In mindfulness meditation, we often speak of “returning to the breath”, and one way is paying attention to the sensations felt around the nose or nostrils. Feeling the air as it enters, perhaps cool, soft tingling, feeling the muscle of the flap of the nose moving, feeling the air leaving, warmer, subtler. The tiny area becoming an anchor, simply allowing yourself to fee the breath. As thoughts can pull us in a hundred directions, noticing the breath at the nostrils invites us back to the present moment.
By feeling the breath at the nose, we’re not just training attention. We’re remembering the preciousness of life — not in grand gestures, but in the wondrous sensations of each inhale and exhale.
The Breath Is Life’s Teacher, Donna Martin (extract)
Observe me, says the Breath, and learn to live effortlessly in the Present Moment.
Feel me, says the Breath, and feel the Ebb and Flow of Life.
Allow me, says the Breath, and I’ll sustain and nourish you, filling you with energy and cleansing you of tension and fatigue.
Move with me, says the Breath, and I’ll invite your soul to dance.
Make sounds with me and I shall teach your soul to sing.
Follow me, says the Breath, and I’ll lead you out to the farthest reaches of the Universe, and inward to the deepest parts of your inner world.
Notice how you take me in, invites the Breath. Is it with joy… with gratitude…? Do you take me in fully… invite me into all the inner spaces of your home? …Or carefully into just inside the door? What places in you am I not allowed to nourish?
And notice, says the Breath, how you release me. Do you hold me prisoner in closed up places in the body? Is my release resisted… do you let me go reluctantly, or easily?
I am the Breath.
Life is the Musician.
You are the flute.
And music – creativity – depends on all of us. You are not the Creator… nor the Creation.
We are all a part of the process of Creativity… You, Life, and me: the Breath.
Guide: Noelle Lim
Image credit: Liwanu Sutter, Unsplash
Kindermind Center 