20-minute guided grounding practice for anticipatory anxiety — on the train

About this practice

20 minutes to meet anticipatory anxiety with less of a fight. A grounding practice, on the train. A guided session of about 20 minutes, suited to all levels. Nothing is recorded and no account is needed.

What this works on: anticipatory anxiety

Dread of an upcoming event is often heavier than the event itself. The waiting period keeps the body in low-level alert for days.

It tends to show up as:

• Stomach dropping when you remember what is coming
• Sleep getting worse as the date approaches
• Wanting to cancel to get relief

The anticipation is a state, not a warning. Practising being in the present while the dread is present teaches the body it can wait without bracing.

Doing this on your commute

• Headphones on, eyes open or closed depending on your comfort
• Keep one part of your attention on your stop
• Do it standing if sitting is not possible — nobody is watching

Commuting time is already dead time. Nothing is being given up.

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. 0:00Keep your eyes open if you like, resting on one point of the floor a metre or two ahead.
2. 0:16Name what you can see, hear and touch. Counting senses is not a distraction; it is the practice.
3. 0:32Let your attention drop to the level of your shoulders and stay there a moment.
4. 0:46If your mind is loud, that's information, not failure.
5. 0:57Notice that you don't have to start a breath. It arrives by itself.
6. 1:10Count four breaths silently. Then stop counting and just follow.
7. 1:22Notice your hands again. Check whether they've loosened on their own.
8. 1:34Feel the outline of yourself, from the top of your head to your heels.
9. 1:48Let the whole of your left foot be heavy.
10. 1:59Notice your fingers, one by one, starting with the little finger.
11. 2:11Feel the skin around your eyes. Let the muscles behind them go loose.
12. 2:24If the waiting that feels heavier than the thing is loud right now, make your attention smaller. Just the next breath. Nothing beyond it.
13. 2:43You have been carrying the nervous hours before for a while. You can set it down for the length of this session and pick it up after.
14. 3:03Let the out-breath be a little longer than the in-breath, without forcing it.
15. 3:16Imagine softening the edges of the dread of an event that has not happened. Not erasing it, just letting the sharp parts go a degree softer.
16. 3:35Say to yourself: this is uncomfortable, and I can stay with it for one more breath. Then take that breath.
17. 3:52Let the breath get soft, the way it goes when someone is reading beside you.
18. 4:06Notice the exact moment your attention left. You probably won't catch it. That's normal.
19. 4:20If your mind has gone somewhere else, the floor under you has not moved. Start from there.
20. 4:35I'll stop for a moment. Take the pause at your own speed.
21. 4:48Notice how quickly your mind labels things: good, bad, boring, nice.
22. 5:00Feel the contact points — feet, seat, back. That contact is the whole anchor.
23. 5:14Silence for a few breaths. Nothing to do in it.
24. 5:26If a worry shows up, name it quietly and let it sit beside you.
25. 5:40Press down slightly and feel the push back. Your body already knows where it is.
26. 5:54A few seconds of nothing now. That's on purpose.
27. 6:05Notice if your attention is in the future. Bring it back to the room.
28. 6:19The floor is holding you right now. You do not have to hold yourself up.
29. 6:33I'll step back. You stay here.
30. 6:43Notice any part of you that wants this to be over.
31. 6:55Nothing changes for a moment.
32. 7:04Follow one full breath from the moment it starts to the moment it ends.
33. 7:18Notice your wrists. They bend a lot in a day.
34. 7:30Quiet for a moment. No need to fill it.
35. 7:41Notice anything you're holding onto from earlier today.
36. 7:52Take the next breath slowly.
37. 8:01Feel the air move past your upper lip. It's the coolest spot on the way in.
38. 8:16Notice the space between your shoulder blades.
39. 8:26Let me stop talking. Follow the breath instead.
40. 8:37If you feel numb, that's a valid thing to feel. Nothing to fix.
41. 8:50Stay a moment longer than is comfortable.
42. 9:00Let your breathing get quieter rather than deeper.
43. 9:11Notice your breathing, without changing it.
44. 9:21Let's pause. Just the breathing for a while.
45. 9:32If you're thinking about the next thing on your list, that list will still be there.
46. 9:47Feel the slight stretch at the very bottom of the exhale.
47. 9:59Stay here a little longer.
48. 10:08Notice any tension that arrived while you weren't looking.
49. 10:19Silence. Let your shoulders drop again if they've crept up.
50. 10:31Notice your jaw again. Let your back teeth part slightly.
51. 10:43Let your breathing be boring. Boring is good here.
52. 10:54Let this one be unhurried.
53. 11:03If you're replaying a conversation, let it play. It'll finish on its own.
54. 11:16Pause here. Count three breaths if you need an anchor.
55. 11:28Notice the weight of your thighs, all the way down.
56. 11:40Feel the last part of the exhale, where it turns into nothing.
57. 11:53Keep following the air.
58. 12:02Notice the difference between a thought and the space around it.
59. 12:14I'll be quiet for a moment. Stay with the breath.
60. 12:26Notice your shins, which take small knocks all day and never complain.
61. 12:39Let your belly rise first, then your chest, then the tops of your lungs.
62. 12:53Let your body keep settling.
63. 13:02Feel the tops of your thighs.
64. 13:12Let the in-breath be short and the out-breath unhurried.
65. 13:23Stay with it.
66. 13:31Feel the parts of you that have gone quiet.
67. 13:42Feel the air as it passes the back of your throat. It's cooler going in.
68. 13:56A few seconds more.
69. 14:05Feel your tongue sitting in the bottom of your mouth.
70. 14:17Breathe as if you had all evening. There's no rush in this part.
71. 14:30Let the pause stretch out.
72. 14:39Feel your forearms, from the elbow down to the wrist.
73. 14:51Whatever the nervous hours before is doing right now, your breathing can keep going underneath it.
74. 15:06Quiet now. The next part will wait for you.
75. 15:17Imagine the dread of an event that has not happened as a room you can walk out of for a minute. The room will still be there.
76. 15:37Notice the first breath of the day versus this one. They're the same mechanism.
77. 15:51Think of the waiting that feels heavier than the thing as a guest that arrived without knocking. You can let it stand in the hallway.
78. 16:10If you catch yourself fighting the nervous hours before, that is worth noticing. The fight usually costs more than the feeling.
79. 16:27Notice how many breaths you take in a minute. Don't change the number, just check.
80. 16:41Let the exhale carry a little of the dread of an event that has not happened with it. Not all of it. Just a little, one breath at a time.
81. 17:02You are allowed to be unimpressed by the waiting that feels heavier than the thing. Indifference is a legitimate response.
82. 17:19If you're holding your breath at the top, stop. There's no need to hold anything.
83. 17:33Notice any urge to check something. You can wait two more minutes.
84. 17:46Notice the pull to make this mean something. It doesn't have to.
85. 17:59Notice if you're being hard on yourself about any of this.
86. 18:11A gap. Don't rush to fill it with thinking.
87. 18:22Come back to the solid things: weight, temperature, surface. They are always available.
88. 18:35Let it be this simple.
89. 18:44Come back at your own speed. The room will wait.
90. 18:56Start to notice the edges of your body again, and the surface you're on.
91. 19:10Just the breath, still.

Questions people ask

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