How Breathing Practice is Aligned to Attention and Focus

If you’ve been researching mindfulness, you may have heard the term breathwork at some point or another. The key thing to note is that breathwork and mindful breathing are not one in the same. Many refer to breathwork as the practice to intentionally control the breath in order to relax and calm the nervous system and lessen the effects of stress and anxiety. Now, we do want to reiterate that breathwork and mindfulness are not one in the same. Mindfulness practices surrounding breathing invite a practitioner to notice and accept their breath as it is the moment. Bringing one’s attention to their breath is an important tool to bring clarity to how things are in the moment rather than how we want them to be.

 Utilizing Breathing Practices as a Way to Increase Mindfulness

As an informal practice, we can do breathing practices and bring mindfulness to it. Much like we can paint or exercise mindfully, we can do many activities mindfully like mindful breathwork and mindful eating. As we learn to be with things as they are, it enables us to be more comfortable in dealing with difficulties and challenges. For example, when we notice our thoughts – we want to be an observer of our thoughts rather than being our thoughts. That is to say one may think, “If I am having anxious thoughts, then I am anxious,” rather than “anxious thoughts are here.” The same goes for breathing practices. We can use it as a way to practice being more mindful. We see that our breath is shallow in the moment. We don’t try to fix it; we notice it as it is. This process of accepting creates greater manageability of things that may take away our focus throughout the day like discomfort or anxiety. For many, mindful breathing practices can be a great and simple way to hone their mindfulness practices – and can be done in a few minutes each day. For others, the breath can be uncomfortable – including those with asthma or strong anxieties – if that is the case, we encourage one to move away from the breath and bring the attention to something else. Unlike many other breathwork practices, in a mindfulness program you will not hear an instructor saying, “breathe in, breathe out.” Mindful breathing is less about regulating one’s nervous system but rather to simply notice our bodies and accept where we are in the moment. If you have questions about practicing mindfulness, we invite you to join one of our community workshops or ongoing programs to further your education in mindful living.