Breathing Mindfulness

 Meditation

Sit.   Cross-legged, or chair.   Turn off stimulus.  That's hard for me.   I like my music.  Set 10 minute timer.  Concentrate on breathing.  Inhale, exhale, in and out.   Be aware of your breathing.   Note your mind, whatever pops up.   Return to focus on your breath.   In and out, inhale and exhale.   Nose, and mouth.   Fast or slow.  It's all good.   See, hear, smell, taste, touch.  Associations.    Distractions.   But you can analyze what your breath looks like, sounds like, smells like, feels like.  Your breath is like food.  Your body is ingesting the gaseous air, just like solid food, or liquid water.   The oxygen, specifically.   The nitrogen (78% of what you're breathing) just goes right back out.   You are in chemical exchange with plants.   Even this thought was kind of a distraction.  Return to breath.  It will take many iterations to stay joyfully focused with single-pointed concentration.  You might want to close your eyes, or focus in front of your nose?  It can be difficult to turn your mind "off".   I habitually, almost automatically, name things I see.  Other external things, like smells, the feeling of my clothes, what I'm sitting on, classifying everything, like sounds or odors or all the objects in front of me, and tangents about their purpose, origin, etc.   Curtains, desk, books.   Curtains makes me think of the phrase "curtains for you" or Kurt Cobain.  The word "diaphanous".   How did they automate the stitching.   What things are made of.   How old they are.  Where they were made.  Yada yada.   Books are knowledge and wisdom, in concentrated form, that take less time to read than they took to write.   Facets of the diamond, for others' Reality, knowledge, experience, imagination.   Dead authors "live" on, through their works.   By reading them, they come back to life, kind of.  Many books are "immortality projects".    Like dreams, warning of nightmares, and guides to utopia.  Vicarious experience, depth of understanding.   And loads of fun, ways of escape, learning, how to write, think, and be.   The mind needs things to chew on, too.   Feed your head.

Just reset the timer.    You want to get to 10 minutes of glorious stillness of mind, even beyond.   They say it's a prerequisite to Nirvana.   Stick to it.