Meditation for financial stress: 20-minute letting go session, when you are overwhelmed

About this practice

Nothing to learn and nothing to fix: 20 minutes of letting go for financial stress, when you are overwhelmed. A guided session of about 20 minutes, suited to all levels. Nothing is recorded and no account is needed.

What this works on: financial stress

Money worry runs at night, when there is nothing to do about it. The lack of any available action keeps the nervous system activated for hours.

It tends to show up as:

Lying awake doing arithmetic
A clenched stomach opening the bank app
Irritability about small spending

At 2am there is no decision to make, only a night to get through. That is the whole job of this practice.

Doing this when you are overwhelmed

Do not decide priorities during it
Pick the shortest session available here
When you finish, write down the first physical action on paper

The pile looks less like a pile once the alarm stops ringing. Sort it after, not during.

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

0:00Notice the heaviest part of your body right now. Let it be heavy.
0:13With each exhale, let a little of the effort go. Not the problem — just the effort.
0:28We're going to let the body lead and the mind follow for a while.
0:42Notice the weight of your arms without moving them.
0:53Let your belly rise first, then your chest, then the tops of your lungs.
1:07Notice the small gap after each exhale. Rest there for half a second.
1:20Feel your face. It's probably softer than it was five minutes ago.
1:33Feel the soles of your feet. All the weight of you goes through them.
1:47Let your thumbs rest wherever they landed.
1:57Move to your forehead. Let it be smooth instead of gathered.
2:09Feel your upper back against whatever is behind it.
2:20If you catch yourself fighting the worry that follows the bills, that is worth noticing. The fight usually costs more than the feeling.
2:38Whatever the fear about money in the night is doing right now, your breathing can keep going underneath it.
2:54Notice the difference between the breath at the front of your nose and the breath in your chest.
3:10There is no correct amount of the arithmetic that will not balance to be feeling right now. Whatever is here is the honest amount.
3:29When the worry that follows the bills arrives, name it once, quietly, and go back to the breath. Naming is not fixing, and that is fine.
3:48Breathe in through your nose and out through your nose, if that's comfortable.
4:01Notice if you're being hard on yourself about any of this.
4:13Setting something down is not the same as giving up. You can pick it up again after.
4:28No words for a moment. Only the next breath.
4:39If you're sleepy, sit up a little. Or let the sleepiness be there.
4:52You have been carrying this competently for a while. A few minutes off will not undo that.
5:07Quiet for a moment. No need to fill it.
5:18Notice any urge to check something. You can wait two more minutes.
5:31Ask yourself what you could stop holding for the next sixty seconds. That one is a good start.
5:47Let's pause. Just the breathing for a while.
5:58Notice whether you're breathing or holding. Start breathing again.
6:09We are not solving anything in the next few minutes. We are setting it down, temporarily.
6:24I'll be quiet for a moment. Stay with the breath.
6:36Notice any tension that arrived while you weren't looking.
6:47Let your body keep settling.
6:56Let the breath be shallow if shallow is what your body wants.
7:09Now feel both feet at once. That's a lot of contact with the world.
7:23Let me stop talking. Follow the breath instead.
7:34Your mind will leave about a hundred times. Come back about a hundred times.
7:48Remain here for a few more breaths.
7:58Notice the small pause before your body decides to breathe in again.
8:11Feel the back of your neck. That's a place that holds a lot.
8:24A few seconds of nothing now. That's on purpose.
8:35If nothing much is happening, that's not a problem. Nothing much is often the point.
8:49Let the pause stretch out.
8:58Breathe in for four, out for six, if you'd like something to count.
9:11Notice the weight of your thighs, all the way down.
9:23Silence for a few breaths. Nothing to do in it.
9:35Notice the tone of your own inner voice. Is it kind?
9:47Notice the breath you're taking right now. That's the only one that exists.
10:00No need to open your eyes yet.
10:10Notice the moment you realise you've drifted. That moment is the whole skill.
10:23I'll leave a gap here. Use it however you like.
10:35Feel your knees. They're just hinges, but they've worked hard.
10:47Notice how many breaths you take in a minute. Don't change the number, just check.
11:01Stay here a little longer.
11:10If you're judging your performance, that's the same habit as judging everything else.
11:23A gap. Don't rush to fill it with thinking.
11:34Notice your toes, starting with the big one on the left.
11:46Let the in-breath be short and the out-breath unhurried.
11:57Just the breath, still.
12:06Notice the difference between a thought and the space around it.
12:18A few quiet breaths. That's all this is.
12:29Let your throat soften. There's nothing to swallow right now.
12:41Let your breathing find the rhythm it uses when you're almost asleep.
12:54Keep following the air.
13:03Notice your hands again. Check whether they've loosened on their own.
13:15Feel the slight stretch at the very bottom of the exhale.
13:27Let the quiet do its work.
13:37Feel your calves, front and back.
13:47Let your shoulders stay still while your ribs move.
13:58Let this one be unhurried.
14:07Feel your ankles. Let them be loose.
14:17Count down from ten, one number per exhale.
14:28Stay a moment longer than is comfortable.
14:38Let the whole of your right foot be heavy.
14:49Imagine softening the edges of the fear about money in the night. Not erasing it, just letting the sharp parts go a degree softer.
15:08Nothing to follow for a moment except your own breathing.
15:20You do not have to like the arithmetic that will not balance to breathe through it. Liking was never the requirement.
15:37Feel the pause at the top of the in-breath. It's shorter than you think.
15:51Notice where the worry that follows the bills lives in your body. Chest, throat, stomach. Rest your attention there without trying to change it.
16:10Give the fear about money in the night a shape, a colour, a temperature. Turning it into something specific makes it easier to hold.
16:29Feel the air as it passes the back of your throat. It's cooler going in.
16:43You are allowed to be unimpressed by the arithmetic that will not balance. Indifference is a legitimate response.
16:59Notice the space around the worry that follows the bills. It is there, even if it is small. Put your attention in that space.
17:18Breathe as if you had all evening. There's no rush in this part.
17:31Notice the pull to make this mean something. It doesn't have to.
17:44If your mind is quiet, don't grab at it. Quiet comes and goes too.
17:58Notice how quickly your mind labels things: good, bad, boring, nice.
18:10A short silence. Let it be empty.
18:20Pick one thing you are gripping — a plan, a worry, a grudge — and loosen a single finger.
18:36Take the next breath slowly.
18:45Take one breath that's a little fuller than the others, and let it out through your mouth.
19:00Let the last of the stillness stay with you for a few more seconds.

Questions people ask

What does this session help with?

Money worry runs at night, when there is nothing to do about it. The lack of any available action keeps the nervous system activated for hours. At 2am there is no decision to make, only a night to get through. That is the whole job of this practice.

Where and when should I do this one?

Do not decide priorities during it. The pile looks less like a pile once the alarm stops ringing. Sort it after, not during.

What actually happens during the 20 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.