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Breathing Meditation

Audio June 30, 2020
An abstract painting features a large square with six smaller squares, each a different color, layered on top of each other.
As basic rules of a language must be practiced continually, and therefore are never fixed, so exercises toward distinct color effects never are done or over. New and different cases will be discovered time and again.
Josef Albers

Enjoy this guided meditation paired with Josef Albers’ Homage to the Square: Vernal. Follow along with the audio or text below.

Step-By-Step Meditation

  1. Take a few moments to observe the painting. Allow your eyes to move from the white square in the middle out to the largest square and back again. Note the unique color of each square.
  2. Next, to prepare for this breathing exercise, imagine each side of each square as a single, four-count breath. Take a few deep breaths.
  3. Focus on one corner of the white square. Follow an edge of the white square while inhaling for four counts as you move to a second corner.
  4. Then hold the breath as you follow the second edge to the third corner.
  5. Exhale slowly for four counts as you trace the third edge. Then, hold again as you trace the final edge, returning to where you started.
  6. Continue like this as you trace each square moving outward, from blue, to gray, to green.
  7. Now, close your eyes and continue to breathe in this way as you visualize squares of colors of your choosing.