basic Emotions >
      • Emotional Data Base
      • Emotional Fitness
    • Psychology Article Archive
  • Flourishing Relationships
    • Intimate Relationship Articles >
      • Repair Attempts
    • Society and Others Archive >
      • Politics Archive
  • Health and Fitness
  • About Us
  • Link Page