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Sunday 26 August 2012

Drink from the well of the pause

Paying attention to your breathing is an easy and valuable mindfulness practice. You can do this in many ways, for instance by by checking in with the quality of your breathing from time to time (is the breath long, short, rough or smooth?) or by sitting still and focusing on your breathing for a while. 

In her book "Living Well With Pain and Illness," mindfulness practitioner and teacher Vidyamala Burch recommends that when doing this we should pay attention to that micro-moment between the end of the out-breath and the start of the in-breath. She calls this "drinking from the well of the pause". This, she writes, is "a point of balance when the out-breath naturally exhausts its momentum and fades into stillness. Then comes a moment of hovering anticipation, a vibration that gathers into the next in-breath." 

She suggests a corresponding image that may be helpful: When a wave flows down the beach towards the sea the water pauses before becoming a new wave that flows back up the beach. "A wave drinks from the ocean just as a new breath drinks from the air." 

It can be difficult sometimes to maintain attention on the breath but focussing on a point such as that pause between out-breath and in-breath can be a great help. Remember the idea is not to lengthen the pause but simply to be aware of it. Noticing your breathing can take you into mindfulness straightaway and is well worth practising as your primary gateway to mindfulness. My Wildmind review of Vidyamala Burch's book is here.