Low energy: 10-minute grounding meditation, on your commute

About this practice

When low energy shows up on your commute, this 10-minute grounding session gives you somewhere to put it down. A guided session of about 10 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 your commute

• Headphones on, eyes open or closed depending on your comfort
• Keep one part of your attention on your stop
• Do it standing if sitting is not possible — nobody is watching

Commuting time is already dead time. Nothing is being given up.

How grounding works

Grounding brings attention to physical contact and the immediate environment. It works on the principle that the body cannot be somewhere else, so contact with the surface you are on is always available as an anchor.

• Feel the contact points — feet, seat, back — and let them take your weight
• Use the senses deliberately: what you can see, hear, touch
• Return to solidity whenever attention drifts

What happens, minute by minute

1. 0:00Take a moment to notice the room behind you, without turning around.
2. 0:13You can be as unimpressive as you like for the next few minutes.
3. 0:26We'll work through this slowly. If you lose the thread, the thread will wait.
4. 0:40Let your body feel heavier than it did a minute ago. Let the chair or the floor take it.
5. 0:56Let the breath get soft, the way it goes when someone is reading beside you.
6. 1:10Let your belly rise first, then your chest, then the tops of your lungs.
7. 1:24Notice your eyebrows. They're probably doing something small right now.
8. 1:36Feel your face. It's probably softer than it was five minutes ago.
9. 1:49Feel the outline of yourself, from the top of your head to your heels.
10. 2:03Feel your heart somewhere in there, doing its work without instructions.
11. 2:15Picture the flat battery feeling as a weather front passing over. You are not the weather. You are the sky it moves through.
12. 2:33If you catch yourself fighting the tiredness that sits in the bones, that is worth noticing. The fight usually costs more than the feeling.
13. 2:52Notice the moment you realise you've drifted. That moment is the whole skill.
14. 3:05We'll keep it quiet and unhurried.
15. 3:15Quiet for a moment. No need to fill it.
16. 3:26If you're replaying a conversation, let it play. It'll finish on its own.
17. 3:39Small efforts are the whole method.
18. 3:49Let me stop talking. Follow the breath instead.
19. 4:00If you feel numb, that's a valid thing to feel. Nothing to fix.
20. 4:13Nothing here needs to be efficient.
21. 4:23Let's rest here in silence. It's short.
22. 4:33If you're judging your performance, that's the same habit as judging everything else.
23. 4:46Feel your breath move down your back, all the way to your lower ribs.
24. 5:00No need to open your eyes yet.
25. 5:10Feel your tongue sitting in the bottom of your mouth.
26. 5:22Notice the small gap after each exhale. Rest there for half a second.
27. 5:35Keep following the air.
28. 5:44Let the whole of your left foot be heavy.
29. 5:55Feel the air as it passes the back of your throat. It's cooler going in.
30. 6:09Stay here a little longer.
31. 6:18Notice the weight of your thighs, all the way down.
32. 6:30Follow one full breath from the moment it starts to the moment it ends.
33. 6:44I'll be quiet for a moment. Stay with the breath.
34. 6:56Say to yourself: this is uncomfortable, and I can stay with it for one more breath. Then take that breath.
35. 7:13You do not have to solve the flat battery feeling in these few minutes. Your only job is to keep breathing while it is here.
36. 7:32Feel the last part of the exhale, where it turns into nothing.
37. 7:45This is not the last time the tiredness that sits in the bones will visit. That is not bad news. It means you will get more practice.
38. 8:05Your mind will leave about a hundred times. Come back about a hundred times.
39. 8:19Notice any tension that arrived while you weren't looking.
40. 8:30Silence for a few breaths. Nothing to do in it.
41. 8:42We'll take this slowly, and there's no version of this where you get it wrong.
42. 8:56Nothing changes for a moment.
43. 9:05Let your breathing be completely ordinary again.
44. 9:15Let the next breath be the start of the rest of the day.
45. 9:28Stay 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.