Breathing in Creation

Are You Breathing?

Good! Breath is the beginning of everything.

Beyond the obvious physiological benefits of breathing, breathing is also the beginning of meditation and creativity. In every tradition I know, breathing is a gateway into calming, relaxing, and also energizing our bodies. Think of pranic practices in yoga and a key practice in centering prayer. Breathing can go beyond that and be a meditation unto itself.

How Breathing Meditation Works

Breath meditation is a terrific meditation unto itself or a platform to stack other meditations on top of. It helps to focus the mind, regulate your nervous system, and calm the body[1]. Additionally, your breath is available to you at all times and all places. You don’t need to buy anything or chase after an esoteric ingredient. We are all created with an essential meditation tool as part of who we are.

How It Can Help Us With Creativity

As a writer, I’ve been fortunate to never experience writer’s block. That doesn’t mean I haven’t had challenges and obstacles (some of them life has provided to me, others I have given myself) fall in the way of my writing. Breathing meditation has given me the mental space and bodily calm to solve plot problems, hear my characters’ voices more distinctly, and generally engage my writer-mind in a more productive and inspired way.

How It Can Help Us Connect With Our Source

I think our breath and our creativity come from the same place. They are always in us and around us and we only have to draw on them from a quiet place and in a faithful way. Awareness is seeing the world around us without adding our opinions, prejudices, and reactivity to the beautiful creation that already exists. Focusing on our breath can also help us to be mindful and aware of where our creative imagination wants to take us and the ultimate source from which all things derive without that same ego-driven interference.

Breathe Meditation Practice

This can be done as a standalone meditation, part of a sequence of meditation practices, or when you need a calming boost for focus or inspiration when you are writing. The visualization part is optional. I like to use it because it helps me stay focused. My mind likes to wander.

Sit comfortably on either the floor or in a chair. One is not better than the other. Keep your back straight and your feet on the floor. If you need a pillow for back support, embrace that.

Start with any prayers of gratitude or requests for guidance you may have.

Inhale slowly. Bring your breath down into your body and let your belly expand with it.

Exhale slowly. Do not force either your inhalation or exhalation.

Try to visualize your breath entering your body and leaving your body.

There is no right or wrong way to visualize.

When your mind wanders, and it will wander, return to your breath.

Continue for five, ten, fifteen or twenty minutes.

Don’t be afraid to make it your own.

If we want to experience the ground of all being it is helpful to start with the ground of who we physically are: our breath.

This goes for writing, too.

More discussion of breathing mediation will be available in my forthcoming Meditation for Writers course.