A sitting practice for the daytime, not for bed. You’re not trying to relax or get sleepy, only to notice the breath and come back to it each time your mind wanders. Practicing by day, when nothing is riding on it, makes noticing and letting go familiar, so the skill is easier to find at night when thoughts start to pile up. If focusing on the breath feels uncomfortable, rest your attention on your feet on the floor or your hands in your lap instead. If strong feelings or memories come up, it’s fine to open your eyes and stop.

Narration

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1. Sit in a chair with your feet flat on the floor and your back upright but not stiff. Rest your hands wherever they’re comfortable.
2. Close your eyes, or lower your gaze to a spot on the floor a little ahead of you.
3. Notice where your body touches the chair and the floor. The weight of you, held up.
4. Now find the breath. Pick the one place you feel it most clearly. The nostrils, the chest, or the belly rising and falling.
5. Stay with that place. There’s no special way to breathe. Let the breath do what it does, and watch it.
6. Notice where each breath in begins, the small turn at the top, and the whole length of the breath out.
7. Sooner or later your mind will wander off, into plans, memories, or a sound in the room. The moment you notice, you’re already back. Return to the breath.
8. If it helps, name where the mind went, quietly, with one word. Planning. Remembering. Worrying. Then come back, without scolding yourself.
9. Keep going this way, breath by breath.
10. Some days the mind wanders fifty times. That’s no sign of doing it badly. Every return counts the same.
11. Let sounds, sensations, and thoughts come and go at the edges. Your attention can keep resting on the breath.
12. Now widen your attention to take in your whole body, sitting here, breathing.
13. Before you finish, notice how you are right now. Nothing needs to change. When you’re ready, open your eyes.
14. That’s today’s practice. Every time you came back to the breath was part of it.

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