Gentle Breath – a game changer

It is hard to truly convey the significance of the breath. It is everything, and once we realise that there is a quality to our breath – that we can choose – that’s a game changer.

We can bring it back to being very simple. It starts with a choice to consciously choose how you will breathe in, to choose for it to be of a gentle quality. This simple choice impacts on the whole body because, from that simple choice, the next moment is filled with that quality.

Breathe in gently, feeling the breath on the tip of your nose and re-connect to the stillness of your breath. [To experience the Gentle Breath mediation click here].

Focusing on a gentle breath introduces a quality to the body that requires no doing, pushing, force or drive. This quality is known as gentleness, and in fact is always a possibility for us. Returning to this quality in the body, bridged by the Gentle Breath Meditation®, helps us stop the distraction and re-connects us to our essence, to who we naturally are.

It is the re-connecting to something we knew so deeply and easily as a child – we just get lost along the way and choose to get swept up in the complication of life.

Once we have connected to the gentleness, we can conduct the day from this place inside and see if it is possible to bring it with us into all that we do. You will feel the quality you do things in changes; simple things like wrapping a roast chicken in tinfoil, opening and closing the car door, typing at your computer – you can operate in ‘auto-pilot’ in these moments, or be more conscious of the quality of your body movements.

It might sound a little strange at first, but it is something that happened to me after practising the Gentle Breath Mediation for some time. I did what I always do to wrap a chicken in tinfoil for dinner, but after connecting to my gentle breath I chose to wrap it with more gentleness in my movements. I noticed after doing this that it had a quality of gentleness that was palpable!

This moment was simple, but it made me think... what if I brought this tangible quality into all my interactions? It really is a game changer.

Take a trip down memory lane and try this Gentle Breath Meditation® and be reminded of who you truly are.

Filed under

Body awareness, Connection, Conscious presence, Meditation, Gentle breath

By Vanessa McHardy, MA Integrative Child Psychotherapist

Vanessa loves to help young people and adults to have an understanding of how they learn and how they can express all of themselves in all areas of their lives. True learning is at the heart of Vanessa’s life in all ways.
Photography: Rebecca, UK, Photographer

I am a tender and sensitive woman who is inspired by the playfulness of children and the beauty of nature. I love photographing people and capturing magical and joyful moments on my camera.