5-minute softening meditation for anticipatory anxiety, in a five-minute break

About this practice

Slow, spoken guidance for anticipatory anxiety. A softening session you can do in a five-minute break. A guided session of about 5 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 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 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. 0:00Put both feet flat on the floor and let them take some of the weight.
2. 0:14You can be as unimpressive as you like for the next few minutes.
3. 0:27Nothing here needs to be pleasant. Neutral is fine. Dull is fine.
4. 0:40For the next few minutes, the only job is to notice what's already happening.
5. 0:54Feel the slight stretch at the very bottom of the exhale.
6. 1:06Notice the first breath of the day versus this one. They're the same mechanism.
7. 1:20Let your thumbs rest wherever they landed.
8. 1:30Notice the weight of your thighs, all the way down.
9. 1:42Notice your heels making contact with the floor or the bed.
10. 1:54Let the pause stretch out.
11. 2:03Let's rest here in silence. It's short.
12. 2:13We'll take this slowly, and there's no version of this where you get it wrong.
13. 2:27If you feel numb, that's a valid thing to feel. Nothing to fix.
14. 2:40Whatever the waiting that feels heavier than the thing is doing right now, your breathing can keep going underneath it.
15. 2:57You do not have to win against the nervous hours before. You only have to breathe until the next moment arrives.
16. 3:14Feel your breath move down your back, all the way to your lower ribs.
17. 3:28You do not have to like the dread of an event that has not happened to breathe through it. Liking was never the requirement.
18. 3:47If you feel emotional, you don't have to explain it to anyone, including yourself.
19. 4:01I'll leave a gap here. Use it however you like.
20. 4:13There's no need to try harder than this.
21. 4:24If you drifted off, that was rest, and rest counts.
22. 4:36Stay with it.

Questions people ask

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