From the moment we are born to the very end of our lives, our breath is constant.
Hold your breath. You become uncomfortable very quickly! And yet, we pass our days mostly unaware of this most basic activity. Without breath, we are nothing.
It is because of its very simplicity and availability that we learn to meditate by focusing on our breath.
Breathing in, we notice our in-breath. Breathing out, we notice the out-breath.
There is nothing forced. Our breath is how it is. Right now.
We may note where we feel it in the moment. Do we note the breath in our belly?
The rise and fall. Or our chest? The expansion of our ribcage and the release. Or perhaps we feel it most at our nostrils, the coolness of the in-breath, the warmth as we exhale.
Wherever you notice it most strongly, that is your focal point.
Your mind will wander, it always does. No matter.
Just come back to the breath.
Your breath, which is always available to you is your home. It is your anchor.
From the book “Just Breathe: A Simple Guide to Meditation” by Eliza Wing, illustrated by Karen Sandstrom.