3-minute guided softening practice for health anxiety — on your commute

About this practice

When health anxiety shows up on your commute, this 3-minute softening session gives you somewhere to put it down. A guided session of about 3 minutes, suited to all levels. Nothing is recorded and no account is needed.

What this works on: health anxiety

Health anxiety runs on a loop of scanning and checking. Each check briefly relieves the fear and then strengthens it, because the relief teaches the brain that checking was necessary.

It tends to show up as:

• Repeatedly checking a symptom or a pulse
• Searching symptoms late at night
• Reassurance that only helps for an hour

Attention moved out of the head and into the body as a whole reduces scanning. You are not arguing with the worry, just giving it less to grip.

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 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. 0:00Loosen your grip on whatever you're holding, or imagine loosening it.
2. 0:12Unclenching is not the same as relaxing. Just stop adding the tension back.
3. 0:25We'll work through this slowly. If you lose the thread, the thread will wait.
4. 0:39Follow three breaths and let the fourth one go unobserved.
5. 0:51Let the breath get soft, the way it goes when someone is reading beside you.
6. 1:05Feel your palms. Warm or cool, either is fine.
7. 1:16If you catch yourself fighting the fear attached to each new symptom, that is worth noticing. The fight usually costs more than the feeling.
8. 1:35If the worry about what your body might be telling you starts telling you a story, let the story finish without you adding to it.
9. 1:54Let your breathing find the rhythm it uses when you're almost asleep.
10. 2:07You do not have to solve the habit of checking for something wrong in these few minutes. Your only job is to keep breathing while it is here.
11. 2:27If a song is stuck in your head, let it play in the background.
12. 2:41If a place will not soften, leave it alone and go somewhere that will. It often follows.
13. 2:56When you're ready, look around properly.

Questions people ask

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