This is a stripped-down body scan. Four minutes. No soothing voice. No app. Just a chair and a phone timer.

The practice

Sit in a chair. Both feet on the floor. Eyes closed or softly downcast.

Minute 1 — head and shoulders. Notice the top of the head, then the face, then the jaw, then the neck, then the shoulders. Don't try to relax them. Just notice. If something is tight, it is tight. Move on.

Minute 2 — chest, arms, hands. Drop attention to the chest. Notice the breath rising and falling there, briefly. Move attention out through the upper arms, lower arms, hands. The hands often hold more tension than we realise.

Minute 3 — belly, hips, legs. Belly first. Notice if the belly is allowed to be soft, or if you are holding it. Then hips, thighs, knees, calves. The legs do a lot for you and are usually ignored.

Minute 4 — feet, then whole body. Spend 30 seconds on the feet — the soles touching the floor, the toes inside the shoes. Then for the last 30 seconds, drop attention to the whole body at once, breathing.

Open your eyes. Stand up.

Why this works in four minutes

A long body scan teaches subtlety. A short one teaches re-acquaintance. You don't need to relax every body part — you need to remember the body exists below the collarbones. Four minutes does that.

Done daily, this practice changes which signals you start picking up. The 4 p.m. headache that used to surprise you becomes legible: oh, the shoulders have been at my ears since lunch. The 2 a.m. ruminations become legible too: oh, my chest has been tight since the meeting yesterday.

The body has been telling you all of this. Four minutes a day is the audience it needs.