Meditation

One of the reasons why some people don’t practice breath awareness meditation is that they feel there is not enough time in the day. How do we find more time to do the practice?  This will be discussed: the solution, why it works, and examples of what to do. 

The solutions to having enough time to practice breath awareness meditation is to manage your time better.  A lot of your time is spent spacing out and on low activities.  By reducing the spaces between relevant thoughts and cutting out low activities you can drastically increase your time.    

The better you manage your time the better able you are to allocate time to meditate.  You will see you have enough time to do breath awareness.  Not having enough time will no longer be an excuse. 

The following is how you can manage your time better:

• Plan your activities and use the 80/20 rule to prioritize your time.  80/20 rule states that 20 percent of what you do gets 80 percent of the results.  Get rid of the activities that have little to negative return on investment and spend more time on activities that have high return on investment.  If we are honest with ourselves, we waste so much time on activities with little to negative return on investment like eating and watching tv.  We could use that time to practice breath awareness instead.  The practice as a lot of wonderful benefits.  It reduces fear, pain, stress, anxiety, and negativity.  You have more energy to live your life. 
• Use writing procedures, checklists, and mind maps to speed up your work.   It is a good idea to simplify and get clear on your goals and be consistent everyday instead of wasting time wandering around.  Writing procedures, checklists, and mind maps help us get clear on our goals and reach them faster.  
• Create reusable assets to multiply your work and money.  If you are into slide shows an asset could be something as simple as past saved work in PowerPoint.  It has all the transitions, sounds, timings, and images and text place holders.  You can use these over again.  Build a list of joint venture partners and consumer contacts so you can use them in the future.   Build systems and get people to operate them.   
• Work on your external environment.  Clean and organize it.  Your external environment is consistent and owns Nero connection in your head.  Your mind will be clearer.  Also, you wouldn’t spend a lot of time looking for stuff.   
• Develop working memory.  Do the same thing repeatedly for mastery to make things easier and faster.  Your brain will do more with less effort and time. 
• Use small pockets of time so they don’t go to waste.  There are small pockets in the day when we result to nothing.  We are expecting one big pocket of time to do a work.  It doesn’t happen so we don’t do the work.  Also, the body doesn’t like doing the same thing for an extend period because of carp tunnel syndrome.  Furthermore, the body was designed for movement, and the mind for expansion.  We could chip away at our to do list so later we have time to do what we didn’t get done in the moment.  If you are on the computer and you need a break instead of doing nothing or a low activity, you could be washing dishes. 
• Let your to do list cycle.   Your brain is always scanning the world for what it is missing.  You can’t be truly happy if you don’t have balance.  Make time to do everything in your list.  You don’t have to complete everything in one day. 

Now that I have discussed ways to manage your time better you are better able to allocate time to practice breath awareness meditation every day.  Use the 80/20 rule to prioritize your time.  20 percent of what you do gets 80 percent of the results.  It is most important.  Use written procedures, checklists, and mind maps to speed up your work.  In addition, you can create reusable assets to multiply your work and money.  Clean and organize your environment.  Achieve mastery through repetition to make a skill easier and faster.  Use small pockets of time so they won’t go to waste.  Let your to do list cycle.  Anytime you think to yourself how you are going to find time to practice breath awareness you know what to do.  Use the time saving hacks mentioned.

Sometimes we can’t get to do an activity no matter how much we try.  This can affect a breath awareness meditation practice.  How do we deal with the situation?  The answer will be discussed:  the solution, why it works, and ideas to get us started.  

The solution 

The brain knows every trick against you, will make every excuse with breath awareness meditation, and will try to keep you down and not do the practice.  The easiest way to get yourself to do the practice is to work on your mood in general. 

Why it works

Your mood affects behavior.  If you feel awful, it will be harder for your to do an activity.  The more you force yourself to do the activity the more you feel awful.  You will be stuck in a negative feedback loop.  We all know how that ends.  As mentioned before, work on your overall mood.  Feeling good in general makes it easier to do activities including breath awareness meditation.   

