Five minutes sitting still: for people who have never meditated

Most meditation instructions are longer than they need to be. This is the shortest version that still works.

Setting up

Sit in a chair, both feet on the floor, back straight but not rigid, hands on your thighs. Eyes closed, or half open looking at a point on the floor a metre ahead. Set a timer for five minutes so you are not checking the clock.

For those five minutes

• Breathe normally. Do not deepen or slow it — just notice it.
• Pick one place to hold: air at the nostrils, or the belly rising and falling. One place only.
• When you catch yourself thinking about something else — and you will, repeatedly — return gently to the place you chose.
• When the timer goes, open your eyes and sit for another ten seconds before standing.

What will happen, so it does not surprise you

You will be bored. You will remember things you have not done. You will wonder how long is left. All three are ordinary and none means you are doing it wrong. They mean you are sitting still, which a modern body almost never does.

A session where you had to come back thirty times is not a failed session. It is thirty repetitions.

Four common obstacles

• Falling asleep — sit upright rather than reclining, and open your eyes slightly. Drowsiness usually means you are tired, which is worth knowing on its own.
• An aching back — you are probably holding yourself too straight. Aim for the posture of someone listening carefully, not someone at attention.
• Remembering urgent tasks — keep paper beside you, write the thing down in four words, and go back. The mind stops raising it once it trusts it is recorded.
• Strong feelings arriving — this happens and is not a malfunction. Sitting still removes the distractions that were keeping something at bay. If it becomes too much, open your eyes and stop; you have not failed.

How long before anything changes

Not in the first week. What tends to appear first, usually after two or three weeks of regular practice, is a very small delay between something irritating happening and you reacting. The delay is brief, but it is where every other change starts.

You may also notice the reverse of what you expected: rather than feeling calmer, you become more aware of how often you were not calm. That is progress, though it does not feel like it at the time.

If you miss several days, do not restart the count in your head. Just sit the next day. There is no streak to protect here.