The Here And Now Breathing and Embodiment Practice

The short introduction. I really love that there is a version of the Here and Now breathing practice that I can basically explain and sum it up in a few minutes. So if I have a conversation, if I go to a festival or a reception or a party and someone is curious, I can really recap it in a few phrases. I will do that now and this is going to be the core or the essential information about the practice.

The practice consists of two elements or two parts. One is to help you to remember that you wanted to do something as simple as that. Most of the time when we go to a course, training, workshop, and we receive interesting and important information, there is this big question: ‘How am I going to remember the things I've learned during the weekend or the retreat?’

Next week or next month. In our case, there is this very simple thing that we'd like to be present in our body. We'd like to be in the here and now. How do we remember that we had this beautiful intention?

In the Here and Now breathing practice, we learn how to glue together our inhalation with the notion of here.

And our exhalation with the notion of now.

Initially, and also later on, this is really simple, and as simple as it sounds. As I breathe in, I say inside, or if I'm on my own, I can pronounce it out loud - here. And as I breathe out, then I say - now. As I breathe in, I say here. As I breathe out, I say now. And I just continue to repeat.

Especially, initially, I will teach myself to glue together these two things, the physical action of breathing in and the notion of here; and the physical action of breathing out and the notion of now. Breathing in is here, breathing out is now. And after a while, this will turn around and me simply breathing in and out will somehow pop up in my awareness the words here and now without me wanting or needing to do that.

That's the reminding bit.

Basically every few seconds, five, six times in a minute, we’re going to have a little reminder, like a Google reminder if you wish, a little indication that will just tell us here, now, here, now.

Then the second part of the breathing practice is to simply drop into our body awareness, into body sensations directly related to the breathing.

Whenever we focus on something that is connected to the breathing, then we can be quite reassured that we are focusing our attention on something that is happening in the here and now. The breathing can't happen in the past or in the future.

Our thoughts and our attention can go into the past in the future.

We can have anxieties or fantasies, dialogues, movies, about things that happened in the past or will maybe happen in the future.

The breathing is always happening in the here and now.

So if we focus on the breathing, and especially if we focus on body sensations related to the breathing, then we can be sure that we are relying our attention or the focus of our awareness on something that is happening here and now.

In our vocabulary, here and now, in this context, simply means being present in the body, connecting to body awareness, connecting to body sensations related to the breathing.

Whenever we are reminded, in any way, by the way, but let's say the word here and now popping up in our awareness is just one helpful hint to realize that we got lost in the mind.

So, whenever we have this little aha moment, a little awakening experience, like, oh gosh, again, I'm lost in a story! Then I just interrupt the story, the movie, the dialogue, or the judgmental monologue inside and withdraw my attention, and I drop into my body awareness and that's it. That's what I do.

So whether I'm standing in a queue or walking on the street or even having a conversation with someone, if I realize that actually I'm not present in that situation and I'm somewhere in my mind, I can just let go of the thought, the story or the movie, whatever it was, and drop back into body awareness.

Again, the two elements of the Here and Now breathing practice is one that we have an eternal reminder set up in the shape and form of connecting the notion of here with the breathing in, and the notion of now with the breathing out. And then the second part is that whenever we realise that we are unnecessarily paying attention to the thoughts in our mind, we interrupt the thought, we withdraw our attention and we connect to body sensations related to our breathing taking place.

Here and now. With the inhalation and the exhalation and then dropping into body awareness, body sensations related to our breathing.

That's it. And it is as simple as it sounds.

The Here and Now breathing practice, in a way, is nothing new, nothing extraordinary. And at the same time, it is a fresh combination of some ancient traditions and this recurring invitation to focus on our breathing that is predominant in many yogic or mindfulness traditions, and combining it with the recognition or understanding of NLP (Neuro-Linguistic-Programming) or Silva method about how we human beings learn.

And in that regard, apparently it's possible to condition yourself or to train yourself to use the body sensations and the ways how we human beings learn, to teach yourself to create a new habit, which is simply to be present in your body.

