Fatigue: 12-minute letting go meditation, on a train journey

About this practice

Slow, spoken guidance for fatigue. A letting go session you can do on a train journey. A guided session of about 12 minutes, suited to all levels. Nothing is recorded and no account is needed.

What this works on: fatigue

Fatigue is deep tiredness of the kind that sleep does not fully clear, usually after a stretch of sustained demand.

It tends to show up as:

• Tired behind the eyes all day
• Heavy limbs
• Rest that does not refresh

Here the practice should be restful rather than stimulating. Quiet and unambitious is the right dose.

Doing this on a train

• Pick a window seat if you can and let the view do part of the work
• Set an alarm for your stop
• Keep the bag on your lap rather than unfastening to find it later

The motion can make reading or screens uncomfortable, which is another reason audio works better here.

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. 0:00Nothing needs to be decided in the next few minutes. Park the decisions.
2. 0:13You have been carrying this competently for a while. A few minutes off will not undo that.
3. 0:28Let your body feel heavier than it did a minute ago. Let the chair or the floor take it.
4. 0:44Notice the weight of your arms without moving them.
5. 0:55Notice the difference between the breath at the front of your nose and the breath in your chest.
6. 1:11Feel your breath move down your back, all the way to your lower ribs.
7. 1:25Feel the front of your chest. Notice it rise and fall once.
8. 1:38Feel your upper arms hanging. They're heavier than you remember.
9. 1:50Feel the outline of yourself, from the top of your head to your heels.
10. 2:04Notice your eyebrows. They're probably doing something small right now.
11. 2:16If the bone-deep tiredness starts telling you a story, let the story finish without you adding to it.
12. 2:32There is no correct amount of the heaviness behind your eyes to be feeling right now. Whatever is here is the honest amount.
13. 2:50Feel the pause at the top of the in-breath. It's shorter than you think.
14. 3:04Notice the exact moment your attention left. You probably won't catch it. That's normal.
15. 3:18With each exhale, let a little of the effort go. Not the problem — just the effort.
16. 3:33Let's rest here in silence. It's short.
17. 3:43Your mind will leave about a hundred times. Come back about a hundred times.
18. 3:57Setting something down is not the same as giving up. You can pick it up again after.
19. 4:12Let me stop talking. Follow the breath instead.
20. 4:23If you feel restless, that's a feeling, not a failure.
21. 4:35Pick one thing you are gripping — a plan, a worry, a grudge — and loosen a single finger.
22. 4:51Quiet for a moment. No need to fill it.
23. 5:02Notice any tension that arrived while you weren't looking.
24. 5:13Ask yourself what you could stop holding for the next sixty seconds. That one is a good start.
25. 5:29Nothing to follow for a moment except your own breathing.
26. 5:41Notice if your attention is in the future. Bring it back to the room.
27. 5:55Notice your breathing getting quieter on its own, without you deciding anything.
28. 6:08A few seconds more.
29. 6:17Notice the small movement in your belly when you breathe.
30. 6:29Breathe in through your nose and out through your nose, if that's comfortable.
31. 6:42Just the breath, still.
32. 6:51Notice your elbows. Odd things to have, but there they are.
33. 7:03Follow one full breath from the moment it starts to the moment it ends.
34. 7:17Nothing changes for a moment.
35. 7:26Feel the skin around your eyes. Let the muscles behind them go loose.
36. 7:39Let the breath be shallow if shallow is what your body wants.
37. 7:52Let your body keep settling.
38. 8:01Feel the back of your neck. That's a place that holds a lot.
39. 8:14Notice the space around the end of the reserves. It is there, even if it is small. Put your attention in that space.
40. 8:32I'll be quiet for a moment. Stay with the breath.
41. 8:44There is a part of you that has handled hard moments before. That part is here now, even if it is quiet.
42. 9:02Notice the first breath of the day versus this one. They're the same mechanism.
43. 9:16You are allowed to be unimpressed by the heaviness behind your eyes. Indifference is a legitimate response.
44. 9:31When the end of the reserves arrives, name it once, quietly, and go back to the breath. Naming is not fixing, and that is fine.
45. 9:50Breathe as if you had all evening. There's no rush in this part.
46. 10:03Notice how you're sitting. Adjust if you need to. Then settle again.
47. 10:16If your body wants to move, let it move, then come back.
48. 10:29I'll step back. You stay here.
49. 10:39We are not solving anything in the next few minutes. We are setting it down, temporarily.
50. 10:54Let the quiet do its work.
51. 11:04Take one breath that's a little fuller than the others, and let it out through your mouth.
52. 11:19Stretch whatever feels stiff, then carry on.

Questions people ask

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