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Mindful breathing can transform your mindset! 🌬️ Focus on your breath, release tension, and cultivate joy. It’s simple yet powerful! #Mindfulness #Meditation #Buddhism #BreathingExercises 😊✨ https://wp.me/p3JLEZ-7uv

Mindful breathing is not just a practice; it’s a path to transforming your overall well-being and mental clarity. By simply focusing on your breath, you can release the burdens of past regrets and future anxieties, bringing yourself fully into the present moment. This practice empowers you to cultivate joy and alleviate tension, leading to a serene mind and a liberated spirit. Imagine the profound impact of dedicating mere minutes to consciously breathe, and how that can enhance your decision-making, creativity, and emotional resilience. Embracing mindful breathing can unlock a more joyful, connected, and fulfilling life—one breath at a time.

Thich Nhat Hanh: There is a text called Mindfulness of Breathing in which the Buddha proposed 16 exercises on mindful breathing. It’s very practical and everyone can do it, not complicated. And you can already notice the effect of the practice after one or two hours.

I. Aware of in-breath and out-breath

The first exercise is so simple, to be aware of your in-breath and out-breath.
This is what we practiced this morning. Breathing in, I know this is an in-breath. To identify the in-breath as in-breath and to identify the out-breath as an out-breath.
Breathing in, I know I am breathing in. This is so simple and yet the effect can be great. Aware of in-breath and out-breath.
As you breathe in, you pay attention to your in-breath only. Your in-breath becomes the only object of your mind. And if you are truly focused, mindful on your in-breath, you release everything else.
You release the past, you release the future, your projects, your fear, your anger. Because the mind has only one object at a time. And the object of the mind now is the in-breath.
Breathing in, I know I am breathing in. So you focus your mind on your in-breath and you release everything else and you become free.
There is regret concerning the past, sorrow concerning the past. There is fear and uncertainty concerning the future. All of that you release in just one or two seconds because you are focusing all your mind into your in-breath. So breathing in mindfully sets you free.
You have freedom. And if you are to make a decision, it is better that you have enough freedom to make it. You are not under the influence of anger, fear, and your decision is much better than if you are not free.
So just breathing in makes you free. And it is pleasant also. It is pleasant to breathe in.
So the exercise is so simple, but the effect can be great.

II. Follow in-breath and out-breath all the way through

The second exercise is to follow your in- breath all the way through and to follow your out-breath all the way through. And you may enjoy these two exercises at any time and anywhere.
Breathing in, I follow my in-breath from the beginning to the end. Suppose this marker represents my in-breath. It begins here, and this finger is my mind.
Breathing in, I follow my in-breath all the way through. There is no interruption at all, not a millisecond of interruption. So during the time you breathe in mindfully, you cultivate concentration.
You are not only mindful of your in-breath, but you concentrate on your in-breath. The energy of mindfulness carries within herself the energy of concentration. And it is also pleasant, because to be mindful and to concentrate on your in-breath can be very pleasant.
You don’t have to suffer. In fact, you can feel wonderful just breathing in, especially when the air is fresh and if the nose is free.
So the second exercise is to follow your in-breath and your out-breath all the way through.
And we know that we can do these two exercises anytime we like.

III. Aware of body

The third exercise is to be aware of your body. Breathing in, I am aware of my body.
You bring your mind home to your body. And your mind becomes an embodied mind. They will help you to be established in the here and the now.
You are fully present, you are fully alive. And you can live that moment of your daily life more deeply if body and mind are together. The oneness of body and mind is what you realize with the third exercise.
When you spend two hours with your computer, you forget entirely that you have a body. You are not truly alive in that moment. You are truly alive only when the mind is with the body, you are fully in the here and the now, and you touch the wonders of life. In you and around you.
Many of our brothers and sisters in Plum Village, they program a bell mindfulness in their computer, and every 15 minutes they hear the bell, they stop working, they go back and enjoy their in-breath and out-breath, smile and enjoy their body. And release the tension in their body.
And that is what the Buddha recommended 2,600 years ago.

IV. Calm body

That’s the fourth exercise. Breathing in, I calm my body.
I release the tension in my body. When you come back to your body, you may notice that there is a lot of tension in your body. And then you may like to do something in order to help your body to have more peace, to suffer less.
And with your out-breath, you allow the tension to be released. And that is the first four exercises of mindful breathing recommended by the Buddha so that we can take good care of our body.

