Health anxiety: 15-minute softening meditation, after a long day

About this practice

For the times after a long day when health anxiety takes up more room than you would like — 15 minutes, softening. A guided session of about 15 minutes, suited to all levels. Nothing is recorded and no account is needed.

What this works on: health anxiety

Health anxiety runs on a loop of scanning and checking. Each check briefly relieves the fear and then strengthens it, because the relief teaches the brain that checking was necessary.

It tends to show up as:

• Repeatedly checking a symptom or a pulse
• Searching symptoms late at night
• Reassurance that only helps for an hour

Attention moved out of the head and into the body as a whole reduces scanning. You are not arguing with the worry, just giving it less to grip.

Doing this after a long day

• Something physical first — shoes off, hands washed, water drunk
• Do not review the day during it
• Keep it short rather than thorough

Replaying the day in the practice just carries the day further into the evening.

How softening works

Softening is the practice of releasing held tension degree by degree rather than all at once. It targets the physical grip — shoulders, jaw, gut — that persists long after the stressor has passed.

• Soften one place per exhale rather than everything at once
• Let warmth and gravity do the work instead of muscular effort
• If a place will not soften, leave it and go somewhere that will

What happens, minute by minute

1. 0:00Unclench your jaw. You were probably holding it without noticing.
2. 0:12There's no need to try harder than this.
3. 0:23Notice whether your breathing is high in your chest or low in your belly. Just notice. No fixing.
4. 0:39Everything that happens in the next few minutes is allowed to happen.
5. 0:52Notice the first breath of the day versus this one. They're the same mechanism.
6. 1:06Follow the breath down into your belly and feel it come back up.
7. 1:19Feel your belly. Let it be soft instead of held in.
8. 1:31Notice your toes, starting with the big one on the left.
9. 1:43Now the right shoulder. Let it be a centimetre lower than it was.
10. 1:56Feel the soles of your feet. All the weight of you goes through them.
11. 2:10Feel your upper back against whatever is behind it.
12. 2:21Imagine softening the edges of the worry about what your body might be telling you. Not erasing it, just letting the sharp parts go a degree softer.
13. 2:41There is a part of you that has handled hard moments before. That part is here now, even if it is quiet.
14. 2:59Feel the pause at the top of the in-breath. It's shorter than you think.
15. 3:13Think of the fear attached to each new symptom as a guest that arrived without knocking. You can let it stand in the hallway.
16. 3:32If the worry about what your body might be telling you starts telling you a story, let the story finish without you adding to it.
17. 3:51Feel your hips. Wide, heavy, and doing nothing.
18. 4:02Let your body keep settling.
19. 4:11Let your breathing find the rhythm it uses when you're almost asleep.
20. 4:24Notice where your body is still holding something. Leave it alone.
21. 4:36No need to open your eyes yet.
22. 4:46Let each breath out be a small letting go of the muscles around your ribs.
23. 5:00Notice your breathing, without changing it.
24. 5:10Take the next breath slowly.
25. 5:19Breathe in through your nose and out through your nose, if that's comfortable.
26. 5:32Notice your jaw again. Let your back teeth part slightly.
27. 5:44Stay with it.
28. 5:52Feel the slight stretch at the very bottom of the exhale.
29. 6:04Feel your forearms, from the elbow down to the wrist.
30. 6:16Remain here for a few more breaths.
31. 6:26Notice your breathing getting quieter on its own, without you deciding anything.
32. 6:39Feel your tongue sitting in the bottom of your mouth.
33. 6:51Just the breath, still.
34. 7:00Silence for a few breaths. Nothing to do in it.
35. 7:12Let this be easy, if easy is available.
36. 7:23Your mind will leave about a hundred times. Come back about a hundred times.
37. 7:37I'll be quiet for a moment. Stay with the breath.
38. 7:49We'll keep it quiet and unhurried.
39. 7:59If you feel restless, that's a feeling, not a failure.
40. 8:11Let me stop talking. Follow the breath instead.
41. 8:22If you only manage half of it, that's half more than nothing.
42. 8:35If your body wants to move, let it move, then come back.
43. 8:48I'll leave a gap here. Use it however you like.
44. 9:00Small efforts are the whole method.
45. 9:10If you've lost track of where we were, you haven't lost anything important.
46. 9:23I'll stop for a moment. Take the pause at your own speed.
47. 9:36You can be as unimpressive as you like for the next few minutes.
48. 9:49If you're bored, stay with the boredom for a moment. It's usually thinner than it looks.
49. 10:04I'll step back. You stay here.
50. 10:14Nothing here needs to be efficient.
51. 10:24If you're counting the minutes, that's fine. Count them and come back.
52. 10:37Notice the breath you're taking right now. That's the only one that exists.
53. 10:50Let's pause. Just the breathing for a while.
54. 11:01Picture the habit of checking for something wrong as a weather front passing over. You are not the weather. You are the sky it moves through.
55. 11:20the fear attached to each new symptom may quiet down, or it may not. Either is fine. We are practising staying, not performing calm.
56. 11:39Let your shoulders stay still while your ribs move.
57. 11:50Say to yourself: this is uncomfortable, and I can stay with it for one more breath. Then take that breath.
58. 12:07If the habit of checking for something wrong is loud right now, make your attention smaller. Just the next breath. Nothing beyond it.
59. 12:25Notice the difference between the breath at the front of your nose and the breath in your chest.
60. 12:41If you're replaying a conversation, let it play. It'll finish on its own.
61. 12:54If a song is stuck in your head, let it play in the background.
62. 13:08If you feel emotional, you don't have to explain it to anyone, including yourself.
63. 13:22Let's rest here in silence. It's short.
64. 13:32We'll take this slowly, and there's no version of this where you get it wrong.
65. 13:46No rush to move on.
66. 13:55Notice whether you feel any different. If not, that's also normal.
67. 14:07Let your jaw, shoulders and hands be loose as you finish.
68. 14:19Let it be this simple.

Questions people ask

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