Meditation for stress: 7-minute letting go session, in the evening

About this practice

Slow, spoken guidance for stress. A letting go session you can do in the evening. A guided session of about 7 minutes, suited to all levels. Nothing is recorded and no account is needed.

What this works on: stress

Stress is a load that does not come off. Muscle tension accumulates in the shoulders, jaw and gut, and the body stops returning to baseline between demands.

It tends to show up as:

• Shoulders sitting up near the ears
• Short temper over small things
• Waking already tired

Short practices work on the physical part of the load. They do not remove the demands, but they stop the body storing all of them.

Doing this in the evening

• Dim the lights first — bright light works against the point
• Put the phone in another room
• Keep it slow rather than interesting

Something too engaging will wake you up rather than wind you down.

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. 0:00Then find the nearest sound. It's probably your own breathing.
2. 0:12Pick one thing you are gripping — a plan, a worry, a grudge — and loosen a single finger.
3. 0:28This is not a performance. Nobody is listening to how well you're doing it.
4. 0:42Let your sense of the room shrink down to just your body and the surface you're on.
5. 0:57Count four breaths silently. Then stop counting and just follow.
6. 1:09Let your breathing be boring. Boring is good here.
7. 1:20Notice your pelvis resting on the surface below you.
8. 1:31Notice the weight of your thighs, all the way down.
9. 1:43Feel your heart somewhere in there, doing its work without instructions.
10. 1:55the low-grade alarm of being stretched thin may quiet down, or it may not. Either is fine. We are practising staying, not performing calm.
11. 2:14Imagine softening the edges of the load you are carrying. Not erasing it, just letting the sharp parts go a degree softer.
12. 2:32Feel your knees. They're just hinges, but they've worked hard.
13. 2:44No need to open your eyes yet.
14. 2:54Count down from ten, one number per exhale.
15. 3:05Feel your hips. Wide, heavy, and doing nothing.
16. 3:16If you're thinking about the next thing on your list, that list will still be there.
17. 3:31Let's rest here in silence. It's short.
18. 3:41Ask yourself what you could stop holding for the next sixty seconds. That one is a good start.
19. 3:57If you feel emotional, you don't have to explain it to anyone, including yourself.
20. 4:11Let the breath be shallow if shallow is what your body wants.
21. 4:24Let's pause. Just the breathing for a while.
22. 4:35Let the exhale carry a little of the tension of too much on the plate with it. Not all of it. Just a little, one breath at a time.
23. 4:56You do not have to like the low-grade alarm of being stretched thin to breathe through it. Liking was never the requirement.
24. 5:14Let the exhale fall out rather than pushing it.
25. 5:25Notice anything you're holding onto from earlier today.
26. 5:36Notice the tone of your own inner voice. Is it kind?
27. 5:48A few quiet breaths. That's all this is.
28. 5:59You have been carrying this competently for a while. A few minutes off will not undo that.
29. 6:14Wiggle your fingers and toes, gently, like you're testing that they still work.
30. 6:27Let your breathing be completely ordinary again.
31. 6:37Stay with it.

Questions people ask

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