Meditation for being present: 10-minute grounding session, in the queue

About this practice

Nothing to learn and nothing to fix: 10 minutes of grounding for being present, in the queue. A guided session of about 10 minutes, suited to all levels. Nothing is recorded and no account is needed.

What this works on: being present

Life happens in the present while attention is busy elsewhere. Nothing is missing except the noticing.

It tends to show up as:

• Days blurring together
• Feeling absent from your own week
• Only registering moments in photographs

Sensory attention is the shortest route back. Sound, contact and breath are always in the present.

Doing this in a waiting room

• You can do this with your eyes open and your hands where they are
• Nothing here needs to look like a meditation
• Aim for steadiness rather than calm

Waiting feeds the dread it is meant to relieve. Having something specific to do with the time is the useful part.

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. 0:00Feel your ribs move. That is all the machinery you need to pay attention to right now.
2. 0:15Come back to the solid things: weight, temperature, surface. They are always available.
3. 0:28If your mind is loud, that's information, not failure.
4. 0:39Let your attention settle on the space between your nose and your upper lip, where the air passes.
5. 0:55Let your breathing get quieter rather than deeper.
6. 1:06Let the breath be slow enough that you can hear it, just barely.
7. 1:19Feel your face. It's probably softer than it was five minutes ago.
8. 1:32Notice your whole body as one shape, sitting or lying here.
9. 1:44Let the whole of your right foot be heavy.
10. 1:55Feel the skin around your eyes. Let the muscles behind them go loose.
11. 2:08If the life happening while you worry has been with you all day, it is probably tired too. Let it rest alongside you.
12. 2:26Nothing about the texture of this exact moment has to be explained or justified in this room.
13. 2:41Notice how you're sitting. Adjust if you need to. Then settle again.
14. 2:54Press down slightly and feel the push back. Your body already knows where it is.
15. 3:08Silence for a few breaths. Nothing to do in it.
16. 3:20If your body wants to move, let it move, then come back.
17. 3:33The floor is holding you right now. You do not have to hold yourself up.
18. 3:47Pause here. Count three breaths if you need an anchor.
19. 3:59Notice if you're being hard on yourself about any of this.
20. 4:11Name what you can see, hear and touch. Counting senses is not a distraction; it is the practice.
21. 4:27A few seconds of nothing now. That's on purpose.
22. 4:38If you feel emotional, you don't have to explain it to anyone, including yourself.
23. 4:52Notice that you don't have to start a breath. It arrives by itself.
24. 5:05Keep following the air.
25. 5:14Feel your knees. They're just hinges, but they've worked hard.
26. 5:26Breathe in for four, out for six, if you'd like something to count.
27. 5:39Take the next breath slowly.
28. 5:48Let your whole body be as heavy as it wants to be.
29. 6:01Let each breath out be a small letting go of the muscles around your ribs.
30. 6:15Stay here a little longer.
31. 6:24Feel the back of your neck. That's a place that holds a lot.
32. 6:37Let the in-breath be short and the out-breath unhurried.
33. 6:48I'll stop for a moment. Take the pause at your own speed.
34. 7:01Feel the weight of the wandering back to now somewhere specific, then let the floor take a share of it.
35. 7:18the life happening while you worry may quiet down, or it may not. Either is fine. We are practising staying, not performing calm.
36. 7:36Notice if your breathing is faster than you expected. Don't correct it. Just note it.
37. 7:50If the texture of this exact moment starts telling you a story, let the story finish without you adding to it.
38. 8:07Notice any tension that arrived while you weren't looking.
39. 8:18If a worry shows up, name it quietly and let it sit beside you.
40. 8:32I'll step back. You stay here.
41. 8:42If your mind has gone somewhere else, the floor under you has not moved. Start from there.
42. 8:57Let it be this simple.
43. 9:06Notice if anything has loosened. Even slightly counts.
44. 9:17Let the quiet end on its own rather than cutting it off.
45. 9:30Let the quiet do its work.

Questions people ask

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