When you meditate, keep your mouth slightly open, as if about to say a deep, relaxing sound. Before meditation or during breaks at work or in daily life, we can often take deep breaths, because we are often disturbed by delusions, distractions, and afflictions.
In our daily life, we can often take deep breaths, inhaling through the nose and exhaling through the mouth, with a deep, relaxing, and soft sound. This is what people call sighing. Sighing is actually good for health. I once heard of an old lady who was asked about her secret to living a healthy and long life. She said, “My favorite thing is sighing.” Sighing is actually a way to release our afflictions and delusions, to protect ourselves. It may not come naturally to us though. Now we can actively take deep breaths, similar to sighing, which can greatly benefit our health. Because when afflictions arise, our minds become agitated and anxious. Actively visualize and let go of your current attachments, delusions, or afflictions. While visualizing like this, let go with the help of breathing. This is a good method. Breathing through the mouth can dispel the scattered karmic winds that cause afflictions. When you have lots of wandering thoughts, you can do this deep breathing a few times to relax. We can also do this before meditation. Breathe deeply for a few minutes to relax, let go of all the afflictions and attachments in our daily life, and then start meditation. This is a good warm-up.