Mindful Breath/6:3:6 Breathing

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Mindful breathing is a way to bring yourself into the present moment. It can serve to bring you into your body which is always in the present moment. A mindful breath can also help you transition from one thing to another. For instances, before you move from your work life into your home life, a couple mindful breaths can make all the difference on how you ease into your home life. Or between an emotion and reacting from that emotion; after noticing yourself feeling emotional, a few mindful breaths can help you not react negatively to others. This would ease the burden of harming others and yourself, as we talk about in the Ahimsa teaching. 

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Method of Mindful Breathing:

Allow your full awareness to be with your breath. Notice the breath coming into the body and how the body and mind respond to the incoming breath. And notice how the mind and body respond to the outgoing breath. Notice any pauses between the breaths. How do the pause feel to you as the body and mind quiets?

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Prana and 6:3:6  Another direct benefit of mindful breathing is that the life force currents (prana) are strengthened. With this in mind, our mindful 6:3:6 breath draws Prana into the body for a count of 6, allows for this Prana or life force currents to be dispersed and stored throughout the body during teh 3 count pause, and then the six count exhalation provides an avenue for all that is no longer serving our bodies, to be released. This includes the carbon dioxide that resides in the lungs until we expel it all out.

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Method of 6:3:6:

Breath in for a count of 6, pause for a count of 3 and then exhale for a count of 6.