Mindfulness Journal - April 16, 2021 - Day 18 of 365 My meditation today focused on my breathing and how thoughts can impact the breath. When you are not actively thinking about your breath, it just works—air in, air out. You don’t even recognize that it is happening. However, when you start paying attention to the breath, you find that each breath is different. Each chest rise is more or less than the last, and the volume of air and length of intake continually changes. Anxiety can cause you to breathe differently. Exercise can make your lungs work harder. Everything you do can impact the automatic process of bringing air in and out of your lungs. Yet, we very rarely even think of what is happening. We are not present enough to recognize the subtle changes in our bodies. Mindfulness helps me bring this presence back to other parts of my life by allowing me to focus on the simplest of things and let everything else pass by.