The essence of this exercise is simplicity.
Only two things are required of us: to breathe and to count.
Exercise:
Choose a quiet, uncluttered place where you will not be disturbed. Sit so that the spine is straight, yet relaxed. Close your eyes and focus all attention on your breath.
Now choose a number that is going to be comfortable for you to count up to slowly with each breath. Count up to this number slowly as you breathe in – hold your breath for two counts in the same rhythm – then count slowly to the same number as you exhale. Then repeat the process, over and again.
Imagine the outside world has dissolved. Nothing exists beyond your breathing and counting.
You have no job, no duties, no responsibilities. You do not even have a name or a form – only your breath. You do not have a past or a future. There is only now, this moment, and this moment consists entirely of this breath, in and out, and the counting that regulates it.
You are a breathing being, that is all. Breathing – and counting – are all you do. Live totally inside each breathed breath. Feel that each breath is your project, your creation, your child.
You are an artist of the breath: instead of creating poems, paintings or songs, your artworks are your breaths. Pour all your heart into each breath: all your love, your sense of beauty, purity and longing for perfection. Each breath is your whole world. Make each breath perfect, and then make each next breath more perfect than the last.
Nothing else matters. Nothing else is.
If you can practise this simple exercise for 5 – 10 minutes daily for several months with sincerity and intensity, your life will change for the better unimaginably.