Creating the Mindfulness Gap
Count your breaths daily to open a space between stimulus and reaction
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time to result
- ~weeks to results
- Steps
- 7
- Confidence
- 82%
Cory Allen strips meditation down to its fundamentals for absolute beginners. The mechanism is breath counting: sit comfortably, close your eyes, relax, and take ten slow breaths with attention on the chest. Count each breath toward ten; the moment the mind wanders, notice it and restart from one. That restart IS the practice — it trains you to observe your own stream of consciousness. Rather than chasing a big time commitment, you start with five minutes and use progressive overload, extending as tolerance grows toward a 20-30 minute sweet spot. Done consecutively, the state changes felt right after a session harden into trait changes — a permanent 'mindfulness gap' between a stimulus and your reaction to it, so you respond to life rather than being carried away by reactive programming.
Origin
Cory Allen developed his approach over roughly twenty years of self-taught practice that began in his mid-teens, when meditation became a 'fortress' against emotional suffering. On Modern Wisdom he deliberately distilled thousands of hours down to the beginner fundamentals.
Core principles
- 01Meditation is a practice, not a mastery to be achieved
- 02Don't make it a big deal — you already do it every night asleep
- 03The goal is a small gap between a thought and your reaction to it
- 04Consistency beats duration; daily reps compound like stretching
- 05Progressive overload applies — start tiny and build tolerance
How to run it
- 1
Don't make it a big deal
Drop the idea that you must become a master or meditate for hours on a mountain. You already meditate every night while sleeping; you're just going to do a little of it while awake.
Pro tip Reframing it as trivial removes the intimidation that makes most people quit before they start.
Watch out Approaching it as a solemn achievement creates resistance and self-imposed pressure.
- 2
Get comfortable and remove distractions
Sit in a chair, on the couch, or lie down — whatever is most comfortable. Put your phone and other stuff away and let the body relax.
Pro tip For a seated posture, treat legs and hips as a building's foundation, let the spine grow up like a tree, chest forward, and the head floats on top like a cherry on a sundae.
- 3
Take ten deep breaths on the chest
Close your eyes and take ten natural deep breaths, allowing the chest to expand and exhale. Point your attention gently at the chest simply rising and falling.
Pro tip Nothing should feel forced or unnatural — just observe the natural movement of breathing.
- 4
Count the breaths and restart when you drift
Count one inhale-exhale as one, up toward ten. Most people get distracted around three. When you notice you've drifted, don't judge it — just start again from one with the next breath.
Pro tip Noticing the distraction and restarting is the actual rep; thoughts wandering is not failure.
Watch out Getting frustrated at wandering thoughts defeats the purpose — there is nothing wrong with the drift.
- 5
Start at five minutes and apply progressive overload
Do this for five minutes morning or evening and you'll notice a difference; ten minutes gives a bigger one. Like adding weight in the gym, build up gradually rather than attempting thirty minutes on day one.
Pro tip Expect physical fidgets early on — your hands feel a 'phantom limb' urge to fiddle; it passes after a few sessions.
Watch out Attempting a long first session makes the antsy discomfort unbearable and puts you off.
- 6
Make it consecutive and daily
The deep results come from doing it consecutively, ideally daily to five times a week. A single session helps in the moment but you slide back; daily practice builds an inherent flexibility into your experience.
Pro tip Meditate before good or neutral moments too — a job interview, first date, or important conversation — treating it as a multivitamin, not just an antidote for stress.
Watch out Turning it into a chore you 'have to do' breeds resentment and you'll find excuses to skip it.
- 7
Grow into the 20-30 minute zone
Once you're accustomed to more than five or ten minutes, aim for a 20-30 minute target zone. It's long enough for a deep effect without feeling like you've surrendered a chunk of your day.
Pro tip Around the 20-minute mark many deep meditators report reaching a state of resting awareness 'like a tree blowing in the breeze without a name or identity.'
In the wild
Chris Williamson describes that after starting his own practice, the most noticeable early change was gaining a 'second moment' of breath between something happening — or a thought arising — and his reaction to it. That small extra beat to notice what occurred and choose a response, rather than being carried away by reactive programming, produced a profound day-to-day change in how he handled situations.
→ A consistent gap between stimulus and reaction, reducing reflexive negativity and conflict.
Allen notes that when a beginner first tries counting ten breaths, most people can't get past three before the mind hijacks the count — 'I wonder if the cat's being let out yet.' Rather than a sign of failure, this is exactly what the practice targets: you notice the wandering and simply restart the count from one, and over repeated sessions the mind and body's chatter begins to calm.
→ The beginner learns that distraction is normal and that the restart itself is the training.
Common mistakes
Steaming in at thirty minutes on day one
Attempting a long session before building tolerance makes the physical and mental restlessness unbearable and puts beginners off entirely. Start at five minutes and build like progressive overload at the gym.
Chasing trait changes immediately
People expect to stop feeling angry within days and quit when they don't. State changes come quickly after a session; the deeper trait changes typically take around two weeks of consistent practice.
Treating it as a chore
Framing meditation as something you 'have to do' breeds resentment and self-sabotage. Reframe it as something you get to do, like brushing your teeth.
Is it for you?
Best for
Complete beginners who want a low-friction, secular way to start meditating and become less reactive day-to-day.
Not ideal for
People seeking a rigorous multi-hour contemplative discipline or a religious/spiritual framework.
From the transcript
“what you need to do is just enough to create that extra little space that mindfulness gap to where you can recognize your own flow…”
“just take ten deep breaths nothing unnatural just allow your chest to expand and again and exhale and when you're doing that you know with…”
“if you can sit there and do that for five minutes in the morning or any evening before you go to bed you'll notice the…”
From the episode
Creating The Mindfulness Gap, The Fundamentals Of Meditation and How To Deepen Your Practise - Cory Allen - #012
Cory Allen