10-minute letting go meditation for being present, on a Saturday morning

About this practice

When being present shows up on a Saturday morning, this 10-minute letting go session gives you somewhere to put it down. A guided session of about 10 minutes, suited to all levels. Nothing is recorded and no account is needed.

What this works on: being present

Life happens in the present while attention is busy elsewhere. Nothing is missing except the noticing.

It tends to show up as:

• Days blurring together
• Feeling absent from your own week
• Only registering moments in photographs

Sensory attention is the shortest route back. Sound, contact and breath are always in the present.

Doing this at the weekend

• Do it without a schedule to justify it
• Later in the morning, in better light, usually works well
• Let the length be open-ended if the time allows

Recovery is not something you have to earn first, and treating it as a reward keeps it conditional.

How letting go works

Letting go is about loosening grip rather than dropping things. It works on the effort attached to a problem — the holding, rehearsing and bracing — which is separable from the problem itself.

• Pick one thing you are gripping and loosen a single finger
• Release the effort with the exhale, not the issue
• Set down temporarily; you can pick it up again after

What happens, minute by minute

1. 0:00If you're lying down, let the mattress hold all of you. You can stop holding yourself up.
2. 0:15If you only manage half of it, that's half more than nothing.
3. 0:28There's no correct speed. Slower isn't better. Steadier is the only aim.
4. 0:41If some part of you is resisting this, that resistance is worth noticing too.
5. 0:55Let your shoulders stay still while your ribs move.
6. 1:06Notice the small pause before your body decides to breathe in again.
7. 1:19Notice where your body is still holding something. Leave it alone.
8. 1:31Notice your whole body as one shape, sitting or lying here.
9. 1:43Feel your ankles. Let them be loose.
10. 1:53Move to your forehead. Let it be smooth instead of gathered.
11. 2:05Give the life happening while you worry a shape, a colour, a temperature. Turning it into something specific makes it easier to hold.
12. 2:23Notice where the texture of this exact moment lives in your body. Chest, throat, stomach. Rest your attention there without trying to change it.
13. 2:42You might be planning something. Notice the planning, then come back.
14. 2:54You can be as unimpressive as you like for the next few minutes.
15. 3:07Quiet now. The next part will wait for you.
16. 3:18Notice if your attention is in the future. Bring it back to the room.
17. 3:32We'll take this slowly, and there's no version of this where you get it wrong.
18. 3:46I'll be quiet for a moment. Stay with the breath.
19. 3:58If your mind has wandered, that's not a mistake. Noticing is the practice.
20. 4:11Nothing here needs to be efficient.
21. 4:21Let's pause. Just the breathing for a while.
22. 4:32If you're irritated, that's allowed. Irritation is just weather.
23. 4:43Feel the soles of your feet. All the weight of you goes through them.
24. 4:57Notice your breathing getting quieter on its own, without you deciding anything.
25. 5:10Take the next breath slowly.
26. 5:19Feel your heart somewhere in there, doing its work without instructions.
27. 5:31Breathe as if you had all evening. There's no rush in this part.
28. 5:44Nothing changes for a moment.
29. 5:53Feel the tops of your thighs.
30. 6:03Notice the small gap after each exhale. Rest there for half a second.
31. 6:16No rush to move on.
32. 6:25Notice your wrists. They bend a lot in a day.
33. 6:37Feel the air move past your upper lip. It's the coolest spot on the way in.
34. 6:52Quiet for a moment. No need to fill it.
35. 7:03Whatever the wandering back to now is doing right now, your breathing can keep going underneath it.
36. 7:18You do not have to solve the life happening while you worry in these few minutes. Your only job is to keep breathing while it is here.
37. 7:38Let the breath get soft, the way it goes when someone is reading beside you.
38. 7:52the texture of this exact moment may quiet down, or it may not. Either is fine. We are practising staying, not performing calm.
39. 8:10If you're distracted by a sound, let the sound be the object for a moment.
40. 8:24If nothing much is happening, that's not a problem. Nothing much is often the point.
41. 8:38Silence. Let your shoulders drop again if they've crept up.
42. 8:50We'll keep it quiet and unhurried.
43. 9:00Let the quiet do its work.
44. 9:10Let the quiet end on its own rather than cutting it off.
45. 9:23Stand up when you're ready. The list hasn't grown while you were here.

Questions people ask

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