Letting go for low energy: 12 minutes, in a five-minute break

About this practice

Slow, spoken guidance for low energy. A letting go session you can do in a five-minute break. A guided session of about 12 minutes, suited to all levels. Nothing is recorded and no account is needed.

What this works on: low energy

Low energy is a flat battery, not laziness. Pushing through it further drains reserves and produces worse work, faster.

It tends to show up as:

• Everything feeling like an effort
• Procrastinating on simple tasks
• Tiredness sitting deep in the body

A short practice will not restore the reserve, but it removes some of the tension that is draining it.

Doing this on a break

• Leave the room if you can
• Do not start anything else in the same gap
• Set a timer so the break has an end

A break spent half-engaged with a screen is not much of a break. Guard the whole five minutes.

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 the first out-breath be longer than the in-breath. Nothing dramatic, just longer.
2. 0:13With each exhale, let a little of the effort go. Not the problem — just the effort.
3. 0:28We'll work through this slowly. If you lose the thread, the thread will wait.
4. 0:42Everything that happens in the next few minutes is allowed to happen.
5. 0:55Follow three breaths and let the fourth one go unobserved.
6. 1:07Let the in-breath be short and the out-breath unhurried.
7. 1:18Notice your toes, starting with the big one on the left.
8. 1:30Notice your whole body as one shape, sitting or lying here.
9. 1:42Notice the backs of your knees, which you feel more than you think.
10. 1:55Feel the tops of your thighs.
11. 2:05You do not have to like the effort everything takes to breathe through it. Liking was never the requirement.
12. 2:21Whatever the flat battery feeling is doing right now, your breathing can keep going underneath it.
13. 2:36Let the breath be slow enough that you can hear it, just barely.
14. 2:49Notice the exact moment your attention left. You probably won't catch it. That's normal.
15. 3:03Ask yourself what you could stop holding for the next sixty seconds. That one is a good start.
16. 3:19A short silence. Let it be empty.
17. 3:29If you're thinking about the next thing on your list, that list will still be there.
18. 3:44Pick one thing you are gripping — a plan, a worry, a grudge — and loosen a single finger.
19. 4:00Silence. Let your shoulders drop again if they've crept up.
20. 4:12Your mind will leave about a hundred times. Come back about a hundred times.
21. 4:26You have been carrying this competently for a while. A few minutes off will not undo that.
22. 4:41Pause here. Count three breaths if you need an anchor.
23. 4:53If your mind has wandered, that's not a mistake. Noticing is the practice.
24. 5:06We are not solving anything in the next few minutes. We are setting it down, temporarily.
25. 5:21Nothing to follow for a moment except your own breathing.
26. 5:33If you feel restless, that's a feeling, not a failure.
27. 5:45Let your breathing be boring. Boring is good here.
28. 5:56Let the quiet do its work.
29. 6:06Let the whole of your left foot be heavy.
30. 6:17Feel the air move past your upper lip. It's the coolest spot on the way in.
31. 6:32Nothing changes for a moment.
32. 6:41Feel the middle of your back, the part that never gets attention.
33. 6:54Let the exhale empty you a little more than usual, but not to the point of strain.
34. 7:09No need to open your eyes yet.
35. 7:19Feel your hips. Wide, heavy, and doing nothing.
36. 7:30Notice where you feel the breath most clearly. Nose, chest, or belly — pick one and stay there.
37. 7:46Remain here for a few more breaths.
38. 7:56Feel your face. It's probably softer than it was five minutes ago.
39. 8:09Notice how the tiredness that sits in the bones changes shape when you stop resisting it. Usually it gets smaller, not bigger.
40. 8:27No words for a moment. Only the next breath.
41. 8:38Notice where the effort everything takes lives in your body. Chest, throat, stomach. Rest your attention there without trying to change it.
42. 8:56Feel your breath move down your back, all the way to your lower ribs.
43. 9:10Give the flat battery feeling a shape, a colour, a temperature. Turning it into something specific makes it easier to hold.
44. 9:27Imagine softening the edges of the tiredness that sits in the bones. Not erasing it, just letting the sharp parts go a degree softer.
45. 9:46Notice the small pause before your body decides to breathe in again.
46. 9:59If nothing much is happening, that's not a problem. Nothing much is often the point.
47. 10:13If you've lost track of where we were, you haven't lost anything important.
48. 10:26I'll stop for a moment. Take the pause at your own speed.
49. 10:39Setting something down is not the same as giving up. You can pick it up again after.
50. 10:54Stay here a little longer.
51. 11:03Let your jaw, shoulders and hands be loose as you finish.
52. 11:15Let the last of the stillness stay with you for a few more seconds.

Questions people ask

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