For the past several months, the COVID-19 pandemic has forced us to sequester ourselves in our homes, and deal with a sustained period of social isolation, although some might like to deem it as "physical" isolation. In any case, to avoid feelings of loneliness that easily surface in times like this, many of us are resorting to social media to gratify our usual social needs. But it is becoming increasingly clear that these online tools can only provide so much, and cannot be surrogates for rich social interactions. Thus, we need a better strategy, one that encourages us to work through these difficult feelings, rather than to briefly distract ourselves from them. 

Social isolation is a problem to the extent that it induces feelings of loneliness and other negative emotions. Many people go into voluntary solitude, and come back feeling refreshed and energized. This shows that it is not the isolation per se that is the problem, but our failure to have a positive solitary experience. This failure can be attributed to a lot of things, including unhelpful patterns of thinking and behavior and discrepancies between our desired and achieved levels of social interaction, but in this project, we have decided to focus on one often-overlooked factor: the way we breathe.

Breathing is one of the few bodily processes that can be either voluntary or involuntary. The breath is literally the force of life, and serves as a kind of link between the body and the mind. It feedbacks into and is affected by our emotional states and moods. [1] Fear accelerates the breathing rate, which in turn aggravates the emotion. Anger makes breathing rapid and irregular, and tempts us to get the discomfort out of our system. Loneliness is no exception. The feelings of loneliness born of social isolation are also embodied in the body, and certain patterns of breathing exacerbate feelings of social disconnection. When loneliness holds the breath hostage, the breath loses its refreshing quality, and becomes dull and mechanical.  

So it stands to reason that if we only consciously improve the quality of the breath, any afflictive emotion would lose a lot of its power.  One way we can get the breath on our side is through a technique called directed thought and evaluation. The Thai Forest monk Thanissaro Bhikkhu describes the technique in the following way: "You direct your thoughts to the breath and then evaluate the breath: How does the breath feel? Does it feel good? If it does, stay with it. If it doesn’t feel good, you can change. This is about the most basic level of conversation you can have with yourself: Does this feel good or not? Comfortable or not? Yes. No.” [2]

This technique is special for two main reasons. One, it makes uses of the mind's tendency to think, and directs it towards improving the quality of the breath. Two, it attempts to lure the mind to the breath, as opposed to getting it to stay with the breath through sheer force of will. Of course, a common impediment to practicing this technique is our deeply entrenched habit of idle rumination. This is why the key part of this technique is to create a sense of pleasure or well-being in the experience of breathing, so the mind wants to stay with the breath. And when the mind is finally willing to be with the breath, we can drop the directed thought and evaluation, and just be with the experience of breathing. We will find that the greater the sensitivity and attention we bring to the experience of breathing, the stronger our sense of well-being in the present moment becomes. 

In addition to being a potential source of well-being, the breath is also a mirror for the mind. It gives us a place to step back and watch the events happening in the mind with more objectivity. When we are suffused with a sense of well-being in the body, it becomes easier to pull ourselves out of unskillful thought and behavior loops. Thus, breath meditation can work in tandem with practical tools of cognitive behavioral therapy, which mainly involves challenging and changing limiting beliefs and perceptions, and this symbiosis is useful in dealing with loneliness and other difficult emotions that could arise in the context of social isolation as well.

Our current state of prolonged social isolation echoes the solitary lives of astronauts on long-duration spaceflight. Thankfully, the breath is a constant, whether we're on the Earth or in space. So we believe breath meditation can an effective countermeasure against the debilitating effects of social isolation in any environment, and could benefit astronauts, oceanographers, and other professionals in remote research locations.

Breath meditation can also be combined with metta meditation, which involves cultivating goodwill, kindness, and other benevolent feelings toward oneself and others. Research works are also beginning to attest to the wide range of benefits of breath meditation. [3][4]