9 Ideas to get you started

1. You can listen to inspirational music.  You can go on the internet, specifically YouTube.  Type in your favorite inspirational song and listen to it.  Listen to new songs and add to your list of favorites.  Music can transport you to a different place.  If you want to go to a happy place listen to happy music.
2. You can fast.  When you are under a lot of stress and dealing with very stressful things in your external environment your body isn’t thinking of digesting food.  Give it a break.  The worse foods you eat the more your digestion needs a break.  You don’t want to feel awful.  Also include prayer.  Now your body as more energy to manifest your prayer because it isn’t digesting food.  Spend more time on areas that are bothering you the most.  Don’t negatively polarize your emotions.  Focus and feel the ideal scenario as if with positive emotions.  Fasting and praying can also make you physically healthier.  Fasting moves energy from the gut to the brain.  You don’t want to overdo it.  Before sleep time eat something but eat something light so you won’t feel sick in the morning. 
3. You can practice affirmations, and love and gratitude.  Use present and positive connotations for your affirmations.  Affirm who you want to become.  Also, affirm the action you are going to take to reach your goals.  The body will become the mind.  You are building muscle brain memory.  Performing the action will feel more natural.  Think of it as a rehearsal for the real event.  The more you do it the better.  Get a notebook.  Everyday right down ten things you are grateful for.  In looking for positives you are teaching your brain to look for or remember the positive things in your life and stop focusing on the negatives.  It builds positive brain neuroplasticity.  You will be happier.  Your body is also an extension of your brain.  You will also be healthier.  If you want better health, give thanks for the level of health that you have. 
4. Don’t judge yourself negatively for making mistakes or things not going according to plan.  Do things that will make you positive.  If you work on the strengths and the strength of your strengths your weaknesses will reduce or be eliminated.  Instead of saying you are going to stop eating junk food, say you are going to cook more.  You don’t want to resist junk food and have nothing to replace it with.  You are setting yourself up for failure. 
5. Take care of burning problems that might be weighing you down.  Is your work boring or stressful?  Do you have more important business?  This can affect your overall wellbeing.  It isn’t just what you do.  It is how you feel about what you do.  Emotions affect chemistry and chemistry affect physics.  Take care of the burning problem.  Decrease or increase the difficulty of your work.  Prioritize your goals. 
6. The more you learn about something the more you see it from a set of new Nero connections in your brain, become more aware of the different possibilities, and the more you appreciate it.  You don’t want your dopamine receptors to get num.  When you aren’t active, learn.  Learning will help you fantasize and try new things.  If you have too much free time you can increase your financial intelligence.  You will always need money.  You can solve more problems.  You are less likely to do things that don’t serve your highest good with your free time.    
7. Use the 80/20 rule to make decisions.  All you need is a few habits to make you most happy and productive.  20 percent of the input gets 80 percent of the results.  You know you are getting a hundred times a lot more than you are putting in, so you are motivated.  Then do a different variation of each habit to create nuance.  When making money work where most results are possible with the least amount of effort first.  Do the best micro activity of your best activity.  Plan your time and make reusable assets.  Keep things simple and consistent.  Work on other things also like your health.  Go for the gut and you will solve a thousand other problems.  Allow your to do list to cycle.  This will keep you motivated.  If something doesn’t add to the synergy of all your activities, it should be eliminated.   Take your least important activity that is giving you low to negative results and experiment with something that is potentially better. 
8. Work on your environment.  Arrange your environment in such a way that it discourages bad addiction and encourages good addiction.  Subliminal messages are always reaching your subconscious mind when you aren’t paying attention and the more you are exposed to them the more likely you are to act on them.   If you leave in a cluttered environment your mind will be cluttered.  If you are always looking for stuff it is a drain on your energy, and you will feel frustrated.  You need a clean workspace to work.  Set up your environment in a way that it reinforces your goals.  You can watch inspirational or educational programs on YouTube.  Write down your goals on paper and affirm the action you are going to take.  Have faith and be positive.  Take baby steps every day and commit to learning.  Make your worst-case scenario still good as you experiment your way up.  Have a routine but rework the worse part of your routine as needed.   
9. Take a break from your routine.  The left brain likes to follow standard routine all the time.  The right brain is open to learning and trying new things. If you are doing something and it is making you frustrated or depressed, take a break.  Do something else temporarily.  Do something fun that doesn’t involve work, change your environment, or read a book you don’t read every day.  You will be able to come back to an activity with a fresh perspective.  Try not to miss two days in a role of an activity.   

