Letting go for fatigue: 10 minutes, as sleep prep

About this practice

For the times as sleep prep when fatigue takes up more room than you would like — 10 minutes, letting go. A guided session of about 10 minutes, suited to all levels. Nothing is recorded and no account is needed.

What this works on: fatigue

Fatigue is deep tiredness of the kind that sleep does not fully clear, usually after a stretch of sustained demand.

It tends to show up as:

• Tired behind the eyes all day
• Heavy limbs
• Rest that does not refresh

Here the practice should be restful rather than stimulating. Quiet and unambitious is the right dose.

Doing this before sleep

• Dim the lights and put the phone out of reach
• Do it in bed if that helps you stay there
• Let yourself fall asleep rather than finishing it

Checking anything afterwards undoes most of it. Let this be the last thing.

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 next exhale be a sigh, if a sigh is what's waiting there.
2. 0:14You can be as unimpressive as you like for the next few minutes.
3. 0:27If it helps, imagine your attention is a torch beam. Right now it's wide and soft.
4. 0:42We'll be quiet for a bit longer than usual. Stay with whatever shows up.
5. 0:56Let your breathing get quieter rather than deeper.
6. 1:07Let the in-breath be short and the out-breath unhurried.
7. 1:18Notice your ribs on both sides. Wide, not squeezed.
8. 1:29Notice your fingers, one by one, starting with the little finger.
9. 1:41Notice your shoulders, one at a time. The left one first.
10. 1:53Notice your jaw again. Let your back teeth part slightly.
11. 2:05Think of the heaviness behind your eyes as a guest that arrived without knocking. You can let it stand in the hallway.
12. 2:23Let the exhale carry a little of the end of the reserves with it. Not all of it. Just a little, one breath at a time.
13. 2:42If your mind is quiet, don't grab at it. Quiet comes and goes too.
14. 2:56Nothing here needs to be efficient.
15. 3:06A few seconds of nothing now. That's on purpose.
16. 3:17Notice the difference between a thought and the space around it.
17. 3:29There's no need to try harder than this.
18. 3:40I'll leave a gap here. Use it however you like.
19. 3:52If you're bored, stay with the boredom for a moment. It's usually thinner than it looks.
20. 4:07If you only manage half of it, that's half more than nothing.
21. 4:20No words for a moment. Only the next breath.
22. 4:31If a song is stuck in your head, let it play in the background.
23. 4:45Feel your heart somewhere in there, doing its work without instructions.
24. 4:57Let your ribs widen on the in-breath instead of your shoulders lifting.
25. 5:10Stay with it.
26. 5:18Feel the tops of your thighs.
27. 5:28Notice where you feel the breath most clearly. Nose, chest, or belly — pick one and stay there.
28. 5:44No rush to move on.
29. 5:53Let the whole of your left foot be heavy.
30. 6:04Let the breath be slow enough that you can hear it, just barely.
31. 6:17Stay a moment longer than is comfortable.
32. 6:27Notice your pelvis resting on the surface below you.
33. 6:38Let the breath move at the speed of a sleeping person.
34. 6:50Let's pause. Just the breathing for a while.
35. 7:01Remind yourself, slowly: I am safe in this moment, even while the bone-deep tiredness is here. Safety and difficulty can share a room.
36. 7:19There is a part of you that has handled hard moments before. That part is here now, even if it is quiet.
37. 7:37Notice how many breaths you take in a minute. Don't change the number, just check.
38. 7:51If the end of the reserves has been with you all day, it is probably tired too. Let it rest alongside you.
39. 8:09Your mind will leave about a hundred times. Come back about a hundred times.
40. 8:23If you feel numb, that's a valid thing to feel. Nothing to fix.
41. 8:36Silence for a few breaths. Nothing to do in it.
42. 8:48We'll take this slowly, and there's no version of this where you get it wrong.
43. 9:02Take the next breath slowly.
44. 9:11Before you move, notice one thing that's fine right now.
45. 9:23Let your eyes open when they're ready, not when the words end.

Questions people ask

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