About Compass Breathing
A compass for your life.
Imagine that in every moment of your life there is a sweet spot: the home of your being, in exactly this moment and this situation.
Compass Breathing is a way of finding it. From wherever you are, you take seven bearings. Where the seven meet is home.
Along each bearing is a practice. It is a few simple lines you say to yourself, while you breathe into one place in your body and hold one hand gesture. One full round of the seven practices brings you back to yourself.
More than mindfulness
Compass Breathing can look like mindfulness or meditation, but it is something different. It includes their foundations and builds on them to make a way of navigating.
It is a practice of orientation and of remembrance. Orientation is what it does: it points you in a direction. Remembrance is how it works: you return to what you already know about who you want to be.
The seven practices
They are recited in this order.
How each practice works
Each practice has four lines.
- Open turns you towards the practice.
- Hinge asks a question. The question and the pause after it belong together.
- Answer responds to the question. Where you see {…}, the words are your own, and they change from moment to moment.
- Payoff begins “So I can…” and reminds you why you are practising.
Answers are felt for, not worked out. At first the words may not carry their full meaning. They deepen as you practise, and as you begin to feel what it is like to author your own life.
What it gives
Practised often, Compass Breathing works like a soothing tonic. It calms and centres you. It wakes you up, lifts your mood and gives you energy. It helps you remember yourself, and returns you to the life you are authoring. Like a good friend, it keeps reminding you of your best interests.
You can practise anywhere: on a walk, during a pause in the day, when a reminder goes off, or whenever you notice you have drifted. Over time it begins to arrive on its own.
Using this app
The app opens on the first practice, Shift. Swipe left or right to move between practices, or use the Back and Next buttons. In Practice mode you can also tap the page: the left third goes back and the rest moves forward.
Practice mode shows the mantra with its attention point and gesture. Learn mode adds an explanation of each practice below. Your choice is remembered on this device.
When you reach the end of the last practice, press Done to return to the start. You can add the app to your home screen, and it works without a connection once it has loaded.