Final thought 

What uplifted your mood yesterday and motivated you to do an activity won’t necessary work today.  Ask yourself what you need right now to uplift your spirit.  It might be doing nothing for a short while.  It might be something else not discussed.  That is okay too.  Don’t fail, give up, and believe nothing is working.  Different things will work at different times and somethings more often than others.  Next time you find yourself not being able to do breath awareness mediation ask yourself, “How do I feel in general?”  Then work on improving your mood if you need to.   

Problems are a part of meditation. Solving problems is what make meditation fun. It forces you to think creatively. You will experience all kind of problems in your practice journey. Don’t focus too much on a problem that you fail to see the possibilities around the problem. A solution usually presents itself when you have a problem, and you are motivated to act. You just need to be persistent.  When the problem arises in the future you would know how to deal with it. One of the problems is the fear of doing breath awareness work. Write down all your fears on meditation on a piece of paper. This helps you see all your resisting thoughts, feeling, and emotions concerning it. You can be better able to deal with it. Then counter those fears and come up with creative solutions to them. Some of the fears of breath awareness meditation will be discussed. There are boredom and depression, overly attached to results, and over complicating your practice.

Overcoming Boredom and depression.

It is not the meditation that make you happy, but your perception of it. Success revolves around happiness. The higher your emotions the more parts of your brain are dedicated to help you reach your goal. Decide 80 percent of what you are going to do 20 percent of the time. Then focus on feeling good independent of the activity you choose. 90 percent of the signal goes from your heart to your brain. It will be easier to add on the activity.

Depression can keep one from meditating. You wake up the same day dreading doing the same thing at the same time. How much are you investing in the unknown? Investing in the unknown is what makes things exciting. Feel free to shake things up. When things unfold in ways you can’t always predict it is exciting.

If meditation is boring, make it fun. Use your imagination. You can reward yourself for doing the practice, or creatively visualize yourself obtaining your highest goal for it.

If you keep viewing your meditation with the same Nero circuitry it gets redundant.  Your brain and body goes on autopilot and your practice becomes boring and stressful.  You can learn more about the work. By doing so, you will be able to apply more meaning to your practice. Learn more benefits to it. You always had the benefits, but you were not aware of them.  One of the things you can do is do your practice differently to add some nuance to it.   You can do a different type for a while and go back to the old type with a new perspective.   You can play around with the duration and time of the meditation.  You can have a new reward. 

Don’t be overly attached to results.

Sometimes it feels you aren’t making progress. You want to quit. The more you look for something the more you push it away. You are saying you don’t have it. Hang in there and be patient. Allow yourself to be successful.

Watch your self-criticism. Don’t destructively criticize yourself. This type of criticism creates fear and destroys creativity.

Allow yourself to make mistakes. It is through experimentation you learn. You can only connect the dots looking back. Continue what works from the past, experiment with new things, and replace the old with new things that work better.     

Don’t over complicate meditation.

Keep it simple.If you make meditation more complicated, you are less likely to keep up a daily practice. The only wrong practice is the one that you don’t do. Showing up is 50 percent of the battle. The more complicated you make your work, the less successful you will be. The simpler you make it, the more successful you will be.

Meditation is straight forward. Focus on your in breath and out breath. Your mind will wander from time to time. The unwanted thoughts are part of your practice. Simply bring your awareness back to your breath. You are going to go back and forth between thoughts and breath. Physical sensations, and sounds are also part of your practice not just unwanted thoughts. You aren’t going to know when you experience stillness known as the gap until you come out of it. You may or may not have a mystical experience. It is okay. Continue your meditation without worries until you are done with it. Surrender without expectations. Move in the direction of comfort. If you need to open your eyes to look at the time or scratch your nose do so.

