Episode notes
Why is the breath the one thing always available to you? Because if it is not there you have a much bigger problem. It even works on a stage in front of ten thousand people.
Make them wait for one breath. In hospital I used to stop breathing deliberately just to set the machine off, which tells you how bored I was. Every out breath is a small act of faith that there will be more air, because you would not let that one go otherwise. It is the gateway to now, and you can count to ten if you want something to aim at.
One thing to try: Breathe in and out and count them. See if you can reach ten before your mind wanders off.
In this episode
- (0:01) Returning to the breath, the simplest form of it
- (2:10) Not even deep breaths. My body knows how to breathe
- (3:20) Ten thousand people waiting, and making them wait one breath
- (5:10) You always have access to it, or you have a bigger problem
- (6:58) Stopping breathing on purpose to set the machine off
- (10:16) The gateway to now, and what is going on right now
- (11:45) Breathing in one, breathing out two, up to ten
- (13:42) Every out breath is an act of faith in the next one
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The question this answers
Why is the breath the one thing always available to you?
Because if it is not there, you have a considerably bigger problem than needing two minutes of quiet. It is the only tool that is genuinely with you everywhere, and I use it twenty or thirty times a day.
The heart of it
- Do not manage it. Your body has been breathing without your help for decades and it knows how deep and how fast.
- Every out breath is a small act of faith that there will be more air. You would not let that one go otherwise.
There is nowhere you cannot take one. They announce your name and ten thousand people are waiting.
Make them wait for one breath.
The doctor calls you in. The phone rings. Nothing is that urgent.
I learned to value it the hard way. Three days after breaking my neck, eighteen, in intensive care in Salisbury with fifteen pounds hanging off the top of my head and a tracheotomy, one tut for yes and two for no. I had no chest muscles, only my diaphragm, and I had to learn a new way of breathing overnight.
I was on a machine that took over if I stopped. So I used to stop deliberately, just to have a rest, and it would kick in and do it for me. It was wonderful. I did not even have to breathe.
The other thing from that stretch was the lemon sticks the nurses wiped on my lips, because I could not eat or drink anything for days. Heaven.
When you have next to nothing, the small things really do count.
The rest of it is straightforward. The body drops as soon as you notice it. It is a gateway into now, and in the actual present moment very little is usually going wrong. It is simple enough that you will think you are doing it wrong.
And it connects you outward. Everything alive takes the equivalent of a breath. The trees breathe in what we breathe out. They are the other half of our lungs.
One small thing to try
Breathe in and out and count them. See if you can reach ten before your mind wanders off.
That is the whole practice. If you want more, sit with a cup of tea made too hot to drink, and breathe until it cools. Fifteen or twenty minutes of that every morning will teach you how your own mind works.
And once you know how it works, you can play with it. A mechanic enjoys a car because they know what is under it.
Questions people ask
Should I be doing box breathing or counting to four?
You can, and it sometimes helps. It is not required. Simply noticing the breath you were already taking does most of the work.
Is something this simple really enough?
It is what every teacher I have met comes back to, monks included. The simplicity is why it survives contact with an actual bad day.
How long before it does anything?
The body eases within a couple of breaths. The deeper understanding takes months of short sits, and it arrives as knowing your own mind rather than as an experience.
Read the transcript
The transcript follows the audio. Press any line to jump there.
0:01Steven Webb: Hello and welcome to this week's podcast. I'm Steven Webb, your host, and this is Stillness in the Storms. I
0:08Steven Webb: want to talk about returning to your breath. And it's the simplest form of meditation.
0:15Steven Webb: And just, ah, I'm breathing in, I'm breathing out. But does it really lead to
0:23Steven Webb: a profound insight? Does it really calm the body? Does it really have a massive impact on your life? Say,
0:29Steven Webb: you're going through some real trouble or is it just a bit of hocus pocus? Is it a little bit
0:35Steven Webb: of a woolly kind of thing? Just returning to your breath Seems so simple, yeah, is it? That's what we're
0:43Steven Webb: going to talk about on today's podcast, so welcome. But just before we get started on that, I just want
0:49Steven Webb: to say thank you to all my supporters, thank you to everybody that donates and again again really deeply appreciate
0:56Steven Webb: you guys. It makes a big difference and thank you for sharing the podcast and thank you for leaving a
1:02Steven Webb: review. I got a review on my inner peace meditations podcast and it just said you've changed my life profoundly,
1:09Steven Webb: and it was like I read it I was like, oh, I want to run away. I can't do that.