The Here and Now breathing practice is, for me, at least so far, the simplest way, or if you want doorway to drop into the here and now and to be present in a real way. In a real way, I add, because we talk about this so much, ‘being in the here and now’ and ‘being present’, these are clichés we use.

It's part of the spiritual mumbo jumbo but quite often it really doesn't mean anything. It's just words leaving our mouth without any kind of genuine, real meaning or lived experience. In my understanding and experience so far, it's been a few years that I'm doing this very simple practice, the Here and Now breathing practice is really not good for anything else but to be present in the Here and Now.

In a way, it's almost boring, or if you want, it's disappointing, because it will not get you into any kind of ecstasy or utter satisfaction, it will not resolve your problems from one day to another, but what it can do is, that it will get you into your body and out of your head. The cool thing about it is that it really doesn't need any kind of background in self development or spirituality.

You can be an atheist, you can be a practicing Advaita Vedanta person… the Here and Now Breathing Practice gives you a solution to one simple thing, and we all have this experience, as human beings, when we are stuck in our head, when we are lost in stories, in thoughts.

We all have this experience, really doesn't matter whether we are spiritually oriented people or atheist, we just have this experience that we have a busy mind, it's full of thoughts, images and stories and anxieties and imaginations, and we don't know how to stop it, and we don't know how to get out of it.

All of us, we all have these moments when we just wish that if just there would be one second or a minute that there would be some silence or quiet inside.

The Here and Now breathing practice does not promise us anything like stopping the mind. Actually, one of the basic I would say ‘tricks’ is that we let go of this thing.

But what I do teach through this breathing practice is how you can withdraw your attention from paying attention to your mind and just staying in your body.

Being present in the body with the breathing is a really peaceful thing. It's just relaxing, it's nice, in a way there's almost nothing there, but it is certainly a better state to be than to pay attention to the rather often chaotic mind.

A very simple way to explain what the Here and Now Breathing practice is about is to change a habit. I could put it in this really simple way to say that the whole theme around enlightenment and awakening and being present through the lenses of the Here and Now breathing practice is nothing else but to change a bad habit to a good habit.

What is the bad habit? The bad habit is that we pay attention to our thinking mind also when we don't need to, when it's unnecessary, and when it does not serve us. It's just a habit. It's almost as if we would be mesmerized by the content of our mind, and we just pay attention to it all the time. As if it would not be an option to not to pay attention to the mind.

Through the Here and Now breathing practice, I just simply suggest that we change this habit.

We might have lived decades, and we might have this habit of paying attention to the mind for a long time. But, in the same way how we developed and build up this habit - in the same way we can also change it.

In my perception, there is a way how you can teach yourself to simply withdraw your attention in any given moment from the content of the mind and to drop into your body awareness. The Here and Now breathing practice is simply about that. To learn, basically, to teach yourself to catch the moments when you're paying attention to your mind and it doesn't serve anything.

Because the content, what is there, is just repetitive, rubbish, and it's not good for anything. And it's just a habit to pay attention to it. So through the Here and Now breathing practice, we simply learn how to break down this habit.

And to create another one, which is to be present in your body as your default mode of being in life.

Living your life where the basic, the natural state of being is, to be present in your body, as simple as that.

And you really don't need to be spiritually oriented or having any kind of background in any kind of mindfulness or yoga or spiritual practice.

We all have this experience that we are paying attention to the busy mind and we would like to have a little refuge and a little rest, and we don't know how.

Through the breathing practice, we just simply learn how to withdraw the attention, drop into the body, and just to stay there.

And that's it.

And then if we get lost, and that's the magic or genius of the breathing practice, we always have a reminder, basically every five or eight seconds, depending on how is your rhythm of breathing, a little reminder, a little poke or a little nudge that will tell you: ‘Hey hooo, where are you now? Hey ho, where are you now?’ And it's never gonna stop until you die, until you have your last breath. But until then, five or seven times a minute, you will have a reminder that will call you back to be present in your body.

It's really amazing.

