Mini Practice: Take Three Breaths
Three is a magic number
Photo of blue stencil of the number three against an earth tone background by Markus Spiske at Unsplash.
I'm happy to share another valuable mini-practice with you this week.
Take three breaths. Right now, and whenever you remember to do so throughout the day. The challenge is to remember to pause amidst your daily activities and simply breathe and notice.
This is a meditation hack for those of us who are too busy or stressed for traditional practices. Even doing this for a few days can be impactful.
The beauty of this exercise is that you're already breathing all day long! It's simply a way to bring attention to your breath. As you engage with this practice, you may notice several things:
Changes in your breath: It may slow down, deepen, or become quieter.
Awareness of when you remember and forget to practice: What sparks your intention to do this exercise?
The feeling of each breath: Notice how individual breaths connect with various thoughts and emotions and what is happening in your bodymind and surroundings.
Quiet moments emerging throughout your day: With practice, you may find silence and peace, not just in the easy and joyful moments, but also within the difficult and challenging experiences of everyday life.
This practice is portable and can be done anytime, anywhere. The commute, daily meetings, chores, and mealtimes are great times to try it. You might need to slow down to do it, and it may even encourage you to put your phone down. The story of a busy CEO who also trains as an elite athlete is described in the book called Golden: The Power of Silence in a World of Noise by Justin Zorn and Leigh Marz. That busy CEO went on to do this simple three-breath practice daily for ten years! Why? Because it changes things. The book is well worth reading just for the inspiring stories of people finding silence in ordinary life. Well worth reading.
A useful goal is to remember to do this three days in a row. It may take some time, and that's okay. Keep striving for those three consecutive days – it's a sign that your focus and attention are improving and also a sign that your central nervous system (your brain and body connection) is encoding helpful states of consciousness that emerge from the internal silence that you cultivate each time you do this exercise.