Meditation Skill 00

Diaphragmatic breathing calms stress reactions, thereby weakening hindrances based on desire and aversion during mindfulness of breathing. 

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• Goal: To develop the habit of daily meditation and to change any stress breathing patterns present to lower stress & anxiety in daily life and in preparation for mindfulness of breathing.
• Meditation Length: Begin by committing to 10 minutes of meditation. At first, this may be once per week, but as you find enjoyment in your meditation, you will naturally meditate more often. Gradually increase the time you commit to meditation by 1 minute until you can rest in meditation for 20 minutes per day to see a significant reduction in stress in daily life. If you miss a day because you are busy, this is ok. It is important that you don't stop meditating because of this; instead, learn to look forward to your next opportunity to meditate to develop a habit of looking forward to your meditation.
• Benefits: This Meditation Skill will teach you how to desensitise your mind's sensitivity to responding to stress and anxiety in daily life. It will also help you make diaphragmatic breathing natural in preparation for mindfulness of breathing.
• Progression: You are ready to progress to Meditation Skill 01 when you experience a decrease of stress & anxiety in your daily life and are able to calm stress & anxiety when they are present by taking slow breaths in your belly when you feel stressed or anxious.

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Meditation Instructions:

• YouTube Instructions

I recommend doing this meditation to retrain stress breathing patterns to lower the experience of stress & anxiety for 3 - 4 weeks or until you notice that you naturally breathe in your belly and not in your chest. This breathing technique changed my life and the lives of many other people who were ready to develop an understanding of their mind and body to remove the conditions for stress and anxiety. 

1: Learn how to breathe with your diaphragm.

Start by lying on the floor. If needed, use a pillow under your head and a rolled blanket under your knees. Place both your palms just below your belly button, fingers touching in the middle, pressing slightly inwards. 

• Gently raise your palms away from your body by slowly extending the lower part of your abdomen upwards. 
• Lower your palms by slowly lowering your abdomen, letting the breath out. 
• Breathe in this way slowly 10-20 times or until you get a calming effect. 
• Notice that when the lower part of your abdomen rises, air is drawn in through your nose, and as your lower abdomen falls, air is expelled out again. 

2: Gently slow down your breathing rate.

Once you have done 20 repetitions of breathing in your belly, the next stage is to learn to breathe from your belly up into your chest.

• Bring one palm to the top of your chest, leave the other below your belly button.
• Slowly breathe in from your belly button, ribs, chest.
• Allow your body to relax with a slow out-breath.
• Repeat 10 times with slow, gentle breaths; no strain.
• Be careful that the breath starts in your belly, not your chest.

3: Breathe from your belly into your chest.

This final stage of lying still and doing nothing is important in lowering anxiety as it reinforces diaphragm breath and teaches the body and mind how to relax deeply.

• Stop controlling your breathing, allow it to find its rhythm and pace.
• Distract yourself by being aware of different parts of your body touching the floor.
• Lie still and allow your breathing to happen naturally. 
• Notice how the gentle breath in your belly calms you.

1. Experiencing struggle and strain.

Be careful of over-effort or strain. Anxiety creates the desire to try to achieve, to control things within our life, including something as basic as breathing. If you notice any struggle or strain, then stop what you are doing for a short while and allow yourself to relax before starting again. Breathing in the lower belly is enjoyable if it is done in a relaxed and gentle way. Avoid the urge to overinflate your belly or to try harder, slow gentle movement is the key. Feel your way into this simple exercise, when the rhythm is right it will feel good, and your feeling of calmness will increase. This will offer you direction.

2. Feeling light-headed.

Because you are not used to breathing so deeply, you may experience some light-headedness due to the increased levels of C02 being absorbed. Whenever you experience this, stop the exercise and allow yourself to stay still. Generally, after 10 seconds this feeling settles as C02 re-balances leaving you feeling calmer & more relaxed, and you can resume your training. With regular practice this light-headed feeling gradually lessons.

***See your doctor if light-headedness persists*** 

3. Feeling like you don't have enough air.

If breathing in your chest is normal for you then it will be natural for your diaphragm movement on your in-breath to be short. Because of the shortness of your diaphragm movement, you may feel as if you are not getting enough air. If needed during the exercise you can take an extra breath. Once the movement of your diaphragm slows down and lengthens, the feeling of needing more air will go away. By paying attention to the very beginning of the in-breath, starting it slowly, and paying attention to the very beginning of the out-breath, starting it slowly, your breathing will naturally deepen. The most important part to focus on is learning to release the out-breath slowly. This is done to allow the depleted C02 levels caused by chest hyperventilation to re-balance and as a vehicle for deep mental relaxation during MIDL Softening Techniques.

4. Your breathing feels tight.

If when breathing in you feel a tightness of the breath within your lower chest, it is possible that you are breathing in from the top of your chest downwards in an attempt to push your diaphragm down into your belly. This will not work. The diaphragm is a dome and cannot be pushed down; it needs to be pulled. It can be helpful to think of your diaphragm as an upside-down plunger. When you pull the handle downward the plunger will suck in air, as you push it back up it expels it. To engage your diaphragm, think of pulling it downwards rather than pushing it. Placing your fingertips below your belly button and pressing in slightly to allow you to feel your lower abdomen move is helpful.