As I earlier said, the Here and Now breathing practice is something that you would use in your everyday life. As we do this guided meditation, you can do it with your eyes closed. Quite often when we turn our attention inwards, it’s easier to close your eyes because then you shut out a big portion of your perception or the information that would reach you. Closing the eyes will help you to focus more easily inside. But this is a practice that we're going to use in our everyday life and we can't keep our eyes closed all the time. If you want to, then you can also keep your eyes open as we do this guided meditation. I will keep my eyes open as I do the meditation. I'm looking into the camera. If you do it with eyes open, then I would suggest to fixate a point somewhere in front of you and not to move. Don't move your eyes - just for now. And then if you close your eyes, then you just simply close your eyes and listen to me.

So let's begin with noticing our breathing taking place.

It really doesn't matter whether we are breathing deeply or whether our breaths are long, deep, diaphragmatic.

In the here and now breathing practice, we don't manipulate our breathing in any way.

We just simply notice it taking place. Let's do that now as well. Just to simply become aware of this very simple motion that is taking place in our body, our chest and tummy area. Lifting, expanding as we are breathing in, and the same areas contracting as we are breathing out. When it comes to focusing on the breath, there are a few locations in the body that are, I would say, classic, where you can fixate your attention or focus to. So we are going to briefly visit all three of these.

One of them is the nose and the area. In Vipassana meditation, for example, but in many other meditation methods as well, focusing on the breath happening around the nose area is one option, how you can focus on breathing.

The breathing and anything you can perceive regarding the breathing around the nose is rather subtle. The air going in and out through your nostrils can have a tiny little sensation, a tingling sensation or even ticklish sensation as it is going out and coming in, if you focus on it.

In everyday life we barely notice this but if you sit down and focus your attention here, you will gradually be able to perceive it more and more. What's happening here is very subtle, on the other hand the bonus is that more often than not, breathing has a little sound around the nose as you breathe in and breathe out, especially if you do it a slightly bit faster for some reason, then your breath will have a tiny sound as you focus on your nose.

When we say ‘focusing on the breathing’ then one option is that your focus is around your nose and that's where you perceive tiny body sensations or potentially the sound of how your breathing is taking place.

Just for a few breaths I will stay quiet and rest with your awareness on this area and just notice it. There’s really nothing you need to do apart from just observing how breathing is taking place, and what are the body sensations or sounds related to your own breath around the nose area.

If you're really, really sharp with your attention then you could even notice how the air leaving your nose is a slightly bit warmer than the air that you breathe in.

Maybe you don't really perceive anything here so if that's the case, don't be frustrated or disappointed, it just simply means that this is maybe not your favorite location where you're gonna focus on breathing.

It's not mine either… so let's move to the second location which is the upper part of the trunk.

The chest area and the rib cage. In this area, again, we are looking for body sensations. If you're in a seated position like I am, then you will have some changes in the pressure of the seat or pillow behind you every time you breathe in the surface behind you gives a different sensation as you lean against it and then it changes as you breathe out.

I can perceive some changes in my T-shirt touching my body and around my armpit; the sensation changes as I'm breathing in and breathing out.

And there is a tiny pointing sensation in my sternum so in the middle of the chest, as it gets a little bit more stretched when I'm breathing in, and then this sensation goes away as I'm breathing out. So in this area, these are typical body sensations and feelings we can perceive.

Again, just for a few breaths I will stay quiet and with the focus of your awareness, just rest here and see what you can observe and notice. And again, don't worry if it's not intense or anything huge or barely anything; we are learning something, so it is okay to start somewhere and then evolve. Your perception of these body sensations might be crystal clear and strong or it's very subtle or barely anything; it's okay.

And now let's move to the third classic position which is our tummy, the lower part of our trunk. Typical body sensations or changes around there might be in the back if you're in a seated position or also if you're lying down, also, your waistline or lower back is different when you breathe in and it stretches more as you breathe in and then relaxes as you breathe out.

Then, on the other side, the belt of the trouser is against my belly as I'm breathing in and I expand, and then this light pressure disappears as I'm breathing out. Also, I can feel a tiny bit more of my forearm touching my belly as I'm breathing in and then that sensation fades away a little bit as I'm breathing out.

As earlier explained, we are looking for these types of body sensations, and again just for af ew breaths, I will be quiet and just observe and notice what kind of body sensations you can feel here in this area.

