Concentration: 7-minute grounding meditation, before sleep

About this practice

7 minutes to meet concentration with less of a fight. A grounding practice, before sleep. A guided session of about 7 minutes, suited to all levels. Nothing is recorded and no account is needed.

What this works on: concentration

Concentration fails for two reasons: the task is uninteresting, or the body is too activated to hold anything steady. The second one is fixable in minutes.

It tends to show up as:

• Attention sliding off within seconds
• Jumping between tabs
• Feeling physically unable to sit still

Lowering arousal raises the ceiling of what attention can hold. Practice first, then the task.

Doing this before sleep

• Dim the lights and put the phone out of reach
• Do it in bed if that helps you stay there
• Let yourself fall asleep rather than finishing it

Checking anything afterwards undoes most of it. Let this be the last thing.

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. 0:00Put both feet flat on the floor and let them take some of the weight.
2. 0:14Come back to the solid things: weight, temperature, surface. They are always available.
3. 0:27You can let your eyes close now if they weren't already.
4. 0:39Everything that happens in the next few minutes is allowed to happen.
5. 0:52Notice the small pause before your body decides to breathe in again.
6. 1:05Let the breath move at the speed of a sleeping person.
7. 1:17Feel your palms. Warm or cool, either is fine.
8. 1:28Notice your toes, starting with the big one on the left.
9. 1:40Feel your belly. Let it be soft instead of held in.
10. 1:52Say to yourself: this is uncomfortable, and I can stay with it for one more breath. Then take that breath.
11. 2:09When the attention that keeps sliding off arrives, name it once, quietly, and go back to the breath. Naming is not fixing, and that is fine.
12. 2:28Let your whole body be as heavy as it wants to be.
13. 2:41Let the pause stretch out.
14. 2:50Let the exhale empty you a little more than usual, but not to the point of strain.
15. 3:05If you feel emotional, you don't have to explain it to anyone, including yourself.
16. 3:19Nothing to follow for a moment except your own breathing.
17. 3:31Press down slightly and feel the push back. Your body already knows where it is.
18. 3:45If your mind has wandered, that's not a mistake. Noticing is the practice.
19. 3:58Let the out-breath be a little longer than the in-breath, without forcing it.
20. 4:11Let me stop talking. Follow the breath instead.
21. 4:22You have been carrying the urge to check something else for a while. You can set it down for the length of this session and pick it up after.
22. 4:43If you catch yourself fighting the difficulty of staying with one thing, that is worth noticing. The fight usually costs more than the feeling.
23. 5:02Let your ribs widen on the in-breath instead of your shoulders lifting.
24. 5:15If you're distracted by a sound, let the sound be the object for a moment.
25. 5:29If you feel numb, that's a valid thing to feel. Nothing to fix.
26. 5:42Let's pause. Just the breathing for a while.
27. 5:53The floor is holding you right now. You do not have to hold yourself up.
28. 6:07Let the pace of the last few minutes set the pace of the next few.
29. 6:21Come back to the room through your senses, one at a time.
30. 6:34A few seconds more.

Questions people ask

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