Fundamental Breath Practice by Dr. David Daniels

The Fundamental Breath Practice by Enneagram Teacher and Therapist, Dr. David Daniels

First, I’ll introduce you to six reasons to take up a breath practice. Then, I’ll walk you through the six simple steps to a breath practice you can use throughout your life.

Why a Breath Practice? Six Reasons Including the Ability to Respond, Rather Than React

  • Our Breath Practice Brings Neutrality and Centering.  Fundamental to beginning an awareness practice is being able to inhale deeply and exhale fully, land in our physicality, and acknowledge with neutrality what shows up (somatically and emotionally, in particular) in the moment.
  • Our Breath Practice Expands Our Awareness. While we use a breath practice as a good starting place to learn how to focus our attention inward, it’s important to know that with practice, our awareness expands beyond just tracking our breath. Just like any other life-skill we may hope to engage and then master, cultivating awareness is no different.
  • Our Breath Practice Brings Us to Our Inner Life. At first, we may find the practice little more than a meditative breathing exercise. But, over time, we’ll start to become more aware of the so-much-more going on within us than just our breathing. We’ll begin to bring our practice into everyday scenarios.
  • Our Breath Practice Helps Us Noticing Sensations. We’ll be able to start tracking sensations. All sorts of sensations we may have typically ignored. We will start to experience and allow feelings to arise that we perhaps used to suppress or not engage with (because, for instance, we might not have liked them or wanted some of them).  We may find ourselves able to listen more, and interrupt less.
  • Our Breath Practice Facilitates Curiosity and Relaxation of Being on “Auto-Pilot.” A good awareness practice is, in truth, a “curiosity” practice. It does take discipline, as does the implementation of anything new. But, as a result of disciplining ourselves into practice, we’ll honestly begin to notice more. We’ll become, over time, less blindly reactive. We will go “on automatic” less frequently. And, we will experience for ourselves new abilities to respond differently to situations.
  • Our Breath Practice Allows us to Respond, Rather Than React.  Rather than operating from instinct, innate wiring, or repeated and habituated patterns of response, we’ll find we’re more able to safely contain our various impulses — long enough — to make more conscious choices. Ultimately, this makes it so that we are “not a slave” to our ingrained and comfortably patterned habits of mind, but instead, in charge of them.  This gifts us the chance to place responses rather than reactions into the world, appropriately and relevantly, and in balance with the present moment and what’s truly needed or required.

The Fundamental Breath Practice Instructions

Here I share a basic centering practice to train our inner observer.  We sill start with some important terms, then I’ve listed my six simple steps.  I always recommend starting with 5 min a day.

Important Key Terms

  • The Inner Witness:  Our “inner witness” can watch our own internal, subjective experience. This practice takes us through several steps in order to direct our attention inward, to quiet the mind, and direct it to focus our attention on our breath.
  • Being Present.  We can concentrate on becoming “present” to ourselves in the most rudimentary of ways. On awaking, before a meal, taking a break from work, on a walk, or before sleep, simply pausing and breathing. Then the place and length of time can be found that works for you.
  • On Your Own, As a Couple, or In Groups.  We can do this practice on our own, as a couple, or in a group. We can follow the directions of a teacher, or simply guide ourselves.
  • All Practice is Good.  Remember, there’s no such thing as a “bad” practice. Let’s do our best each day to center ourselves, ground ourselves in our bodies, focus our minds into stillness, and then experience our aliveness, our existence on the planet, and our need to be present to the preciousness of our lives.

How Long Should My Practice Take?

  • 5-20 Minutes a Day. Not unlike muscle training that you would do in a gym with specific reps and sets every single week, take on a presence practice as given herein for a minimum of five and up to twenty minutes daily.
  • Repetition is Important. Learning to cultivate this capacity warrants methodical repetition.
  • Getting present can become a second-by-second training process. It’s a skill that is derived from practice.

How to Practice — Dr. David Daniels, 6 Steps

  • Step 1:  Sit in a Comfortable Chair or Special Place. Put our feet on the floor, relax our shoulders, and lift our torso so that we are sitting straight with an elongated spine. Now, let our eyes close to alleviate distractions brought on by external stimuli.
  • Step 2: Place Your Attention on Your Breath. Put our attention on our breath and just follow it, letting our breath actually breathe us.  Feel what happens when we listen to the sound of the deep and life-giving inhale. Feel our chest collapse as we listen to the sound of our exhale. Without a pause, inhale again fully, and attend to what it feels like for us to breathe, to be alive.
  • Step 3: Allow Receptivity to What May Arise. Breathe for at least a minute, in and out. And then, let’s open ourselves to the feeling state of being receptive, that tender feeling of allowing and inviting whatever arises to arise.  All the while, concentrate on the breath, the inhale and the exhale, allowing our bodies to release any tension with each repetition.
  • Step 4: Notice the Inhales and Exhales in Your Body. As we follow our breath, the inhale and the exhale, let it deepen each time. Notice how it disappears in the abdominal cavity on each exhale, just below the belly button, in the gravitational center of the body. Notice how our inhale lifts the chest and fills us with aliveness.
  • Step 5: Witness Our Attention Drifting, Then Bring it Back to Our Breath. When our attention runs away to some thought, feeling, or sensation, just note it. With neutrality, accept whatever has arisen. Observe it, then let our attention return to the presence within us, to the inner awareness of our physical condition and to that of our body in space. Go back to noticing our inhale, to the sensations of the breath, and follow it once again.
  • Step 6: Bring Our Attention Back to Our External Environment. When we are ready, bring our attention slowly back to our environment. Notice what is. Where is our body and how does it feel? Hear the sounds around us and open our eyes.