And as it happened for me, it might happen for you as well. The body quite spontaneously by itself, it's not me doing it, randomly would just simply take a bigger breath. And then quite often afterwards we enter into a slightly deeper state of relaxation in everyday life as well. Quite often we have this like ‘aaah’ kind of feeling or sigh.

Let's now finish this part of the guided meditation to come to the version I practice these days.

Initially I explored all these three locations. After a couple of years, I realized that I feel most comfortable embracing my whole upper body with my attention. I'm not focusing on any of these locations only, but I allow my awareness at the same time being focused, and at the same time expand enough to embrace my whole upper body expanding and contracting as I'm breathing.

As I'm doing it now and also in my everyday life, when I'm doing the Here and Now breathing practice, I simply allow my attention to rest on the body sensations related to my whole upper body, expanding and then contracting as I'm breathing.

So it's not one point of a location, it's this overall sensation, this beautiful rhythm or pulsation of my whole body expanding, and then a few seconds later contracting.

The body sensations we earlier met in the tummy or chest area are included or embraced in the body. And this experience, it's a beautiful, simple rhythm, a pulsation.

When I refer to body awareness or body sensations related to the breathing, that's what I'm referring to. This overall expansion and contraction of the upper body.

If you do the practice long enough, then you will realize that actually your awareness can expand into your whole body. You can in a way feel your whole body expand and contract with every breath. But I would say first just focus on very precise body sensations that can help you make sure that you are not imagining something or hallucinating. Our good old-fashioned flesh, physical body, body sensations, frictions, stretches. That's what we're looking for. That's where we rest with our awareness or anchor our attention.

So now, again, just for a few breaths, for a few seconds, stay with this very simple motion of the body. I will be quiet. And just simply notice, observe what body sensations can you perceive as this expansion and contraction is taking place.

This state, I quite often call home or refuge, a state that is always available.

The good and bad news about it is that you don't necessarily need to feel good to visit this place.

You don't even necessarily are peaceful when you're visiting this place. You can experience all the emotions that we human beings can have and still connect to this simple experience. Expansion and contraction. So in a way it can be the ground of your perception, where in your perception there might be joy or anger, sadness or connectedness, but that's the ground from where you perceive all that. This is the background.

Now let's add the another simple aspect of the here and now breathing practice, which is this simple repetition or mantra, if you wish, of these two words: here and now. As we are breathing in, then we can say here, and as we are breathing out, we can say now.

A breath usually takes a few seconds, so you can prolong the words, and throughout the whole time as you breathe in, you can say here, and throughout the whole time as you're breathing out, you can say now.

I's a few seconds. Three, four seconds maybe as you breathe in, and similarly three, four seconds as you breathe out. Most probably as we did this guided meditation, you noticed several times that your mind would wander away and you're not focusing on body sensations at all, but there are thoughts and stories and dialogues and images popping up in your mind. Your attention would jump here and there, and then you come back to your body sensations, to my voice, then you realise that you got lost in a story.

Repeating ‘here’ and ‘now’ is just a very simple means to give focus to your mind, a little job or chore. Or if you wish, the mind can focus on repeating the word 'here' as you're breathing in. And then it can focus on the word 'now' as you are breathing out.

What's happening is very simple: you help yourself to focus on these two words as you breathe in and out, and are aware of your whole upper body expanding and contracting.

And that’s your vacation or holiday or retirement! For the seconds, minutes or hours you're doing this, there's absolutely nothing to do.

You can just rest…

… and realise that any thoughts regarding the past or future are just thoughts; distractions as your mind jumping back and forth in time. It's fine, that's what the mind does: it jumps from one thing to another, like a butterfly or like a monkey.

The trick of the Here and Now breathing practice is that we withdraw our attention from our mind and we just allow the mind to do whatever it wants. Our focus rests on our body awareness, body sensations, feelings.

And you can use the two words 'here' and ‘now' to help with that. And in a way, all these are crutches in your journey to be more and more familiar or feeling home to be present in your body. As it's quite often the case with mantras and meditation methods, after a while the importance of the words, of their meaning, will just fade away, or you won't even use them. And what remains?

