Breath Counting: A Simple Meditation Technique

Have you ever had thoughts run wild in your head that you can not sleep? Does your mind keep ruminating over a topic over and over (sometimes without you even realizing it)? Do you wish you can have some peace by calming the thoughts of your mind? Or at least calm them enough so that you can sleep?

Dr. Steve Shealy says the mind is like a wild untamed horse.^[source] And mindfulness meditation is one way to tame it. Want to try meditation, but don't know where to start? One good entry way is to try the simple meditation technique of breath counting.

Lawrence LeShan, PhD teaches this technique of breath counting in chapter 2 of his book How to Meditate: A Guide to Self-Discovery. It is a good technique to start out with especially for those who have never meditated before. It is simple to do, but not so simple to master (as you shall see).

As you can guess, the technique involves counting. Just count every time your body takes a breath. One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four. When you reach the count of four, start back at one. The goal is not to see how many breaths you take in a minute. Do not alter or change the way or frequency of your breath. Just breath naturally.

The point is to notice you own breath. We are often too busy or too pre-occupied to notice our own breath. This technique forces us to take time out of regular activities to do nothing but notice our own breath.

Every time you notice that you body takes a breath (and it will), just make a mental count. Do not count out loud, otherwise people around you will wonder what you are doing. If you are doing this for the first time, better to do this alone in a quite place sitting comfortably so as to have the least amount of distraction. Once you become a little bit more experienced with this technique, you would be able to do it while waiting in line at the grocery store (for example).

Do not do this while driving (or during other similar activities). Pay attention to the road instead. That is because the mind can only focus on one thing at a time. If you are focused on counting, then you are not paying attention to the road (and that is dangerous).

If you are a call-center customer service representative and a customer is complaining over and over on the phone, I suppose you can do this technique if you don't want to listen to your irate customer. Use your own judgement as to when or when not to use this technique. Just know that if you are counting, you will not be able to pay attention on anything else.

Because the mind can focus on one thing at a time, this counting technique is good for breaking your thoughts and stop that rumination. Since your mind is focused on the counting, it has less resources to think about your stresses at work, or what to get for dinner, or past arguments, etc.  Maybe that is why when kids complain about not being able to sleep, parents would say to count sheeps.

Is it true that the mind can only focus on one thing at a time? What about multi-tasking? That is an illusion. You may think you are multi-tasking. But in fact your mind is just constantly switching from one task to another. At any single moment, it is only focused on one thing. That is why some people say that multi-tasking is actually not efficient. Your mind loses efficiency when it constantly context switch.

While doing breath counting, other thoughts will naturally intrude into your mind. Your mind is still doing one thing at a time. These thoughts are actually coming in in-between counts.

When other thoughts intrude (and it will), that is fine. Just acknowledge or take notice that another thought has come in and then bring your focus back to counting.

Sometimes your mind will run away with that stray thought and you loose track of your count. That is fine too.  In fact, that is natural.  Like a wild horse, this is the way the mind naturally is. So there is no need to get frustrated when your mind wanders.  When that happens, just think "oh well, I'm thinking about something else again.  Let's get back to counting."

Whenever you notice that you are no longer counting, start back at count one and count again. Remember you only have to go up to four before you start back at one again.

As Jon Kabat-Zinn had mentioned in his 2006 talk at MIT, a mediation session can neither be good nor bad. There is no such thing as a good meditative session or a bad meditative session. One point in meditation practice is to not make judgement. It is the act of pulling the mind back to counting that is important.

Think of breath counting as the mental equivalent of weight lifting. Just like lifting a weight up and down with your arms -- one, two, three, four -- you are mentally counting breaths instead. The former trains your muscles, and the latter trains your mind. So when people say what is the point of counting breaths, you can tell them what is the point of lifting a dead weight up and down.

Does it sound too easy? Once you are able to just count, add to it by also noticing your body sensations of breathing. Notice how the air come in through your nostrils. Notice how your diaphragm moves up and down with the breath. Notice how your lungs fills and empty with air. Again, just breath naturally and try not to alter your breathing.

Still too easy? Sure, you are able to notice and count a few breaths. But as LeShan say, you are supposed to do this continuously for 15 minutes. That's fifteen straight minutes without interruption. Not two minutes here, and then daydream, and then another two minutes there.

Can you do it for fifteen minutes without missing a count of the breath? Can you do it for fifteen minutes without getting bored and going to watch TV? Can you do it for fifteen minutes without following or fantasying about other thoughts?

Once you've master 15 minutes, try 20 minutes or 25 minutes.

Now, it is not so easy. Is it?

Don't worry if you can not do it fifteen minutes straight. Most beginners can not. And that is okay. Do it for as long as you can. The important thing is to continue the practice. Maybe tomorrow. As you continue this practice, you may find that you can do it longer and longer periods of time in one stretch.

Advanced meditators can take years to train their mind. And the goal is never reached. In fact, there is no end goal. The only goal is the practice itself. Advanced meditators don't say, "okay, I've done this for ten years. I've reached my goal. I can stop now.". No, they just continue on with their practice.

Ten years? Okay, now that is not so easy.

There are other articles on the web about breath counting such as linked here and here which you can read for a different perspective. Dr. Andrew Weil also has a breath counting exercise described here.

There are also various other similar meditation techniques. One is to count backwards from 10. Another is to watch or count your thoughts. Picture each thought as a bubble rising up from the bottom of a clear lake and then dissipating. You can also picture each thought as a puff of smoke rising out of a hut or campfire -- or a log flowing down a river.

Breath counting is just a simple beginning meditative technique. If you find that you want to get more into the topic of meditation and want to do more than simple breath counting, take a look at the following products on meditation.

Article written December 2010. Author of article is not a professional and may received compensations from product ads and link within content. Article based on the book "How to Meditate" by Lawrence LeShan.