There will be times during meditation when you find it difficult to feel comfortable or mentally clear and calm. These difficulties, known as the Meditative Hindrances, are viewed in MIDL as opportunities to develop understanding and insight into your mind and body. 

When retraining stress breathing patterns to diaphragmatic breathing, it is important to acknowledge that you are working with a habit. Because habit plays a role in stress and anxiety, you may find at first that diaphragmatic breathing (in your belly) only occurs for a short time after your meditation before it switches back to stress breathing (upper chest) again. 

This is normal and a part of the process that requires clear yet kind repetition of how you would like your breathing to happen throughout the day. When working with habit, it is important to maintain positivity and celebrate the little successes, like feeling a few moments of relaxation during your meditation, rather than fixating on what's wrong, as this will only lead to increased stress and anxiety. 

Meditative Hindrance: 

Stress Breathing (00).

Short, shallow stress breathing in the chest.

Stress breathing refers to taking short, shallow breaths in our chest when our stress response turns on, preparing our body to fight or flee from danger. When we are exposed to stressful situations repeatedly or have experienced trauma in our lives, our stress response can habituate, and stress breathing can become our natural way of breathing. 

This habituation puts our mind and body in a hypervigilant/hypersensitive state and makes the development of samatha-calm very difficult in meditation. It is because of this that many meditators have trouble with being mindful of their breathing. By changing our breathing patterns from stress breathing to rest/digest (diaphragmatic) breathing, our mind more easily enters into a relaxed state, and the pleasure of letting go in meditation becomes more accessible.

Antidote: Be curious about what it means to find enjoyment in taking slow gentle breaths with your belly. Be curious about finding the sweet spot for you where breathing with your belly feels free from strain and also feels like a really nice and pleasant thing to do. This sweet spot in how much to fill your belly and also how slowly to do the movement is different for everyone, this is why you need to be curious about feel what is the sweet spot for you. 

A sign that you have found the right formula for you is that it will feel nice to do, your body and mind will relax, and after doing a series of belly breaths, your body will continue to breathe within your belly, by itself, for the rest of your meditation.

Anxiety: If anxiety is present, I recommend a longer period devoted to retraining your breathing patterns following these instructions: Meditation for Stress & Anxiety. This technique lowers the experience of stress & anxiety, as well as making it easier to develop calm during meditation and feel it in daily life. 

 You are ready to progress to Meditation Skill 01: Body Relaxation when:

• You experience a feeling of relaxation and ease after taking slow breaths in your belly, and diaphragmatic breathing, in your belly, happens naturally during your meditation and for a while after you have finished meditating.

• YouTube: Video Instructions.
• PDF Book: Stress & Anxiety as a Path for Mindfulness Meditation.

I have included four guided meditations to help you gradually increase your meditation time and develop a positive daily meditation habit.

1. SoundCloud: Guided Meditation (5min).
2. SoundCloud: Guided Meditation (10min).
3. SoundCloud: Guided Meditation (15min).
4. SoundCloud: Guided Meditation (20min). 

It can be helpful at first, throughout the day, to ask yourself one question:

“Where am I breathing now, is it in my chest or in my belly?”

If your breathing has moved up into your chest then the stress response has been switched on, you may be resisting something in your life. This is ok, it is habitual and happens automatically. 

You can turn off this stress reaction by intentionally re-engaging your diaphragm in your belly. To re-engage natural, diaphragm breathing during the day, you simply place your palms just below your belly button, lightly pressing your fingertips inward. 

Then, take five slow, gentle breaths in your lower belly, below your belly button, to re-engage your diaphragm in respiration. After these three breaths, you may feel a little lightheaded. This is normal when we re-engage the diaphragm. 

Just allow the depleted C02 levels 10 seconds to re-balance, and you will feel mental clarity and calmness return to you.

How to reengage your diaphragm during the day:

1. Standing, sitting or lying down..
2. Place fingers just below belly button, on the V shaped abdominal muscle.
3. Press in slightly on this V shaped abdominal muscle to feel the movement.
4. Slowly extend your lower abdominal muscles out-wards to draw breath in through your nose.
5. Slowly lower your lower abdominal muscles back in-wards again to expel the breath out through your nose.
6. Intentionally slow down your out-breath (avoiding strain) to re-engage your diaphragm.
7. Do this for 5 in and out breaths.
8. Sit still for 10 seconds and observe the change within your mind, body and breathing. Allow yourself to relax each time the breath goes out.

To lower the experience of stress & anxiety within your life, this is the game you need to play. Throughout the day, at first, stress breathing patterns will come back again, you are dealing with a habit. 

By noticing when you start stress breathing and bringing your breath from your chest by re-engaging your diaphragm, you will start to decondition the habit of feeling stressed during the day. When this is supported by the breathing retraining meditation above, the experience of anxiety will gradually come to an end.

• SoundCloud: Guided Meditation.