Waking up: 7-minute breathing meditation, before public speaking

About this practice

7 minutes to meet waking up with less of a fight. A breathing practice, before public speaking. A guided session of about 7 minutes, suited to all levels. Nothing is recorded and no account is needed.

What this works on: waking up

On waking, the brain passes through a slow transition rather than switching on. Rushing it leaves you foggy for the first hour.

It tends to show up as:

• Needing a long time to feel awake
• Foggy, irritable mornings
• The day starting before you are ready

Giving the body a few unhurried minutes at the start changes the tone of everything that follows.

Doing this before public speaking

• Do it somewhere private, or in the washroom if needed
• Slow the exhale deliberately and check your speaking pace after
• Warm the voice by reading a line aloud, not by staying silent

Rushing is the tell of nerves. A slower breath now is what sets a slower pace in the room.

How breathing works

A breathing practice uses the breath as the object of attention and as the control lever. Because exhaling slows the heart through the vagus nerve, it acts on the nervous system directly rather than through thinking.

• Keep the exhale longer than the inhale — that is the active ingredient
• Count the exhales and start again whenever you lose count
• Do not force depth; let the breath find its own level

What happens, minute by minute

1. 0:00Part of you is still in the last conversation you had. That's fine. It can sit here too.
2. 0:16Let this be easy, if easy is available.
3. 0:27Feel the small movements your body makes to keep you upright. They're happening without you.
4. 0:41We're going to move through the body in order, roughly from top to bottom.
5. 0:55Let the breath move at the speed of a sleeping person.
6. 1:07Let the exhale empty you a little more than usual, but not to the point of strain.
7. 1:22Notice your whole body as one shape, sitting or lying here.
8. 1:34Feel your tongue sitting in the bottom of your mouth.
9. 1:46Notice your shoulders, one at a time. The left one first.
10. 1:58Picture the morning body that needs a moment as a weather front passing over. You are not the weather. You are the sky it moves through.
11. 2:17If the slow start of the day starts telling you a story, let the story finish without you adding to it.
12. 2:34Notice your shins, which take small knocks all day and never complain.
13. 2:47Stay a moment longer than is comfortable.
14. 2:57Breathe in for four, out for six, if you'd like something to count.
15. 3:10Feel the middle of your back, the part that never gets attention.
16. 3:23If you're bored, stay with the boredom for a moment. It's usually thinner than it looks.
17. 3:38Nothing to follow for a moment except your own breathing.
18. 3:50There's no need to try harder than this.
19. 4:01If you're irritated, that's allowed. Irritation is just weather.
20. 4:12Feel the air as it passes the back of your throat. It's cooler going in.
21. 4:26I'll stop for a moment. Take the pause at your own speed.
22. 4:39Notice where the fog of just-woken lives in your body. Chest, throat, stomach. Rest your attention there without trying to change it.
23. 4:57If the morning body that needs a moment is loud right now, make your attention smaller. Just the next breath. Nothing beyond it.
24. 5:15Let the in-breath be short and the out-breath unhurried.
25. 5:26If you're judging your performance, that's the same habit as judging everything else.
26. 5:39If you feel restless, that's a feeling, not a failure.
27. 5:51I'll step back. You stay here.
28. 6:01Small efforts are the whole method.
29. 6:11Notice the quiet you made, and let it close gently.
30. 6:23Stretch whatever feels stiff, then carry on.
31. 6:33Keep following the air.

Questions people ask

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