Keeping It Simple

Every mental or emotional pattern of energy has a respiratory rhythm. Changing your respiration is one of the quickest and easiest ways to influence patterns in the body. Breathe like an angry, sad, or happy person, and you will become angry, sad, or happy. If you are angry, the most efficient way to stop yourself is by taking slow, calm, full breaths. By practicing the following technique two to four times a day, your attention will gradually pull away from patterns associated with restless desires of the body.

1. Sitting in the meditative posture — spine straight, chin parallel to the floor, and palms upturned and resting on the thighs — close your eyes, lift your gaze, and concentrate intently on the point between your eyebrows. Breathe out through your mouth with a multiple exhalation, sounding like “huh, huh, huuuuuh.”

2. Next, close your mouth and breathe in very slowly through your nostrils, gradually allowing your abdomen to expand while mentally counting the seconds that go by. As you continue inhaling, expand your chest, but stop before your shoulders lift. Hold your breath for one to three seconds while deeply concentrating on your brow; then exhale through the mouth for the same duration as the inhalation. Repeat the technique for 10 to 15 minutes; then sit quietly in contemplation and focus on the magnetized point between the eyebrows. In that stillness, you may talk with your personal image of God, practice positive affirmation, or listen inwardly, all the while locking your attention to your expansive center of awareness.

Adapted from God Without Religion: Questioning Centuries of Accepted Truths, by Sankara Saranam.