The four a.m. mind

The four a.m. mind. This track is for the middle of the night, when you have woken and the mind has started running. Stay lying down. Keep the lights off. Eyes closed, or open in the dark, whichever is easier. One thing first. Do not check the time. The number does not help, and the mind uses it to start counting the hours left. Whatever the time is, it is still night, and this is still rest.

Put the phone face down, or out of reach, if it is not already.

Now the body. Feel the bed under you. The weight of the head on the pillow. The weight of the legs.

Let the breath go slow. No big breath in. Breathe out, long and quiet.

Again, out, long and quiet.

And again, at your own pace.

The mind at this hour tends to pick one worry and run it round and round. Money, work, something someone said, something that might happen. It feels urgent. At four in the morning most things feel urgent. That is the hour, not the problem.

So find the thought that is running. Name it, in a few plain words. Something like: the money thought. Or: the thing about tomorrow. Or: the conversation.

Now say to it, in your head: not now. It can stay unfinished until the morning. Morning is the time for working things out. Night is not.

It may come back. That is what thoughts do at this hour. Each time it comes, name it again, and say again: not now. Then come back to the breath.

Breathing out, long and quiet. The bed holding the body.

If a new thought comes, the same thing. Name it. Not now. Back to the breath.

You do not have to fall asleep. Lying in the dark, breathing slowly, is rest too. Sleep may come or it may not, and either way the night passes.

Breathing out.

Nothing to solve now. Nothing to decide. Only the breath, and the bed, and the dark.

Out, slow and quiet.