1:14Steven Webb: That's not me. But I just I sat with it, I sat in my breath and I was like okay,
1:19Steven Webb: thank you. So if you feel like leaving a review, it makes a big difference. So, thank you. So if
1:25Steven Webb: that's my ask this week, leave a review. That would be awesome. You know, it tells other people where to
1:31Steven Webb: go if they need a little bit of inner peace when they need it most. Let's get on with today's
1:36Steven Webb: topic. Today's topic is returning to the breath, and this is my go-to meditation
1:43Steven Webb: I don't even call it a meditation, I don't even go down that route. To be quite honest, like if
1:50Steven Webb: I'm really struggling, whether I'm sat in a council meeting, whether I'm stuck in traffic on the way down the
1:55Steven Webb: hill, or stuck underneath a bridge when it's raining and I'm feeling myself getting stressed out, or I find
2:03Steven Webb: myself mindfully just my mind's mindlessly wandering around I just okay, let's breathe. I
2:11Steven Webb: just take a few deep breaths and, to be quite honest, they're not even deep breaths. I just take breaths
2:17Steven Webb: because my body knows how to breathe. I don't really need to get involved. My body's I say this on
2:23Steven Webb: my meditations. My body's been breathing for I don't know 52 years and I and every time I get
2:31Steven Webb: involved I mess it up. So I allow my body right now I'm talking to you my body's breathing in
2:37Steven Webb: and out. It's putting me off now I'm thinking about it, but in and out the words. It knows when
2:42Steven Webb: to breathe, it knows how deep to breathe, it knows so I don't need to get involved. So if taking
2:48Steven Webb: deep breaths or slow breaths help and they sometimes do the box breathe in four four four four But
2:56Steven Webb: if you can just return to your breath I'm breathing in,
3:01Steven Webb: I'm breathing out
3:04Steven Webb: you instantly feel more at peace and you can do it whenever you're feeling a little anxious or stressed. There's
3:12Steven Webb: never anywhere that I can think of that you cannot take a moment to take a deep breath before
3:19Steven Webb: doing something. Even if they announce your name and you've got to walk out on stage and there are 10
3:25Steven Webb: 000 people waiting for you, you can still just take a breath. Make them wait for one breath you know
3:32Steven Webb: A doctor calls you in the office. Just take a breath
3:35Steven Webb: you know If that phone rings, just take a breath
3:39Steven Webb: You know there's nothing that's that urgent that you cannot. Okay, I've got this.
3:46Steven Webb: So I'm going to go through seven ways in which it really does have a big impact on our lives.
3:53Steven Webb: Because what
3:56Steven Webb: do I do Several times a day, sometimes probably 20, 30 times a day. I'll just return to my breath
4:03Steven Webb: for just, sometimes only 20 seconds, and
4:08Steven Webb: it connects with the environment. It connects with everything around me. It allows my body to take a breather my
4:14Steven Webb: body, you know. If I'm like anybody else, my body's tense and ready and waiting for the catastrophe to happen
4:21Steven Webb: at any moment, or it's mindlessly doing something like browsing or doing those other things. Just taking that breath allows
4:29Steven Webb: my body to to relax. That's everything you do. Just allow your shoulders to relax. So why
4:37Steven Webb: is returning to of breath so important and why? What does it really have a real deep, profound
4:44Steven Webb: impact on your life? And it and it will, because it has with mine and it has with so many
4:51Steven Webb: people. There is deeper meditations you could do. There's all kinds of, there's a thousand different types of meditations
4:59Steven Webb: but there isn't anybody I know, even zen masters, british monks and even the people I talk to that seem
5:06Steven Webb: to have all their shit together compared to people like me and you.