Summary

Now that the following has been discussed: how to overcome boredom and depression, how not to be overly attached to results, and how not to be too complicating to help you overcome fear of breath aware meditation you are better able to do the practice. Invest in the unknown because that is what makes something exciting. Don’t look for results. The more you look for results the more you push it away. Keep your practice simple. Focus on your breath in and out. Anytime you get distracted from your breath bring your attention back to it. Thought, physicals sensations, and sounds are part of the work. Next time you are afraid of meditation you can eliminate the three fears discussed.

What is the best time to meditate?  Understanding the best time to do so will help you deepen your practice.  The following will be discussed: doing the practice in the morning, having a bigger window to do the practice during the day, and doing the practice in the evening before you sleep for you to better understand the best time to meditate.

You can do the practice first thing in the morning to get it out of the way.  Things can happen during the day that prevent us from doing the practice.  If you knock the practice off first thing in the morning you don’t have to worry about it for the rest of the day.  Even if you run out of time at the end of the day you have already done the practice.  Don’t try to do meditation at a specific time.  This will create unnecessary frustration.  Do it as a sequence of activities.  Anytime you wake up use the restroom and then do the practice.  

It helps to have a bigger window of time to do meditation just in case.  You can do the practice anytime during the day if you miss or can’t do your practice first thing in the morning.  You should still plan to do the practice first thing, but occasionally things might happen that will prevent you from doing so.  If you plan each of your activities during the day you will be able to move stuff around and make time for doing the practice.  You will better be able to see how much time is spent on unnecessary things like tv, social media, and so on.  Then you can allocate that time into doing the practice.   

You can also meditate last thing in the day.   It is recommended to do the practice first thing in the morning and last thing in the evening.  Things get busy during the day.  The morning and evening are the times you can do so with less distractions.  Also, your mind can go into a higher state of consciousness because you are just waking up or falling asleep.  Your brain waves are slower.  You want to do the practice in a sitting position, so you don’t fall asleep.  Also, set your alarm so you know when you are done.  You can also do so in a lying position without setting your alarm to help you fall asleep. 

Now that the following has been discussed: doing the practice in the morning, having a bigger window to do so during the day, and practicing in the evening before you sleep you are able to understand better the best time to meditate.  It is usually a good idea to do the practice first things in the morning to get it out of the way.  Then you can focus on other things throughout the day.  Allow for a bigger window to do so throughout the day.  Rearrange your schedule and do the practice during the day if you must do so.  It is a great way to end your day.  It can also be part of a ritual that will help you fall asleep.  Next time you want to do the practice you know how to figure out the best time. 

Meditating everyday for the rest of your life can be challenging.   Sometimes you just do not feel like doing the practice.  Having ways of motivating yourself can make it easier for you to meditate.   The following are some ways that will help keep you motivated to do so:

Focus on getting started.  Do not worry about the entire session.  Once you get going it will be easier to keep going.  The neurons in your brain responsible for meditating will get fired up. 

Reward yourself by learning something interesting about meditation every day.  This will make your meditation more fun.  When it is more fun it becomes easier to do. 

Do not look for results or try to be perfect.  The more you look for results or try to be perfect the more you push it away.  Let things unfold in a natural way. 

Focus on your strengths.  Ask yourself what part of your meditation is going well, and you can do more of it.  You will get better at meditating.

Learn meditation teaching.  If you are not just doing meditation for the experience, but also to improve your life you will be more motivated to do it.

See meditating as an investment not a sacrifice.   Do not look at the fact that you are spending your time and energy meditating.  Look at all the things it is enabling you to do.  It is helping you have more blissful and stress free days.

Be with the pain unconditionally.  If you do not accept the pain, you will give up or be more stressed.  What you fear or focus on is made more manifest. 

Do not limit yourself to one percent of meditation.  There is a whole world you can play around and have fun with.  Ask yourself what you feel like doing today and do it. 

For better results mix faith and positive emotions with your meditation.  Whatever you send out into the universe you receive.  Do creative visualization, and affirmations.  With faith and positive emotions you will have better memory, focus, energy, and motivation. 

If you do not have time or get distracted easily, schedule the time the night before.  If you are behind in other things still meditate.  It is okay to complete your to do list the next day after you meditate.    

