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Infinity Breathing Exercises

The average adult breathes in and out between 12 and 20 times a minute, whether consciously thinking about breathing or not. Many forms of meditation encourage infinity breathing, conscious awareness and deep breathing, with about six breaths a minute. This form of lower respiratory rate increases the levels of blood oxygen. Meditation combines deep breathing with visualizations, helping you to transcend the physical self and connect with infinity.

  1. Sufi Meditation

    • Sufism uses meditation to become one with the divine. The practitioner transcends the ego to merge with the cosmos through meditation combined with deep breathing exercises. To practice Sufi meditation, start by breathing out slowly and completely. With your eyes closed, visualize your skin dissolving away and your consciousness melding with everything outside of your body. Breathe in slowly and deeply, returning your awareness to your body, feeling and visualizing the vast inner space inside of your body. Continue to alternate between exhalation combined with expansive outward visualization and deep inhalation combined with internal visualization.

    Qigong Meditation

    • Qigong meditation encourages focusing your mind on the present as you breathe deeply to connect your spirit with the Tao, or source of all life. To practice Qigong meditation, stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and your hands resting at your sides. Relax your gaze. Inhale slowly, deeply and evenly through your nose, lifting your hands slightly at the same time. Visualize breathing in the energy of the air deeply, right down to the marrow of your bones. Exhale slowly, evenly and completely, allowing your hands to drop to your sides. Visualize relaxing down into the ground, all the way to the center of the earth. Continue this pattern of exhaling, inhaling and visualization until you can feel what you are visualizing. Practicing Qigong meditation on a regular basis helps draw qi, or vital life energy, into the body more effectively, leaving the practitioner energized and centered.

    Breathing Infinity

    • Author, metaphysical researcher and Buddhism student José Lorenzo-Fuentes offers an additional method of infinity breathing. He encourages you to lie on your back in an open area, gazing into the sky as you may have as a child. Start to relax your body and become aware of the rhythm of your breathing. Don't try to control your breathing, just be aware of it. Visualize that the air entering your nostrils comes from the heavens, higher than the clouds. Visualize that you are breathing in oxygen originating at the beginning of time. Focus on the enormity of the universe until you are breathing the air of infinity. Despite the distance you may believe separates you from the infinite, Lorenzo-Fuentes maintains that by breathing in this manner you and infinity are one and the same. When mastered, your mind becomes free of thoughts and concerns, allowing you to feel relaxed, actualized and happy.

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