mindfulness journey

In a world that often feels chaotic and overwhelming, finding moments of true peace and clarity can be rare. At least that’s how I’ve felt for most of my life. My brain is often so busy that I can use the wrong words in a conversation because I’ve got so far ahead of myself that my voice can’t keep up with the chatter in my mind.

I tried so many things – reading, meditation, yoga, walking, music – but nothing really worked long term. I might get five minutes of distraction or hyper focus, but then my mind would start chattering again. And it was so frustrating! Where was this quiet, calm space in my mind that everyone has and I just couldn’t access?

It wasn’t until I found breathwork in 2022 that I understood I’d been going about it all wrong. I realised that I’d been trying to do something I didn’t have the skills for yet – jumping way ahead of myself instead of starting at the beginning. Five minutes of quiet mind space with no brain chatter is actually really hard without the “training” that leads up to it. And those people that can do it have been doing it a really long time!

Finding moments of daily clarity was the starting point for me. Because the mental quiet was so alien to me, my brain was finding ways to keep the noise going – it literally didn’t know what to do with the quiet, peaceful space. So just learning to stop, close my eyes and focus on taking a breath was so simple, yet so profound.

And as cliche as it sounds – it changed my life.

A simple breath can bring me out of the mental chatter and back into my body with very little effort. And over time, I’ve learned to lengthen those initial few seconds and sit with the quiet. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn’t – I have to keep reminding myself that I’m undoing a lifetime of chatter and it’s not the end of the world if I don’t get longer than a few seconds. What matters the most is that I take that conscious breath, and another, and another, and keep the momentum going.

The simple effectiveness of this snared my interest – if this worked for me, then what else was I missing? And of course, it wasn’t enough to just learn the techniques, I wanted the full on journey of learning for myself and then to take it out into the world. I was already a coach, so adding another string to my bow was a no brainer!

Over the course of the last year, during my breathwork facilitator training, I have learned so much more than I ever thought I could. More techniques, more clarity, and more personal development journey than I ever expected.

Learning to breathe consciously was the biggest game changer for me. Breath is the only automatic bodily function we can consciously control and it can significantly affect our emotional state. So learning to wield it as a tool as well as it being the thing that keeps us alive, is about the most useful thing we can ever do for ourselves.

I use breathwork every day for myself – keeping the simple breath, but also using coherence breathing to slow down, or even just noticing my breath pattern and changing it consciously so it supports me rather than running away with my emotions.

Every time I dive into breathwork for myself, whether I’m doing it solo or it’s being guided by someone else, it always feels like a fresh experience. It could be something as straightforward as a box breath to regulate my system, or a more intense conscious connected breath that brings about real energy shifts. Especially if you are being led by someone else – them holding space for you to grow and change feels so nurturing. And it’s an experience we often miss out on in adult life.

Because facilitating breathwork for someone else is always an honour – that person is putting their trust in me, allowing me to direct them into changing the very thing that keeps them alive. And even if it feels edgy or uncomfortable at the time, the after effects will always be the thing they need. The breath is clever like that!

And no matter the technique, breathwork is a seriously powerful practice. One that shouldn’t be underestimated, but one that we all should be taking seriously as a part of our everyday lives.

If you haven’t already, I highly recommend just stopping, closing your eyes and taking a breath. One single breath. And see how you feel after. And if it feels good, take another. Then find the moments in your day where you can use it.

Taking a breath with you now.

Laura

To find out more about Laura, take a look at her profile in Practitioners Corner

‘Become aware of the breath, the sensation of the air passing in and out through your nostrils. As you focus in on this sensation, let everything else in your mind slowly fade away. Let all the things that have happened to you today and all the things that you have to do, all your cares, all your worries, all your troubles, slowly melt away. All you become aware of is the in and out of your breath. In…. and out…. in….. out….’

The journey from Meditation to Breath

I was sitting cross-legged in a Buddhist Gompa, listening to my teacher give instructions. It was very comforting; a still and quiet refuge from the craziness of the outside world. Whenever I stepped into the temple, the thick red carpet and scent of nag champa incense burning made me immediately relax.

