10-minute guided breathing practice for mindfulness — at midday

About this practice

For the times at midday when mindfulness takes up more room than you would like — 10 minutes, breathing. A guided session of about 10 minutes, suited to all levels. Nothing is recorded and no account is needed.

What this works on: mindfulness

Attention spends most of its time in the past or the future. Being present is not a state you find, it is a return you keep making.

It tends to show up as:

• Missing conversations while composing replies
• Arriving somewhere with no memory of the walk
• Eating without tasting

Every return to the senses is a repetition of the actual skill. Losing it is part of the practice, not a break in it.

Doing this at lunch

• Do it before eating rather than after, so you are not working against digestion
• Leaving the desk matters more than the session length
• Take the headphones off afterwards so the break registers

A break that happens at the same desk is only half a break.

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. 0:00Your breathing doesn't have to change yet. Let it be whatever size it currently is.
2. 0:14Your anchor for the next few minutes is the breath itself. Nothing else needs following.
3. 0:28Let your sense of the room shrink down to just your body and the surface you're on.
4. 0:43Notice your own pulse somewhere. Wrist, throat, wherever you can find it.
5. 0:56Notice the difference between the breath at the front of your nose and the breath in your chest.
6. 1:12Notice that you don't have to start a breath. It arrives by itself.
7. 1:25Let the whole of your right foot be heavy.
8. 1:36Notice the backs of your knees, which you feel more than you think.
9. 1:49Now the right shoulder. Let it be a centimetre lower than it was.
10. 2:02Move to your forehead. Let it be smooth instead of gathered.
11. 2:14If you catch yourself fighting the ordinary present tense, that is worth noticing. The fight usually costs more than the feeling.
12. 2:31When the present moment you keep leaving arrives, name it once, quietly, and go back to the breath. Naming is not fixing, and that is fine.
13. 2:50Notice the moment you realise you've drifted. That moment is the whole skill.
14. 3:03If the breath feels tight, do not deepen it. Just watch it, and let it find its own depth.
15. 3:19Nothing to follow for a moment except your own breathing.
16. 3:31If you're irritated, that's allowed. Irritation is just weather.
17. 3:42Follow the air from the nostrils down to the belly, then back out. One full trip at a time.
18. 3:58No words for a moment. Only the next breath.
19. 4:09If you're distracted by a sound, let the sound be the object for a moment.
20. 4:23Keep the exhale a little longer than the inhale. That is the entire technique.
21. 4:37A short silence. Let it be empty.
22. 4:47Notice if you're being hard on yourself about any of this.
23. 4:59Breathe in for four, out for six, if you'd like something to count.
24. 5:12Let it be this simple.
25. 5:21Feel your knees. They're just hinges, but they've worked hard.
26. 5:33Notice how many breaths you take in a minute. Don't change the number, just check.
27. 5:47Keep following the air.
28. 5:56Feel your tongue sitting in the bottom of your mouth.
29. 6:08Let your shoulders stay still while your ribs move.
30. 6:19Stay with it.
31. 6:27Notice your ribs on both sides. Wide, not squeezed.
32. 6:38Notice the first breath of the day versus this one. They're the same mechanism.
33. 6:52I'll step back. You stay here.
34. 7:02the here-and-now your attention skips may quiet down, or it may not. Either is fine. We are practising staying, not performing calm.
35. 7:20Picture the ordinary present tense as a weather front passing over. You are not the weather. You are the sky it moves through.
36. 7:38Let the breath be slow enough that you can hear it, just barely.
37. 7:51This is not the last time the present moment you keep leaving will visit. That is not bad news. It means you will get more practice.
38. 8:10If you've lost track of where we were, you haven't lost anything important.
39. 8:23If you're sleepy, sit up a little. Or let the sleepiness be there.
40. 8:36Quiet now. The next part will wait for you.
41. 8:47Let the counting do the work. When you lose the count, start again from one — no penalty.
42. 9:03Let this one be unhurried.
43. 9:12Take your time opening your eyes. Nothing is waiting urgently.
44. 9:24Notice your feet on the floor. That's where you start from.

Questions people ask

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