Remind yourself the reason why you are meditating.  It is the only time you connect to your soul, be more loving and grateful, let go of control, and merge with the one.  It is a blissful experience.  It has many benefits including stress and pain relief.  Also, it ripples to other areas of your life.  If you don’t meditate you will miss it. 

Use pain and suffering to support meditation.  It is not hard to make meditation a habit.  Once you experience higher states of consciousness and you do not experience it anymore you will seek it. 

Look at expert work for inspiration.  It is where you could be tomorrow.  Do not compare yourself today to expert Buddhist monks.  Compare yourself to where you were yesterday.

If you cannot meditate no matter what you do it is probably because you are depressed.  Try this trick.  Sometimes you will not feel like focusing on any activities.  This can happen sometimes.  Trying to fight it will make things worse.  Things that you found rewarding are no longer rewarding because you need a cue to trigger motivation for reward.  You cannot keep rewarding yourself with activities all the time.  If this happens during the time you are supposed to meditate and you cannot get yourself to do so no matter what you try have down time, lie down, and listen to a positive podcast.  You can resume your activities later.

Mix faith and positive emotions with your meditation.  The human mind does not want to engage in an activity that is uncertain.  If you view it as fun and fulfilling it becomes just that.  Do not worry about the other things that are going on in your life.  Faith and positive emotions that worked for your meditation will work in other areas.  

Now that some ways for you to motivate yourself to meditate have been discussed, it will make your meditation journey a whole lot easier.  You can use some of the techniques discussed, and even add to the list.  Next time you need a little motivation to meditate you know what to do.  

You can do breath awareness meditation while lying down, sitting down, or standing.  Sitting down is the standard meditation position, but you might find it better to lay down, so you are not distracted too much by painful physical sensations.  Find a quiet place where you will not be disturbed for at least 30 minutes.  It is not necessary for the place to be completely quiet.  Sound is part of the meditation.  It does not have to be dark either.  It does not matter because you will be closing your eyes.  Get an alarm clock to time yourself.  When you are starting out as a new meditator do not meditate for too long.  Pick a time that you know will be easier and more automatic.  Slowly increase the time as it become more automatic for you.  The instructions to meditate are as the following:

1. Get into your meditation position.  Keep your back straight.  Relax your body.  Allow your tongue to touch the roof of your mouth and your eyes to roll up slightly. 
2. Start breathing in and out through your nostrils.  Do not time your breath.  Just breathe naturally.  Focus on each breath as you breathe.  Observe the inhale, bridge, exhale, and bridge.  Feel the air coming into your nostrils and out of your nostrils. 
3. You are going to get distracted by physical sensations, thoughts, and sounds.  It is okay.  The distractions are part of your meditation.  When you realize you have been distracted and are no longer focusing on your breath gently bring your attention back to your breath.
4. You are going to shift back and forth between thoughts and the breath.  In the place where there are no thoughts is called the gab.  You are not going to know that you are there when you are there.  It is only when you come back to a thought you know you were there.
5. Do not try to control the outcome of the meditation.  You are not trying to accomplish anything and nothing as to happen during your meditation.   Just relax and surrender to whatever unfolds.  Do not worry about perfecting your meditation.  The only wrong meditation is the one that you do not do. 
6. It is our natural state to be happy.  Meditation helps you be in that happy place.  You experience your true self without the ego. You experience unbounded unconditional love.    
7. Keep practicing the meditation for the duration of your meditation session.  You want to be comfortable.  If you need to scratch your nose do so.  If you want to open your eyes to see how much time you have left on the clock do so. 

If you miss a day of meditation, do not worry.  Just pick up the next day.  You are still going to get accumulative results of the meditation.   Over time as you do the meditation, you will begin to have less stressful days.  Meditation builds grey matter in the brain that serves as an insulator against emotional shock.  Experiment with your meditation.  Expand on what you are previously doing or what you know about meditation to stay motivated. 

There are many benefits to breathing.  One of the benefits to breathing is that it can be used to help us to be calmer and more relaxed under stressful situations.  We can maintain a meditative state not just during a meditation session, but other times of the day.  In order to understand how to practice breathing all day the following will be discussed:

The process of breathing all day.

