Ingredients:

You alone – 
Any quiet space –
Three minutes of time –
Your focused attention –
Gentleness –
Patience –

Instructions:

Set a reminder (with a soothing tone) for 3 minutes. Get comfortable. Exhale all of the air out of your lungs, then breathe any way you’d like. Drop your shoulders. Release your tongue from the roof of your mouth. Relax your eyebrows. Breathe in and out.

Now, without concern for what happens, notice what is going on around you. Pause here briefly, simply aware of what you are seeing, hearing and feeling in this place.

Observe, with much gentleness and patience, what you are feeling in your body. From the top of your head to the bottoms of your feet. There is no need to do anything but detect what you are feeling.

Now shift your attention to your thoughts. Listen to them as if hearing a masterful storyteller. Stay here and be polite, even if you don’t like the story. Be curious about your mind’s tone and message as it speaks. There is nothing you have to do but listen politely.

For the remainder of your time, observe what happens anywhere – inside or outside of you. Remain unconcerned. Be aware there is nothing you have to do but notice. Exhale all of the air out of your lungs. Close your eyes.