Longevity Breathing and Meditation

[Anonymous]

Hi there,

I’m very happy and excited to join this online Community, thanks for having me.

I started week 1 practice yesterday and I’m planning to practice 20 minutes in the morning and in the evening. Before I joined this group I had been exploring Longevity Breathing basic exercises for about 3 weeks. I would like to keep going with that as well, so my question is how Longevity Breathing and Meditation and related in a practical sense? What would be a recommended approach to practicing both?

I have a feeling that Breathing is an element of Meditation and can be taught separately, but not sure if that’s true.

Thanks and best wishes
Jacek

[Anonymous]

Hi Jacek,

Breathing and meditation are interrelated in a number of ways. I’ll describe one major way that shown up a lot in my practice.

A lot of early meditation practice is about learning to stay present to an energy that you are trying to dissolve. You are going to try to pay attention to a particular block in your body so that you can dissolve it. You’ll keep getting distracted and you will keep trying to get back to the block. If you spend 10 minutes dissolving a block, but you were distracted for 9 those minutes, you will in effect have only done 1 minute of practice.

As you get better, you’ll be able to stay present for 2 minutes out of every 10 minutes. So now your meditation practice will be twice as powerful. In the same 10 minutes, you get twice as much done. This process will continue. The more you practice, the better you’ll get at it.

Your breathing and the thoughts of your mind are connected. If your breathing is really ragged and agitated, it will make your thoughts more agitated. Your mind will start to race. You’ll be caught in a tornado of thoughts and emotions. Now when you try to meditate, you’ll be able to stay present for 10 seconds out of the 10 minutes. It’s really hard to pay attention to something when your mind is racing.

The opposite is also true. If you can calm your breath down. If you can make it relaxed. If you can make it smooth and even. If you make the transition between an in-breath and an out-breath smooth and even. Then you will also notice an effect on your thoughts. Your mind will become calmer, more still and more quiet. Now when you try to meditate, you’ll notice that you can stay present for 3 minutes out of every 10. You’ll notice it’s sooooo much easier to pay attention. It’s so much easier to not get distracted. You’ll think “Holy crap, this is awesome!”

Hope this helps,
Janak

[Anonymous]

Hi Janak,

Thanks for taking your time to reply to my post.

I like your example, it’s very clear. I can relate to what you’re saying from my experience with the sitting practices from other traditions.

My question may have been not clear, but I found the information I was look for on pages 34-35 in “Relaxing into your being”. Breathing Exercises are Preparatory Practices and Meditation is an Intermediate Practice.

With best wishes
Jacek

[Anonymous]

I have been browsing through some past threads and found a very interesting exchange about Breathing and Meditation here:

http://www.energyarts.com/forum/longevity-breathing

[Author]

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