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Meditating

For anybody, meditation can be a daunting challenge.  Sit still, concentrate on your breath, clear your mind, and focus at the same time can be quite the mental workout.  And as with all workouts, it is often asked how long should you do it for?  While there is no set time, 5 to 10 minutes seemed like a good starting point.  But keeping track of the time proved too much of a distraction.  Opening my eyes to look at my watch broke my rhythm, and having the alarm clock go off didn’t feel natural.  So out of necessity the 21 breath rule was born.

The 21 breath rule is a simple exercise you can use in your meditation practice.  It solves the question of, “How long should I meditate” without relying on a watch or alarm clock because you’ll know when to start and when to stop.  Here’s how to do it:

Get in a comfortable meditative position(No, laying down in bed does not count.)  Inhale slowly, hold the breath for a second, exhale twice as slow, then hold it for another second.  This is breath number 1.  Do this 20 more times and at the end of the 21st breath you stop.  Pretty easy right?

Simple yet effective, it can be customized according to your needs.  If you’re just starting out,  it’s useful to get you in the habit of taking deep breaths rhythmically.  For the more experienced meditaters it can be used as a 10 minute warm up (It takes about 10 minutes to do 21 of these breaths.  Your mileage may vary of course.)  As for me I just incorporate my meditation techniques around it.   Breaths 1 to 7 to cleanse, breaths 8 to 14 to focus, and breaths 15 to 21 to energize my being.

Hope you find this helpful.  And as always, thanks for reading :)