Letting go for morning energy: 15 minutes, in the mid-afternoon

About this practice

Nothing to learn and nothing to fix: 15 minutes of letting go for morning energy, in the mid-afternoon. A guided session of about 15 minutes, suited to all levels. Nothing is recorded and no account is needed.

What this works on: morning energy

Morning energy depends on how you come out of sleep and when light hits your eyes, more than on the number of hours.

It tends to show up as:

Heavy eyelids at the start
Struggling out of bed
Needing to hit snooze repeatedly

Movement and breathing raise alertness without caffeine, and the effect holds better through the early hours.

Doing this in the mid-afternoon

Sit upright and open a window if you can
Expect heaviness rather than fighting it
A short session here beats a longer one that never happens

The dip is a normal circadian low. You are riding it out, not correcting a fault.

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

0:00Find one place in your body that already feels fine. Use that as the starting point.
0:15Setting something down is not the same as giving up. You can pick it up again after.
0:30Everything that happens in the next few minutes is allowed to happen.
0:43We'll work through this slowly. If you lose the thread, the thread will wait.
0:57Notice that you don't have to start a breath. It arrives by itself.
1:10Let your ribs widen on the in-breath instead of your shoulders lifting.
1:23Notice your hands again. Check whether they've loosened on their own.
1:35Notice your heels making contact with the floor or the bed.
1:47Feel your palms. Warm or cool, either is fine.
1:58Feel your calves, front and back.
2:08Let the whole of your left foot be heavy.
2:19If the wish to begin without the scramble starts telling you a story, let the story finish without you adding to it.
2:37Notice how the heavy eyelids at the start changes shape when you stop resisting it. Usually it gets smaller, not bigger.
2:54Notice the difference between the breath at the front of your nose and the breath in your chest.
3:10You do not have to solve the day arriving before you are ready in these few minutes. Your only job is to keep breathing while it is here.
3:30If the wish to begin without the scramble is loud right now, make your attention smaller. Just the next breath. Nothing beyond it.
3:48Feel your hips. Wide, heavy, and doing nothing.
3:59A few seconds more.
4:08Notice the first breath of the day versus this one. They're the same mechanism.
4:22Notice your jaw again. Let your back teeth part slightly.
4:34Just the breath, still.
4:43Notice your breathing getting quieter on its own, without you deciding anything.
4:56Notice your wrists. They bend a lot in a day.
5:08Let it be this simple.
5:17If you're holding your breath at the top, stop. There's no need to hold anything.
5:31Feel the parts of you that have gone quiet.
5:42No need to open your eyes yet.
5:52Feel the air as it passes the back of your throat. It's cooler going in.
6:06Feel the front of your chest. Notice it rise and fall once.
6:19Quiet for a moment. No need to fill it.
6:30Notice the pull to make this mean something. It doesn't have to.
6:43No rush to move on.
6:52Let's pause. Just the breathing for a while.
7:03Now feel both feet at once. That's a lot of contact with the world.
7:17Let the breath get soft, the way it goes when someone is reading beside you.
7:31Let the pause stretch out.
7:40Notice if you've been frowning at your own thoughts.
7:51Nothing to follow for a moment except your own breathing.
8:03Ask yourself what you could stop holding for the next sixty seconds. That one is a good start.
8:19If you're bored, stay with the boredom for a moment. It's usually thinner than it looks.
8:34No words for a moment. Only the next breath.
8:45Pick one thing you are gripping — a plan, a worry, a grudge — and loosen a single finger.
9:01If you're counting the minutes, that's fine. Count them and come back.
9:14Pause here. Count three breaths if you need an anchor.
9:26You have been carrying this competently for a while. A few minutes off will not undo that.
9:41If your body wants to move, let it move, then come back.
9:54A gap. Don't rush to fill it with thinking.
10:05With each exhale, let a little of the effort go. Not the problem — just the effort.
10:20Notice the difference between a thought and the space around it.
10:32Let the exhale empty you a little more than usual, but not to the point of strain.
10:47Silence. Let your shoulders drop again if they've crept up.
10:59Let the heavy eyelids at the start be exactly as big as it is, and let your breath be exactly as slow as it is. They can coexist.
11:19If you catch yourself fighting the day arriving before you are ready, that is worth noticing. The fight usually costs more than the feeling.
11:38Notice the small pause before your body decides to breathe in again.
11:51If the wish to begin without the scramble has been with you all day, it is probably tired too. Let it rest alongside you.
12:10There is a part of you that has handled hard moments before. That part is here now, even if it is quiet.
12:28Let each breath out be a small letting go of the muscles around your ribs.
12:42Notice if you're waiting for something to happen. Nothing is scheduled.
12:54If you're sleepy, sit up a little. Or let the sleepiness be there.
13:07If you've lost track of where we were, you haven't lost anything important.
13:20A few quiet breaths. That's all this is.
13:31We are not solving anything in the next few minutes. We are setting it down, temporarily.
13:46Nothing changes for a moment.
13:55If you drifted off, that was rest, and rest counts.
14:07Come back slowly. There's no prize for finishing fast.
14:18Remain here for a few more breaths.

Questions people ask

What does this session help with?

Morning energy depends on how you come out of sleep and when light hits your eyes, more than on the number of hours. Movement and breathing raise alertness without caffeine, and the effect holds better through the early hours.

Where and when should I do this one?

Sit upright and open a window if you can. The dip is a normal circadian low. You are riding it out, not correcting a fault.

What actually happens during the 15 minutes?

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.

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