7-minute grounding meditation for stress, in the office

About this practice

For the times in the office when stress takes up more room than you would like — 7 minutes, grounding. A guided session of about 7 minutes, suited to all levels. Nothing is recorded and no account is needed.

What this works on: stress

Stress is a load that does not come off. Muscle tension accumulates in the shoulders, jaw and gut, and the body stops returning to baseline between demands.

It tends to show up as:

• Shoulders sitting up near the ears
• Short temper over small things
• Waking already tired

Short practices work on the physical part of the load. They do not remove the demands, but they stop the body storing all of them.

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 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. 0:00Nothing needs to be decided in the next few minutes. Park the decisions.
2. 0:13Come back to the solid things: weight, temperature, surface. They are always available.
3. 0:26Now let your attention move from the room into your body, slowly, the way you'd move through a doorway you know well.
4. 0:44Everything that happens in the next few minutes is allowed to happen.
5. 0:57Feel the air move past your upper lip. It's the coolest spot on the way in.
6. 1:12Follow the breath down into your belly and feel it come back up.
7. 1:25Feel the front of your chest. Notice it rise and fall once.
8. 1:38Notice the backs of your knees, which you feel more than you think.
9. 1:51Feel your upper arms hanging. They're heavier than you remember.
10. 2:03Imagine the load you are carrying as a room you can walk out of for a minute. The room will still be there.
11. 2:21Notice where the tension of too much on the plate lives in your body. Chest, throat, stomach. Rest your attention there without trying to change it.
12. 2:40Notice the weight of your thighs, all the way down.
13. 2:52Let this one be unhurried.
14. 3:01Notice if your breathing is faster than you expected. Don't correct it. Just note it.
15. 3:15If you've lost track of where we were, you haven't lost anything important.
16. 3:28A few seconds of nothing now. That's on purpose.
17. 3:39Name what you can see, hear and touch. Counting senses is not a distraction; it is the practice.
18. 3:55Notice any tension that arrived while you weren't looking.
19. 4:06Notice the first breath of the day versus this one. They're the same mechanism.
20. 4:20Silence for a few breaths. Nothing to do in it.
21. 4:32You do not have to win against the low-grade alarm of being stretched thin. You only have to breathe until the next moment arrives.
22. 4:51Imagine softening the edges of the load you are carrying. Not erasing it, just letting the sharp parts go a degree softer.
23. 5:09Feel the air as it passes the back of your throat. It's cooler going in.
24. 5:23If you feel restless, that's a feeling, not a failure.
25. 5:35If you're thinking about the next thing on your list, that list will still be there.
26. 5:50A short silence. Let it be empty.
27. 6:00Feel the contact points — feet, seat, back. That contact is the whole anchor.
28. 6:14Come back at your own speed. The room will wait.
29. 6:26Notice if anything has loosened. Even slightly counts.
30. 6:37Remain 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.