Grounding meditation for low energy (15 min), at your desk

About this practice

15 minutes to meet low energy with less of a fight. A grounding practice, at your desk. A guided session of about 15 minutes, suited to all levels. Nothing is recorded and no account is needed.

What this works on: low energy

Low energy is a flat battery, not laziness. Pushing through it further drains reserves and produces worse work, faster.

It tends to show up as:

• Everything feeling like an effort
• Procrastinating on simple tasks
• Tiredness sitting deep in the body

A short practice will not restore the reserve, but it removes some of the tension that is draining it.

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. 0:00Take a moment to notice the room behind you, without turning around.
2. 0:13Come back to the solid things: weight, temperature, surface. They are always available.
3. 0:26Notice whether your breathing is high in your chest or low in your belly. Just notice. No fixing.
4. 0:42Let your attention settle on the space between your nose and your upper lip, where the air passes.
5. 0:58Let the exhale empty you a little more than usual, but not to the point of strain.
6. 1:13Let your belly rise first, then your chest, then the tops of your lungs.
7. 1:27Notice the space between your shoulder blades.
8. 1:37Feel your upper arms hanging. They're heavier than you remember.
9. 1:49Notice your elbows. Odd things to have, but there they are.
10. 2:01Notice your fingers, one by one, starting with the little finger.
11. 2:13Notice the small movement in your belly when you breathe.
12. 2:25When the flat battery feeling arrives, name it once, quietly, and go back to the breath. Naming is not fixing, and that is fine.
13. 2:44When the tiredness that sits in the bones presses in, put a hand on your chest or your belly. Warmth and pressure are anchors your body already trusts.
14. 3:04Let each breath out be a small letting go of the muscles around your ribs.
15. 3:18Imagine the effort everything takes as a room you can walk out of for a minute. The room will still be there.
16. 3:36the flat battery feeling may quiet down, or it may not. Either is fine. We are practising staying, not performing calm.
17. 3:53Notice your lower back. Let it curve however it curves.
18. 4:05Let your body keep settling.
19. 4:14Notice how many breaths you take in a minute. Don't change the number, just check.
20. 4:28Notice your hands again. Check whether they've loosened on their own.
21. 4:40Remain here for a few more breaths.
22. 4:50Notice the first breath of the day versus this one. They're the same mechanism.
23. 5:04Feel the soles of your feet. All the weight of you goes through them.
24. 5:18Keep following the air.
25. 5:27Notice the small gap after each exhale. Rest there for half a second.
26. 5:40Start at the top of your head. Notice the scalp, which you almost never notice.
27. 5:54Stay here a little longer.
28. 6:03Let your shoulders stay still while your ribs move.
29. 6:14Feel your knees. They're just hinges, but they've worked hard.
30. 6:26I'll step back. You stay here.
31. 6:36Notice any part of you that wants this to be over.
32. 6:48Take the next breath slowly.
33. 6:57Breathe as if you had all evening. There's no rush in this part.
34. 7:10Let's pause. Just the breathing for a while.
35. 7:21Notice your toes, starting with the big one on the left.
36. 7:33Let the exhale fall out rather than pushing it.
37. 7:44Let it be this simple.
38. 7:53Notice the difference between a thought and the space around it.
39. 8:05Silence for a few breaths. Nothing to do in it.
40. 8:17Name what you can see, hear and touch. Counting senses is not a distraction; it is the practice.
41. 8:33Notice the moment you realise you've drifted. That moment is the whole skill.
42. 8:46A gap. Don't rush to fill it with thinking.
43. 8:57Press down slightly and feel the push back. Your body already knows where it is.
44. 9:11If you're counting the minutes, that's fine. Count them and come back.
45. 9:24Pause here. Count three breaths if you need an anchor.
46. 9:36The floor is holding you right now. You do not have to hold yourself up.
47. 9:50If you're judging your performance, that's the same habit as judging everything else.
48. 10:03No words for a moment. Only the next breath.
49. 10:14Feel the contact points — feet, seat, back. That contact is the whole anchor.
50. 10:28If you're irritated, that's allowed. Irritation is just weather.
51. 10:39Count down from ten, one number per exhale.
52. 10:50Silence. Let your shoulders drop again if they've crept up.
53. 11:02Let the exhale carry a little of the tiredness that sits in the bones with it. Not all of it. Just a little, one breath at a time.
54. 11:22You do not have to win against the effort everything takes. You only have to breathe until the next moment arrives.
55. 11:39Breathe in for four, out for six, if you'd like something to count.
56. 11:52There is a part of you that has handled hard moments before. That part is here now, even if it is quiet.
57. 12:10If the tiredness that sits in the bones is loud right now, make your attention smaller. Just the next breath. Nothing beyond it.
58. 12:28Let the breath get soft, the way it goes when someone is reading beside you.
59. 12:42You might be planning something. Notice the planning, then come back.
60. 12:54If nothing much is happening, that's not a problem. Nothing much is often the point.
61. 13:08Notice if you're waiting for something to happen. Nothing is scheduled.
62. 13:20Let me stop talking. Follow the breath instead.
63. 13:31If your mind has gone somewhere else, the floor under you has not moved. Start from there.
64. 13:46Let the pause stretch out.
65. 13:55Take one last look at whatever your attention settled on.
66. 14:07Let the last of the stillness stay with you for a few more seconds.
67. 14:21Let this one be unhurried.

Questions people ask

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