Beginning Meditation using Mindful Breathing
The 4 F’s for mindful awareness of breathing to help bad thoughts, feelings and body pains
Start here for some basic threoy and the background you need, but as soon as you are ready go right to trying to use your breathing to meditate by going to: BareBonesMeditation
Mindful breathing will help you deal with the feelings causing your problem without running away from them, fighting with them, ignoring them, being overwhelmed by them, or turning them into something else like a physical problem like a headache , or bowel or stomach problems, or problems with concentration, thinking and emotions that will effect your work or play or relationships with friends and family.
Thinking sometimes makes matters worse by bringing in past memories and worries about the future. When this happens we tend to run away from feelings that are bad even if they are good for us to learn more about them, and we want more of something if it causes good feelings even if too much of it may be bad for us.
A pain or bad thoughts and terrible emotions all feel bad but we need to stay with it long enough so we no what they are and can get help for them. In fact just feeling them helps make them get weaker , easier to deal with, and if we do this long enough they will go away. Foods that taste good, medicines, fun things all feel good but too much of them can be bad for us.
If we learn to stay in the present moment and to accept all feelings good or bad for a little while to get to know them better we can see what message they are trying to teach us and what if anything we need to do next. Also as you do this you will be burning away the feelings making them weaker and easy to deal with, and if you do this long enough and over and over, they may eventually just go away.
To do this you need to put your thinking about the past and the future in the back of your mind, and only keep your feelings of your problems in the front of your mind where you can learn to deal with them in new way. The best way to learn to do this is by doing mindful breathing which will give you the concentration, calm mind and relaxed body you need.
With the power of concentration your mind will be calmer and in better control of your feelings and thoughts and you will be able to stay in the experiencing or mindful place and keep this in the front of your mind where you will deal with the feelings associated with your problem, and your will keep any new problems and old problems and all thinking in the back of your mind.
Use the 4 F’s to apply mindful awareness or mindfulness to breathing or anything else. Mindfulness means staying only in the present, not bringing in the past or the future, and not using thinking at all to understand, or to judge a thing good or bad, and then trying to make it better by changing it by more thinking or doing something, but instead not interfering with them, allowing them to develop without changing them by thinking about he past, present or future, and then accepting it for what it is, and helping it by weakening the feelings causing and driving the problem by directly experiencing them over and over.
The 4 F’s: Find your breath, don’t think about it, or try to control it, or expect anything special or do anything extra just breathe normally and then, just Feel it, feel the physical sensations of breath, notice it wave like changing nature, over and over, and Follow it, one breath at time, allowing one breath to unfold, accepting it for what it is, letting it go for the next, Focusing exclusively only on the breathing, feeling it , no thinking, only in the present moment, moment by moment, no thinking, no past , no future, no holding on if it feels good, no avoiding if it feels bad, no ignoring if it feels neutral or boring. This is mindfulness or mindful awareness applied to breathing.
You will apply this same mindful awareness to anything that enters your mind , distractions to the breathing or things you need help with. Keep them in the present only, no thinking from the past or about the future, and Find the feelings associated with “it”, [ “It” will be one of three things, a thought, an emotion, a sensation of your body from the inside like a pain or from the outside like a noise.]. Follow the feelings, Feel the feelings, Focusing in only on them for as long as you can, or until they get weaker and easier to manage, or until they go away.
Start in a sitting posture erect but not stiff, eyes may be open or closed. Stay alert, notice any muscle tension and let it go. This can be done in any posture that keeps you alert yet relaxed, standing, sitting, waiting, walking, lying down.
1. Just breathe normally feel the breath, don’t control it , instead try to let the breath control you, just follow its lead, if you get pulled off your present moment focus by thoughts from the past or the future, just notice them, and go back and find the breath, follow it, and feel it, over and over, again and again and you will get calmer, your body will get more relaxed.
2. If there is a place you feel the breath the most put your awareness there, it could be the nose, the throat, the belly the lungs, where ever.
You can label or name or count to help stay focused saying “one breathing in, two breathing out” or any method that helps you stay focused and to keep you from more thinking.
3. Your may notice that on the in breath you are more alert and concentrated , and on the out breath there is a letting go feeling, with your body more relaxed. Use these natural sensations to help your be more and more alert and concentrated and more and more relaxed.
4. The process is to breath applying this present moment awareness only to the breathing, no past , no future, no thinking or controlling, just feeling and sensing the breathing over and over. Don’t judge what you are doing good or bad or neutral just allow the breathing to occur and follow it, accepting whatever happens. No thinking, no judgment, no expectation, just feel the breath, allow it to come, allow it to go, accept it , going in and out, over and over.
5. When your focus is pulled off the breathing by bad feelings, thought or body problems, or noises or anything else, don’t ignore these things, don’t fight with them, don’t avoid them, don’t give in to them, just notice them for what they are, accept them for what they are, and go back find your breathing and to your focus on feeling and following the breathing over and over, again and again.
6. If one of these distractions, a thought, an emotion, an noise, a body problem gets stuck in your mind, and you can’t get back to the breathing, do the following. Don’t do more thinking about it, don’t judge it any more, don’t add any more emotions or thoughts to it, don’t go to the past or the future about it, just accept it for what it is in the present, and see what feelings and body sensations it may cause, and find them like you did the breath, feel them only, putting them in the front of your mind follow them and they will get weaker and weaker.
Again you may use labeling with the problem saying “thinking, thinking” or “feeling, feeling” or “fear, fear”, or “anger, anger” or “noise, noise” or “pain ,pain” or whatever, there are no right or wrong labels, whatever helps and works for you.
7. Stay with these stronger feelings is doses you can handle, as long as you can , or until they go away, or until they are weak enough so you can get back to the breathing. If they get too strong try to go back to finding and feeling and following the breathing your breathing to get more calm , concentration and relaxation.
8. At any time go back and use the 4 F’s, of Finding the breath, Feeling it, Following it, Focusing only it as you allow it to be as it is, accepting as it is, only in the present moment, not comparing it to the past or the future, no thinking, no control, no judging, no criticism, no expectations, treating each breath equally, whether feeling good, bad or neutral
9. Do these steps over and over, again and again, whenever you can to develop the muscle of mindfulness.