Meditation for being present: 5-minute softening session, between meetings

About this practice

Slow, spoken guidance for being present. A softening session you can do between meetings. A guided session of about 5 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 between meetings

• Start it in the gap, not after the next one begins
• Write down the open thread from the last meeting first, then let it go
• Two minutes done beats five minutes planned

The back-to-back day is exactly why the gap has to be protected rather than used for one more task.

How softening works

Softening is the practice of releasing held tension degree by degree rather than all at once. It targets the physical grip — shoulders, jaw, gut — that persists long after the stressor has passed.

• Soften one place per exhale rather than everything at once
• Let warmth and gravity do the work instead of muscular effort
• If a place will not soften, leave it and go somewhere that will

What happens, minute by minute

1. 0:00Start with the noise that is already in the room. We are not going to try to remove it yet.
2. 0:17If a place will not soften, leave it alone and go somewhere that will. It often follows.
3. 0:32There's no correct speed. Slower isn't better. Steadier is the only aim.
4. 0:45Bring your attention to where your body meets the surface underneath you.
5. 0:58Let the breath be shallow if shallow is what your body wants.
6. 1:11Feel the pause at the top of the in-breath. It's shorter than you think.
7. 1:25Feel the soles of your feet. All the weight of you goes through them.
8. 1:39Notice your shins, which take small knocks all day and never complain.
9. 1:52Now feel both feet at once. That's a lot of contact with the world.
10. 2:06Let this one be unhurried.
11. 2:15Find the tightest place and simply breathe near it. Warmth does the softening, not effort.
12. 2:29Notice if you're waiting for something to happen. Nothing is scheduled.
13. 2:41Nothing about the life happening while you worry has to be explained or justified in this room.
14. 2:56Notice where the texture of this exact moment lives in your body. Chest, throat, stomach. Rest your attention there without trying to change it.
15. 3:15Let the breath move at the speed of a sleeping person.
16. 3:27Each time your mind hands you the wandering back to now, treat it like a leaf on a stream. Present for a moment, then carried on.
17. 3:46If you're sleepy, sit up a little. Or let the sleepiness be there.
18. 3:59I'll leave a gap here. Use it however you like.
19. 4:11With every out-breath, soften one place. Shoulders first, then jaw, then the space behind the eyes.
20. 4:26Give your hands a stretch before you go back to using them.
21. 4:39Let 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.