A Complete Guide to Breathing in Meditation

March 1, 2021 FitMind

Breathing seems so simple. We do it about 22,000 times each day without thinking.

But breathing in meditation can take your mind and body to new heights. The breath is a powerful tool if you know how to use it. That's why famous yogi Ramana Maharshi said:

“Control the breath and you control the mind, like throwing a net over a wild parrot.”

Before we get into learning different breathing meditation techniques, it helps to understand the science behind it. How does the breath affect our minds?

The Science of Optimal Breathing

“Every neuron, every synapse, every muscle feeds on the flame of your breath.” - Al Lee & Don Campbell, Perfect Breathing

Breathing is often overlooked because it seems so easy and automatic. On the surface, it’s a basic survival function without much else to it. But with an understanding of how the breath influences your physiology, it’ll become clear why Navy SEALs and yogis alike train the breath extensively.

Changing your breath alters the way you see the world by affecting your ANS, which is linked to your hormones and neurotransmitters.

Each breath you take sends critical information to your brain, heart, and lungs through your autonomic nervous system (ANS). The ANS manages several of your body’s key functions, like heart rate, blood pressure, and digestion. It was previously thought to be completely out of your conscious control (hence the name “autonomic”).

More recently, scientists discovered that the breath affects this system directly, enabling you to influence your ANS at will. With the tranquil breathing techniques that we'll cover next, you can learn to take control of your mind using your breath.

How does this process work?

The way you breathe communicates to the rest of your body through the ANS. For example, an elongated, smooth breath will tell your body to relax, while a rapid breath will tell your body that it’s being chased by a lion, triggering the sympathetic (fight-or-flight) nervous system. Through different methods of breathing in meditation, you'll learn to access both scenarios at will.

There are other advantages of breathing in meditation, which we'll cover next before diving into the techniques.

The Importance of Breathing in Meditation

“To master our breath is to be in control of our bodies and minds.” - Thich Nhat Hanh

Beyond the physiological impact, there's another key reason to focus on breathing in meditation: the breath serves as the gateway to conscious self-control.

While primal parts of your brain keep you breathing automatically throughout the day, your rational prefrontal cortex is also capable of taking control of the breath. In other words, breathing is both automatic and autonomous, depending on whether you’re paying attention. So conscious breathing becomes a platform for gaining control of your mind-body system through meditation.

Here are a few additional reasons that many meditation practices center around the breath:

The breath can help you experience the contents of your mind on a more subtle level, since observing it requires a certain level of awareness.
It can anchor you in the present moment.
Focusing on the sensations of breath takes you out of your “narrating mind” and into your physical body. In this way, creating a relationship with the breath tunes you into your inner world.
The breath makes for a great object of focus in meditation because it appears in fixed locations in the body but is also constantly moving.
The breath can prevent you from falling asleep.
In the later stages of meditation, close observation of the breath can lead to insights about the nature of reality due to its transitory and simultaneously automatic/autonomic quality.

Meditation on breathing can transform your mind in amazing ways with some diligence. Mastery is in the details, and the breath can be a platform on which you build your entire meditation practice. Let's now explore how to breathe in meditation.

Breath Meditation Techniques

"The breath knows how to go deeper than the mind." - Wim Hof

We'll cover two different methods of breathing meditation: tranquil breathing and bioenergetic breathing. The former methods will put your mind into a state of deep relaxation, while the latter will generate heat and energy.

They can have a powerful effect on you, producing an altered state of consciousness, so please don’t attempt them while driving or standing.

We'll also go into some variations of the breathing exercises so that you can master your breath in different ways. And if you'd like guidance for these and other techniques, check out the FitMind App.

Tranquil Breathing Meditation

So how can you activate your parasympathetic (rest-and-digest) nervous system using the breath? There are three aspects of a calming breath in meditation for achieving optimal states of relaxation.

