Meditation for fatigue: 12-minute noting session, at midday

About this practice

When fatigue shows up at midday, this 12-minute noting session gives you somewhere to put it down. A guided session of about 12 minutes, suited to all levels. Nothing is recorded and no account is needed.

What this works on: fatigue

Fatigue is deep tiredness of the kind that sleep does not fully clear, usually after a stretch of sustained demand.

It tends to show up as:

• Tired behind the eyes all day
• Heavy limbs
• Rest that does not refresh

Here the practice should be restful rather than stimulating. Quiet and unambitious is the right dose.

Doing this at lunch

• Do it before eating rather than after, so you are not working against digestion
• Leaving the desk matters more than the session length
• Take the headphones off afterwards so the break registers

A break that happens at the same desk is only half a break.

How noting works

Noting is a technique from insight practice: when something arises, you give it a single plain label — thinking, hearing, planning — and return to the anchor. The label creates a small distance between you and the content.

• Use one word, not a sentence — explaining means you have joined in
• Label and return; do not follow the thought to see where it goes
• Drop the labelling if it becomes effortful and just follow the breath

What happens, minute by minute

1. 0:00Let your eyes soften. Not closed, just less busy.
2. 0:11Nothing here needs to be efficient.
3. 0:21Notice the pause at the end of each breath. It's short, but it's there.
4. 0:35Notice whether your breathing is high in your chest or low in your belly. Just notice. No fixing.
5. 0:51Notice the small pause before your body decides to breathe in again.
6. 1:04Feel your breath move down your back, all the way to your lower ribs.
7. 1:18Let the whole of your right foot be heavy.
8. 1:29Feel your belly. Let it be soft instead of held in.
9. 1:41Notice your eyebrows. They're probably doing something small right now.
10. 1:53Feel your tongue sitting in the bottom of your mouth.
11. 2:05Notice how the end of the reserves changes shape when you stop resisting it. Usually it gets smaller, not bigger.
12. 2:22Picture the bone-deep tiredness as a weather front passing over. You are not the weather. You are the sky it moves through.
13. 2:40Let the breath move at the speed of a sleeping person.
14. 2:52If you feel emotional, you don't have to explain it to anyone, including yourself.
15. 3:06We'll take this slowly, and there's no version of this where you get it wrong.
16. 3:20Let's pause. Just the breathing for a while.
17. 3:31If your mind has wandered, that's not a mistake. Noticing is the practice.
18. 3:44You can be as unimpressive as you like for the next few minutes.
19. 3:57Quiet for a moment. No need to fill it.
20. 4:08If your body wants to move, let it move, then come back.
21. 4:21Let this be easy, if easy is available.
22. 4:32Silence. Let your shoulders drop again if they've crept up.
23. 4:44If your mind is quiet, don't grab at it. Quiet comes and goes too.
24. 4:58If you only manage half of it, that's half more than nothing.
25. 5:11Let me stop talking. Follow the breath instead.
26. 5:22Notice the exact moment your attention left. You probably won't catch it. That's normal.
27. 5:36We'll keep it quiet and unhurried.
28. 5:46Feel your upper back against whatever is behind it.
29. 5:57Feel the last part of the exhale, where it turns into nothing.
30. 6:10Let the pause stretch out.
31. 6:19Move to your forehead. Let it be smooth instead of gathered.
32. 6:31Count down from ten, one number per exhale.
33. 6:42No rush to move on.
34. 6:51Now the right shoulder. Let it be a centimetre lower than it was.
35. 7:04Breathe as if you had all evening. There's no rush in this part.
36. 7:17Let the quiet do its work.
37. 7:27Notice the space between your shoulder blades.
38. 7:37Notice the difference between the breath at the front of your nose and the breath in your chest.
39. 7:53Take the next breath slowly.
40. 8:02Notice your pelvis resting on the surface below you.
41. 8:13Each time your mind hands you the heaviness behind your eyes, treat it like a leaf on a stream. Present for a moment, then carried on.
42. 8:32No words for a moment. Only the next breath.
43. 8:43There is a part of you that has handled hard moments before. That part is here now, even if it is quiet.
44. 9:01Let your shoulders stay still while your ribs move.
45. 9:12the bone-deep tiredness may quiet down, or it may not. Either is fine. We are practising staying, not performing calm.
46. 9:29Give the heaviness behind your eyes a shape, a colour, a temperature. Turning it into something specific makes it easier to hold.
47. 9:47Let your ribs widen on the in-breath instead of your shoulders lifting.
48. 10:00Notice any urge to check something. You can wait two more minutes.
49. 10:13Notice the pull to make this mean something. It doesn't have to.
50. 10:26Let's rest here in silence. It's short.
51. 10:36There's no need to try harder than this.
52. 10:47No need to open your eyes yet.
53. 10:57Let the pace of the last few minutes set the pace of the next few.
54. 11:11Wiggle your fingers and toes, gently, like you're testing that they still work.
55. 11:24Nothing changes for a moment.

Questions people ask

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