slowing the breath

TheJourney

supposedly during your meditation your breath count is supposed to get down to like 1 breath a minute. I don't get anywhere near that. Maybe 6 breaths a minute, but any less than that seems impossible. It's kinda discouraging

Rob3rt

Why does your breathing rate matter?

You are meant to be observing your breath, not controlling it from my understanding, if your breathing rate naturally drops to 6 breaths per minute then thats what you observe.

nanadhaja

TheJourney wrote: »

supposedly during your meditation your breath count is supposed to get down to like 1 breath a minute. I don't get anywhere near that. Maybe 6 breaths a minute, but any less than that seems impossible. It's kinda discouraging

I have never tried this breath counting.
In the tradition I follow we observe the breath but we do not try to control it.Perhaps some one could explain this technique to me.No big words please,some of you people obviously didn't drop out as early as me.
With metta

caz

Dont count the breath just focus on the sensation of it moving In and out through your nostrils...actively counting the breath will disturb the mind, Stilling the mind requires control of the monkey mind, Counting I find just tends to make things worse as your having to think about what number your own and it is distracting you from the actual breath.

BonsaiDoug

nanadhaja wrote: »

I have never tried this breath counting.

Bhikkhu, as I understand it, the counting itself is of no importance. It's merely
a way of helping someone keep their mind focused on the breath itself; a way to
try to exclude thoughts from taking over.

So as far as I know, you (and others) are correct in that it's the focusing on the breath
which is central to the meditation.

nanadhaja

Bonsai Doug wrote: »

Bhikkhu, as I understand it, the counting itself is of no importance. It's merely
a way of helping someone keep their mind focused on the breath itself; a way to
try to exclude thoughts from taking over.

So as far as I know, you (and others) are correct in that it's the focusing on the breath
which is central to the meditation.

Thankyou BD:)

ThailandTom

I have never heard of people trying to get to a point where they breath once every minute in meditation We are not sloths lol..

I started meditating with counting the breath, 1 in, 1 out, 2 in 2 out up to 5. then back to 1-6, 1-7, 1-8, 1-9, 1-10. This is so say a good technique for beginners so they can focus the mind. With time, I have slowly done this technique less and less or maybe start with it and then move on to simply focusing without the action of counting.

newtech

thats in relationship with "calming bodily fabrication", being in-out breaths bodily fabrication.
If u want to slow down your breath u just have to focus on one little spot, like the nose tip, and watch the sensations of that tiny area....but dont know if thats a correct way to practice mindfulness of breathing.

ownerof1000oddsocks

I almost stop breathing during meditation so it would be pointless to focus on something that doesn't exist.

I tend to focus on the back of my eyeballs... hope that's not the wrong thing to do.

TheJourney

Yea I haven't really been counting my breath recently. I just mean it seems to be about that much, my breath doesn't slow down nearly as much as i've read that it's supposed to. I guess it doesn't matter. It's just sometimes it makes me wonder whether i'm doing something wrong. I guess there's no right and wrong, though.