Grounding for tension headaches: 20 minutes, in the queue

About this practice

Slow, spoken guidance for tension headaches. A grounding session you can do in the queue. A guided session of about 20 minutes, suited to all levels. Nothing is recorded and no account is needed.

What this works on: tension headaches

Tension headaches follow a band of tightness across the forehead and around the skull, usually the product of long staring, jaw clenching and neck position.

It tends to show up as:

• A band of pressure across the forehead
• Pressure behind the eyes
• Ache worsening through the day

Softening the jaw, eyes and neck interrupts the pattern early. Once a tension headache settles in it is harder to shift.

Doing this in a waiting room

• You can do this with your eyes open and your hands where they are
• Nothing here needs to look like a meditation
• Aim for steadiness rather than calm

Waiting feeds the dread it is meant to relieve. Having something specific to do with the time is the useful part.

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. 0:00Begin with the simple fact that you got here. That already happened.
2. 0:13Come back to the solid things: weight, temperature, surface. They are always available.
3. 0:26Let the breath get a little quieter, as if you were trying not to wake someone sleeping nearby.
4. 0:42Settle into the fact that for the next few minutes, nothing is required of you.
5. 0:56Feel your breath move down your back, all the way to your lower ribs.
6. 1:10Let the exhale fall out rather than pushing it.
7. 1:21Notice your ribs on both sides. Wide, not squeezed.
8. 1:32Notice your shoulders, one at a time. The left one first.
9. 1:44Let your thumbs rest wherever they landed.
10. 1:54Feel the parts of you that have gone quiet.
11. 2:05Feel your calves, front and back.
12. 2:15If the band around the forehead shows up, let it be there without arguing with it. You are not trying to remove it, just to sit beside it.
13. 2:35If you catch yourself fighting the pressure building behind the eyes, that is worth noticing. The fight usually costs more than the feeling.
14. 2:53Let your breathing find the rhythm it uses when you're almost asleep.
15. 3:06If the ache from a long staring day is loud right now, make your attention smaller. Just the next breath. Nothing beyond it.
16. 3:24Give the band around the forehead a shape, a colour, a temperature. Turning it into something specific makes it easier to hold.
17. 3:42Feel the last part of the exhale, where it turns into nothing.
18. 3:55Notice the difference between a thought and the space around it.
19. 4:07If your mind has gone somewhere else, the floor under you has not moved. Start from there.
20. 4:22I'll leave a gap here. Use it however you like.
21. 4:34If you're distracted by a sound, let the sound be the object for a moment.
22. 4:48The floor is holding you right now. You do not have to hold yourself up.
23. 5:02Let's pause. Just the breathing for a while.
24. 5:13If you feel restless, that's a feeling, not a failure.
25. 5:25Feel the contact points — feet, seat, back. That contact is the whole anchor.
26. 5:39A gap. Don't rush to fill it with thinking.
27. 5:50If a song is stuck in your head, let it play in the background.
28. 6:04Name what you can see, hear and touch. Counting senses is not a distraction; it is the practice.
29. 6:20I'll step back. You stay here.
30. 6:30If a worry shows up, name it quietly and let it sit beside you.
31. 6:44Stay with it.
32. 6:52Notice the small gap after each exhale. Rest there for half a second.
33. 7:05Notice your whole body as one shape, sitting or lying here.
34. 7:17I'll be quiet for a moment. Stay with the breath.
35. 7:29If you're bored, stay with the boredom for a moment. It's usually thinner than it looks.
36. 7:44Let the quiet do its work.
37. 7:54Notice the difference between the breath at the front of your nose and the breath in your chest.
38. 8:10Feel the middle of your back, the part that never gets attention.
39. 8:23Let's rest here in silence. It's short.
40. 8:33If you're replaying a conversation, let it play. It'll finish on its own.
41. 8:46Remain here for a few more breaths.
42. 8:56Feel the pause at the top of the in-breath. It's shorter than you think.
43. 9:10Notice your wrists. They bend a lot in a day.
44. 9:22Quiet now. The next part will wait for you.
45. 9:33Notice the tone of your own inner voice. Is it kind?
46. 9:45Let each breath out be a small letting go of the muscles around your ribs.
47. 9:59No need to open your eyes yet.
48. 10:09Notice the moment you realise you've drifted. That moment is the whole skill.
49. 10:22Quiet for a moment. No need to fill it.
50. 10:33Notice the small movement in your belly when you breathe.
51. 10:45Count down from ten, one number per exhale.
52. 10:56No rush to move on.
53. 11:05Notice how you're sitting. Adjust if you need to. Then settle again.
54. 11:18Silence for a few breaths. Nothing to do in it.
55. 11:30Feel your forearms, from the elbow down to the wrist.
56. 11:42Notice that you don't have to start a breath. It arrives by itself.
57. 11:55Take the next breath slowly.
58. 12:04Notice the exact moment your attention left. You probably won't catch it. That's normal.
59. 12:18Let me stop talking. Follow the breath instead.
60. 12:29Let your whole body be as heavy as it wants to be.
61. 12:42Notice the first breath of the day versus this one. They're the same mechanism.
62. 12:56Nothing changes for a moment.
63. 13:05Feel your upper arms hanging. They're heavier than you remember.
64. 13:17Follow the breath down into your belly and feel it come back up.
65. 13:30Let your body keep settling.
66. 13:39Feel your tongue sitting in the bottom of your mouth.
67. 13:51Breathe in for four, out for six, if you'd like something to count.
68. 14:04Let it be this simple.
69. 14:13Feel your heart somewhere in there, doing its work without instructions.
70. 14:25Let your breathing be boring. Boring is good here.
71. 14:36A few seconds more.
72. 14:45Notice the weight of your thighs, all the way down.
73. 14:57Let the exhale carry a little of the pressure building behind the eyes with it. Not all of it. Just a little, one breath at a time.
74. 15:17Silence. Let your shoulders drop again if they've crept up.
75. 15:29If the ache from a long staring day starts telling you a story, let the story finish without you adding to it.
76. 15:47Let the breath move at the speed of a sleeping person.
77. 15:59Notice where the band around the forehead lives in your body. Chest, throat, stomach. Rest your attention there without trying to change it.
78. 16:17When the pressure building behind the eyes arrives, name it once, quietly, and go back to the breath. Naming is not fixing, and that is fine.
79. 16:36Let the breath be slow enough that you can hear it, just barely.
80. 16:49There is a part of you that has handled hard moments before. That part is here now, even if it is quiet.
81. 17:07Nothing about the band around the forehead has to be explained or justified in this room.
82. 17:22Follow three breaths and let the fourth one go unobserved.
83. 17:34If you feel numb, that's a valid thing to feel. Nothing to fix.
84. 17:47Your mind will leave about a hundred times. Come back about a hundred times.
85. 18:01If nothing much is happening, that's not a problem. Nothing much is often the point.
86. 18:15A few quiet breaths. That's all this is.
87. 18:26Press down slightly and feel the push back. Your body already knows where it is.
88. 18:40Just the breath, still.
89. 18:49Let the quiet end on its own rather than cutting it off.
90. 19:02Give 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.