Tension headaches: 5-minute noting meditation, during a break

About this practice

When tension headaches shows up during a break, this 5-minute noting session gives you somewhere to put it down. A guided session of about 5 minutes, suited to all levels. Nothing is recorded and no account is needed.

What this works on: tension headaches

Tension headaches follow a band of tightness across the forehead and around the skull, usually the product of long staring, jaw clenching and neck position.

It tends to show up as:

• A band of pressure across the forehead
• Pressure behind the eyes
• Ache worsening through the day

Softening the jaw, eyes and neck interrupts the pattern early. Once a tension headache settles in it is harder to shift.

Doing this on a break

• Leave the room if you can
• Do not start anything else in the same gap
• Set a timer so the break has an end

A break spent half-engaged with a screen is not much of a break. Guard the whole five minutes.

How noting works

Noting is a technique from insight practice: when something arises, you give it a single plain label — thinking, hearing, planning — and return to the anchor. The label creates a small distance between you and the content.

• Use one word, not a sentence — explaining means you have joined in
• Label and return; do not follow the thought to see where it goes
• Drop the labelling if it becomes effortful and just follow the breath

What happens, minute by minute

1. 0:00Part of you is still in the last conversation you had. That's fine. It can sit here too.
2. 0:16Use one plain word, not a sentence. The moment you explain, you have joined in.
3. 0:30Nothing here is a test of concentration. Drifting off is part of it.
4. 0:43Let your attention settle on the space between your nose and your upper lip, where the air passes.
5. 0:59Notice your breathing getting quieter on its own, without you deciding anything.
6. 1:12Count down from ten, one number per exhale.
7. 1:23Feel the back of your neck. That's a place that holds a lot.
8. 1:36Notice your shoulders, one at a time. The left one first.
9. 1:48Feel the middle of your back, the part that never gets attention.
10. 2:01Keep following the air.
11. 2:10You are the one noticing, not the thing being noticed. Stay on that side of the line.
12. 2:25If nothing much is happening, that's not a problem. Nothing much is often the point.
13. 2:39If the band around the forehead shows up, let it be there without arguing with it. You are not trying to remove it, just to sit beside it.
14. 2:59If the pressure building behind the eyes has been with you all day, it is probably tired too. Let it rest alongside you.
15. 3:17Let your breathing get quieter rather than deeper.
16. 3:28If the ache from a long staring day starts telling you a story, let the story finish without you adding to it.
17. 3:46If your mind is quiet, don't grab at it. Quiet comes and goes too.
18. 4:00I'll be quiet for a moment. Stay with the breath.
19. 4:12A label is enough. You do not need to follow the thought to see where it goes.
20. 4:27Notice the room again: the sounds, the temperature, the light.
21. 4:39Stay 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.