An attic room, when you are doing this for the first time — for jet lag

A carrier bag of shopping is still on the chair, unpacked. The radiator is small and makes a ticking sound as it cools. The room is in the roof, and the ceiling slopes so steeply that you have to duck near the window.

There is a dormer window with a deep sill, and a mug left on it from last night. There is a box of things under the eaves that nobody has opened in years. The bed is pushed into the low corner, which makes it feel like a den.

Feel your heels sink a little into the mattress. Let everything you were holding today stay on the floor beside the bed.

Let your shoulder blades spread out and drop. Let the pillow take the whole weight of your head.

The roof is holding, and the rain is outside, and that is the whole arrangement. The lamp is on the floor beside the bed because there is no room for a table.

Let your thumbs rest where they landed. Feel your wrists loosen.

Notice the places where your body touches the bed, and let them be heavy. Feel your belly rise and fall without any help from you.

The air up here is warmer than downstairs and smells of old wood. The rain changes intensity every few minutes and never quite stops.

If you're bored, stay with the boredom for a moment. It's usually thinner than it looks. If you've lost track of where we were, you haven't lost anything important.

Let your palms open if they were closed. Let your toes stop holding on to anything.

Almost nothing to do now. Let them.

Let it all get further away. Follow the breath out, and let the next one arrive by itself. Let the sound of this go soft at the edges.

If this is your first go, stay with the plainest version of the instructions.

The end. Sleep well.