Meditation for financial stress: 5-minute grounding session, as sleep prep

About this practice

Slow, spoken guidance for financial stress. A grounding session you can do as sleep prep. A guided session of about 5 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 before sleep

• Dim the lights and put the phone out of reach
• Do it in bed if that helps you stay there
• Let yourself fall asleep rather than finishing it

Checking anything afterwards undoes most of it. Let this be the last thing.

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 one breath that is slightly slower than the last one. That is enough to start.
2. 0:15Let this be easy, if easy is available.
3. 0:26Now let your attention move from the room into your body, slowly, the way you'd move through a doorway you know well.
4. 0:44Let the breath get a little quieter, as if you were trying not to wake someone sleeping nearby.
5. 1:00Feel the air as it passes the back of your throat. It's cooler going in.
6. 1:14If you're holding your breath at the top, stop. There's no need to hold anything.
7. 1:28Move to your forehead. Let it be smooth instead of gathered.
8. 1:40Feel your upper back against whatever is behind it.
9. 1:51Notice the weight of your thighs, all the way down.
10. 2:03Stay with it.
11. 2:11Silence for a few breaths. Nothing to do in it.
12. 2:23We'll keep it quiet and unhurried.
13. 2:33Notice the moment you realise you've drifted. That moment is the whole skill.
14. 2:46You do not have to like the arithmetic that will not balance to breathe through it. Liking was never the requirement.
15. 3:03Think of the worry that follows the bills as a guest that arrived without knocking. You can let it stand in the hallway.
16. 3:21Breathe in for four, out for six, if you'd like something to count.
17. 3:34Remind yourself, slowly: I am safe in this moment, even while the fear about money in the night is here. Safety and difficulty can share a room.
18. 3:54Notice how you're sitting. Adjust if you need to. Then settle again.
19. 4:07A short silence. Let it be empty.
20. 4:17If you only manage half of it, that's half more than nothing.
21. 4:30Come back to your body first, and the rest of the day second.

Questions people ask

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