Take a Breath
© meditators
In a busy lunchtime queue at EAT in Notting Hill I overheard a manager say to a frazzled worker, ‘Slow down, take a breath’. It was said with a smile, and had the desired effect. The worker grinned and visibly relaxed for a moment by the cappuccino machine.
Take a ‘deep’ breath is often what we are told, but this isn’t necessarily the best advice, as we may tend to gulp for air. Just stopping for a moment and noticing our breath, however, is one of the most powerful tools for anyone wanting to let go of a little of their stress and speed.
The practice of sitting meditation is a way to slow down and see how our mind works. As Tibetan teacher Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche explains, using the breath as the object of meditation is especially good for calming a busy mind: ‘The steady flow of the breath soothes the mind and allows for steadiness and relaxation.’
Although it has connections with spiritual traditions like Buddhism, meditation is gaining a following amongst doctors and psychotherapists as a successful technique for working with health problems, including stress, depression and chronic pain. In Massachusetts Jon Kabat-Zinn developed a programme of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) for hospital out-patients which uses sitting meditation and yoga as its basis. Over 20 years of clinical trials have shown it to be effective, and mindfulness courses are now spreading rapidly in the UK. Even comedian Ruby Wax, not known for being chilled, has taken up mindfulness meditation as a treatment for her depression.
One of the techniques used in Mindfulness training is the ‘three-minute breathing space’. At any time when you feel too speedy, just focus in on your breath for a minute- or two or three. You can count the breaths up to five or ten if it helps you to focus, and then drop the counting and just feel the breath as it moves in and out.
Our breath reflects our mental state: it is closely connected to both body and mind, and is the vital link between the two. Our minds are usually like a tree full of monkeys chattering about the past and the future. But if you take a moment to be with your breath it is never last night’s breath or next week’s breath – it is always this breath in this moment. By tuning in to the feeling of our own breath we can slow down and bring ourselves into the present.
Tessa Watt – Director, Slow Down London
