Meditation for concentration: 5-minute letting go session, in a five-minute break

About this practice

For the times in a five-minute break when concentration takes up more room than you would like — 5 minutes, letting go. A guided session of about 5 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 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 letting go works

Letting go is about loosening grip rather than dropping things. It works on the effort attached to a problem — the holding, rehearsing and bracing — which is separable from the problem itself.

• Pick one thing you are gripping and loosen a single finger
• Release the effort with the exhale, not the issue
• Set down temporarily; you can pick it up again after

What happens, minute by minute

1. 0:00Quick check: is anything genuinely urgent in this exact minute? Usually the answer is no.
2. 0:14Pick one thing you are gripping — a plan, a worry, a grudge — and loosen a single finger.
3. 0:30Settle into the fact that for the next few minutes, nothing is required of you.
4. 0:44Let your attention rest on the out-breath. The in-breath can take care of itself.
5. 0:58Feel the last part of the exhale, where it turns into nothing.
6. 1:11Notice the breath you're taking right now. That's the only one that exists.
7. 1:24Feel your calves, front and back.
8. 1:34Let your thumbs rest wherever they landed.
9. 1:44Feel your upper arms hanging. They're heavier than you remember.
10. 1:56No rush to move on.
11. 2:05A few seconds of nothing now. That's on purpose.
12. 2:16You have been carrying this competently for a while. A few minutes off will not undo that.
13. 2:31Notice any tension that arrived while you weren't looking.
14. 2:42Let the urge to check something else be exactly as big as it is, and let your breath be exactly as slow as it is. They can coexist.
15. 3:02You do not have to like the difficulty of staying with one thing to breathe through it. Liking was never the requirement.
16. 3:20Notice the small gap after each exhale. Rest there for half a second.
17. 3:33You do not have to solve the attention that keeps sliding off in these few minutes. Your only job is to keep breathing while it is here.
18. 3:53If you're judging your performance, that's the same habit as judging everything else.
19. 4:06A few quiet breaths. That's all this is.
20. 4:17Ask yourself what you could stop holding for the next sixty seconds. That one is a good start.
21. 4:33Notice your feet on the floor. That's where you start from.

Questions people ask

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