Letting go for health anxiety: 15 minutes, in the hour before an exam

About this practice

Nothing to learn and nothing to fix: 15 minutes of letting go for health anxiety, in the hour before an exam. 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 before an exam

• Do it outside the hall, before you go in
• Do not revise during it — that raises the noise
• Aim to arrive early and steady rather than late and reading

Last-minute revision mostly raises arousal without adding recall. Arriving settled is worth more.

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. 0:00If your legs are crossed, uncross them. Small changes count.
2. 0:12You have been carrying this competently for a while. A few minutes off will not undo that.
3. 0:27Let the last hour go on its own. You can pick it up again afterwards.
4. 0:41You can think about other things. When you notice, come back. That's the whole practice.
5. 0:55Follow three breaths and let the fourth one go unobserved.
6. 1:07Let your breathing be boring. Boring is good here.
7. 1:18Feel your heart somewhere in there, doing its work without instructions.
8. 1:30Let your whole body be as heavy as it wants to be.
9. 1:43Feel your ankles. Let them be loose.
10. 1:53Notice your elbows. Odd things to have, but there they are.
11. 2:05Feel your palms. Warm or cool, either is fine.
12. 2:16Notice the space around the fear attached to each new symptom. It is there, even if it is small. Put your attention in that space.
13. 2:35When the worry about what your body might be telling you arrives, name it once, quietly, and go back to the breath. Naming is not fixing, and that is fine.
14. 2:56Notice the breath you're taking right now. That's the only one that exists.
15. 3:09Say to yourself: this is uncomfortable, and I can stay with it for one more breath. Then take that breath.
16. 3:26Imagine softening the edges of the fear attached to each new symptom. Not erasing it, just letting the sharp parts go a degree softer.
17. 3:45Let the whole of your right foot be heavy.
18. 3:56Remain here for a few more breaths.
19. 4:06Let your belly rise first, then your chest, then the tops of your lungs.
20. 4:20Feel your hips. Wide, heavy, and doing nothing.
21. 4:31Let the quiet do its work.
22. 4:41Notice the small gap after each exhale. Rest there for half a second.
23. 4:54Notice your whole body as one shape, sitting or lying here.
24. 5:06Let the pause stretch out.
25. 5:15Follow one full breath from the moment it starts to the moment it ends.
26. 5:29Let your throat soften. There's nothing to swallow right now.
27. 5:41Let this one be unhurried.
28. 5:50Feel the pause at the top of the in-breath. It's shorter than you think.
29. 6:04Notice your heels making contact with the floor or the bed.
30. 6:16Silence. Let your shoulders drop again if they've crept up.
31. 6:28If you feel restless, that's a feeling, not a failure.
32. 6:40Stay with it.
33. 6:48Notice where you feel the breath most clearly. Nose, chest, or belly — pick one and stay there.
34. 7:04I'll leave a gap here. Use it however you like.
35. 7:16Notice your toes, starting with the big one on the left.
36. 7:28Feel the last part of the exhale, where it turns into nothing.
37. 7:41Nothing changes for a moment.
38. 7:50If a worry shows up, name it quietly and let it sit beside you.
39. 8:04No words for a moment. Only the next breath.
40. 8:15Setting something down is not the same as giving up. You can pick it up again after.
41. 8:30If you've lost track of where we were, you haven't lost anything important.
42. 8:43A gap. Don't rush to fill it with thinking.
43. 8:54Ask yourself what you could stop holding for the next sixty seconds. That one is a good start.
44. 9:10Notice if you've been frowning at your own thoughts.
45. 9:21Quiet for a moment. No need to fill it.
46. 9:32We are not solving anything in the next few minutes. We are setting it down, temporarily.
47. 9:47You might be planning something. Notice the planning, then come back.
48. 9:59Let's rest here in silence. It's short.
49. 10:09With each exhale, let a little of the effort go. Not the problem — just the effort.
50. 10:24Notice the difference between a thought and the space around it.
51. 10:36Feel the slight stretch at the very bottom of the exhale.
52. 10:48Silence for a few breaths. Nothing to do in it.
53. 11:00Picture the worry about what your body might be telling you as a weather front passing over. You are not the weather. You are the sky it moves through.
54. 11:21Remind yourself, slowly: I am safe in this moment, even while the habit of checking for something wrong is here. Safety and difficulty can share a room.
55. 11:41Count down from ten, one number per exhale.
56. 11:52Each time your mind hands you the fear attached to each new symptom, treat it like a leaf on a stream. Present for a moment, then carried on.
57. 12:12Let the worry about what your body might be telling you be exactly as big as it is, and let your breath be exactly as slow as it is. They can coexist.
58. 12:34Feel the air as it passes the back of your throat. It's cooler going in.
59. 12:48If you're sleepy, sit up a little. Or let the sleepiness be there.
60. 13:01Notice how you're sitting. Adjust if you need to. Then settle again.
61. 13:14Notice whether you're breathing or holding. Start breathing again.
62. 13:25I'll step back. You stay here.
63. 13:35Pick one thing you are gripping — a plan, a worry, a grudge — and loosen a single finger.
64. 13:51A few seconds more.
65. 14:00If you're going straight back to work, take ten seconds at the doorway first.
66. 14:14Let the pace of the last few minutes set the pace of the next few.

Questions people ask

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