GRMT and Mindfulness of Breathing

Lloyd Lalande, PhD

Buddhist Mindfulness and the Development of GRMT

Mindfulness of breathing has a particular significance within Guided Respiration Mindfulness Therapy.

Buddhist mindfulness practice was a direct influence on the development of mindfulness within GRMT. In developing the method, I drew on Buddhist approaches to mindfulness and studied the Ānāpānasati Sutta, the Buddhist discourse on mindfulness of breathing.

The Ānāpānasati Sutta describes breathing as a basis for developing progressively deeper mindfulness and insight. Breathing is not simply something to be manipulated in order to produce an outcome. It becomes a means of maintaining close contact with present experience and of developing an increasingly direct understanding of experience as it unfolds.

This approach informed the way mindfulness was incorporated into GRMT. GRMT is a clinical therapeutic method rather than a Buddhist meditation system, but its use of mindfulness of breathing draws directly from this contemplative tradition.

The significance of this becomes clearer as the practitioner’s mindfulness develops.

Breathing as a Field of Mindfulness

In GRMT, breathing becomes an immediate field of experience.

The practitioner learns to recognise changes in breathing without becoming unnecessarily preoccupied with interpreting them. The breath may become fuller, more restricted, effortful, spontaneous, activated or relaxed. Rather than explaining these changes, the practitioner learns to remain present to them.

This is particularly important because GRMT places considerable emphasis upon allowing experience to emerge rather than forcing or chasing a particular outcome.

The practitioner’s own capacity to remain present therefore becomes part of the therapeutic environment. The practitioner is not simply watching the client’s breathing; they are developing the ability to remain grounded and attentive while another person’s experience changes.

From Observing Breathing to Observing Change

With continued GRMT practice, mindfulness of breathing can become increasingly subtle and stable.

The practitioner may begin by noticing relatively obvious characteristics—rate, depth, rhythm and muscular effort. Over time, attention becomes more refined. Small changes in breathing, bodily sensation, activation and relaxation become easier to recognise.

More importantly, the practitioner begins to encounter psychological change directly.

A sensation appears and changes.
A restriction intensifies and subsides.
Activation rises and falls.
A thought emerges and disappears.
Breathing changes from one moment to the next.

The practitioner is no longer simply learning about change. They are observing change as it occurs.

From Breathing to Impermanence

One of the deeper implications of sustained mindfulness of breathing is the recognition that experience is continually changing.

Every breath arises and passes. Sensations change. Activation rises and falls. Emotional states shift. Thoughts appear and disappear. With sustained attention, impermanence is no longer simply an idea. It can become something directly observable in experience.

This has particular relevance to GRMT. Psychological difficulties can involve attempts to hold onto, avoid, suppress or control experience. Rumination, for example, can involve becoming caught in repetitive thought, while anxiety may involve rapid, persistent thinking and heightened bodily activation. Other difficulties may involve repeatedly resisting uncomfortable sensations, emotions or memories.

Yet close attention reveals that experience is already moving. A thought changes, disappears and is replaced by another. A sensation intensifies and subsides. Breathing changes from one moment to the next. Even states that seem fixed are continuously changing when observed closely.

Mindfulness provides a different relationship with this process: remaining present without immediately needing to change what is occurring.

This does not make GRMT passive. Guided respiration remains an active therapeutic process. But the practitioner’s activity is increasingly informed by an ability to recognise and respond to what is actually happening.

Developing the GRMT Practitioner

This is why practitioner development in GRMT cannot be reduced to learning the protocol.

The practitioner learns the structure, timing, language and professional requirements of GRMT. At the same time, they develop a particular way of attending.

With experience, the practitioner can become less dependent upon conceptual explanations and more capable of recognising change directly. They can become more comfortable with uncertainty, less compelled to intervene prematurely, and more able to allow experience to unfold while remaining actively present.

Mindfulness of breathing therefore becomes both a professional capacity and a form of personal development.

For some practitioners, this development may naturally lead to a deeper interest in Buddhist meditation or other contemplative practices. The practitioner has already encountered, through direct experience, some of the territory that these traditions explore more extensively.

The breath, initially learned as part of a therapeutic method, can become a doorway into a broader inquiry into experience itself.