When it comes to meditation, many find it difficult to understand the concept of “clearing the mind of thoughts” or “stop thinking”. In reality there is an effective method to do it, an extremely simple technique, but also practically foolproof, if done in the right way. I introduce you:
The 9 breath technique
You can apply this technique when:
- You want to clear your mind of thoughts
- You want to relax
- You want to mentally prepare yourself for an activity or performance
- You want to free yourself from excess emotions, such as sadness or anger
- You simply want to feel better
Here’s how it works:
- Go out for a walk, don’t take anything with you(just the keys)
- When you find yourself in a place that you like and inspires peace, start walking
- Walk slowly, in a relaxed and natural way,without forcing anything
- Focus completely on your breath, steps , and sensations around you
- Exhale and count “1” (mentally)
- Inhale and count “1”
- Exhale and count “2”
- Inhale and count “2”
- Exhale and count “3”
- And so on. Repeat the process up to 9
- Inhale and count “9”
- At this point, you have completed one cycleof this technique. Compliments!
- Now you can restart from exhale and count “1”, and continue for another 5 minutes, or even more if you prefer
- If you have forgotten the number, or if you inadvertently find yourself beyond 9, start again from 1.
What is so special about this technique? At first glance, it seems like something very trivial. In fact, if you think it’s too simple to work, it’s because you’ve never tried it in real life. The gist of this exercise, and of course its effectiveness, lies as always in its application.
When you are walking and counting your breaths, a very strange thing will happen to you. At some point in your walk, it may happen that you will lose count. At that point, you won’t have to try to keep counting from a random number, or from where you thought you were, but you will start again from 1. If you can keep walking for 5 minutes (approximately) without ever losing count or going over and completing each time the cycle from 1 to 9, you will find that your mind will be much calmer. Don’t try to obsessively focus on your breaths, or try to breathe fast just to “beat” the cycle. Walk slowly, in a relaxed manner, and breathe naturally.
This happens for several reasons, but in practice what we are cultivating through this exercise is the harmonization between the mind and the breath. By focusing the brain on breathing, we allow the areas normally dedicated to our thoughts to align and cleanse themselves, giving them a freshen up. A bit like when we close excess programs on the computer.
It doesn’t look like it, but walking like this can be extremely difficult at first because thoughts will creep in right away and try to distract you from counting. You keep realigning yourself to number 1, and focusing on your breathing, your steps, and the sensations around you. Start on the exhale, count ‘1’ in your head, then inhale as you count ‘1’, then exhale again and move on to the next number, until you’ve completed 9. It’s a strange concept when you think about it, yet even so apparently as easy as counting 9 breaths has become an operation far from obvious for our mind, busy with a thousand distractions.
Step by step
If you fail so many times and can’t finish even a 9 round, don’t worry. This is also part of the exercise. The awareness of not being able to walk focusing on your breath is very precious, and if you get it (even failing) you will have already taken a very important step forward.
Continue to relax, continue to persevere, and you will see that at the end of a few cycles you will feel much more at peace than before, and you will then be able to continue your day with serenity, lightness, and greater concentration. Alternatively, you can use the 9 breaths technique to promote relaxation before a specific activity, such as meditation or rest, in order to create a small space between the moment of work and the moment of stillness.
