"Breathing in, I feel calm.
Breathing out, I smile."
This meditation is shared by Thich Nhat Hanh in his beautiful book, The Energy of Prayer. I have been practicing this meditation recently, and find it to be powerful and simple to practice, wherever you are.
"Breathing in, we give our attention to our breath. We feel the calmness for as long as we are breathing in. Just as when we drink a cool glass of water, our insides feel cool. In meditation practice, whenever the mind is calm and peaceful the body is also calm and peaceful, because the conscious breath brings the body and mind together again. When breathing out we smile in order to relax all the muscles in our face; there are about three hundred of them. Our nervous system is also relaxed when we smile. The smile is the result of us feeling calm from breathing in, and the smile is also a cause that helps us to become relaxed and feel the peace and joy that is clearly increasing in us."
I like simple things, so even I can practice this meditation! But sometimes I forget beautiful simplicity, and get carried away with life's ups and downs, and start to feel that life is terribly complex. I forget to stop and breathe. So let's strip life back to simple again. Press the 'pause' button and return to our breath.
Thich Nhat Hanh is a Vietnamese Buddhist monk, poet, scholar and human rights activist living in France.
Breathing out, I smile."
This meditation is shared by Thich Nhat Hanh in his beautiful book, The Energy of Prayer. I have been practicing this meditation recently, and find it to be powerful and simple to practice, wherever you are.
"Breathing in, we give our attention to our breath. We feel the calmness for as long as we are breathing in. Just as when we drink a cool glass of water, our insides feel cool. In meditation practice, whenever the mind is calm and peaceful the body is also calm and peaceful, because the conscious breath brings the body and mind together again. When breathing out we smile in order to relax all the muscles in our face; there are about three hundred of them. Our nervous system is also relaxed when we smile. The smile is the result of us feeling calm from breathing in, and the smile is also a cause that helps us to become relaxed and feel the peace and joy that is clearly increasing in us."
I like simple things, so even I can practice this meditation! But sometimes I forget beautiful simplicity, and get carried away with life's ups and downs, and start to feel that life is terribly complex. I forget to stop and breathe. So let's strip life back to simple again. Press the 'pause' button and return to our breath.
Thich Nhat Hanh is a Vietnamese Buddhist monk, poet, scholar and human rights activist living in France.
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