Situations when to practice breathing and when not to.

16 second breaths.

The process of breathing all day.

To practice breathing all day start by inhaling and exhaling air through your nose gently and rhythmically as you are in activity.  This process helps you pay attention to your breath. Do not get frustrated by thoughts distracting you.  It is part of the process.  Keep breathing gently and rhythmically without trying to bring your attention back to your breath.  If you get too distracted from an activity that demands more attention temporary postpone your breathing.

Situations when to practice breathing and when not to.

There are situations where you need to be unconscious of your breath because you need your conscious mind to think for long periods of time.  You might not want to perform this action if you are giving a speech, driving a car, or any situation where you need to pay full attention.  Your conscious mind cannot focus on two things at once.  The practice of continual breath awareness is perfect for drinking, eating, walking, watching television, waiting for someone, being a passenger in a car, and so on. 

16 second breaths

You can practice 16 second breaths anytime you are in a stressful situation that is causing you to panic and want to relax.  Breathe in for four second, hold for four seconds, breathe out for four seconds, hold for four seconds, and repeat the process as you need.  16 second breaths not only solves panic attacks but also the fear of one because you know what to do in the situation.  It should not be used as a replacement for your breath awareness meditation practice, but to complement it. The breath meditation makes your calmer and more relaxed throughout the day.  When you are calm and relaxed you automatically breathe more properly. 

Now that the following as been discussed: the process of breathing all day, situations when to practice breathing and when not to, and 16 second breaths you understand better how to practice breathing all day.  Become aware of inhaling and exhaling air through your nose by breathing rhythmically and gently while in activity.  If you get distracted continue to breath gently and rhythmically.  This causes you to come back to your breath. You should not practice conscious breathing when doing activities like giving a speech, driving a car or any situation that demand your full attention.  You can practice this type of action while you are drinking, eating, walking, watching television, waiting for someone, being a passenger in a car, and so on.  16 second breaths are a great way to stop panic attacks.  It also stops fear of a panic attack because you know what to do when it happens.  You breathe in for four seconds, hold for four seconds, breathe out for four seconds, hold for four seconds, and repeat the process.  Next time you are going about your day see how you can apply what has been discussed to your breathing. 

During breath awareness meditation you feel the effects greatly. After you are done with the meditation you lose most of the effects.  Practicing continual breath awareness meditation helps you maintain the effects all day.  The following will be discussed for you to better understand it:    

How to practice continual breath awareness.

When to do continual breath awareness and when not to.

How to come back to your breath during continual breath awareness when you fall off. 

How to turn continual breath awareness into a permanent effortless habit.

What to do when you cannot practice continual breath awareness. 

How to practice continual breath awareness.

You practice continual breath awareness meditation all day.  You practice it during your breath awareness meditation session and after.   All day does not mean you do not take breaks or must do continual meditation no matter what even if you must be fully conscious.  It means you practice it as much as you can throughout the day.  Become aware of the inhale and exhale of air through your nose.  Anytime you feel any random thought causing you to get distracted from an activity, gently bring your attention back to the inhale an exhale of air through your nose while simultaneously focusing on the activity.

When to do continual breath awareness and when not to.

Continual breath awareness meditation requires you to bring your attention back to the inhale and exhale of air through your nose anytime you get distracted.  It gets rid of negative thoughts, but it also gets rid of the right thoughts.  In situations that require you to be fully aware of your thoughts, so you make the right decision at the right time be extra couscous.  You should not do it when you are doing any activity that demands your full attention like driving a car or operating heavy machinery.  If you are having racing thoughts that are distracting you from an activity, repeatedly focusing on the inhale and exhale of air through your nose will help.  Then focus on the activity.   If you are waiting in the lobby of a building, a passenger of a car, eating, watching television, or going for a walk it is the perfect time to practice this type of action. 

How to come back to your breath during continual breath awareness when you fall off. 

