Learn to meditate

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Learn to meditate

Ten minutes a day, for five days, by email. One short thing to read, one thing to try. Then it stops — no drip sequence, no app, no subscription.

Day one, in ninety seconds

If you never read another word on this site, this is enough to start:

  1. Sit on something that puts your hips above your knees. A firm cushion on the floor, or the front third of a chair with both feet flat. This one change solves most beginner discomfort.
  2. Set a timer for ten minutes. Not five — five is over before anything happens. Not twenty — twenty is a promise you'll break by Thursday.
  3. Close your eyes and feel your feet. Weight, temperature, the floor pushing back.
  4. When you notice you've been thinking, come back to your feet. That noticing is not an interruption of the practice. It is the practice.
  5. When the timer goes, stop. Don't grade it.

You will do this and think nothing happened. Correct. Something happening is not the point; the repetition is.

The free 5-day course

One email a day for five days, then a fortnightly note you can leave whenever you like. We don't share your address, and there is an unsubscribe link in every message.

Sign me up

The sign-up form goes live with the course. Until then, use the contact form and we'll add you by hand.

DayWhat you'll readWhat you'll try
1Sit down badly, on purposeTen minutes, feet only
2Your ten minutes, and where to put themPick a fixed slot and defend it
3What a wandering mind actually meansCount the returns instead of resisting them
4Guided or silent — choosing your laneOne of each, back to back
5Building the corner you'll come back toSet up one square metre properly

The four weeks nobody warns you about

Week 1Novelty. Easy.Weeks 2–3Boredom. Most quit here.Weeks 4–6It gets ordinary.Week 8You notice off the cushion.THE FIRST EIGHT WEEKSBoredom is not a sign it isn't working. It is the part that works.
Knowing week two is coming is most of what gets people through it.

Where to go next

One caution. If you are currently in acute distress — depression, panic, PTSD, an eating disorder, psychosis — please speak to a health professional before starting a daily practice, and tell them what you're planning. Meditation is not a treatment and occasionally makes things harder before it makes them easier.