Breath Counting Meditation

This meditation will bring awareness to how often the mind wanders. Take one to five minutes out of your day to stop, tune in and connect with yourself and your breath.

Set Up:

• Sit upright in a comfortable position: lengthen the spine, relax the shoulders and rest the hands on your lap.

• Take a few deep breaths: inhaling through the nose and exhaling out of the mouth.

• After taking a few deep breaths, come back to a normal, natural breath in and out of the nose.

• Bring your attention to the tip of your nose and the breath coming in and out of your nose.

• Notice the properties of the breath: temperature, depth, texture, etc.

• Once you are tuned into your breath, start to follow your breath with your mind: Inhale, Exhale. Inhale, Exhale.

• Once you have connected with your breath, begin to count each breath:

  • Inhale, Exhale (one)

  • Inhale, Exhale (two)

  • Inhale, Exhale (three)

  • Etc.

• Try to get up to TEN breaths.

Every time your mind starts to wander and your thoughts stray away from the count, begin at ONE.

The point of this exercise is to get ten full breaths without having your mind wander. Be patient with yourself. Try not to get upset when/if your mind begins to wander (this is harder than it seems)! If you find yourself getting frustrated, just sit and breathe for awhile without counting and then start again!

Push PLAY for a walkthrough of this exercise!

If you are interested in learning more about meditation and mindfulness, be sure to check out my fuel wellness resource library!