Counting the breath can be a powerful support for breathing meditation practice. Here we suggest gently applying a number, from 1 up to 10, to the exhale. This gives the cognitive mind something to do in service of breath awareness. Note, though, that this practice is probably better described as "returning to one" than "counting to ten!" When the mind wanders or you lose the count, bringing attention gently back to the exhale and resetting to one is the key to this practice.
Breath Counting Meditation - 25 minutes
Mindfulness Northwest Resources
These practice recordings, videos, and descriptions are provided to the community for your personal use free of charge. Our mission at Mindfulness Northwest is to make quality, teacher-supported, mindfulness and compassion training more available to communities in the Pacific Northwest and beyond. We hope you find this mindfulness practice helpful and invite you to explore our upcoming programs.