Observing the body's breathing movements with curiosity
Breathing is an intrinsic movement of the body. Like walking, although it only involves the alternating actions of exhaling and inhaling, the process of breathing varies greatly from person to person, and even within the same person, each breath in and out is never exactly the same.
If you're tired from walking, you can stand still, sit on a chair, or sit cross-legged, and then, with curiosity, pay attention to the various states of movement in your breathing, the more detailed, the better.
Before writing this article, I also observed my own breathing for a while. When my attention first shifted to my breathing, I would involuntarily control it, making the breathing movements more pronounced, which is conducive to observation. I found that at this time, the inhalations were deep, strong, and rapid, while the exhalations were deep, gentle, and slow, very regular. After a few times, the breathing began to become uncontrollable.
Sometimes, an inhalation would be interrupted by an exhalation, and sometimes, while slowly exhaling, I would suddenly start to inhale. The depth of the exhalations and inhalations became more irregular, sometimes deep exhaling and shallow inhaling, sometimes shallow inhaling and deep exhaling.
Sometimes an exhalation would immediately follow an inhalation, sometimes there would be a pause after exhaling before inhaling again. Sometimes an inhalation or exhalation would be done in one go, sometimes it would be broken into two or three parts...
You might wonder where exactly to focus your attention? On the nose, chest, or abdomen? In fact, you should simply focus on the movement of the breath. Although during breathing, the airflow through the nostrils or throat will produce a tactile sensation, and the chest and abdomen will feel the rise and fall, these are irrelevant to your current task. You just need to understand the state your breath was in just now.
If you can't grasp the key point, you can try asking yourself, if I were to describe my current state of breathing to someone else, then obviously, I just need to pay attention to whether I am breathing or not; whether I am exhaling or inhaling; whether I am exhaling deeply or shallowly; whether I am inhaling deeply or shallowly, etc. In short, no matter what you know about the breath, you only need to focus on the state of the breathing movement.
Now, you can connect these two observations together. From waking up in the morning to falling asleep at night, keep your attention continuously on your body, observing the internal movements of breathing while lying down, sitting, and standing. Observe the body's movements while getting up, dressing, walking, washing, eating, etc. With curiosity, continuously watch what kinds of movements happen inside and outside your body throughout the day.