Practice at home
The same practice as the hall, for doing at home.
You don't need to read anything first. Press begin and follow the light. This page explains more if you want it. Lives at thepractice.works/now.
What this is
A session alternates between paced breathing and silence. When the light moves, breathe with it. When it turns blue, sit still until it moves again. That's the whole thing.
Why both: the breathing calms you down, and the silence is where you practise sitting with whatever comes up. Taking them in turns is what makes the silence doable.
Reading the breath
Breathe in through your nose as the bar fills. Breathe out as it empties. The white edge does the counting for you. The pace is five and a half breaths a minute, which will feel slow at first; that's normal. Don't hold your breath at the top, just turn around and breathe out.
Reading the rest
Before each silence, the last out-breath turns blue. Then the whole bar goes blue and the silence starts. The white block shows the time left; each block is about two minutes. When the bar starts counting again, go back to breathing with it.
During the silence: close your eyes; the count will call you back. Breathe through your nose, don't sigh, don't take big recovery breaths. Let your attention go wherever it goes; don't manage your breathing. Don't expect anything in particular. If your head is noisy, that's normal; sitting with that is the practice.
The shape of a session
paced breathing silence
A longer session is not a different practice. The silences get longer as you go, and the last one is always the longest. New to this? Start with 15.
Where it goes
The goal is to be able to sit in silence for a long stretch and be all right in it. Nobody can do that straight away; sit for half an hour cold and your head is too loud, and you give up. So the session brings you down in stages: breathe, sit for a bit, breathe again, sit a bit longer. By the final silence you've already done it several times that session, and it's easier. The skill is staying put when your head gets loud. It builds with repetition, like anything.
The evidence for why this works is on the thinking page.