Two posts back, I mentioned Alan Watkins and included links to his TED talks on YouTube. His talks are about using the breath to calm, relax and put yourself in a positive mood. Since meditation needs a mental or visual or tactile focus so that the meditator can be warned that the ever-fluid mind has jumped off it, one's breath is often suggested as a good focus. It is quiet, always available and can be used with the eyes open or shut.
The usual advice is to "attend to the breath", that is, concentrate on breathing, being fully focused on each intake and exhalation. There are literally many centuries of advice and writings on details about doing such concentration on one's breathing. However, most of it lacks scientific validation and experimentation.
Watkins, working to train executives, athletes and others who perform under stress, advises breathing to move the self into a state of calm, relaxed readiness to solve problems and face one's emotions and that of others effectively and sympathetically. His research and experience results in just a few principles for using one's breath as a calming and sharpening tool.
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Primary tool is steady rhythm of breath. What rhythm is used is not important but the steadiness is. So, if you like to take a rapid inhale and a slow exhale, for instance, fine. Just keep the same rhythm and pattern for many breaths. It seems to me fairly easy to concentrate on the breath for many breaths in a row when trying to keep to the same rhythm and pattern on each breath.
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Next most important is a smooth steady breathing in and out. Not jerky gulps and staccato breaths but smooth, steady even ones.
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The third point is putting one's attention on one's heart or chest while doing the special breathing. Whether one breathes using the abdomen or merely chest expansion does not matter to Watkins but mental focus on the chest and one's heart does.
I have had trouble with facial and throat muscles twitching. I suspect my age and years of desk work and reading have weakened or affected them. I have tried several approaches to calming them but this Watkins recipe has been far more effective than anything else so far.
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Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
Main web site: Kirbyvariety