5:10Steven Webb: They all use their breath at some point, so it's immediately there. That's number one. You
5:18Steven Webb: always have access to your breath. If you haven't got access to your breath, you've got a bigger problem than
5:24Steven Webb: sitting there meditating for the next two or three minutes. So even when I was on bed rest and I
5:31Steven Webb: had a you can't see it because I got my neck thing on but I had a tracheotomy for about
5:36Steven Webb: the first four months and I couldn't speak. I had to one tut for yes and two tuts for no.
5:43Steven Webb: And communicating like that while you're on bed rest about what food you like, what you wanted, how you're feeling
5:50Steven Webb: it's not easy
5:53Steven Webb: and but I, in that time I really grew to appreciate my breath and I've just jumped ahead at you
6:01Steven Webb: because I've forgotten about. So when I was in intensive care, I was on what's called a c-pack machine so
6:06Steven Webb: that they put it on your throat and it breathes if you stop breathing. So basically it's
6:13Steven Webb: continuous pressure, something, continuous air. I don't know c-pack it's called
6:21Steven Webb: and what it does is. So if I got too tired because I did not have any chest
6:29Steven Webb: muscles, I only had my diaphragm and instantly, overnight, I had to learn a new way of breathing, a new
6:35Steven Webb: way of um the body doing things, and now I was lying on the bed with 15 pounds of weight
6:40Steven Webb: hanging off the top of my head in intensive care, two or three days after breaking my neck 18 years
6:46Steven Webb: old and I was in Salisbury infirmary, intensive care, couldn't eat anything, couldn't drink anything because my body
6:54Steven Webb: just did not want to move or did not want to adjust to anything. And I would get the little
7:01Steven Webb: momentary rest and I would deliberately just stop breathing and I'd be there and I'd just stop and this machine
7:08Steven Webb: would detect it and go And
7:12Steven Webb: it was so wonderful, it was so relaxing, just oh, I don't even have to breathe, and it was just
7:20Steven Webb: so peaceful and I can remember doing that that The other thing that I really enjoyed during that time was
7:26Steven Webb: the nurses had these little lemon sticks and that because I couldn't eat anything, I couldn't drink anything. It was,
7:33Steven Webb: you know, I suppose, what they could kneel by mouth or something, and this went on for like days. They
7:38Steven Webb: used to wipe this lemon stick on my lips. Oh, that was heaven. So in between, just being able to
7:46Steven Webb: just relax and do nothing, just literally do nothing. I don't even have to breathe and the machine goes and
7:54Steven Webb: breathe for me. That was wonderful. And also those lemon sticks. I never forget those lemon sticks. Um, yeah, when
8:02Steven Webb: you have nothing, the small things really do count, and that's so, so true. We, we think we're
8:10Steven Webb: not happy when we have an abundance of nerdy everything wait Wait to see how much gratitude you have when
8:18Steven Webb: you really have next to nothing and all you do have is your breath for those lemon sticks and I
8:24Steven Webb: remember it very well, very vividly, but moving back. But so your breath is always there. It's one thing
8:32Steven Webb: that it's easy to
8:35Steven Webb: bring to mind, it's easy to go to, it's easier than say, going, what about to sound Or what about
8:43Steven Webb: to how the body's feeling or emotions? You know they come and go and all those things, but your breath
8:48Steven Webb: you
8:50Steven Webb: can almost guarantee if things are going
8:54Steven Webb: slightly above absolutely desperate, you've got your breath. I I don't know what
9:02Steven Webb: point when you don't have your breath, but you know I've been in real situations that, like I say that
9:10Steven Webb: I couldn't breathe that um so moving on, so you got the um the
9:17Steven Webb: physical impact. So the minute you just become aware of your breath and allow your breath to
9:25Steven Webb: be what it is, you have the um parasympathetic
9:32Steven Webb: nerves that come into play and the body just instantly relaxes. It gets better by the
9:40Steven Webb: moment. It becomes more calming, instantly your heart rate lowers, your, it eases tension, your physical
9:47Steven Webb: state supports a state of mental well-being and you've only got to do a couple of breaths for that to
9:53Steven Webb: start happening. Ah
9:59Steven Webb: you if you do that right now, just do a little sigh and allow that breath out. You know, breathing
10:04Steven Webb: in calm, breathing out relax and just allow your body relax you can instantly feel your body. Ah,
10:12Steven Webb: and you didn't know you're holding all that tension in your shoulders and everything. Because we don't, because this is
10:17Steven Webb: normal
10:18Steven Webb: and it's a real I'm Number three, it's a real mindfulness gateway. So it's that gateway to the now. What's
10:26Steven Webb: going on now? So you can, can you hold the breath in your mind as well as how warm is
10:33Steven Webb: the room, what's going on around me, what can I hear, what can I see, what can I feel?
