If your body were as scattered as your mind, you’d find pieces of it everywhere. You are constantly shifting your attention, driven by excitement, fear, surprise, and craving. Your attention is volleyed between internal emotions and external stimuli. Your ancestors evolved in a world that felt more natural and quiet.

It’s good to give yourself a break from the accelerating loudness that surrounds you. You can do this through mediation, even if it’s only briefly.

The first thing to do when you start meditating is to stop everything else you are doing.

Breathe in slowly and notice your breath. Notice how the air feels going in through the nose down into the lungs. How the belly makes room and the whole body adapts.

Observe that moment of tension when you’re holding the breath in, being fully at choice when to release it.

Notice how breathing out can gently push the air back out of the body, into the rest of the world. And then, the cycle repeats.

This oasis of slowing down and getting quiet is always available to you.