CST - The Three Magic Breaths

Follow your natural breath. Awareness of everything. Letting everything flow.

Hi friend!

Purpose

The Three Magic Breaths meditation technique is designed to help you move down the continuum of the Central Story Model through the following axes:

The instructions provided here, like all CST instructions, are not meant to guide or influence any decisions you make in your life. Please refrain from using what you learn here to make or justify any life choices. The sole purpose of this meditation technique is to help you experience more spaciousness, lightness, unification, peace, fulfillment, defusion from the Central Story (“I am …….. and I need …….. to be happy”), freedom, flow, acceptance, silence, and presence¹.

Active Ingredients

The active ingredients in this meditation are:

• Follow your natural breath,

• Be aware of everything in the present moment, and,

• Let everything flow.

Explore how you can best bring about and maintain these active ingredients. I will describe one way of doing this but please consider the following description as a suggestion and not a rigid protocol. As long as you bring together (in the order that works for you) and maintain the active ingredients I’ve just mentioned, you will be successful with this Three Magic Breaths CST technique. I’m rooting for you! 🥳

Description

Sit in a quiet place with your back straight, your whole body relaxed, your mouth closed, and a gentle smile on your lips and eyes².

Keep your mind spacious and light throughout the meditation³.

Gently tune into the sensations of your breath coming in and out naturally. As you breathe in, feel the cold air touching your nostrils, your lungs and belly expanding — and as you breathe out, feel your belly and lungs collapsing, the warm air leaving your nostrils. Stay in the flow of the breath, patiently, breath after breath after breath, without contracting your attention or trying to control the breath⁴.

Once your mind is at ease in the flow of the breath, practice Three Magic Breaths: on the natural in-breath mentally tell yourself, “Awareness of everything”⁵. And on the natural out-breath mentally tell yourself, “Letting everything flow”. Three times.

(In) “Awareness of everything”, (Out) “Letting everything flow”.

(In) “Awareness of everything”, (Out) “Letting everything flow”.

(In) “Awareness of everything”, (Out) “Letting everything flow”.

Then let go of these words and establish yourself in the state that they point to — a state of open awareness that allows everything to flow. Open up your awareness to include everything in the present moment:

• all sounds — not just the obvious sounds but also the background noises,

• all sensations — whether pleasant, unpleasant, or neutral, and, if your eyes are open,

• all sights — by softening your gaze and opening your peripheral vision.

And let all things flow the way they want to flow.

Let go of all preferences, all sense of distance, and all analysis.

Surrender yourself completely to the fullness of the present moment, with a light mind that allows everything to flow.

Troubleshooting

If practicing this Three Magic Breaths meditation technique is not helping you move down the continuum of the Central Story Model, read the instructions again carefully, and try practicing it again.

Then, if you are still having difficulties, try any of the following (in no particular order):

• Focus less on the instructions as words in your head and more on the experience to which the instructions are pointing.

• Feel everything you’re feeling in your body and see thoughts as unimportant.

• If you find that combining the words with the in- and out-breaths three times is confusing or suboptimal and you have a better way to bring about the three active ingredients (follow your natural breath, be aware of everything in the present moment, let everything flow), please do so. For example, you could do one magic breath, or five. Or you could practice without words and just keep your mind completely open and in flow as you follow your natural breath.

• Combine this technique with any other CST technique that works for you.

• Describe your problem in the comments section at the bottom of this page so I can try to help.

If, after experimenting with all of these tips, this Three Magic Breaths technique still does not help you move down the continuum of the Central Story Model, put this technique aside for a while (knowing you can always give it another try later) and practice another technique that works.

🙏💛

1. For more information on what these mean, read my introduction to the Central Story Model.

2. Stretch the corner of your lips and eyes softly so that your smile is almost imperceptible from the outside but you can still feel it, and maintain it throughout the meditation.

3. Do not contract your attention and try to control the content of your experience, as this would prove counterproductive. Instead, maintain an open, free-flowing attention throughout the meditation.

4. More information on how to follow the breath in my article on Mindfulness.

5. The reason why I encourage you to mentally say “awareness of everything” and not “aware of everything” is so as to not reify the sense that there is an owner of awareness. There is awareness, for sure, but this awareness is neither stable (in time), nor separate (in space), nor sovereign (under full control).