Low energy: 5-minute letting go meditation, on a slow Sunday

About this practice

For the times on a slow Sunday when low energy takes up more room than you would like — 5 minutes, letting go. A guided session of about 5 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 rest day

• Do it without a reason or a target
• Later in the day, unhurried, in good light
• Let it be longer than usual if you want

Rest that has to be justified is not really rest. This one is allowed to be pointless.

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. 0:00You don't have to empty your mind. Nobody has ever managed that, including the people who wrote the instructions.
2. 0:16Setting something down is not the same as giving up. You can pick it up again after.
3. 0:31Let your body feel heavier than it did a minute ago. Let the chair or the floor take it.
4. 0:47Let the rhythm of your breathing set the pace, not the words.
5. 1:00Let each breath out be a small letting go of the muscles around your ribs.
6. 1:14Let the breath be shallow if shallow is what your body wants.
7. 1:27Feel the soles of your feet. All the weight of you goes through them.
8. 1:41Feel your upper arms hanging. They're heavier than you remember.
9. 1:53Let the whole of your right foot be heavy.
10. 2:04Let it be this simple.
11. 2:13Ask yourself what you could stop holding for the next sixty seconds. That one is a good start.
12. 2:29If you feel numb, that's a valid thing to feel. Nothing to fix.
13. 2:42Give the effort everything takes a shape, a colour, a temperature. Turning it into something specific makes it easier to hold.
14. 2:59Each time your mind hands you the flat battery feeling, treat it like a leaf on a stream. Present for a moment, then carried on.
15. 3:18Let your breathing find the rhythm it uses when you're almost asleep.
16. 3:31You do not have to win against the tiredness that sits in the bones. You only have to breathe until the next moment arrives.
17. 3:50If you feel emotional, you don't have to explain it to anyone, including yourself.
18. 4:04A gap. Don't rush to fill it with thinking.
19. 4:15We are not solving anything in the next few minutes. We are setting it down, temporarily.
20. 4:30Before you move, notice one thing that's fine right now.

Questions people ask

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