I get why you’re asking this. The word ‘meditation’ gets slapped on everything now - apps, yoga studios, self-help books, you name it.
So yeah, Christians hear it and get uneasy.
But meditation has deep roots in Christian history. The Catholic Church has had formal meditative practices going back centuries.
St. Ignatius of Loyola developed the Spiritual Exercises in the 1500s, which are basically a 30-day guided meditation walking through the life of Jesus - His suffering, the resurrection, and God’s love.
Teresa of Avila taught her nuns to meditate on specific prayers and on the mysteries of Christ’s life. She actually believed no one who stayed faithful to meditation could lose their soul.
Oh, also, Lectio Divina, which goes back even further - an ancient practice of slow, prayerful reading of Scripture that became well established within both Catholic and Protestant traditions.
I know these days, everyone is talking about mindfulness, but that shouldn’t automatically contradict the Christian faith - we just need to approach it in a wise, biblical way.
Remember that Paul reminds Christians to live with an awareness of the present in Philippians 2, and that prayer itself is a practical form of mindfulness (1 Thess 5:17).
Worth reading if you want a relatable Christian source.
What you did - the breathing, the stillness - Christians have been doing that for centuries.
The concern Christians usually raise is about practices that involve invoking other spiritual entities or adopting whole theological frameworks from other religions.
Sitting quietly and paying attention to your breath doesn’t fall into that.
You don’t need to feel guilty. Romans 8:1 says there’s no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus.
You sat still for a few minutes.