Letting go for guilt: 5 minutes, at your desk

About this practice

When guilt shows up at your desk, this 5-minute letting go session gives you somewhere to put it down. A guided session of about 5 minutes, suited to all levels. Nothing is recorded and no account is needed.

What this works on: guilt

Guilt replays past choices to try to change them. The replay cannot alter the outcome, so the relief never arrives.

It tends to show up as:

• Replaying decisions you cannot undo
• Apologising for things long since settled
• Feeling you owe something unnamed

This is not a practice for absolution. It is a place to put the weight down for a few minutes, which makes it easier to carry after.

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 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. 0:00Rest your hands somewhere they don't have to do anything.
2. 0:12With each exhale, let a little of the effort go. Not the problem — just the effort.
3. 0:27We're going to let the body lead and the mind follow for a while.
4. 0:41Everything that happens in the next few minutes is allowed to happen.
5. 0:54Let your shoulders stay still while your ribs move.
6. 1:05Let your breathing be boring. Boring is good here.
7. 1:16Notice your shins, which take small knocks all day and never complain.
8. 1:29Notice the space between your shoulder blades.
9. 1:39Notice your wrists. They bend a lot in a day.
10. 1:51Keep following the air.
11. 2:00Quiet for a moment. No need to fill it.
12. 2:11Pick one thing you are gripping — a plan, a worry, a grudge — and loosen a single finger.
13. 2:27If you're sleepy, sit up a little. Or let the sleepiness be there.
14. 2:40You do not have to like the self-blame that lingers to breathe through it. Liking was never the requirement.
15. 2:56Think of the weight of what you should have done as a guest that arrived without knocking. You can let it stand in the hallway.
16. 3:15Let the breath be slow enough that you can hear it, just barely.
17. 3:28When the replay of past choices arrives, name it once, quietly, and go back to the breath. Naming is not fixing, and that is fine.
18. 3:47If you're irritated, that's allowed. Irritation is just weather.
19. 3:58Let's rest here in silence. It's short.
20. 4:08Ask yourself what you could stop holding for the next sixty seconds. That one is a good start.
21. 4:24Let the last of the stillness stay with you for a few more seconds.
22. 4:38Stay a moment longer than is comfortable.

Questions people ask

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