The daily pseudo-nap

It looks like napping, it sounds like napping and sometimes, it is napping. But that’s just me enjoying sleep. Ideally, you’re awake.

It lasts for about twenty minutes, and I prefer to do it in the morning right after waking up to prepare for the day.

Instructions are as follow: put a twenty-minute timer so you can keep your eyes closed during the whole meditation (and wake up should you fall asleep). Then, lay on your back on a floor mat or your bed. In case of lower back discomfort, put a pillow under your knees.

Close your eyes and focus only on your breath. How the air goes in and out. To help you, think aloud ‘in’ and ‘out’ as you follow your breath. Once you’re good at it, you can even ditch these two words and focus on the feeling of your lungs filling up and emptying. I’ve yet to get there.

You will have parasitic thoughts. In and out only goes for so long before your imagination starts filling in the blanks. When a random thought comes in – anything that isn’t ‘in’ or ‘out’ – picture it as if it was a piece of paper. Crumble it. Throw it away. Then go back to your breath. Take care of each thought that comes the same way.

And that’s the exercise. Comfy position, a focus on your breath, and throwing away every distracting thought to keep your on your breath. If you feel like random thoughts keep popping up and you can’t stay with your breath, don’t worry, that’s how most humans are. A brain cannot keep all its focus on a single thing for long. If you manage 1, 2, or even 3 breathing cycles and then have a thought to crumble and need a moment to get back to focus, congrats, you’re doing a good session.

As an alternative, you can do the same exercise while walking. Concentrate on your soles touching the ground and rolling from heel to toe. Thoughts are to be discarded the exact same way. I have an easier time with this alternative and focusing on my feet.

The point? It calms the mind and gets it ready for the day for one.

Perhaps more importantly, it’s a training for discarding the very thoughts we’d like to be rid of. That crumbling and discarding? You can use it when feeling love-struck or lonely or longing. And you’re training it each time you make a session.

Now, don’t expect to be at peace after a session or two, these things take time. Progress will be slow; what matters is that there is progress, and repetition makes discarding thoughts easier in the long run.

Relevant short-term goals:

• Start with ten minutes meditation sessions. Slowly increase until you reach twenty.

• Practice every morning.

• Start applying ‘crumble and discard’ during the day when unwanted thoughts come up.