Grounding for mindfulness: 7 minutes, when you are overwhelmed

About this practice

7 minutes to meet mindfulness with less of a fight. A grounding practice, when you are overwhelmed. A guided session of about 7 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 when you are overwhelmed

• Do not decide priorities during it
• Pick the shortest session available here
• When you finish, write down the first physical action on paper

The pile looks less like a pile once the alarm stops ringing. Sort it after, not during.

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. 0:00Rest your hands somewhere they don't have to do anything.
2. 0:12If you only manage half of it, that's half more than nothing.
3. 0:25Let the last hour go on its own. You can pick it up again afterwards.
4. 0:39Nothing here is a test of concentration. Drifting off is part of it.
5. 0:52If you're holding your breath at the top, stop. There's no need to hold anything.
6. 1:06Feel the slight stretch at the very bottom of the exhale.
7. 1:18Move to your forehead. Let it be smooth instead of gathered.
8. 1:30Notice your pelvis resting on the surface below you.
9. 1:41Feel the middle of your back, the part that never gets attention.
10. 1:54Picture the here-and-now your attention skips as a weather front passing over. You are not the weather. You are the sky it moves through.
11. 2:13There is no correct amount of the ordinary present tense to be feeling right now. Whatever is here is the honest amount.
12. 2:31Feel your knees. They're just hinges, but they've worked hard.
13. 2:43Just the breath, still.
14. 2:52Notice that you don't have to start a breath. It arrives by itself.
15. 3:05Notice your shoulders, one at a time. The left one first.
16. 3:17If your body wants to move, let it move, then come back.
17. 3:30Let's rest here in silence. It's short.
18. 3:40We'll take this slowly, and there's no version of this where you get it wrong.
19. 3:54If nothing much is happening, that's not a problem. Nothing much is often the point.
20. 4:08Follow three breaths and let the fourth one go unobserved.
21. 4:20Silence. Let your shoulders drop again if they've crept up.
22. 4:32Whatever the present moment you keep leaving is doing right now, your breathing can keep going underneath it.
23. 4:48Notice where the here-and-now your attention skips lives in your body. Chest, throat, stomach. Rest your attention there without trying to change it.
24. 5:06Notice how many breaths you take in a minute. Don't change the number, just check.
25. 5:20Notice if you're being hard on yourself about any of this.
26. 5:32Notice whether you're breathing or holding. Start breathing again.
27. 5:43I'll stop for a moment. Take the pause at your own speed.
28. 5:56Nothing here needs to be efficient.
29. 6:06Before you open your eyes, notice how you feel compared to the start. It might be small.
30. 6:21Notice the quiet you made, and let it close gently.
31. 6:33Let it be this simple.

Questions people ask

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