10:40Steven Webb: And instantly that reduces the anxieties. It reduces many of the things that are causing us stress,
10:48Steven Webb: because in the present moment there's very rarely things that are actually going wrong. Most of the things we're thinking
10:55Steven Webb: about is in the past or the future. The present moment, things are normally okay. You
11:02Steven Webb: know, that thing that we're really stressing about hasn't arrived yet and
11:09Steven Webb: if that thing has arrived, you're probably not thinking about going to your breath anyway.
11:15Steven Webb: And it's simple.
11:18Steven Webb: Number four it's simple. It's not complex in any way. You know you it's so simple you'll think
11:26Steven Webb: you're doing it wrong meditating your breath. Okay, sit, breathing in, breathing out,
11:33Steven Webb: And repeat Breathing in, breathing out, repeat
11:40Steven Webb: And you might find it hard to keep the focus on your So count the out breaths. So breathing in
11:47Steven Webb: and then breathing out. One
11:51Steven Webb: breathing in
11:54Steven Webb: breathing out Two, see if you can get to 10 I challenge you um when this
12:01Steven Webb: podcast's over See if you can get to 10 and if you head over to a link in the show
12:07Steven Webb: notes the Inner Peace Meditations podcast. I've recorded and uploaded a returning to your breath meditation
12:14Steven Webb: just to help you with this concept and what I know you know this concept. I know you've returned to
12:20Steven Webb: the breath. You've you've been in a situation before where you've sat down you put your head thing and you've
12:26Steven Webb: just took a deep breath. So you've done it you know It's not something alien to us, but mindfully doing
12:33Steven Webb: is a different thing and the breath is a symbol of life. Number five. You know, to take a breath
12:39Steven Webb: means you're alive. There isn't anything alive on earth that doesn't take the equivalent to a breath. You know, as
12:47Steven Webb: we breathe out the trees breathe in. As we breathe in, the trees breathe out. You know they're not separate
12:55Steven Webb: to us, they're the other half of our lungs and that's the whole of nature, the whole of the breath
13:01Steven Webb: cycle. You know, whether you're in the sea, whether you're a group of whatever it is, it's
13:09Steven Webb: all life. You need breath, you need that transition.
13:15Steven Webb: And the other thing that I find every breath is it's a sign of letting go, a sign of release.
13:22Steven Webb: So you wouldn't take a breath if you didn't have the faith that another breath would come along. And
13:30Steven Webb: every breath is a step into the unknown. I'm going a bit deep here, or maybe a bit far
13:38Steven Webb: but if you think about You're breathing in and then you're letting that breath out. You wouldn't let that breath
13:44Steven Webb: out if it was your last one or if you didn't have faith there was more oxygen or more air
13:49Steven Webb: for you.
13:50Steven Webb: So every breath is just a letting go. I can let go of this moment because a new moment is
13:56Steven Webb: going to come along
13:59Steven Webb: And that's so simple. And
14:03Steven Webb: then, finally, number seven it's it's a connection to the world. You
14:09Steven Webb: know, like I said, there isn't anything else in the world that doesn't take a breath
14:16Steven Webb: And you're connected to everything. Everybody needs to take a breath. That connection with the universal
14:25Steven Webb: experience. You know nobody's nobody will look up and go yeah, I don't know what you mean to take a
14:31Steven Webb: breath, because we all need to do it. We all know the importance of it.
14:37Steven Webb: It's you know the same as your heart beating or the same as your mind thinking or your lungs breathing.