In continual breath awareness meditation, you exhale and inhale air through your nose gently and rhythmically.  This causes you to pay more attention to the inhale and exhale of air through your nose.  If you are distracted by thought, it is okay.  Bring your attention back to the inhale and exhale of air through your nose.  If you get uncomfortable after doing it for a long time, take a break.  You can use it to form islands of safety during a stressful activity.  If it is blocking your thoughts from an activity stop momentarily and continue when you do not need to process thought. 

How to turn continual breath awareness into a permanent effortless habit.

Set your intention in the morning that you are going to practice continual breath awareness during the day.  Start out a little bit a day and slowly progress.  Slower changes make longer lasting habits, and it takes a while of inactivity to undo the habit learned.  Once you build a habit it becomes easier, harder to break, and you can take it to the next level.  It will become more natural to you, and you will remember to do it more often.  Have a minimum amount so you start and a maximum amount so you do not get burn out.  The more you do this practice the more you do not want to do it.  It is okay to take a break. Do not practice this type of action all the time just during certain activities.  It is important that you do not practice continual breath awareness without a reason why.  If you do it with meaning you would not only be more motivated, but you will get better results from it.  You want to have the effects of a breath awareness meditation session even after it is over.  The type of action reduces stress, depression, anxiety, increases energy, lowers blood pressure, improves mental clarity, and improves mental focus. 

What to do when you cannot practice continual breath awareness. 

If you have trouble with fear of a panic attack you should be with it unconditionally, make friends with the panic attack, and not be distracted by any negative thoughts attached to it.   If you are in the middle of a panic attack practice 16 seconds inhaling and exhaling of air through your nose.   Inhale for four seconds, pause for four seconds, exhale for four seconds, pause for four seconds, and repeat.  This is useful in situations where you cannot practice continual breath awareness meditation and are afraid of a panic attack.  In addition, have a daily breath awareness meditation practice. This will help you be calmer and more relaxed throughout the day, and you will automatically breathe more properly. 

Now, how to do continual breath awareness meditation, when to do it and when not to, how to come back to it if you fall off, how to turn it into a permanent effortless habit, and what to do when you cannot practice this type of action has been discussed.  You are better able to understand the practice of repeatedly paying attention to the inhaling and exhaling of air through your nose all day.  Become aware of the inhaling and exhaling of air through your nose when you are in an activity.  If you get distracted by the activity, it is okay.  Just continue where you left off.  It is not practical to do this type of practice during some activities like driving a car, operating a heavy machinery, or some other activity that demands your full attention.  You can do this practice while walking, eating, drinking, watching television, being a passenger in a car, waiting in the lobby of a building for someone, and so on.  The more you do this practice the more you do not want to do it. It is okay to take a break.  Something does not become effortless overnight.  Slower changes make longer lasting habits.  Once something becomes a habit it is easier, harder to break, and you can take it to the next level. You also want to understand the reason behind a practice so you will stay motivated.  You can practice 16 seconds breaths in situations when you cannot focus on the inhale and exhale of air through you nose repeatedly and consistently.  Next time you might be walking, eating, drinking, being a passenger in a car, waiting for someone, watching television, remember that you can practice continual breath awareness meditation.   

Breath awareness meditation involves focusing on your breath.  This part of the process can be sometimes over thought.  In order to understand better how to do this type of action the following will be discussed:

The myth behind doing this mindfulness practice correctly.

A simple strategy for doing the type of action.

What to expect and what not to expect when doing this practice. 

The myth behind doing this mindfulness practice correctly.

There is nothing mysterious about focusing on your breath during meditation.  The question makes it sound harder than it is.  Do not stress over too much of what is right or what is wrong.   It is as much an art as it is a science.   One of the methods that have been found to work will be discussed.  The method is easy.  Anyone can do this first time around.  

A simple strategy for doing the type of action.

When practicing breath awareness meditation, you do it with your back straight. You can do this practice while standing up, sitting, or lying down.  It is best to practice it while lying down.  Find a comfortable pillow to rest your head on.  Keep your arms and legs straight.  Close your eyes.  Allow your eyes to slightly role back and your tongue rest against the roof of your mouth.  Inhale and exhale through you nose.  Become aware of inhaling and exhaling air.  Feel the air coming in and out of your nostrils.  You can focus on your stomach if you prefer.   Follow your action as you inhale, exhale, and then again.  Also, observe the bridge between each inhale and exhale.   Observe the inhale, observe the bridge, observe the exhale, observe the bridge, and repeat. 