1. Diaphragmatic Breathing

First, focus on using your full diaphragm. To get a sense of this, place one hand on your stomach and feel it inflate and deflate like a balloon. (Lying on your back is easiest to start.) This rise and fall of your belly during inhale and exhale means you’re doing proper diaphragmatic breathing.

Here you can feel the belly moving in and out during diaphragmatic breathing.

Using your diaphragm in this way will put you into a rest-and-digest state, calming the nervous system. Since your body automatically breathes this way when everything’s okay, that’s the message you’re delivering to your brain.

2. Steady Breathing

Next, try to make your breath as smooth as possible. Take an equal amount of air into your lungs per amount of time while inhaling and exhaling. As a counter-example, to breathe in an unsteady manner would meaning gulping large amounts of air all at once, taking in less air at the end of the breath.

3. Rhythmic Breathing

Finally, think about having a consistent ratio of time spent inhaling and exhaling. To keep time, you can either count in your head to start, or even use a metronome (there are free apps on your phone).

This doesn't mean that you have to breathe in and out for the same amount of time, so long as the ratio remains the same. So if you breathe in for 5 seconds and out for 10 seconds, you would maintain this 5:10 rhythm.

It's been found that monks breathing in meditation have a natural "resonant rate" of about six breaths each minute, but find what feels best for you. To further activate the parasympathetic nervous system, you might try elongating your exhale, breathing out for longer than your inhale.

Putting the three steps together (i.e., breathing in a diaphragmatic, smooth, and rhythmic manner) will bring you quickly into a coherent state of mind.

Variation 1: 4-7-8 Breathing

Here's a video demonstrating a calming breathing technique from Yoga. Its rhythmic pattern of 4-7-8 with a breath-hold and extended exhale can have a powerful effect on your mind and body.

Variation 2: Alternate Nostril Breathing (nadi shodhana)

Alternate Nostril Breathing also comes from Yoga, helping to balance your nervous system (parasympathetic and sympathetic). Below is a video of Dr. Frieder Schlecht demonstrating the method.

Bioenergetic Breathing Meditation (Tummo Meditation)

[Note: We recommend a solid foundation in meditation and breathing before attempting this one.]

One common form of bioenergetic breathing is called tummo meditation (meaning "inner fire, and named after the Tibetan Buddhist goddess of heat), and has traditionally been practiced by Tibetan yogis in the Himalayas.

Amazingly, scientists have shown that monks can use these techniques to raise their body temperatures by 17 degrees Fahrenheit [1] and dry wet towels in freezing rooms. This video briefly describes the research of Dr. Herbert Benson at Harvard, who has been studying these monks for decades.

Another group of scientists studying tummo meditation found increases in body temperature, which rose to 100 degrees (fever zone), and increases in alpha, beta, and gamma brain waves.[2]

This study suggested that it wasn't just the physical component that contributed to thermogenesis (heat generation), but also the neurocognitive (visualization) part of the technique: "Without meditative visualization, both meditators and non-meditators were capable of using the Forceful Breath vase breathing [tummo meditation] only for a limited time, resulting in limited temperature increases in the range of normal body temperature."

The exact mechanism behind the visualization requires further investigation, but research has shown that mental imagery has a potential effect on peripheral body temperature.[3] So if the visualization below sounds strange, just know that it does have a proven effect on the body.

Tummo is one of the most effective ways to energize your body and mind. It’s important to note that its main purpose is to train the mind and reach deeper states of meditation.

For thousands of years, until very recently, this method was kept secret in Tibet. Thankfully, Lama Thubten Yeshe and other progressive meditation masters believed it should be shared.

So how do you do tummo breathing?

