Breathing garden

Some slow rituals

• Place your phone far away. Unless something truly urgent calls (and it rarely does), switch it off for as long as possible.
• Make yourself a cup of tea, or coffee, and sip it slowly by the window as you watch the clouds drift by.
• Stretch softly, as if releasing the knots of the day, and let your body grow light, almost featherlike.
• Share laughter with someone you love. Laugh softly or laugh loudly, but do so without haste, allowing the joy to linger.
• Close your eyes. Mentally name three things you hear, three things you see, and three things you feel.
• Take a short walk outside, noticing the feel of the grass beneath your feet, the sun or wind on your skin.
• Light a candle or a stick of incense, and move slowly as you nourish your skin with your favourite cream.
• Write down three small things you are grateful for in your diary: they are always there, even when you forget to notice.
• Do one thing at a time.
• Find wonder in the smallest gestures. Train your eyes to linger on the unnoticed.

Tiny permissions for today

• It’s okay to answer later.
• It’s okay to change your mind.
• It’s okay to do one thing only.
• It’s okay to be offline. Humanity has been offline for most of its history.
• It’s okay to rest when you’re tired, not only when you’re done. You’re not late; you’re on your own time.

Meditations hidden in everyday life

Washing the dishes as if they were fragile treasures
Painting or colouring slowly
Writing a page
Writing a letter to someone who has hurt you, without sending it
Listening to music without doing anything else
Doing decluttering, or tidying a corner of your home with care
Cooking something delicious for your palate

Shinrin yoku (Forest bathing)

Close your eyes for ten seconds and imagine you are in a forest. Breathe in the smell of wet grass, observe the way the leaves on the trees move, or how the light filters gently through the branches. Open your eyes. Look for a green colour near you and stare at it for a few breaths.