14:45Steven Webb: You'll do your whole life. You might think you don't do these things when you're asleep. I know, you know
14:51Steven Webb: you breathe and are when you're asleep, but the thinking and all those things you're not aware of when you're
14:55Steven Webb: asleep, you do them all just you're not aware of them. You know I will shut the human off, we'll
15:01Steven Webb: take him offline for a minute, because it will just drive us insane. I I like that idea of my
15:08Steven Webb: um inner chimp, my subconscious mind, saying yeah, it's time to go to sleep, I'm going to shut you off
15:13Steven Webb: while I do some maintenance in the brain. I think that's so funny. Anyway, I digress. But
15:21Steven Webb: the breath, just
15:23Steven Webb: it's so simple but yet so important and can it lead to deep, profound insights. Not, yes,
15:32Steven Webb: sit with it long enough.
15:35Steven Webb: You know, if you, every morning, when you wake up, sit on the edge of the bed or go and
15:40Steven Webb: sit cross-legged or at the kitchen table, get your cup of tea or your cup of coffee, make it really
15:48Steven Webb: hot so you cannot drink it for like 10, 20 minutes and just sit there and wait for it to
15:53Steven Webb: cool down and while you're waiting, just breathe in and breathe out. Breathing in calm,
16:01Steven Webb: breathing out, relax. And if you do that 20 minutes every morning, 15 minutes, everyone it will
16:08Steven Webb: it will lead you to a deeper understanding. And the understanding is how does your mind work, how your body
16:15Steven Webb: work? Because once we understand all these things, we can end up playing with them a little bit more. That's
16:21Steven Webb: why a mechanic enjoys the car because they know how they work. They don't mind tinkering and playing around with
16:26Steven Webb: them. It's the same as me with the computer shop, my computer. I don't mind putting bits in and out
16:32Steven Webb: okay, getting other people to do it, because I'm paralysed and can't do it. But I don't mind installing software
16:38Steven Webb: and playing around with it because I know how it works. I know how to fix it. So when we
16:41Steven Webb: know how our body works, when you know how your body works,
16:47Steven Webb: it will give you a a deeper sense of play. You can enjoy it more. You know, and I don't
16:54Steven Webb: mean to make this well. I am going to make this an intimate thing. Didn't intimacy get better when you
16:59Steven Webb: started to discover and learn about your body? It's the same with your breath, same with your thoughts. The deeper
17:07Steven Webb: you go into understanding who you are and, more importantly, who you are not and I've got a podcast that
17:14Steven Webb: goes into that um, who you are not is vitally important because the more we get attached to who we
17:22Steven Webb: are and we realise that who we are is just a figment of our imagination. At best, you know At
17:29Steven Webb: worst it's none of those things either. And you know. Once you realise that on a deeper level, you can
17:35Steven Webb: start to play with it.
17:37Steven Webb: You know, in a similar way, a wonderful quote. What was it? Dance like no one's watching. I
17:46Steven Webb: always like to follow that first bit of the quote Dance like no one's watching. Use your words like the
17:52Steven Webb: whole world's listening. That's my butchering of the original quote, but I I like my version use your
18:00Steven Webb: words like the whole world's um listening because words are powerful and I'm here on a podcast talking
18:07Steven Webb: um But you know, when we return to breath, we start to play with ourselves, play of our body, play
18:14Steven Webb: with what's going on in our minds and play with the true self, the not true self, the face before
18:21Steven Webb: we are born, all those things, and we take them more lightly and we just suffer less.
18:29Steven Webb: That's
18:31Steven Webb: the important thing Is your spiritual journey leading you to suffering less.
18:39Steven Webb: It's working, as
18:41Steven Webb: long as you're not putting your suffering on somebody else just just for the small print there that I'm Steven
18:48Steven Webb: Webb and you can find out more about me or support the podcast. Go to StevenWebb.uk leave a review, just
18:55Steven Webb: you know. Contact me if you want to, if you want me to cover any specific topics or anything like
19:01Steven Webb: that. If you have any questions for me or anything like that, just head over to StevenWebb.uk not only can
19:08Steven Webb: you donate a coffee to support the show, you can message me directly and you can see my other podcasts,
19:14Steven Webb: you can see my blogs and you can also find my Youtube channel and things like that, and you can
19:20Steven Webb: follow me on social media. Look, just return to your breath.
19:26Steven Webb: Enjoy the gaps between the thoughts, between the speaking between the things, because your breath's always there.
19:34Steven Webb: Take care and I love you.
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