People who practice mindfulness tend to fall into one of two camps.  There are those who are interested in finding calm and those who are interested in finding clarity. This is an overstatement, of course, and many land in both camps, but there tends to be a preference.  What is yours?  In this month’s column, I’ll share with you a short meditative exercise that explores both at the same time.  While you may find the exercise useful for cultivating greater calm or clarity, even more, it may deepen your understanding of the interesting symbiotic relationship between the two.

One factor that connects calm and clarity is attention. A stable attention is associated with less mind wandering and a steadier emotional state. Less mind wandering and emotional reactivity bodes well for attending to matters with greater clarity.  A second factor that connects up calm and clarity is the breath. Some of the most useful and effective relaxation practices involve slowing down breathing. And, as you may know, some of the most popular mindfulness practices involve attending to the sensations of the breath. One casualty of this otherwise convenient (and not coincidental) overlap can be confusion when engaging in an exercise that involves the breath.

Attention and breathing also have something else in common that helps explain why they are so pivotal. Both can be intentionally controlled (at least for a few moments) and both can also operate without any oversight.  Let’s test this out: