Softening meditation for exhaustion (5 min), beside your desk

About this practice

5 minutes to meet exhaustion with less of a fight. A softening practice, beside your desk. A guided session of about 5 minutes, suited to all levels. Nothing is recorded and no account is needed.

What this works on: exhaustion

Exhaustion is what is left after the reserves are gone. The body has stopped asking; it is now insisting.

It tends to show up as:

• Feeling hollow and drained
• Emotionally flat
• Physical heaviness all day

This is not the state to push in. The whole point here is to ask nothing and let the body be heavy.

Doing this at your desk

• Feet flat, back supported, screen away from your eyeline
• You can do this with your eyes open if the office makes closing them awkward
• Unclench the jaw and drop the shoulders first, before anything else

Nobody needs to know you are doing it. Keep it invisible if that makes it possible.

How softening works

Softening is the practice of releasing held tension degree by degree rather than all at once. It targets the physical grip — shoulders, jaw, gut — that persists long after the stressor has passed.

• Soften one place per exhale rather than everything at once
• Let warmth and gravity do the work instead of muscular effort
• If a place will not soften, leave it and go somewhere that will

What happens, minute by minute

1. 0:00Let your shoulders drop about a centimetre. That is roughly where most of us keep the day.
2. 0:15We'll keep it quiet and unhurried.
3. 0:25Bring your attention to where your body meets the surface underneath you.
4. 0:38Let your body be exactly as tired as it is.
5. 0:50Count down from ten, one number per exhale.
6. 1:01Notice the first breath of the day versus this one. They're the same mechanism.
7. 1:15Feel your calves, front and back.
8. 1:25Notice your jaw again. Let your back teeth part slightly.
9. 1:37Feel your face. It's probably softer than it was five minutes ago.
10. 1:50Just the breath, still.
11. 1:59Follow one full breath from the moment it starts to the moment it ends.
12. 2:13I'll stop for a moment. Take the pause at your own speed.
13. 2:26Nothing here needs to be efficient.
14. 2:36Notice any urge to check something. You can wait two more minutes.
15. 2:49If the hollow tiredness starts telling you a story, let the story finish without you adding to it.
16. 3:05the body asking you to stop may quiet down, or it may not. Either is fine. We are practising staying, not performing calm.
17. 3:23Breathe in for four, out for six, if you'd like something to count.
18. 3:36You are allowed to be unimpressed by the drained feeling that rest has not touched. Indifference is a legitimate response.
19. 3:53Notice if you've been frowning at your own thoughts.
20. 4:04I'll leave a gap here. Use it however you like.
21. 4:16We'll take this slowly, and there's no version of this where you get it wrong.
22. 4:30If you drifted off, that was rest, and rest counts.

Questions people ask

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