7-minute letting go meditation for worry, on a day off

About this practice

When worry shows up on a day off, this 7-minute letting go session gives you somewhere to put it down. A guided session of about 7 minutes, suited to all levels. Nothing is recorded and no account is needed.

What this works on: worry

Worry is rehearsal for a future that has not arrived. The body responds to the imagined event as if it were happening, so you pay the cost twice.

It tends to show up as:

• What-ifs lined up in a queue
• A knot low in the stomach
• Rehearsing bad outcomes before bed

You do not have to resolve the worry. Noticing it as a mental event, rather than an accurate forecast, loosens its grip.

Doing this on a rest day

• Do it without a reason or a target
• Later in the day, unhurried, in good light
• Let it be longer than usual if you want

Rest that has to be justified is not really rest. This one is allowed to be pointless.

How letting go works

Letting go is about loosening grip rather than dropping things. It works on the effort attached to a problem — the holding, rehearsing and bracing — which is separable from the problem itself.

• Pick one thing you are gripping and loosen a single finger
• Release the effort with the exhale, not the issue
• Set down temporarily; you can pick it up again after

What happens, minute by minute

1. 0:00Check your hands. Are they doing anything? Let them stop.
2. 0:12We are not solving anything in the next few minutes. We are setting it down, temporarily.
3. 0:27Let the last hour go on its own. You can pick it up again afterwards.
4. 0:41If it helps, imagine your attention is a torch beam. Right now it's wide and soft.
5. 0:56Follow one full breath from the moment it starts to the moment it ends.
6. 1:10Feel the air as it passes the back of your throat. It's cooler going in.
7. 1:24Notice your eyebrows. They're probably doing something small right now.
8. 1:36Notice your toes, starting with the big one on the left.
9. 1:48Let your thumbs rest wherever they landed.
10. 1:58Notice where the what-ifs lined up like worries lives in your body. Chest, throat, stomach. Rest your attention there without trying to change it.
11. 2:17the knot of worry low in the stomach may quiet down, or it may not. Either is fine. We are practising staying, not performing calm.
12. 2:36Feel your belly. Let it be soft instead of held in.
13. 2:48Let the quiet do its work.
14. 2:58Count four breaths silently. Then stop counting and just follow.
15. 3:10Notice the pull to make this mean something. It doesn't have to.
16. 3:23Silence. Let your shoulders drop again if they've crept up.
17. 3:35With each exhale, let a little of the effort go. Not the problem — just the effort.
18. 3:50If a song is stuck in your head, let it play in the background.
19. 4:04Let the breath be shallow if shallow is what your body wants.
20. 4:17Nothing to follow for a moment except your own breathing.
21. 4:29Picture the mind rehearsing bad endings as a weather front passing over. You are not the weather. You are the sky it moves through.
22. 4:48When the what-ifs lined up like worries arrives, name it once, quietly, and go back to the breath. Naming is not fixing, and that is fine.
23. 5:07Notice the difference between the breath at the front of your nose and the breath in your chest.
24. 5:23Notice the exact moment your attention left. You probably won't catch it. That's normal.
25. 5:37Notice anything you're holding onto from earlier today.
26. 5:48A few quiet breaths. That's all this is.
27. 5:59You have been carrying this competently for a while. A few minutes off will not undo that.
28. 6:14Notice if anything has loosened. Even slightly counts.
29. 6:25Give 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.