Take a Breather

You're sitting there anyway - make it count

Like a lot of people, I spent most of the last five years working remotely. It was a good change of pace with some real perks. I hardly ever wore long pants, even in winter. (I did have one hard-and-fast rule: when it was time to work, I put shoes on — you gotta have at least a little discipline.)

Most importantly, I had a perfect 30-minute window for meditation when the house emptied out before my workday began.

Recently I’ve returned to an office, and that’s its own refreshing change. I get to talk to actual grownups during the day instead of just two dogs. (Pro tip: do not pat a coworker on the head and call him a “good boy” after a meeting.)

But the change in routine killed my meditation time, and I still haven’t carved out that dedicated window.

Yes, friends, the guy writing about meditation and mindfulness is a slack-ass meditator.

Fortunately, there’s nothing in the employee handbook that bans meditation at your desk. And you don’t need a cushion or half an hour to do it — a few seconds at a time can still be beneficial.

One of the first questions beginning meditators ask is, “What’s all this shit about the breath? Why focus on that instead of beads or spacey music?”

It’s simple. As Joseph Goldstein says, “Because it’s always with you.”

Deadline stress? Pissed off by a call? Doom-scrolling?

Take a meditation break. Sit down. Close your eyes — or don’t — but let your focus soften. Notice the air at the tip of your nose as you breathe in. Feel its warmth as you breathe out. Count ten breaths silently.

Congratulations, you just meditated.

“No, I didn’t,” you say. “I sat still for ten seconds, and my nose felt tingly.”

Exactly.

That stillness is the point — a little respite from racing thoughts, a pause before you get swept up in whatever’s next on the to-do list.

Sure, you’ll see more benefit if you sit for a few minutes every day (“sitting” is the guru word for meditation). But here’s the God’s honest truth: when you’re starting out, ten seconds is about as long as you can focus before your mind wanders to dinner plans, the Sox game, or whether you called your mom. When it does, just start over. That’s the practice. The more you do it, the longer those stretches of calm become.

So if you can’t find thirty minutes in your day, ten breaths between Teams meetings may be enough. Slack-ass? Sure. But that still counts. And sometimes still is all you need.