20-minute noting meditation for frustration, during a break

About this practice

20 minutes to meet frustration with less of a fight. A noting practice, during a break. A guided session of about 20 minutes, suited to all levels. Nothing is recorded and no account is needed.

What this works on: frustration

Frustration is blocked progress, repeated. Each small obstruction adds to a background irritation that eventually has nothing to do with the original cause.

It tends to show up as:

• Sighing more than usual
• Everything feeling slightly too slow
• A short fuse over minor things

Releasing some physical tension interrupts the accumulation. Frustration is often held in the jaw and hands more than it is thought about.

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 noting works

Noting is a technique from insight practice: when something arises, you give it a single plain label — thinking, hearing, planning — and return to the anchor. The label creates a small distance between you and the content.

• Use one word, not a sentence — explaining means you have joined in
• Label and return; do not follow the thought to see where it goes
• Drop the labelling if it becomes effortful and just follow the breath

What happens, minute by minute

1. 0:00Let your tongue rest down, away from the roof of your mouth.
2. 0:13We'll keep it quiet and unhurried.
3. 0:23Let your sense of the room shrink down to just your body and the surface you're on.
4. 0:38You can let your eyes close now if they weren't already.
5. 0:50Let your breathing find the rhythm it uses when you're almost asleep.
6. 1:03Notice the first breath of the day versus this one. They're the same mechanism.
7. 1:17Notice your jaw again. Let your back teeth part slightly.
8. 1:29Let your thumbs rest wherever they landed.
9. 1:39Notice your wrists. They bend a lot in a day.
10. 1:51Feel the skin around your eyes. Let the muscles behind them go loose.
11. 2:04Let your whole body be as heavy as it wants to be.
12. 2:17Whatever the repeated small irritations is doing right now, your breathing can keep going underneath it.
13. 2:32Feel the weight of the jaw tight with frustration somewhere specific, then let the floor take a share of it.
14. 2:49Feel the air move past your upper lip. It's the coolest spot on the way in.
15. 3:04Give the annoyance that will not settle a shape, a colour, a temperature. Turning it into something specific makes it easier to hold.
16. 3:22If you catch yourself fighting the repeated small irritations, that is worth noticing. The fight usually costs more than the feeling.
17. 3:39Feel the last part of the exhale, where it turns into nothing.
18. 3:52Notice whether you're breathing or holding. Start breathing again.
19. 4:03We'll take this slowly, and there's no version of this where you get it wrong.
20. 4:17Let me stop talking. Follow the breath instead.
21. 4:28Notice any urge to check something. You can wait two more minutes.
22. 4:41Small efforts are the whole method.
23. 4:51I'll stop for a moment. Take the pause at your own speed.
24. 5:04You might be planning something. Notice the planning, then come back.
25. 5:16You can be as unimpressive as you like for the next few minutes.
26. 5:29I'll step back. You stay here.
27. 5:39Notice the moment you realise you've drifted. That moment is the whole skill.
28. 5:52Nothing here needs to be efficient.
29. 6:02Let's pause. Just the breathing for a while.
30. 6:13Notice if you've been frowning at your own thoughts.
31. 6:24If you only manage half of it, that's half more than nothing.
32. 6:37Silence. Let your shoulders drop again if they've crept up.
33. 6:49If your mind has wandered, that's not a mistake. Noticing is the practice.
34. 7:02Let this be easy, if easy is available.
35. 7:13A gap. Don't rush to fill it with thinking.
36. 7:24If you're sleepy, sit up a little. Or let the sleepiness be there.
37. 7:37Stay a moment longer than is comfortable.
38. 7:47Count down from ten, one number per exhale.
39. 7:58Notice your heels making contact with the floor or the bed.
40. 8:10A few quiet breaths. That's all this is.
41. 8:21If a song is stuck in your head, let it play in the background.
42. 8:35Nothing changes for a moment.
43. 8:44Notice that you don't have to start a breath. It arrives by itself.
44. 8:57Feel your knees. They're just hinges, but they've worked hard.
45. 9:09A short silence. Let it be empty.
46. 9:19Notice the tone of your own inner voice. Is it kind?
47. 9:31Notice your pelvis resting on the surface below you.
48. 9:42Follow one full breath from the moment it starts to the moment it ends.
49. 9:56Remain here for a few more breaths.
50. 10:06Notice anything you're holding onto from earlier today.
51. 10:17I'll leave a gap here. Use it however you like.
52. 10:29Feel the outline of yourself, from the top of your head to your heels.
53. 10:43Let the breath be shallow if shallow is what your body wants.
54. 10:56Let the pause stretch out.
55. 11:05If you've lost track of where we were, you haven't lost anything important.
56. 11:18Nothing to follow for a moment except your own breathing.
57. 11:30Feel your calves, front and back.
58. 11:40Feel the air as it passes the back of your throat. It's cooler going in.
59. 11:54Let it be this simple.
60. 12:03Feel your tongue sitting in the bottom of your mouth.
61. 12:15Notice your breathing getting quieter on its own, without you deciding anything.
62. 12:28Let this one be unhurried.
63. 12:37Feel your face. It's probably softer than it was five minutes ago.
64. 12:50Breathe as if you had all evening. There's no rush in this part.
65. 13:03Take the next breath slowly.
66. 13:12Notice your ears, which mostly just receive things.
67. 13:23Notice if your breathing is faster than you expected. Don't correct it. Just note it.
68. 13:37Let the quiet do its work.
69. 13:47Feel your hips. Wide, heavy, and doing nothing.
70. 13:58Let the breath move at the speed of a sleeping person.
71. 14:10No rush to move on.
72. 14:19Notice where your body is still holding something. Leave it alone.
73. 14:31Breathe in for four, out for six, if you'd like something to count.
74. 14:44Stay here a little longer.
75. 14:53Notice your ribs on both sides. Wide, not squeezed.
76. 15:04Let the exhale carry a little of the jaw tight with frustration with it. Not all of it. Just a little, one breath at a time.
77. 15:23No words for a moment. Only the next breath.
78. 15:34If the annoyance that will not settle starts telling you a story, let the story finish without you adding to it.
79. 15:51Follow three breaths and let the fourth one go unobserved.
80. 16:03Notice where the repeated small irritations lives in your body. Chest, throat, stomach. Rest your attention there without trying to change it.
81. 16:21You are allowed to be unimpressed by the jaw tight with frustration. Indifference is a legitimate response.
82. 16:36Let your ribs widen on the in-breath instead of your shoulders lifting.
83. 16:49Imagine softening the edges of the annoyance that will not settle. Not erasing it, just letting the sharp parts go a degree softer.
84. 17:07Say to yourself: this is uncomfortable, and I can stay with it for one more breath. Then take that breath.
85. 17:24Feel your breath move down your back, all the way to your lower ribs.
86. 17:38Notice the exact moment your attention left. You probably won't catch it. That's normal.
87. 17:52Notice if you're waiting for something to happen. Nothing is scheduled.
88. 18:04If you feel restless, that's a feeling, not a failure.
89. 18:16Pause here. Count three breaths if you need an anchor.
90. 18:28There's no need to try harder than this.
91. 18:39Just the breath, still.
92. 18:48Give your hands a stretch before you go back to using them.
93. 19:01Take one last look at whatever your attention settled on.

Questions people ask

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