Meditation – There Is Only The Breath

When I meditate, I often focus on my breath, which is a common technique in meditation.  Lately I’ve been adding another component to this, which is imagining that there is only the breath — in other words, imagining that the only thing in the universe is this breath right here.  This means imagining that there is no surrounding environment or people around you, and it also means imagining that there is no “breather”.  In other words, that there is no “me” and no personal life history — but only the breath.

I’m a relative newcomer to meditation — I’ve tried it briefly several times over the last few years, but have never been very consistent with it.  I’m trying meditation as one way to help me lessen the negative feelings in life — anxiety, sadness, regret — and boost the positive feelings.  My experience so far has been positive, but relatively mild — I do feel more relaxed and less anxious during and after meditating, but have by no means mastered those emotions.  I’ve also had a few experiences where I’ve felt moments of what I would call “joy” during meditation, but those have been relatively few.

One of the ways meditation is supposed to work is by “quieting” the mind — by stopping all of the thoughts about what you have to do, dangers to avoid, mistakes you’ve made, etc.  The idea is that these thoughts are the cause of negative feelings, and that if you can stop these thoughts, the negative feelings will go away, and perhaps even be replaced by happiness.

Imagining that “there is only the breath” may be one way to help disconnect from all of the thoughts and worries of everyday life.  In the moment when you’re meditating, there is only the breath — no you, no past, no job, no problems — just the breath.