What to expect and what not to expect when doing this practice. 

You are going to get distracted from focusing on your breath and say it is not working.  It is working.  Thoughts, physical sensations, and noise are all part of your meditation.  Paying attention to your inhaling and exhaling of air makes you more aware of thoughts, physical sensation, and noise.  The more you try to pay attention, the more you are going to be distracted.  Even expert Buddhist monks get distracted sometimes.  Anytime you catch yourself drifting away from inhaling and exhaling air gently bring your attention back to it.  Continue this process for the duration of your practice session.  It is important you do not strain too much.  If you are more comfortable with a daily practice, the more likely you are to continue for the long term. 

Now that having assurance of properly paying attention to your breath during meditation, a simple strategy for focusing on the inhale and exhale of air, and what to expect when you are pay attention to it has been discussed, you understand better how to pay attention to the inhaling and exhaling of air through your nose during this practice.  Do not stress to much over a wrong or right way of doing things.   It is as much an art as it is a science.  One of the ways is you inhale, observe the inhale, observe the bridge, exhale, observe the exhale, observe the bridge, and repeat the process till you are done with your practice session.  You are going to get distracted by thoughts, physical sensations, and noise.  It is part of your practice.  Just gently bring you attention back to the inhaling and exhaling of air through your nose.      

Breath is a huge part of meditation.  There are many different types of practices but focusing on inhaling and exhaling air is the main practice.  Everyone other type of practice is done complementary to it.  You should understand what the inhaling and exhaling air practice is.   This is what you will be using most of the time.  In order to understand this type of practice the following will be discussed:

The meaning of awareness in the practice.

The object of focus for this type of practice.

What focusing on it helps you do.

The meaning of awareness in the practice.

Meditation is awareness, vice versa.  The mind is always wandering.  It is either thinking about the past or the future.  What am I going to eat for dinner?  I need to the groceries store to get more water.  How can I improve myself?  When am I going to do house chores? And so on.  When you are thinking of the past and the future you are not thinking of the present moment. You are unconscious.  Thousands of thoughts are flashing through your head, and you do not notice the thoughts.  You have a reaction, and you do not know the cause.  Repeatedly focusing on your breathing and turning it into a daily practice helps you be more conscious.

The object of focus for this type of practice.

In meditation you focus on an object repeatedly to help keep your mind from wandering.  You focus on the object of focus and when you find your mind wandering again you gently bring your focus back to it.  It keeps you from thinking about the past and future.  It grounds you in the present.  The object of focus could be any object, herbs, sound, mantra, affirmations, yoga poses, visual objects, breath, and so on.   In this type of practice, the object of focus is the air you take in and out of your nostrils.  That is where your awareness goes.  As mentioned before, it is the object of focus you should be using most of the time.  Other objects of focus should be complementary.  You focus on this type of action, inhaling and exhaling air through your nose, repeatedly. 

What focusing on it helps you do.

Breath awareness meditation helps you transcend your body, environment, and time.  You are more of your Self and less off yourself.  It is our natural state to be happy.  You are not missing the good old days or dreading something in the future.  You are in the blissful present moment.  You are more elevated emotionally, and you can bring that into the rest of your day.  Also, you are better able to observe your thoughts, feeling, and emotions.  You will see how your thought affect your feeling and emotions and how your feeling and emotions affect your thoughts.  This helps you to be more proactive and less reactive.  You will be able to observe a situation without letting it automatically control you.   You will no longer be quick to act to negative situations.  You will be able to choose a different reaction that is more intuitive. 

Now that the meaning of the state of conscious in the devotional exercise, the object of focus for the breath practice, and what the it helps you do have been discussed, you are able to better understand the practice.  Meditation in this practice is awareness, vice versa.  The object of focus you will be using in this practice is inhaling and exhaling air.  Repeating this action helps slow down and eventually stop thought. This type of practice helps you be more of your Self and less of yourself.  We experience our natural state.  It is our natural state to be happy.  We are less reactive to negative situations.