Letting go for financial stress: 15 minutes, in a waiting room

About this practice

For the times in a waiting room when financial stress takes up more room than you would like — 15 minutes, letting go. A guided session of about 15 minutes, suited to all levels. Nothing is recorded and no account is needed.

What this works on: financial stress

Money worry runs at night, when there is nothing to do about it. The lack of any available action keeps the nervous system activated for hours.

It tends to show up as:

• Lying awake doing arithmetic
• A clenched stomach opening the bank app
• Irritability about small spending

At 2am there is no decision to make, only a night to get through. That is the whole job of this practice.

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 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. 0:00Put both feet flat on the floor and let them take some of the weight.
2. 0:14Let this be easy, if easy is available.
3. 0:25Nothing here is a test of concentration. Drifting off is part of it.
4. 0:38There's a difference between relaxing and stopping. We're aiming for the second one, gently.
5. 0:52Let the breath be slow enough that you can hear it, just barely.
6. 1:05Let the in-breath be short and the out-breath unhurried.
7. 1:16Notice your lower back. Let it curve however it curves.
8. 1:28Feel the back of your neck. That's a place that holds a lot.
9. 1:41Feel your knees. They're just hinges, but they've worked hard.
10. 1:53Feel your heart somewhere in there, doing its work without instructions.
11. 2:05Let your thumbs rest wherever they landed.
12. 2:15Think of the worry that follows the bills as a guest that arrived without knocking. You can let it stand in the hallway.
13. 2:33the fear about money in the night may quiet down, or it may not. Either is fine. We are practising staying, not performing calm.
14. 2:52Count down from ten, one number per exhale.
15. 3:03Imagine softening the edges of the arithmetic that will not balance. Not erasing it, just letting the sharp parts go a degree softer.
16. 3:21Feel the weight of the worry that follows the bills somewhere specific, then let the floor take a share of it.
17. 3:38Notice the weight of your thighs, all the way down.
18. 3:50A few seconds more.
19. 3:59Feel the air as it passes the back of your throat. It's cooler going in.
20. 4:13Move to your forehead. Let it be smooth instead of gathered.
21. 4:25Nothing changes for a moment.
22. 4:34Let your ribs widen on the in-breath instead of your shoulders lifting.
23. 4:47Notice where your body is still holding something. Leave it alone.
24. 4:59Let it be this simple.
25. 5:08If you're holding your breath at the top, stop. There's no need to hold anything.
26. 5:22Feel the skin around your eyes. Let the muscles behind them go loose.
27. 5:35Stay with it.
28. 5:43Count four breaths silently. Then stop counting and just follow.
29. 5:55Feel the parts of you that have gone quiet.
30. 6:06Let your body keep settling.
31. 6:15Let the exhale fall out rather than pushing it.
32. 6:26Notice your whole body as one shape, sitting or lying here.
33. 6:38Let this one be unhurried.
34. 6:47Follow one full breath from the moment it starts to the moment it ends.
35. 7:01A short silence. Let it be empty.
36. 7:11Nothing here needs to be efficient.
37. 7:21If nothing much is happening, that's not a problem. Nothing much is often the point.
38. 7:35I'll stop for a moment. Take the pause at your own speed.
39. 7:48You can be as unimpressive as you like for the next few minutes.
40. 8:01Notice if your attention is in the future. Bring it back to the room.
41. 8:15I'll step back. You stay here.
42. 8:25There's no need to try harder than this.
43. 8:36Notice anything you're holding onto from earlier today.
44. 8:47A gap. Don't rush to fill it with thinking.
45. 8:58We'll take this slowly, and there's no version of this where you get it wrong.
46. 9:12Notice any tension that arrived while you weren't looking.
47. 9:23A few quiet breaths. That's all this is.
48. 9:34Small efforts are the whole method.
49. 9:44If you're bored, stay with the boredom for a moment. It's usually thinner than it looks.
50. 9:59Quiet now. The next part will wait for you.
51. 10:10If you only manage half of it, that's half more than nothing.
52. 10:23Your mind will leave about a hundred times. Come back about a hundred times.
53. 10:37Notice your breathing getting quieter on its own, without you deciding anything.
54. 10:50Silence for a few breaths. Nothing to do in it.
55. 11:02Remind yourself, slowly: I am safe in this moment, even while the fear about money in the night is here. Safety and difficulty can share a room.
56. 11:22You do not have to solve the arithmetic that will not balance in these few minutes. Your only job is to keep breathing while it is here.
57. 11:42Let the breath be shallow if shallow is what your body wants.
58. 11:55If you catch yourself fighting the worry that follows the bills, that is worth noticing. The fight usually costs more than the feeling.
59. 12:13Nothing about the fear about money in the night has to be explained or justified in this room.
60. 12:29Feel the pause at the top of the in-breath. It's shorter than you think.
61. 12:43If you're sleepy, sit up a little. Or let the sleepiness be there.
62. 12:56If you've lost track of where we were, you haven't lost anything important.
63. 13:09Notice the tone of your own inner voice. Is it kind?
64. 13:21Pause here. Count three breaths if you need an anchor.
65. 13:33We'll keep it quiet and unhurried.
66. 13:43Remain here for a few more breaths.
67. 13:53Take one last look at whatever your attention settled on.
68. 14:05Notice the quiet you made, and let it close gently.
69. 14:17Let the pause stretch out.

Questions people ask

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