While my teacher was speaking I found it very easy to concentrate. Her steady voice had a certain authority, and my mind naturally did as she asked. I focussed in on my breath, its slow steady rhythm and the in–and-out of air on my throat. My concentration narrowed, tightened, focussed. In…. and out…. in….. out….. .

I felt I could really train my mind in such a space, tame my monkey mind by improving my concentration. Make it like a smooth still lake, untroubled by ripples. Make it like the clear blue sky, untouched by clouds. Meditating on my breath was working on becoming enlightened – just as Buddha had – and that was definitely a goal worth striving for.

‘There is the outside world,’ my teacher said, ‘and the inside. Your breath is the bridge between them. You know what the outside is like; full of suffering and delusion, but do you know what the inside is like? What wonders lie inside? Remember, your breath is the bridge between them. In… and out…. In… out….’

And indeed there were wonders inside. Oceans of stillness, of peace, of strength, of love and compassion for all living beings. Big mind and big heart. Buddha mind, buddha heart. Enlightenment.

But when my teacher stopped speaking and let me meditate in silence, my meditation ended. My concentration wandered, my focus slipped. My monkey mind was back, jumping around all over the place, going anywhere but my breath. I was on the bridge and trying to get back inside, but it seemed a titanic wind was pushing against me, and the more I pushed on, the harder it pushed me back.

It was even worse when I left the refuge of the temple and tried to meditate at home. Not only was there that same wind beating me back – refusing me entrance to my inside world of wonders – but the craziness of the outside world, drenched in suffering and delusion, made the bridge feel like a dangerous place, an untethered, flapping rope bridge to cross a raging torrent. One slip and the waters would swallow and drown me.

After a while, I stopped meditating. I stopped going to the Gompa, I stopped following my teacher. Although my lack of progress in my meditation was not the primary reason in my decision, it definitely played a part. The glimpses that I had of my inside world became just memories. Enlightenment seemed again unattainable. I stepped back from the breath, from that bridge of terror, and became immersed again in the outside world.

A few years later, by chance I found myself at Conscious Breathwork in Bali, Indonesia. My experience of Buddhist breath meditation had left me cynical yet longing for something to happen. I wanted to try and cross the bridge again, but I had lost the faith that I – or even anyone else – really could.

For those of you who have experienced a Conscious Breathwork, you will know that it is nothing like a Buddhist breath meditation. There is no concentration, no focussing, no mental component at all. Just breathing, Conscious Breathing. Within a few breaths of my first session, amazingly, magically, without any effort, without even really listening to the teacher, I found myself back at the bridge, staring towards my interior world of wonders. The wind was as strong as before, perhaps stronger, the bridge more unstable, and the waters below more akin to a deluge than a river, but I was back, looking at something I thought lost to me forever.

This time though, standing at the start of the bridge, I felt strangely calm. With a flash of insight I knew what I had to do. Rather than force myself across, I took a different path. For a moment, I stood up tall and faced the wind, feeling it wrap and buffet my body. Then I let myself fall backwards into the river, letting the waters engulf and sweep me away.

You see I realised that my breath was not just the bridge, my breath was also the river. And if I just let myself go, if I abandoned my fear and followed my breath it could sweep me away not just to my inside world of wonders, but to places that I could not even imagine. A place where there was no difference between inside and out, where there was not any difference between suffering and enlightenment.

If you have the opportunity to try a Conscious Breathwork, and if you then find yourself standing in front of the wild elemental rivers of your own being, then you might find yourself letting go as well.

You could even go there right now, if you are brave enough. It’s easy. Just breathe. Consciously breathe.

In…. and out…. in….. out….

Benedict Beaumont – Founder of Breathing Space

To find out more about Benedict, take a look at his profile in Practitioners Corner

The Power of Breathwork

Laura

Breath is the Bridge, Breath is the River

The journey from Meditation to Breath

Benedict Beaumont – Founder of Breathing Space