Meditation for physical tension: 5-minute letting go session, at 3pm

About this practice

Nothing to learn and nothing to fix: 5 minutes of letting go for physical tension, at 3pm. A guided session of about 5 minutes, suited to all levels. Nothing is recorded and no account is needed.

What this works on: physical tension

The body stores effort that the mind has finished with. Tension persists in whichever region carries your particular habit — neck, jaw, back or gut.

It tends to show up as:

• A knot between the shoulders
• A clenched jaw you had not noticed
• Ache that appears after stressful days

Tension needs to be noticed before it can release. Scanning it deliberately is not the same as being told to relax.

Doing this in the mid-afternoon

• Sit upright and open a window if you can
• Expect heaviness rather than fighting it
• A short session here beats a longer one that never happens

The dip is a normal circadian low. You are riding it out, not correcting a fault.

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. 0:00Notice the temperature of the air on the backs of your hands.
2. 0:13You have been carrying this competently for a while. A few minutes off will not undo that.
3. 0:28Let your body be exactly as tired as it is.
4. 0:40We're going to move through the body in order, roughly from top to bottom.
5. 0:54Follow three breaths and let the fourth one go unobserved.
6. 1:06Let your belly rise first, then your chest, then the tops of your lungs.
7. 1:20Notice where your body is still holding something. Leave it alone.
8. 1:32Feel the parts of you that have gone quiet.
9. 1:43Notice your elbows. Odd things to have, but there they are.
10. 1:55Take the next breath slowly.
11. 2:04Ask yourself what you could stop holding for the next sixty seconds. That one is a good start.
12. 2:20Notice how quickly your mind labels things: good, bad, boring, nice.
13. 2:32There is no correct amount of the body holding the day to be feeling right now. Whatever is here is the honest amount.
14. 2:50Imagine the knot between your shoulders as a room you can walk out of for a minute. The room will still be there.
15. 3:08Feel the air as it passes the back of your throat. It's cooler going in.
16. 3:22If the clenched jaw you forgot about shows up, let it be there without arguing with it. You are not trying to remove it, just to sit beside it.
17. 3:43If you're judging your performance, that's the same habit as judging everything else.
18. 3:56Let me stop talking. Follow the breath instead.
19. 4:07We are not solving anything in the next few minutes. We are setting it down, temporarily.
20. 4:22Let the next breath be the start of the rest of the day.
21. 4:35Let the quiet do its work.

Questions people ask

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