5-minute guided softening practice for agitation — at your desk

About this practice

5 minutes to meet agitation with less of a fight. A softening practice, at your desk. A guided session of about 5 minutes, suited to all levels. Nothing is recorded and no account is needed.

What this works on: agitation

Agitation is activation without an outlet. The body wants to move, the mind wants to switch tasks, and neither discharges the energy.

It tends to show up as:

• Restless, unable to sit through anything
• Switching tasks every few minutes
• Fidgeting without noticing

Channel the movement rather than suppressing it. Slow, deliberate physical attention gives the restlessness somewhere to go.

Doing this at your desk

• Feet flat, back supported, screen away from your eyeline
• You can do this with your eyes open if the office makes closing them awkward
• Unclench the jaw and drop the shoulders first, before anything else

Nobody needs to know you are doing it. Keep it invisible if that makes it possible.

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. 0:00Let your tongue rest down, away from the roof of your mouth.
2. 0:13Let the exhale do the work. On each one, allow a little more give.
3. 0:27Feel the small movements your body makes to keep you upright. They're happening without you.
4. 0:41Notice the weight of your arms without moving them.
5. 0:52Follow the breath down into your belly and feel it come back up.
6. 1:05Let the breath be shallow if shallow is what your body wants.
7. 1:18Notice your hands again. Check whether they've loosened on their own.
8. 1:30Notice your fingers, one by one, starting with the little finger.
9. 1:42Notice your ears, which mostly just receive things.
10. 1:53Stay here a little longer.
11. 2:02Nothing to follow for a moment except your own breathing.
12. 2:14We are not forcing anything open. We are letting things unclench by a single degree.
13. 2:28If your mind has wandered, that's not a mistake. Noticing is the practice.
14. 2:41If the restlessness that will not sit still starts telling you a story, let the story finish without you adding to it.
15. 2:59Notice where the jumpy energy looking for an outlet lives in your body. Chest, throat, stomach. Rest your attention there without trying to change it.
16. 3:18Let the breath move at the speed of a sleeping person.
17. 3:30If the fidgeting that cannot settle shows up, let it be there without arguing with it. You are not trying to remove it, just to sit beside it.
18. 3:50If nothing much is happening, that's not a problem. Nothing much is often the point.
19. 4:04I'll stop for a moment. Take the pause at your own speed.
20. 4:17If a place will not soften, leave it alone and go somewhere that will. It often follows.
21. 4:32Give your hands a stretch before you go back to using them.

Questions people ask

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