These practices are designed to deepen your meditation practice. They are for you if you already have some foundation, if you enjoy gentle challenges, and if you are curious about taking your emotional regulation and self-awareness to another level. I sometimes think of them as a kind of Karate Kid training for the mind and body. Small, slightly unusual exercises that may not look very impressive on the surface, but quietly build strength, stability, and resilience over time.

They are not about striving or proving anything. They are more like small experiments you can return to when you feel ready.

That said, they do come with an important note. If you are fairly new to meditation, if you are already struggling to stay consistent, or if you are currently feeling overwhelmed, you do not need these practices. Your current practice is already enough. When you are ready, these techniques can gently challenge you in supportive ways and help you bring calm into daily life, which is why those techniques are so powerful.

Because real life does not happen in perfect silence on a cushion. It happens when you are tired, overstimulated, emotional, busy, uncomfortable, and distracted. It happens in the middle of ordinary, messy days.

So deep practice is not about waiting for ideal conditions. It is about learning how to stay grounded inside imperfect ones. That is what the following practices are designed to support.

A Gentle Note Before You Begin

All of the practices below are designed to support nervous system regulation, not to test your willpower. None of them should ever feel like punishment or self-discipline in disguise. You are always allowed to stop, adjust, or return to simple breathing. Progress in this work comes from safety, not from pushing. If something feels overwhelming, that is information, not failure. With that in mind, let’s explore six practices that help you carry calm into everyday life.

1. Ice Cube Regulation Practice: Reframing Discomfort

This is a simple but surprisingly powerful way to change your relationship with discomfort.

Hold one ice cube in each hand for around thirty to sixty seconds. While doing so, breathe slowly and gently focus on something calming, such as a peaceful image or a sensation of warmth in your body. You can stop at any time and warm your hands afterwards. This practice is not about being “tough” or pushing through pain. It is about staying present without panicking.

Many anxiety patterns are built on the belief that discomfort means danger. When something feels intense, the body reacts as if something is wrong. This exercise gently teaches your nervous system that sensation does not automatically mean threat. With regular practice, this can support greater emotional resilience in stressful situations.

2. Wall Sit with Calm Breathing: Staying Steady Under Pressure

This practice combines gentle physical effort with emotional regulation. It teaches you how to remain calm while your body is experiencing strain.

To practise, stand with your back against a wall and slowly slide down until you are sitting on an “invisible chair”. Your knees will be bent, and your back supported. Hold this position for around thirty to sixty seconds while breathing slowly and softly. Pay attention to relaxing your jaw, shoulders, and belly.

As your legs begin to work, you may notice an urge to tense, rush, or escape the sensation. Instead of reacting automatically, practise staying present and relaxed inside the effort.

In everyday life, pressure is unavoidable. Deadlines, emotional conversations, responsibilities, and uncertainty all place demands on us. This practice trains your nervous system to stay grounded while things feel challenging. Over time, you learn that you can experience intensity without losing your inner steadiness.

3. Pure Stillness Practice: Learning to Be With Yourself

In a world full of constant stimulation, true stillness has become rare. This practice brings you back to simplicity. There is no music, no guiding voice, no affirmations, and no visualisation. You simply sit.

Find a comfortable position, set a timer for five to ten minutes, close your eyes, and if you struggle focus on slow, natural breathing, but I encourage you to embrace having 'no focus'. When thoughts arise, gently return to the present moment. When restlessness appears, notice it without reacting.

At first, this can feel surprisingly uncomfortable. Many people discover how unused they are to being alone with their own awareness.

Over time, however, this practice builds deep inner stability. You learn that you do not need constant input to feel okay. That ability to rest in yourself becomes a quiet form of confidence and emotional maturity.

4. Presence in Noise Practice: Finding Calm in Imperfect Conditions

You do not need silence to meditate. In fact, learning to practise with noise can be deeply freeing, something I often encourage during hypnosis sessions with my clients. Sit comfortably and allow the sounds around you to be there. Traffic, voices, appliances, birds, footsteps, or distant conversations. Instead of trying to block them out, let them exist inside your awareness without judgement.

Breathe slowly and soften your body. Let each sound remind you to relax more deeply. In my hypnosis work, I help clients use background sounds as anchors for relaxation rather than distractions. When we stop fighting noise, it loses much of its power over us.

This practice teaches you that you do not need perfect conditions to feel grounded. You can access calm even in busy environments.

5. Gentle Breath Hold with Soft Focus: Staying Calm as Sensations Rise

This technique helps you remain relaxed when physical or emotional sensations become more noticeable. Begin by inhaling normally and exhaling slowly. After the exhale, gently pause your breath for five to fifteen seconds. During the pause, keep your face, jaw, and shoulders soft. Instead of tightening, practise relaxing even more. Then return to normal breathing and repeat for a few rounds.

Never force the breath hold. It should feel gentle and safe.

When anxiety rises, breathing often becomes shallow and rushed. This practice teaches your nervous system that it can remain calm even during pauses and changes in sensation. Over time, it builds confidence in your ability to regulate yourself during moments of intensity.

6. Mind Wide Open Practice: Resting in Spacious Awareness

Most meditation techniques train you to narrow your focus, usually onto the breath, a mantra, or a specific sensation. That approach is very helpful, especially in the beginning.

This practice works differently. Instead of narrowing attention, you gently open it.

Sit comfortably and close your eyes. Begin by noticing sounds around you, allowing all of them to exist in your awareness at the same time. After a minute or two, expand further to include physical sensations, the rhythm of your breath, and the sense of space around you. You are not switching focus from one thing to another. You are simply allowing everything to be present together.

If your mind narrows again, gently reopen it. No forcing. No judgement.

Many people find this practice deeply settling. Spacious awareness feels safe to the nervous system. You are no longer trying to “achieve” calm. Over time, this supports less overthinking, stronger emotional regulation, and greater mental flexibility.

Where Are You on Your Meditation Journey?

You do not need to practise all of these techniques. You do not need to master them. One gentle step is enough.

You might ask yourself: Which practice feels most supportive right now? Which one sparks curiosity? Which one feels like a stretch in a healthy way?

Begin there. Calm is not something you have to force. It is something you gradually learn to allow.

Ready to Finally Do the Thing? Struggling with Procrastination?

Calm is powerful. But calm without action can slowly turn into frustration. If procrastination has been quietly holding something meaningful hostage, the book you want to write, the offer you want to launch, the proposal you meant to submit last summer, the art grant sitting half-finished on your desktop, the website you keep redesigning instead of publishing, or even the creative practice you promised yourself you would finally commit to, and you keep whispering, “I’ll start next week,” yet next week keeps slipping away… I see you.

You plan a focused day. You make a beautiful to-do list. You genuinely intend to follow through. And somehow you end up tidying the kitchen, replying to messages, reorganising files, scrolling for “just a few minutes,” and it is 8pm again.

This is rarely about discipline. Beneath procrastination there is often fear, imposter syndrome, overwhelm, or simply trying to carry everything on your own.

If you are ready to finally follow through in a way that honours your nervous system, your energy, and your real life, this is exactly the space I hold inside my private Sacred Accountability coaching. It is not about pressure or guilt. It is steady support, gentle structure, and aligned action so you actually get it done.

You can learn more and book a free application call here.

with love,

Stepanka