Read all the way through. Then put the phone down, set a timer for five minutes, and try it. You will do it imperfectly. That is the point.
1. Settle (about thirty seconds)
Sit down. Feel the weight of your body on the chair or cushion. Notice the points of contact: sit bones, feet, hands resting. Let your shoulders drop. Let your jaw soften. Take one slow breath in through the nose and out through the mouth, like a long sigh.
2. Find the breath (about thirty seconds)
Close your eyes, or let them rest half-open on the floor in front of you. Find your breath wherever you most easily notice it — the cool air at the nostrils, the rise of the chest, the soft expansion of the belly. Pick one place. That is your anchor.
3. Rest there (about four minutes)
Breathe normally. Do not try to slow it or deepen it. Just stay with the sensation of one breath. Then the next. Then the next.
You will lose it almost immediately. A thought will arrive — your to-do list, something someone said, a craving, an itch. You will follow that thought for a while without noticing. Then you will notice. That noticing is the entire practice.
When you notice, gently — without scolding yourself — return to the breath. That is one repetition. Over five minutes you may do this fifty times. That is fifty repetitions of returning. That is exactly the muscle you came to build.
4. Close (about thirty seconds)
When the timer ends, do not jump up. Take one more breath. Notice how you feel — calmer, the same, more restless, no clearer answer. Whatever it is, that was your sit. Open your eyes slowly. The day will resume on its own.