I’m a breathing body

[jesse_the_k]

Part of my daily healthwork routine is silent meditation. I avoided meditating for decades because I thought I had to be a serene person to do it. I learned otherwise. Using audio guidance or timer, I concentrate on my breathing. I become my breathing body. My breath is a constant companion, always happening until I’m dead.

Concentrating on my breath helps me relax and it also reminds me that everyone on the planet is also a breathing body. This commonality calms the terror attendant on our current moment. My ideology, my fears, my impairments aren’t magicked away, but I am always a breathing body, just like everyone else.

It’s called meditation practice because that concentration is a skill. While I’m meditating I find myself thinking about the past or planning for the future. This is the magic moment. When I notice I’m thinking, I softly name it, and then return to my breathing.

I learned to meditate via an 8-week MBSR class, mindfulness based stress reduction, offered by my therapist. Since then, I’ve loved using Insight Timer, the meditation tool for iOS and Android. You do have to create a login, but they haven't spammed me. Insight Timer has tons of useful features, but at its most basic it’s got a great timer, with lovely bells, background white noise, and finely adjustable intervals. When you’re online, Insight offers hundreds of guided meditations, including introductory lessons for absolute beginners. (Other audio available: yoga guidance, Dharma talks, affirmations.) Excellent search functions let me bookmark (for example) just the 10–19 minutes long, secular, male voice, meditations designed for pain.

https://insighttimer.com

All of the audio content is also available from this web site.

Comments

[sonia]

I'm still using the meditation app that you recommended a while back, thank you. And I love the idea of "breathing body," so thank you for that, too.

I'm bringing it into my meditation, where I also give myself permission to process whatever I recently stopped myself from reacting to, and also finding upright alignment and working kinks out of my body. For me, it's 20 minutes where I can't do anything wrong, and where everything gets held in a cradle of awareness and acceptance, even if I don't count a single breath.

[jesse_the_k]

Glad the concept is useful. It lets me depersonalize in a helpful way.

[toft]

Thank you for this link! I've been trying to find my way into meditation, because I think it could be very helpful for me and when it works it's very effective, but I'm finding it hard to find audio guidance that isn't massively annoying.

Before you even download the app, let me rec ...

[jesse_the_k]

Lisa Machac (rhymes with "scotch".)

She has free meditations via iTunes podcasts
https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/genuine-with-lisa-machac/id1190756770?mt=2
as well as shorter ones on the Insight Timer.

I think she's one of the most low key, friendly, non-invasive teachers I've heard. Her "there's room for you in the world" is the best anti-anxiety tool short of benzos.

Re: Before you even download the app, let me rec ...

[bibliofile]

Ooh, I may look up her stuff on Insight. My problem there is that they have too many options, plus I'm leery of too much woo, appropriation, etc. I wish there were a randomizer!

Re: Before you even download the app, let me rec ...

[jesse_the_k]

She,s got a website as well, and I just realized that you have. Have the app to access the content. BUT, once you do, you can filter by "secular"

Re: Before you even download the app, let me rec ...

[toft]

Oh, thank you!