| Length | 4:12 |
|---|---|
| Subject | Quick Calm |
| Best time | Right now, when it has all gone up a notch |
| Position | Wherever you are standing or sitting |
| Style | One line, followed all the way through. Music underneath |
No time for a retreat, a cave, or twenty minutes on a cushion. Four minutes, wherever you are standing right now.
About 4 minutes with Steven Webb's calm voice.
Shake out your arms, let the body drop, and follow one line all the way through: breathing in calm, breathing out relax. A thought turns up, you do nothing with it. A noise turns up, you do nothing with that either. That is the whole practice, and it is the bit you can take back out into the day.
Treat me to a coffee, keep the podcast free, and get my Weekly Calm every Sunday. It is all on stevenwebb.uk
Thank you for sitting with me.
Steven
Who this is for
You need to be calmer in the next four minutes, not after a retreat.
No cave, no cushion, no half hour. This is the one to keep near the top of your list for the moments when something has just landed and you have to carry on regardless.
What happens in this meditation
Shake your arms out and let them drop. Hands on your legs. Eyes closed, or a soft gaze a few feet ahead.
Then one line, followed the whole way. Breathing in calm, breathing out relax.
Then an invitation down through the body. Shoulders, arms, neck, face, torso, legs. Not forcing anything, just letting it, because it already knows how.
Then the part that matters. A thought turns up and you do nothing with it. A noise turns up and you do nothing with that either. A feeling comes and you leave it alone.
How to get the most from it
Four minutes. Use it at the point where you would normally push on and hope.
It works standing in a corridor, in a parked car, in a bathroom with the door shut. Nothing in it needs the room to cooperate.
Take the last part out with you. Eyes open, walking about, still not having to do anything with what arrives. That is the piece you can actually use all day.
Questions people ask
Is four minutes enough to do anything?
For this, yes. You are not trying to fix the day, you are putting a gap in it. A short gap taken at the right moment beats a long one you never get round to.
Can I do this with my eyes open?
Yes, with your gaze soft and low. Slightly less settling, and far better than nothing.
What if my mind will not stop?
It is not supposed to. Every time you notice a thought and leave it where it is, the practice worked. That is the whole exercise, not the thing getting in its way.
