15-minute grounding meditation for tired eyes, on a break

About this practice

A 15-minute grounding session for tired eyes, on a break. No app, no account — press start. A guided session of about 15 minutes, suited to all levels. Nothing is recorded and no account is needed.

What this works on: tired eyes

Screens reduce blink rate sharply, and the muscles that focus at close range stay contracted. The result is strain, ache and blur by the end of the day.

It tends to show up as:

• Aching, gritty eyes after screen time
• Blurring at the end of the day
• Headaches above the eyes

Closing the eyes is the only real rest they get. A few minutes without visual input is the specific thing your eyes are short of.

Doing this on a break

• Leave the room if you can
• Do not start anything else in the same gap
• Set a timer so the break has an end

A break spent half-engaged with a screen is not much of a break. Guard the whole five minutes.

How grounding works

Grounding brings attention to physical contact and the immediate environment. It works on the principle that the body cannot be somewhere else, so contact with the surface you are on is always available as an anchor.

• Feel the contact points — feet, seat, back — and let them take your weight
• Use the senses deliberately: what you can see, hear, touch
• Return to solidity whenever attention drifts

What happens, minute by minute

1. 0:00If you're lying down, let the mattress hold all of you. You can stop holding yourself up.
2. 0:15Press down slightly and feel the push back. Your body already knows where it is.
3. 0:29Everything that happens in the next few minutes is allowed to happen.
4. 0:42Let your attention settle on the space between your nose and your upper lip, where the air passes.
5. 0:58Let each breath out be a small letting go of the muscles around your ribs.
6. 1:12If you're holding your breath at the top, stop. There's no need to hold anything.
7. 1:26Feel the parts of you that have gone quiet.
8. 1:37Notice your shoulders, one at a time. The left one first.
9. 1:49Let your throat soften. There's nothing to swallow right now.
10. 2:01Notice the space between your shoulder blades.
11. 2:11Now the right shoulder. Let it be a centimetre lower than it was.
12. 2:24Nothing about the strained eyes after screens has to be explained or justified in this room.
13. 2:39If the heavy lids of a screen-lit day is loud right now, make your attention smaller. Just the next breath. Nothing beyond it.
14. 2:57Notice where you feel the breath most clearly. Nose, chest, or belly — pick one and stay there.
15. 3:13Feel the weight of the ache of staring too long somewhere specific, then let the floor take a share of it.
16. 3:30There is no correct amount of the strained eyes after screens to be feeling right now. Whatever is here is the honest amount.
17. 3:48Start at the top of your head. Notice the scalp, which you almost never notice.
18. 4:02No need to open your eyes yet.
19. 4:12Breathe in through your nose and out through your nose, if that's comfortable.
20. 4:25Notice your lower back. Let it curve however it curves.
21. 4:37Let it be this simple.
22. 4:46Let the in-breath be short and the out-breath unhurried.
23. 4:57Notice your jaw again. Let your back teeth part slightly.
24. 5:09Stay here a little longer.
25. 5:18Let the breath be slow enough that you can hear it, just barely.
26. 5:31Feel your palms. Warm or cool, either is fine.
27. 5:42A few seconds more.
28. 5:51Follow the breath down into your belly and feel it come back up.
29. 6:04Notice the weight of your thighs, all the way down.
30. 6:16Pause here. Count three breaths if you need an anchor.
31. 6:28Notice if your attention is in the future. Bring it back to the room.
32. 6:42Remain here for a few more breaths.
33. 6:52Let the exhale empty you a little more than usual, but not to the point of strain.
34. 7:07Silence for a few breaths. Nothing to do in it.
35. 7:19Feel your knees. They're just hinges, but they've worked hard.
36. 7:31Notice the small pause before your body decides to breathe in again.
37. 7:44Take the next breath slowly.
38. 7:53Notice the pull to make this mean something. It doesn't have to.
39. 8:06Quiet now. The next part will wait for you.
40. 8:17Feel the contact points — feet, seat, back. That contact is the whole anchor.
41. 8:31If you're distracted by a sound, let the sound be the object for a moment.
42. 8:45A few seconds of nothing now. That's on purpose.
43. 8:56The floor is holding you right now. You do not have to hold yourself up.
44. 9:10Notice how quickly your mind labels things: good, bad, boring, nice.
45. 9:22Nothing to follow for a moment except your own breathing.
46. 9:34Come back to the solid things: weight, temperature, surface. They are always available.
47. 9:47Notice any urge to check something. You can wait two more minutes.
48. 10:00Silence. Let your shoulders drop again if they've crept up.
49. 10:12Name what you can see, hear and touch. Counting senses is not a distraction; it is the practice.
50. 10:28If you're counting the minutes, that's fine. Count them and come back.
51. 10:41Notice the first breath of the day versus this one. They're the same mechanism.
52. 10:55A few quiet breaths. That's all this is.
53. 11:06If the heavy lids of a screen-lit day has been with you all day, it is probably tired too. Let it rest alongside you.
54. 11:25Notice where the ache of staring too long lives in your body. Chest, throat, stomach. Rest your attention there without trying to change it.
55. 11:44Follow one full breath from the moment it starts to the moment it ends.
56. 11:58You have been carrying the strained eyes after screens for a while. You can set it down for the length of this session and pick it up after.
57. 12:18You do not have to solve the heavy lids of a screen-lit day in these few minutes. Your only job is to keep breathing while it is here.
58. 12:38Let the out-breath be a little longer than the in-breath, without forcing it.
59. 12:51Notice the difference between a thought and the space around it.
60. 13:03Notice anything you're holding onto from earlier today.
61. 13:14If your mind has wandered, that's not a mistake. Noticing is the practice.
62. 13:27Let's pause. Just the breathing for a while.
63. 13:38If your mind has gone somewhere else, the floor under you has not moved. Start from there.
64. 13:53Let this one be unhurried.
65. 14:02If you're going straight back to work, take ten seconds at the doorway first.
66. 14:16Roll your neck once, slowly, in whichever direction feels good.

Questions people ask

Meditation is a practice, not a treatment. If you are dealing with ongoing distress, please also reach out to a professional.