The first four exercises concentrate primarily upon the skill of focusing on the present moment. The content of the focusing exercises starts with outer experience and moves to internal physical sensation, with the third combining and contrasting the two experiences.

Focus on a single minute – helps us to become more aware of our sense of time. It involves waiting without counting for what we think is one minute, measuring how close we come to that minute, then evaluating the implications of estimates that are shorter or longer than the reality (p67).

Focus on a single object – builds the ability to focus on outer experience. It involves exploring an object for 5 minutes, first with our eyes and them with our hands. The instructions direct the client to explore numerous visual and tactile attributes such as shine, colour, shape, smoothness, hardness, weight (p67-68).

Band of light – builds the ability to focus on the present moment, particularly the physical sensations inside the body. It involves imagining a band of light moving down our body, starting from the top of our head like a halo, and progressively moving down over our face, neck, shoulders, back and abdomen, buttocks, legs and feet to the tips of our toes. As the band of light moves down the task is to notice all the physical sensations that take place within the body parts touched by the light (p69-70).