V. Generating Joy

And with the fifth exercise, we go to the realm of the feeling. The fifth exercise is to generate a feeling. A feeling of joy, generating joy. A good practitioner knows how to generate a feeling of joy.
Because she knows that mindfulness allows her to recognize all the happy conditions, conditions of happiness that are already available. We can remind ourselves and we can remind our beloved ones that we are very lucky. We can be happy right here and right now. We don’t have to go to run into the future to look for happiness.
There is a teaching given by the Buddha. It is the teaching of living happily in the present moment.
Life is available only in the present moment. And if you go back to the present moment, you will notice that there are so many conditions of happiness already available. And that is why joy and happiness can be born right away.
The expression living happily in the present moment was found in a sutra five times. The Buddha was teaching Anathapindika, a businessman in the city of Sravasti. That day, Anathapindika, the businessman, came with many hundreds of businessmen to visit the Buddha.
And the Buddha gave them that teaching. Gentleman, he said, you can be happy right here and right now. You don’t have to run to the future.
You don’t have to look for success in the future in order to be happy. I think the Buddha knew very well that businessmen think a little bit too much about the future, their success. And that is why the expression living deeply, living happily in the present moment was used by the Buddha five times in the same sutra, the same scripture.
Drishtadharma sukha vihara. Vihara means to dwell, to live. Sukha means happily, and Drishtadharma is the present moment.
So a good practitioner doesn’t look for happiness in the future. He knows how to go home to the present moment and recognize all the conditions of happiness that are available and make joy and happiness available right away.
And she does that for herself and she does that for the other person. Creating happiness is an art. The art of happiness.
So the fifth exercise is to generate joy.

VI. Generating Happiness

The sixth is to generate happiness.

VII. Aware of Pain

And the seventh is to be aware of a painful feeling or emotion. Breathing in, I know there is a painful feeling, a painful emotion that is coming up in me.
So the practitioner does not try to fight the pain, to cover up the pain inside or to try to run away from the pain. In fact, because she is a practitioner, she knows how to generate the energy of mindfulness and with that energy she recognizes the pain and she embraces the pain tenderly.
“-Hello, my little pain, I know you are there. I will take good care of you, whether that is anger or fear or jealousy or despair.”
We have to be there for our pain. There is no fighting.
There is no violence done to our suffering.
Yesterday we spoke about a mother holding a crying baby. So our pain, our suffering is our baby.
And the energy of mindfulness generated by our practice is the loving mother. And the mother has to recognize that the baby suffers and she takes the baby up and holds the baby tenderly to her. And that is exactly what a good practitioner will do when a painful feeling arises.
You have to be there for your painful feeling or emotion. You continue to breathe and to walk in such a way that the energy of mindfulness continues to be produced. And with that energy of mindfulness you recognize the pain and you embrace the pain tenderly.
In Buddhism we speak of consciousness in terms of store and mind. There is at least two layers of consciousness. And the lower layer is called store consciousness.
Our fear, our anger, our despair are there in the bottom of our consciousness in form of seeds. There is a seed of anger here. And if the seed of anger accepts to sleep quietly down there, we are okay.
We can laugh, we can have a good time. But if someone comes and says something or does something and touches that seed of anger, it will come up as a source of energy. Down here, it is called a seed.
And when it comes up here, on the level of mind consciousness, it becomes a kind of energy called mental formation. Mental formation. And this is the mental formation called anger.
So when the practitioner notices that anger is coming up, she right away breathes and invites the seed of mindfulness to come up as energy. Mindfulness is another seed that is here. And if we are a good practitioner, the seed of mindfulness in us has grown to become a very important seed.
We need to touch lightly and then there will be a lot of that energy coming up for us to use. And if we are not a practitioner, the seed of mindfulness is there, but very tiny. And if you practice mindful breathing, mindful walking every day, the seed continues to grow.
And whenever you need that energy, you just touch and you have a powerful source of energy to help you to deal with whatever is happening up there. So the practitioner begins to breathe or to walk mindfully. And the second mental formation is manifest on this level.
Another mental formation. And this one is mindfulness. So it is the energy of mindfulness that will take care of the energy of anger.
There is no fighting. Mindfulness does at least two things. First of all, to recognize. A simple recognition of the pain.

VII. Calm the Pain

And that is the seventh exercise. Breathing in, I know anger is in me. Or despair is in me. Or jealousy is in me. Recognize simply, not fighting.
And the second thing mindfulness will do is to embrace. And that is seen in the exercise. It is to calm.
To calm down the pain. Like a mother holding the baby. The mother does not know what is wrong with the baby.
But the fact that she is holding the baby gently can help the baby suffer less right away. The same thing is true with the practitioner. She does not know what is the cause of that kind of anger or fear.
But the fact that she is holding, recognizing and holding that energy of fear and anger can help her suffer less right away after one or two minutes.
So this is the art of suffering (VII and VIII). This is the art of happiness (V and VI). How to generate a feeling of joy and happiness. How to take care of a painful feeling and emotion. How to calm it down. How to get a relief. With the exercises that follow, you can go further and you can transform pain, sorrow, fear into something more positive like making good use of the mud in order to grow lotus flowers. So a good practitioner is not afraid of pain.
She does not try to run away from the pain. In fact, she tries to be with the pain. She knows how to handle a feeling of pain and emotion, a strong emotion.
And she knows how to make good use of that mud in order to create understanding and compassion which are factors of true happiness.

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