20-minute softening meditation for morning energy, before you talk

About this practice

Nothing to learn and nothing to fix: 20 minutes of softening for morning energy, before you talk. A guided session of about 20 minutes, suited to all levels. Nothing is recorded and no account is needed.

What this works on: morning energy

Morning energy depends on how you come out of sleep and when light hits your eyes, more than on the number of hours.

It tends to show up as:

• Heavy eyelids at the start
• Struggling out of bed
• Needing to hit snooze repeatedly

Movement and breathing raise alertness without caffeine, and the effect holds better through the early hours.

Doing this before public speaking

• Do it somewhere private, or in the washroom if needed
• Slow the exhale deliberately and check your speaking pace after
• Warm the voice by reading a line aloud, not by staying silent

Rushing is the tell of nerves. A slower breath now is what sets a slower pace in the room.

How softening works

Softening is the practice of releasing held tension degree by degree rather than all at once. It targets the physical grip — shoulders, jaw, gut — that persists long after the stressor has passed.

• Soften one place per exhale rather than everything at once
• Let warmth and gravity do the work instead of muscular effort
• If a place will not soften, leave it and go somewhere that will

What happens, minute by minute

1. 0:00Notice the heaviest part of your body right now. Let it be heavy.
2. 0:13Nothing here needs to be efficient.
3. 0:23We'll work through this slowly. If you lose the thread, the thread will wait.
4. 0:37This is not a performance. Nobody is listening to how well you're doing it.
5. 0:51Let your shoulders stay still while your ribs move.
6. 1:02Breathe in through your nose and out through your nose, if that's comfortable.
7. 1:15Feel the parts of you that have gone quiet.
8. 1:26Feel your face. It's probably softer than it was five minutes ago.
9. 1:39Feel your heart somewhere in there, doing its work without instructions.
10. 1:51Let your whole body be as heavy as it wants to be.
11. 2:04Notice where your body is still holding something. Leave it alone.
12. 2:16You do not have to solve the day arriving before you are ready in these few minutes. Your only job is to keep breathing while it is here.
13. 2:36There is a part of you that has handled hard moments before. That part is here now, even if it is quiet.
14. 2:54Let each breath out be a small letting go of the muscles around your ribs.
15. 3:08Picture the heavy eyelids at the start as a weather front passing over. You are not the weather. You are the sky it moves through.
16. 3:27Notice where the day arriving before you are ready lives in your body. Chest, throat, stomach. Rest your attention there without trying to change it.
17. 3:46Follow the breath down into your belly and feel it come back up.
18. 3:59If you've lost track of where we were, you haven't lost anything important.
19. 4:12There's no need to try harder than this.
20. 4:23I'll leave a gap here. Use it however you like.
21. 4:35Notice if you're being hard on yourself about any of this.
22. 4:47We'll keep it quiet and unhurried.
23. 4:57Silence for a few breaths. Nothing to do in it.
24. 5:09If your mind is quiet, don't grab at it. Quiet comes and goes too.
25. 5:23If you only manage half of it, that's half more than nothing.
26. 5:36Let's pause. Just the breathing for a while.
27. 5:47Notice how you're sitting. Adjust if you need to. Then settle again.
28. 6:00We'll take this slowly, and there's no version of this where you get it wrong.
29. 6:14A gap. Don't rush to fill it with thinking.
30. 6:25If you feel restless, that's a feeling, not a failure.
31. 6:37Let this be easy, if easy is available.
32. 6:48A short silence. Let it be empty.
33. 6:58If your mind has wandered, that's not a mistake. Noticing is the practice.
34. 7:11Small efforts are the whole method.
35. 7:21A few quiet breaths. That's all this is.
36. 7:32Notice the moment you realise you've drifted. That moment is the whole skill.
37. 7:45Stay a moment longer than is comfortable.
38. 7:55Count four breaths silently. Then stop counting and just follow.
39. 8:07Let your throat soften. There's nothing to swallow right now.
40. 8:19Quiet for a moment. No need to fill it.
41. 8:30Notice the difference between a thought and the space around it.
42. 8:42Stay here a little longer.
43. 8:51Let the breath be slow enough that you can hear it, just barely.
44. 9:04Notice your wrists. They bend a lot in a day.
45. 9:16Silence. Let your shoulders drop again if they've crept up.
46. 9:28Let the exhale fall out rather than pushing it.
47. 9:39Let the pause stretch out.
48. 9:48Notice any urge to check something. You can wait two more minutes.
49. 10:01I'll step back. You stay here.
50. 10:11Notice your lower back. Let it curve however it curves.
51. 10:23Feel the pause at the top of the in-breath. It's shorter than you think.
52. 10:37No need to open your eyes yet.
53. 10:47Notice if you've been frowning at your own thoughts.
54. 10:58Pause here. Count three breaths if you need an anchor.
55. 11:10Feel your upper arms hanging. They're heavier than you remember.
56. 11:22Notice the difference between the breath at the front of your nose and the breath in your chest.
57. 11:38Let it be this simple.
58. 11:47Notice your jaw again. Let your back teeth part slightly.
59. 11:59Let the breath be shallow if shallow is what your body wants.
60. 12:12Let the quiet do its work.
61. 12:22Let your thumbs rest wherever they landed.
62. 12:32If you're holding your breath at the top, stop. There's no need to hold anything.
63. 12:46No rush to move on.
64. 12:55Notice your shins, which take small knocks all day and never complain.
65. 13:08Let your breathing get quieter rather than deeper.
66. 13:19Just the breath, still.
67. 13:28Feel the tops of your thighs.
68. 13:38Let the exhale empty you a little more than usual, but not to the point of strain.
69. 13:53Keep following the air.
70. 14:02Feel your forearms, from the elbow down to the wrist.
71. 14:14Let the breath move at the speed of a sleeping person.
72. 14:26Take the next breath slowly.
73. 14:35Notice your whole body as one shape, sitting or lying here.
74. 14:47If the wish to begin without the scramble has been with you all day, it is probably tired too. Let it rest alongside you.
75. 15:06I'll be quiet for a moment. Stay with the breath.
76. 15:18When the heavy eyelids at the start arrives, name it once, quietly, and go back to the breath. Naming is not fixing, and that is fine.
77. 15:37Notice if your breathing is faster than you expected. Don't correct it. Just note it.
78. 15:51If you catch yourself fighting the day arriving before you are ready, that is worth noticing. The fight usually costs more than the feeling.
79. 16:10If the wish to begin without the scramble starts telling you a story, let the story finish without you adding to it.
80. 16:28Breathe in for four, out for six, if you'd like something to count.
81. 16:41There is no correct amount of the heavy eyelids at the start to be feeling right now. Whatever is here is the honest amount.
82. 17:00Imagine softening the edges of the day arriving before you are ready. Not erasing it, just letting the sharp parts go a degree softer.
83. 17:19Count down from ten, one number per exhale.
84. 17:30Notice the pull to make this mean something. It doesn't have to.
85. 17:43Notice anything you're holding onto from earlier today.
86. 17:54If you feel numb, that's a valid thing to feel. Nothing to fix.
87. 18:07Quiet now. The next part will wait for you.
88. 18:18You can be as unimpressive as you like for the next few minutes.
89. 18:31Stay with it.
90. 18:39Let the pace of the last few minutes set the pace of the next few.
91. 18:53Wiggle your fingers and toes, gently, like you're testing that they still work.
92. 19:06Remain here for a few more breaths.

Questions people ask

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