12-minute guided grounding practice for mindfulness — after bad news

About this practice

A 12-minute grounding session for mindfulness, after bad news. No app, no account — press start. A guided session of about 12 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 after bad news

• Do not make any decisions during it
• Let it be simple — you do not need to process anything today
• Tell one person where you are, even briefly

The first hours after bad news are not for planning. Deliberately doing nothing useful is the right move.

How grounding works

Grounding brings attention to physical contact and the immediate environment. It works on the principle that the body cannot be somewhere else, so contact with the surface you are on is always available as an anchor.

• Feel the contact points — feet, seat, back — and let them take your weight
• Use the senses deliberately: what you can see, hear, touch
• Return to solidity whenever attention drifts

What happens, minute by minute

1. 0:00Unclench your jaw. You were probably holding it without noticing.
2. 0:12Come back to the solid things: weight, temperature, surface. They are always available.
3. 0:25Let the last hour go on its own. You can pick it up again afterwards.
4. 0:39Let your breathing find its own pace. We're only going to watch it.
5. 0:52Count down from ten, one number per exhale.
6. 1:03If you're holding your breath at the top, stop. There's no need to hold anything.
7. 1:17Notice your heels making contact with the floor or the bed.
8. 1:29Notice the weight of your thighs, all the way down.
9. 1:41Let your throat soften. There's nothing to swallow right now.
10. 1:53Notice your ribs on both sides. Wide, not squeezed.
11. 2:04There is no correct amount of the ordinary present tense to be feeling right now. Whatever is here is the honest amount.
12. 2:22This 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.
13. 2:41Feel the air as it passes the back of your throat. It's cooler going in.
14. 2:55Notice the pull to make this mean something. It doesn't have to.
15. 3:08If your mind has gone somewhere else, the floor under you has not moved. Start from there.
16. 3:23A gap. Don't rush to fill it with thinking.
17. 3:34Notice the moment you realise you've drifted. That moment is the whole skill.
18. 3:47Press down slightly and feel the push back. Your body already knows where it is.
19. 4:01Quiet for a moment. No need to fill it.
20. 4:12Notice if you've been frowning at your own thoughts.
21. 4:23Feel the contact points — feet, seat, back. That contact is the whole anchor.
22. 4:37Nothing to follow for a moment except your own breathing.
23. 4:49If you're distracted by a sound, let the sound be the object for a moment.
24. 5:03The floor is holding you right now. You do not have to hold yourself up.
25. 5:17Pause here. Count three breaths if you need an anchor.
26. 5:29If you're sleepy, sit up a little. Or let the sleepiness be there.
27. 5:42Now feel both feet at once. That's a lot of contact with the world.
28. 5:56Notice the breath you're taking right now. That's the only one that exists.
29. 6:09Remain here for a few more breaths.
30. 6:19Notice your wrists. They bend a lot in a day.
31. 6:31Feel the air move past your upper lip. It's the coolest spot on the way in.
32. 6:46Take the next breath slowly.
33. 6:55Feel your belly. Let it be soft instead of held in.
34. 7:07Notice how many breaths you take in a minute. Don't change the number, just check.
35. 7:21No rush to move on.
36. 7:30Feel the back of your neck. That's a place that holds a lot.
37. 7:43Let your breathing find the rhythm it uses when you're almost asleep.
38. 7:56Nothing changes for a moment.
39. 8:05Now the right shoulder. Let it be a centimetre lower than it was.
40. 8:18Notice how the here-and-now your attention skips changes shape when you stop resisting it. Usually it gets smaller, not bigger.
41. 8:35Let's pause. Just the breathing for a while.
42. 8:46Imagine softening the edges of the ordinary present tense. Not erasing it, just letting the sharp parts go a degree softer.
43. 9:03Follow the breath down into your belly and feel it come back up.
44. 9:16the present moment you keep leaving may quiet down, or it may not. Either is fine. We are practising staying, not performing calm.
45. 9:34If the here-and-now your attention skips shows up, let it be there without arguing with it. You are not trying to remove it, just to sit beside it.
46. 9:54Notice the difference between the breath at the front of your nose and the breath in your chest.
47. 10:10Notice anything you're holding onto from earlier today.
48. 10:21Notice the difference between a thought and the space around it.
49. 10:33A few quiet breaths. That's all this is.
50. 10:44Name what you can see, hear and touch. Counting senses is not a distraction; it is the practice.
51. 11:00Let your body keep settling.
52. 11:09Let your eyes open when they're ready, not when the words end.
53. 11:22When you're ready, look around properly.

Questions people ask

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