Tension headaches: 7-minute breathing meditation, at your desk

About this practice

When tension headaches shows up at your desk, this 7-minute breathing session gives you somewhere to put it down. A guided session of about 7 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 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 breathing works

A breathing practice uses the breath as the object of attention and as the control lever. Because exhaling slows the heart through the vagus nerve, it acts on the nervous system directly rather than through thinking.

• Keep the exhale longer than the inhale — that is the active ingredient
• Count the exhales and start again whenever you lose count
• Do not force depth; let the breath find its own level

What happens, minute by minute

1. 0:00Let the floor take your weight through your feet, and stop holding yourself up for a second.
2. 0:15You can be as unimpressive as you like for the next few minutes.
3. 0:28You can let your eyes close now if they weren't already.
4. 0:40Bring your attention to the parts of you that are already still.
5. 0:53Breathe as if you had all evening. There's no rush in this part.
6. 1:06Let the breath get soft, the way it goes when someone is reading beside you.
7. 1:20Notice your breathing, without changing it.
8. 1:30Feel your hips. Wide, heavy, and doing nothing.
9. 1:41Notice the weight of your thighs, all the way down.
10. 1:53If the pressure building behind the eyes is loud right now, make your attention smaller. Just the next breath. Nothing beyond it.
11. 2:11Notice where the ache from a long staring day lives in your body. Chest, throat, stomach. Rest your attention there without trying to change it.
12. 2:30Feel the back of your neck. That's a place that holds a lot.
13. 2:43Let it be this simple.
14. 2:52Notice that you don't have to start a breath. It arrives by itself.
15. 3:05Notice your hands again. Check whether they've loosened on their own.
16. 3:17We'll keep it quiet and unhurried.
17. 3:27If you feel restless, that's a feeling, not a failure.
18. 3:39Quiet for a moment. No need to fill it.
19. 3:50Nothing here needs to be efficient.
20. 4:00Notice anything you're holding onto from earlier today.
21. 4:11Count four breaths silently. Then stop counting and just follow.
22. 4:23Quiet now. The next part will wait for you.
23. 4:34Nothing about the band around the forehead has to be explained or justified in this room.
24. 4:49Whatever the pressure building behind the eyes is doing right now, your breathing can keep going underneath it.
25. 5:05Let the exhale empty you a little more than usual, but not to the point of strain.
26. 5:20If you're judging your performance, that's the same habit as judging everything else.
27. 5:33Notice if you're being hard on yourself about any of this.
28. 5:45Let's pause. Just the breathing for a while.
29. 5:56Small efforts are the whole method.
30. 6:06Let the last of the stillness stay with you for a few more seconds.
31. 6:20Notice whether you feel any different. If not, that's also normal.
32. 6:32No rush to move on.

Questions people ask

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