It's just awareness.

And this beautiful pulsation, the expansion and contraction of the body.

Wherever you are now, seated or maybe lying down, or maybe you're listening to this in a car - let’s realise that this simple practice is something you can do for five seconds, or just for two breaths. You can do it for 30 seconds and yes, you can sit down and you can do this for two hours.

But the amazing news is that as you're standing in the queue in a shopping mall or putting petrol into your car and standing there for 30 seconds, or waiting for the bus or sitting in the car in a traffic jam while brushing your teeth or sitting on the toilet… all these moments are opportunities to be present in your body to get out of your head.

Let the mind think and just drop back into the body sensations connected to your breathing and the best part is as you teach or condition yourself to glue together the notion of here with breathing in and the notion of now with breathing out - your very own breath will become your best friend and guide and reminder to be present in your body. The more you do this, the more you enter into this positive catch 22 where simply breathing in your everyday life will more and more often remind you to be here and to be now.

And then as the notion of here and now pops up in your awareness, you will most often catch yourself being lost somewhere in the mind, realise that it's happening, you interrupt the thought and withdraw your attention and drop into your body… and here you are - back into your body, connected to your breathing! And as it might happen maybe 10 seconds or even 30 seconds later, you're distracted again, and there is another thought or noise or image that will distract you, but then within a few seconds, several times a minute, there will be again another breath and another breath and another breath inviting you back to the here and now.

To wrap up, let's connect to these body sensations how the upper body is expanding and contracting in silence for a few breaths and then I will guide ourselves to the next chapter.

We come to the end of the guided meditation but not to the end of the practice! Just now, as earlier, I carefully have chosen my words and I said I will guide yourselves to the next chapter… as I deliberately did not want to instruct you to stop practicing and to believe that once we did this little guided meditation there is any reason to not to be present in your body.

Let’s do this funny thing, where I will stop talking, the guided meditation will end, but you can continue to be present in your body… you can continue to stay connected to the body sensations how your breathing is taking place… and there will be a next chapter starting in this online course but you can continue to stay present in your body and of course, you can continue to stay present in your body for your whole life!

But let's take it step by step for now: wherever you are. Find out whether you can wait for the next chapter automatically starting or clicking 'play' and continue to be connected to your breathing taking place and to stay home, as you start a new chapter.

Aloha.

Congratulations!

I'm really glad you came along so far with us!

And in a way, I can't really say that that's the end of it… because by now I'm quite sure you understand that this is not the end of it.

Your practice can continue throughout your whole life, basically, if you choose to.

And then if you only had a few hours that you spent with us and you felt more relaxed and present in your body, it was already a beautiful journey together.

Thank you for signing up.

Thank you for joining us.

And again: if you'd like to share any questions or feedback regarding your journey, then please get in touch. And don't forget to enjoy the ride. Take care.

I know that you're probably all aware of the possibility of sending me a message here or there is a Q&A option as well.

I really would like to highlight that I love hearing about your experiences. Please get in touch also when you have a question but also if you just want to share your experience.

How is your journey?

It's very inspiring for me to have the feedback of people embarking on this journey of the breathing practice.

Whatever you have… question or just feedback, please get in touch. I will be there.

In this course, I mainly shared information or a technique or method about how to get out from our heads and be present in our bodies. If you check out, then I have other courses that are about slowing down. My Lomi Lomi courses are disguised as a course about massage or as a bodywork course, but actually they are means to help you to slow down.

If you're curious about them, then have a look at them.

If you click on the links below or around this video, then you will find my other courses in Lomi Lomi.

Maybe see you there! Aloha.

In this chapter (approximately another 2hrs of audio content) you will have access to the 'The Here And Now Breathing Practice - How A Spiritual Cliché Can Become Your Embodied Reality' audiobook. 

The book is narrated by Laura Merri, a most wonderful Rumi and Sufi poetry performer, conveying the message of the book not only through the clarity of her voice but also through embodying the presence towards which the guide lines of this book are an invitation to.

In this chapter you will find some links for you to potentially explore other ways of slowing down, getting out of the thinking mind and coming more and more home into your body.