Grounding meditation for jaw tension (10 min), beside your desk

About this practice

10 minutes to meet jaw tension with less of a fight. A grounding practice, beside your desk. A guided session of about 10 minutes, suited to all levels. Nothing is recorded and no account is needed.

What this works on: jaw tension

The jaw is a stress-holding site for many people, often without awareness until it aches. Grinding at night and clenching by day are the same response.

It tends to show up as:

• Clenched teeth, especially in the evening
• Aching or clicking jaw joints
• A dull headache at the temples

Repeatedly checking and softening the jaw through a session teaches you to catch the clench during the day.

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. 0:00Let the floor take your weight through your feet, and stop holding yourself up for a second.
2. 0:15Name what you can see, hear and touch. Counting senses is not a distraction; it is the practice.
3. 0:31Let your sense of the room shrink down to just your body and the surface you're on.
4. 0:46Everything that happens in the next few minutes is allowed to happen.
5. 0:59Let the breath move at the speed of a sleeping person.
6. 1:11Feel the pause at the top of the in-breath. It's shorter than you think.
7. 1:25Notice the small movement in your belly when you breathe.
8. 1:37Notice your jaw again. Let your back teeth part slightly.
9. 1:49Feel your belly. Let it be soft instead of held in.
10. 2:01Notice your shins, which take small knocks all day and never complain.
11. 2:14There is no correct amount of the clenched teeth at night to be feeling right now. Whatever is here is the honest amount.
12. 2:32This is not the last time the tight jaw that speaks for your stress will visit. That is not bad news. It means you will get more practice.
13. 2:52If your body wants to move, let it move, then come back.
14. 3:05Feel the contact points — feet, seat, back. That contact is the whole anchor.
15. 3:19I'll be quiet for a moment. Stay with the breath.
16. 3:31Notice any part of you that wants this to be over.
17. 3:43If your mind has gone somewhere else, the floor under you has not moved. Start from there.
18. 3:58I'll leave a gap here. Use it however you like.
19. 4:10If you feel numb, that's a valid thing to feel. Nothing to fix.
20. 4:23The floor is holding you right now. You do not have to hold yourself up.
21. 4:37No words for a moment. Only the next breath.
22. 4:48Feel the air as it passes the back of your throat. It's cooler going in.
23. 5:02Keep following the air.
24. 5:11Feel the back of your neck. That's a place that holds a lot.
25. 5:24Notice the small gap after each exhale. Rest there for half a second.
26. 5:37Let the quiet do its work.
27. 5:47Notice your hands again. Check whether they've loosened on their own.
28. 5:59Breathe as if you had all evening. There's no rush in this part.
29. 6:12Stay a moment longer than is comfortable.
30. 6:22Feel your upper back against whatever is behind it.
31. 6:33Let your breathing be boring. Boring is good here.
32. 6:44Pause here. Count three breaths if you need an anchor.
33. 6:56There is a part of you that has handled hard moments before. That part is here now, even if it is quiet.
34. 7:14Picture the clenched teeth at night as a weather front passing over. You are not the weather. You are the sky it moves through.
35. 7:33Follow the breath down into your belly and feel it come back up.
36. 7:46You are allowed to be unimpressed by the tight jaw that speaks for your stress. Indifference is a legitimate response.
37. 8:03If you're replaying a conversation, let it play. It'll finish on its own.
38. 8:16If a worry shows up, name it quietly and let it sit beside you.
39. 8:30Quiet for a moment. No need to fill it.
40. 8:41Come back to the solid things: weight, temperature, surface. They are always available.
41. 8:54Let your body keep settling.
42. 9:03Roll your neck once, slowly, in whichever direction feels good.
43. 9:15When you're ready, look around properly.
44. 9:25Take the next breath slowly.

Questions people ask

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