10-minute guided breathing practice for contentment — in the queue

About this practice

10 minutes to meet contentment with less of a fight. A breathing practice, in the queue. A guided session of about 10 minutes, suited to all levels. Nothing is recorded and no account is needed.

What this works on: contentment

Contentment is the absence of the next want, not the presence of everything. It lasts only as long as the wanting pauses.

It tends to show up as:

• Arriving without enjoying the arrival
• Immediately wanting the next thing
• Rest feeling unearned

Not wanting more for a few minutes is a trainable state, and it is available without acquiring anything.

Doing this in a waiting room

• You can do this with your eyes open and your hands where they are
• Nothing here needs to look like a meditation
• Aim for steadiness rather than calm

Waiting feeds the dread it is meant to relieve. Having something specific to do with the time is the useful part.

How breathing works

A breathing practice uses the breath as the object of attention and as the control lever. Because exhaling slows the heart through the vagus nerve, it acts on the nervous system directly rather than through thinking.

• Keep the exhale longer than the inhale — that is the active ingredient
• Count the exhales and start again whenever you lose count
• Do not force depth; let the breath find its own level

What happens, minute by minute

1. 0:00You don't have to empty your mind. Nobody has ever managed that, including the people who wrote the instructions.
2. 0:16Let the counting do the work. When you lose the count, start again from one — no penalty.
3. 0:32There's a difference between relaxing and stopping. We're aiming for the second one, gently.
4. 0:46Everything that happens in the next few minutes is allowed to happen.
5. 0:59Feel your breath move down your back, all the way to your lower ribs.
6. 1:13Breathe as if you had all evening. There's no rush in this part.
7. 1:26Now the right shoulder. Let it be a centimetre lower than it was.
8. 1:39Feel the soles of your feet. All the weight of you goes through them.
9. 1:53Start at the top of your head. Notice the scalp, which you almost never notice.
10. 2:07Notice your ears, which mostly just receive things.
11. 2:18the settled feeling after striving may quiet down, or it may not. Either is fine. We are practising staying, not performing calm.
12. 2:36Let the exhale carry a little of the enough-ness of right now with it. Not all of it. Just a little, one breath at a time.
13. 2:55If you're replaying a conversation, let it play. It'll finish on its own.
14. 3:08Your anchor for the next few minutes is the breath itself. Nothing else needs following.
15. 3:22Silence for a few breaths. Nothing to do in it.
16. 3:34If you've lost track of where we were, you haven't lost anything important.
17. 3:47Follow the air from the nostrils down to the belly, then back out. One full trip at a time.
18. 4:03Let me stop talking. Follow the breath instead.
19. 4:14If you feel emotional, you don't have to explain it to anyone, including yourself.
20. 4:28There is no target number here. Only the next breath, and then the one after it.
21. 4:43A few seconds of nothing now. That's on purpose.
22. 4:54Stay a moment longer than is comfortable.
23. 5:04Feel the skin around your eyes. Let the muscles behind them go loose.
24. 5:17Let each breath out be a small letting go of the muscles around your ribs.
25. 5:31Let it be this simple.
26. 5:40Move to your forehead. Let it be smooth instead of gathered.
27. 5:52Feel the air as it passes the back of your throat. It's cooler going in.
28. 6:06Nothing changes for a moment.
29. 6:15Feel your upper arms hanging. They're heavier than you remember.
30. 6:27Let the breath get soft, the way it goes when someone is reading beside you.
31. 6:41Let's pause. Just the breathing for a while.
32. 6:52Nothing about the calm of not wanting more this minute has to be explained or justified in this room.
33. 7:08You do not have to like the settled feeling after striving to breathe through it. Liking was never the requirement.
34. 7:25Let your ribs widen on the in-breath instead of your shoulders lifting.
35. 7:38Say to yourself: this is uncomfortable, and I can stay with it for one more breath. Then take that breath.
36. 7:55If you're judging your performance, that's the same habit as judging everything else.
37. 8:08If a song is stuck in your head, let it play in the background.
38. 8:22Nothing to follow for a moment except your own breathing.
39. 8:34If the breath feels tight, do not deepen it. Just watch it, and let it find its own depth.
40. 8:50No rush to move on.
41. 8:59Before you open your eyes, notice how you feel compared to the start. It might be small.
42. 9:14Come back to your body first, and the rest of the day second.
43. 9:27Let this one be unhurried.

Questions people ask

Meditation is a practice, not a treatment. If you are dealing with ongoing distress, please also reach out to a professional.