Everyday Practices
The Midday Pause
For a Reset in the Middle of the Day
US$6 3 practices · 8 tracks · listen or download
Get the pack · US$6By the middle of the day, a lot has already happened. Small stresses have stacked up since breakfast, and we keep going without stopping to notice how we’re feeling. The afternoon gets run on whatever’s left.
A pause in the day gives us a chance to check in. Some of that is the body, slowing the breath and noticing what we’re feeling. Some of it is choosing how we want the rest of the day to go, before it carries us along. In one of these practices I call it a mindful check-in.
That one works through body, mind and world, in that order, then asks a few questions about the rest of your day. Another is spoken in the first person, as a reflective break: ‘This is me, taking this break in my day, for myself.’ The third is for when the pressure has built up, with a slow count for the breath and a short scan through the body.
There are three practices here, and each comes in more than one version, so there’s something whether you have fifteen minutes or three and a half.
What’s inside
A Quick Mindful Break
3 versions
Full version · 16 minShorter version · 12 minMicro version · 8 min
For a mindful break, wherever you are. You work through body, mind and world. You slow the breath, notice how you’re feeling and count what you can feel through touch. Then you watch for thoughts behind closed eyes, ‘a bit like being at a cinema.’ After that you open your eyes to what’s around you. A few questions about the rest of your day follow, then the sentence ‘For the rest of today, I choose…’ The shorter version has fewer questions. The micro version leaves the questions out.
My Spiritual Reset
2 versions
Full version · 11 minShorter version · 7 min
For a reflective break, spoken in the first person. It opens with the sound of three bells: ‘This is me, taking this break in my day, for myself.’ You look back over the day so far, then forward to what you’re likely to come across that you’re grateful for. Then you reach for words close to your heart, like honest or trusting, and picture your future self living them. It ends with ‘I am alive.’ The shorter version leaves out the part where you let your thoughts and feelings be.
Pause and Reset
3 versions
Breath and body scan · 10 minBody scan only · 7 minBreathing only · 4 min
For when the pressure has piled up. You sit with your feet flat, drop your shoulders and soften your jaw. Then you breathe in for four and out for six, as I count you through. After that comes a body scan, from the crown of your head down to your feet, with the shoulders dropping ‘like a gentle waterfall.’ It ends with one long sweep down the body. The other two versions split it in two: one is just the body scan, the other just the breathing.