I have already been given the opportunity. In fact I still keep getting the opportunity. Every moment that arises and every day that I wake up to is a special god given opportunity to change. Change means to live the right way and that in turn means to be aware of the life happening in me in the moment.
The only mistake I did previously was that I used to be in my thoughts, lost in thoughts, and lose the opportunity to live. An entire day would pass and I wouldn’t even be aware that breathing is happening in my body because I would be too busy with my sense perceptions and its interactions with my mind in the form of thinking and doing. The problem was that I did that one single mistake each and every day and each and every moment. I didn’t realise that each moment was god given opportunity to experience and live.
I am worthwhile. I am entitled to live. Why? Who decided this? God. How can this be proven? By the simple fact that life is still happening in my body. I did not begin to breathe, I just found myself breathing one day and it simply continued happening ever since. I am not going to stop breathing on my own, but I know one day it is going to stop. All these about the beginning and ending are simply my thoughts happening right now. There is no past, there is no future. These are simply thoughts in our thinking mind. We cannot live in the past nor can we live in the future. There is only one place and time we can ever live and it is the here and the now. This is the God given opportunity. I did not earn it or at least I do not know how I earned it.
What would it be?
It would be to simply breathe consciously and experience the aliveness in me. That’s how it would be!
I invite you to experience this with a simple experiment for a minute.
Selvan Srinivasan · 1y
What are some breathing exercises for beginners who struggle with focusing on their breath while meditating?
Do this for just three minutes and see if it helps. Sit on a straight back chair with feet flat on the floor, the entire soles of the feet from tips of the toes to the heels firmly contacting the floor. Keep your back erect, you may place a cushion behind your back for support if required but do not lean back on an inclined backrest of the chair. Let your head be held straight, neck straight, shoulders square and relaxed. You may tilt the head very slightly downward to gaze at a point on the floor in front of you a few feet away from you. Keep your eyes fixed on that spot for the three minutes without moving your eyeballs. Allow your eyes to be half open and half closed and hold that spot in a gentle gaze and not a stare. You are not looking there to see something but simply holding that spot in a gentle gaze. Exhale with a loud sigh from your mouth and use gentle effort to empty your lungs as far as possible without straining too much. Then relax your body and allow the inhale to happen effortlessly and soundlessly through your nostrils. When you sense that the inhale is over, do not put any further effort to breathe in but repeat the exhale from the mouth with the sound and gentle effort. I call this conscious breathing. Effort only for the out breaths and allowing in breaths to happen effortlessly. This entire process is called FGCB or fixed gazing with conscious breathing. You may set hourly reminder alerts on your smartphone and repeat this 3 minute FGCB every hour throughout the day today and see how it helps with calming your mind. This is a powerful grounding practice and you can do this even when you are driving and waiting for the red signal to turn green. Allow any such interruptions in your day to remind you to come back to the practice of FGCB repeatedly. For more information and plenty of free resources to aid with the practice of meditation and deep healing, please visit my website.