20-minute guided letting go practice for contentment — on a break

About this practice

When contentment shows up on a break, this 20-minute letting go session gives you somewhere to put it down. A guided session of about 20 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 on a break

• Leave the room if you can
• Do not start anything else in the same gap
• Set a timer so the break has an end

A break spent half-engaged with a screen is not much of a break. Guard the whole five minutes.

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. 0:00Put a hand on your chest for a moment if that feels steadying. Or don't. Both are allowed.
2. 0:16Ask yourself what you could stop holding for the next sixty seconds. That one is a good start.
3. 0:32We'll start broad and narrow down. Nothing sudden is coming.
4. 0:44This is not a performance. Nobody is listening to how well you're doing it.
5. 0:58Feel the air as it passes the back of your throat. It's cooler going in.
6. 1:12Let your ribs widen on the in-breath instead of your shoulders lifting.
7. 1:25Let your whole body be as heavy as it wants to be.
8. 1:38Notice your hands again. Check whether they've loosened on their own.
9. 1:50Notice your lower back. Let it curve however it curves.
10. 2:02Notice your eyebrows. They're probably doing something small right now.
11. 2:14Notice your whole body as one shape, sitting or lying here.
12. 2:26Nothing about the calm of not wanting more this minute has to be explained or justified in this room.
13. 2:42Remind yourself, slowly: I am safe in this moment, even while the settled feeling after striving is here. Safety and difficulty can share a room.
14. 3:01Breathe in through your nose and out through your nose, if that's comfortable.
15. 3:14You do not have to like the enough-ness of right now to breathe through it. Liking was never the requirement.
16. 3:31Notice how the calm of not wanting more this minute changes shape when you stop resisting it. Usually it gets smaller, not bigger.
17. 3:49Let the breath get soft, the way it goes when someone is reading beside you.
18. 4:03If you're thinking about the next thing on your list, that list will still be there.
19. 4:18You have been carrying this competently for a while. A few minutes off will not undo that.
20. 4:33Pause here. Count three breaths if you need an anchor.
21. 4:45If a worry shows up, name it quietly and let it sit beside you.
22. 4:59With each exhale, let a little of the effort go. Not the problem — just the effort.
23. 5:14No words for a moment. Only the next breath.
24. 5:25If you're replaying a conversation, let it play. It'll finish on its own.
25. 5:38Setting something down is not the same as giving up. You can pick it up again after.
26. 5:53I'll stop for a moment. Take the pause at your own speed.
27. 6:06If you feel restless, that's a feeling, not a failure.
28. 6:18We are not solving anything in the next few minutes. We are setting it down, temporarily.
29. 6:33A gap. Don't rush to fill it with thinking.
30. 6:44Notice how quickly your mind labels things: good, bad, boring, nice.
31. 6:56Let the pause stretch out.
32. 7:05Let the breath be shallow if shallow is what your body wants.
33. 7:18Feel the skin around your eyes. Let the muscles behind them go loose.
34. 7:31A short silence. Let it be empty.
35. 7:41Notice the pull to make this mean something. It doesn't have to.
36. 7:54Take the next breath slowly.
37. 8:03Let your breathing get quieter rather than deeper.
38. 8:14Notice your breathing, without changing it.
39. 8:24Silence for a few breaths. Nothing to do in it.
40. 8:36Notice any urge to check something. You can wait two more minutes.
41. 8:49Let it be this simple.
42. 8:58Let your breathing be boring. Boring is good here.
43. 9:09Feel your calves, front and back.
44. 9:19Let's rest here in silence. It's short.
45. 9:29Notice where you feel the breath most clearly. Nose, chest, or belly — pick one and stay there.
46. 9:45Remain here for a few more breaths.
47. 9:55If you're judging your performance, that's the same habit as judging everything else.
48. 10:08Let's pause. Just the breathing for a while.
49. 10:19Feel the outline of yourself, from the top of your head to your heels.
50. 10:33Breathe in for four, out for six, if you'd like something to count.
51. 10:46Stay here a little longer.
52. 10:55Notice the moment you realise you've drifted. That moment is the whole skill.
53. 11:08Nothing to follow for a moment except your own breathing.
54. 11:20Now feel both feet at once. That's a lot of contact with the world.
55. 11:34Notice the difference between the breath at the front of your nose and the breath in your chest.
56. 11:50Just the breath, still.
57. 11:59If you feel emotional, you don't have to explain it to anyone, including yourself.
58. 12:13I'll be quiet for a moment. Stay with the breath.
59. 12:25Feel your upper back against whatever is behind it.
60. 12:36Notice the breath you're taking right now. That's the only one that exists.
61. 12:49No need to open your eyes yet.
62. 12:59Notice your ribs on both sides. Wide, not squeezed.
63. 13:10Let the in-breath be short and the out-breath unhurried.
64. 13:21Stay a moment longer than is comfortable.
65. 13:31Let the whole of your right foot be heavy.
66. 13:42Follow one full breath from the moment it starts to the moment it ends.
67. 13:56Stay with it.
68. 14:04Feel your tongue sitting in the bottom of your mouth.
69. 14:16Count down from ten, one number per exhale.
70. 14:27Let your body keep settling.
71. 14:36Notice the space between your shoulder blades.
72. 14:46When the settled feeling after striving arrives, name it once, quietly, and go back to the breath. Naming is not fixing, and that is fine.
73. 15:05Quiet for a moment. No need to fill it.
74. 15:16If you catch yourself fighting the enough-ness of right now, that is worth noticing. The fight usually costs more than the feeling.
75. 15:34If you're holding your breath at the top, stop. There's no need to hold anything.
76. 15:48Whatever the calm of not wanting more this minute is doing right now, your breathing can keep going underneath it.
77. 16:05This is not the last time the settled feeling after striving will visit. That is not bad news. It means you will get more practice.
78. 16:24Let each breath out be a small letting go of the muscles around your ribs.
79. 16:38Let the enough-ness of right now be exactly as big as it is, and let your breath be exactly as slow as it is. They can coexist.
80. 16:58If the calm of not wanting more this minute shows up, let it be there without arguing with it. You are not trying to remove it, just to sit beside it.
81. 17:20Notice the small pause before your body decides to breathe in again.
82. 17:33Notice the difference between a thought and the space around it.
83. 17:45If nothing much is happening, that's not a problem. Nothing much is often the point.
84. 17:59If your mind is quiet, don't grab at it. Quiet comes and goes too.
85. 18:13Silence. Let your shoulders drop again if they've crept up.
86. 18:25Pick one thing you are gripping — a plan, a worry, a grudge — and loosen a single finger.
87. 18:41No rush to move on.
88. 18:50Come back to your body first, and the rest of the day second.
89. 19:03Give your hands a stretch before you go back to using them.

Questions people ask

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