Financial stress: 20-minute letting go meditation, at 3am

About this practice

Slow, spoken guidance for financial stress. A letting go session you can do at 3am. A guided session of about 20 minutes, suited to all levels. Nothing is recorded and no account is needed.

What this works on: financial stress

Money worry runs at night, when there is nothing to do about it. The lack of any available action keeps the nervous system activated for hours.

It tends to show up as:

• Lying awake doing arithmetic
• A clenched stomach opening the bank app
• Irritability about small spending

At 2am there is no decision to make, only a night to get through. That is the whole job of this practice.

Doing this at 3am

• Do not check the time and do not turn on a light
• Stay lying down if you can — sitting up makes it harder to return to sleep
• Do not try to solve anything that arrives at this hour

Problems at 3am feel enormous because of chemistry, not because they are actually bigger. Defer them.

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. 0:00Let your eyes soften. Not closed, just less busy.
2. 0:11Pick one thing you are gripping — a plan, a worry, a grudge — and loosen a single finger.
3. 0:27Let your sense of the room shrink down to just your body and the surface you're on.
4. 0:42We'll be quiet for a bit longer than usual. Stay with whatever shows up.
5. 0:56Let the breath be shallow if shallow is what your body wants.
6. 1:09Follow the breath down into your belly and feel it come back up.
7. 1:22Notice your breathing, without changing it.
8. 1:32Notice your whole body as one shape, sitting or lying here.
9. 1:44Feel the tops of your thighs.
10. 1:54Now the right shoulder. Let it be a centimetre lower than it was.
11. 2:07Start at the top of your head. Notice the scalp, which you almost never notice.
12. 2:21Notice the space around the worry that follows the bills. It is there, even if it is small. Put your attention in that space.
13. 2:40Notice where the fear about money in the night lives in your body. Chest, throat, stomach. Rest your attention there without trying to change it.
14. 2:59Let your breathing be boring. Boring is good here.
15. 3:10You do not have to like the arithmetic that will not balance to breathe through it. Liking was never the requirement.
16. 3:27Notice how the worry that follows the bills changes shape when you stop resisting it. Usually it gets smaller, not bigger.
17. 3:44Notice if your breathing is faster than you expected. Don't correct it. Just note it.
18. 3:58If nothing much is happening, that's not a problem. Nothing much is often the point.
19. 4:12With each exhale, let a little of the effort go. Not the problem — just the effort.
20. 4:27Silence for a few breaths. Nothing to do in it.
21. 4:39Notice any urge to check something. You can wait two more minutes.
22. 4:52You have been carrying this competently for a while. A few minutes off will not undo that.
23. 5:07I'll stop for a moment. Take the pause at your own speed.
24. 5:20Notice any part of you that wants this to be over.
25. 5:32We are not solving anything in the next few minutes. We are setting it down, temporarily.
26. 5:47Quiet for a moment. No need to fill it.
27. 5:58Notice any tension that arrived while you weren't looking.
28. 6:09Ask yourself what you could stop holding for the next sixty seconds. That one is a good start.
29. 6:25A gap. Don't rush to fill it with thinking.
30. 6:36Notice the tone of your own inner voice. Is it kind?
31. 6:48Take the next breath slowly.
32. 6:57Let the breath move at the speed of a sleeping person.
33. 7:09Notice your ears, which mostly just receive things.
34. 7:20I'll step back. You stay here.
35. 7:30Notice the moment you realise you've drifted. That moment is the whole skill.
36. 7:43Let your body keep settling.
37. 7:52Notice the breath you're taking right now. That's the only one that exists.
38. 8:05Feel the front of your chest. Notice it rise and fall once.
39. 8:18Let me stop talking. Follow the breath instead.
40. 8:29Notice the difference between a thought and the space around it.
41. 8:41No rush to move on.
42. 8:50Feel the air move past your upper lip. It's the coolest spot on the way in.
43. 9:05Feel your knees. They're just hinges, but they've worked hard.
44. 9:17I'll be quiet for a moment. Stay with the breath.
45. 9:29If you're replaying a conversation, let it play. It'll finish on its own.
46. 9:42Notice your breathing getting quieter on its own, without you deciding anything.
47. 9:55Nothing changes for a moment.
48. 10:04If you're distracted by a sound, let the sound be the object for a moment.
49. 10:18I'll leave a gap here. Use it however you like.
50. 10:30Notice your ribs on both sides. Wide, not squeezed.
51. 10:41Let the in-breath be short and the out-breath unhurried.
52. 10:52No need to open your eyes yet.
53. 11:02Notice if you've been frowning at your own thoughts.
54. 11:13No words for a moment. Only the next breath.
55. 11:24Notice your lower back. Let it curve however it curves.
56. 11:36Let the exhale empty you a little more than usual, but not to the point of strain.
57. 11:51A few seconds more.
58. 12:00Notice anything you're holding onto from earlier today.
59. 12:11Let's rest here in silence. It's short.
60. 12:21Notice where your body is still holding something. Leave it alone.
61. 12:33Notice the small gap after each exhale. Rest there for half a second.
62. 12:46Let the quiet do its work.
63. 12:56Notice your wrists. They bend a lot in a day.
64. 13:08Notice the difference between the breath at the front of your nose and the breath in your chest.
65. 13:24Let the pause stretch out.
66. 13:33Feel the parts of you that have gone quiet.
67. 13:44If you're holding your breath at the top, stop. There's no need to hold anything.
68. 13:58Stay here a little longer.
69. 14:07Notice the space between your shoulder blades.
70. 14:17Let your breathing get quieter rather than deeper.
71. 14:28Remain here for a few more breaths.
72. 14:38Feel your upper back against whatever is behind it.
73. 14:49If the fear about money in the night has been with you all day, it is probably tired too. Let it rest alongside you.
74. 15:08A short silence. Let it be empty.
75. 15:18Nothing about the arithmetic that will not balance has to be explained or justified in this room.
76. 15:33Notice how many breaths you take in a minute. Don't change the number, just check.
77. 15:47If the worry that follows the bills shows up, let it be there without arguing with it. You are not trying to remove it, just to sit beside it.
78. 16:08Each time your mind hands you the fear about money in the night, treat it like a leaf on a stream. Present for a moment, then carried on.
79. 16:28Breathe in through your nose and out through your nose, if that's comfortable.
80. 16:41There is a part of you that has handled hard moments before. That part is here now, even if it is quiet.
81. 16:59If the worry that follows the bills starts telling you a story, let the story finish without you adding to it.
82. 17:16Notice that you don't have to start a breath. It arrives by itself.
83. 17:29If you're judging your performance, that's the same habit as judging everything else.
84. 17:42Notice the exact moment your attention left. You probably won't catch it. That's normal.
85. 17:56Your mind will leave about a hundred times. Come back about a hundred times.
86. 18:10Quiet now. The next part will wait for you.
87. 18:21Setting something down is not the same as giving up. You can pick it up again after.
88. 18:36Stay a moment longer than is comfortable.
89. 18:46Notice your feet on the floor. That's where you start from.
90. 18:58If you're going straight back to work, take ten seconds at the doorway first.

Questions people ask

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