Posture: Begin sitting comfortably with a straight spine, and place your hands on your stomach, one on top of the other.
Visualization: Close your eyes and visualize a fire burning inside your body at your navel beneath your hands. Imagine that you are a large hollow ballon with just this inner fire burning.
Inhale: Inhale forcefully through your nose (it should make a sound) and into your chest, bending your spine backward slightly to open the chest. Now as you breathe in, imagine your breath coming down and fueling this inner fire at the navel.
Exhale: Now exhale a little more slowly through your mouth with rounded lips, as if blowing through a straw. Bend forward slightly over your hands, emptying the air from your lungs and pulling in your diaphragm. With each exhale imagine the flames rising up the spine to the crown of your head.
Repeat 5 times.
Vase Breathing: On the final breath, inhale fully as before but now relax your shoulders and let the air move into your diaphragm. You may find that swallowing helps with this. At the same time, flex your pelvic muscles on this inhale. (These are the same muscles you use to stop a stream of urine.) Your belly should move out slightly as you contract both your abdominal and pelvic muscles. Imagine you’re compressing the air by pushing up with your perineum muscles and pressing down from above with your diaphragm.
Hold your breath for as long as it is comfortable, continuing to visualize the now raging fire at your navel and feel the heat you've generated in this region. Focus on the heat in this area of the body at your navel. It's important to stay concentrated and not wander off into thought. Stay aware of inner body sensations, noticing the growing calmness.
Breathe out slowly at first and then forcefully at the end to fully empty your lungs. As you breathe out, imagine the heat shoots up from your navel area to the top of your head and radiates to the rest of your body.
Repeat this whole sequence 3 times, for a total of 15 breaths. You can go for longer once you've practiced for a few days, but be careful not to exert yourself, and be sure to stop if you feel dizzy.

[Note: There are variations to this tummo meditation, but this instruction is taken primarily from Lama Thubten Yeshe, who wrote The Bliss of Inner Fire.]

Again, we should remember that the purpose of Tummo isn't to increase one's body temperature, although that does have health benefits. Rather, the physical energy facilitates deeper states of meditation. This breathing technique is all about training your mind and recognizing nondual awareness.

It's great to practice Tummo first thing in the morning (it's like instant coffee) or whenever you feel sluggish throughout the day. For example, if you're meditating and find that your mind is drifting toward sleep, tummo meditation can enliven your body and mind.

Here are a couple other methods of bioenergetic breathing that you might find useful:

Variation 1: The Wim Hof Method

The famous Dutch extreme athlete Wim Hof, a.k.a. "The Iceman," (below) has popularized his own version of bioenergetic breathing, which is similar to Bellows Breath further down.

Wim breaking the Guinness World Record for the longest ice bath. He uses a modified version of tummo to accomplish extreme cold-enduring feats.

The Wim Hof Method has gained a lot of popularity. Combined with the hormetic effects of cold exposure, it yields great results.

In fact, scientists have shown that Wim Hof breathing produces as much adrenaline as a first-time bungee jumper.[4] Some bold individuals in this same study volunteered to be injected with an E. coli bacteria, using The Wim Hof Method to flush it out of their systems.

Contrary to what’s often stated, the Wim Hof Method doesn’t increase blood oxygen levels. The body is already fully oxygenated with nearly 100% capacity from normal breathing. What’s actually occurring is that you’re flushing more carbon dioxide (CO2) from the body.

In what's known as the Bohr effect, the presence of CO2 triggers oxygen to release from hemoglobin into your body's tissues. But with lower CO2 from deep breathing, the oxygen doesn't release, putting your body is in a state of hypoxia (low oxygenation in the tissues). That's why you feel light-headed.

Variation 2: Bellows Breath (bhastrika)

Another popular form of bioenergetic breathing is called Bellows Breath, or bhastrika pranayama. This Yogic technique uses your full lung capacity to energize the mind-body system. It involves breathing rapidly in and out, taking full deep breaths. Here’s a short video tutorial of Bellows Breath.

These are just a few of the most powerful methods for breathing in meditation. You can calm your nervous system with tranquil, diaphragmatic breathing, or use bioenergetic breathing to “rev up” your nervous system and generate energy in the body. Both are useful for training your mind-body system and achieving deep states of meditation.

P.S. — If you’re serious about learning these techniques and deepening your meditation practice, check out the FitMind meditation app.