5 Minute Meditation for Letting Go
This 5 minute guided meditation is for the extra weight you are still carrying — a conversation, a mistake, a version of yesterday that will not leave. You will practice putting it down for these minutes, not because it never mattered, but because you cannot live well while gripping it.
Before you begin
Sit. Name what you are holding once, silently. Then follow the exhalations.
Read the transcript22 spoken passages
To begin this meditation for letting go, notice where you are gripping.
When your body feels ready, you may softly close your eyes.
With your eyes closed, take a moment to find the fist in the mind, or in the hands.
First, simply noticing hold — jaw, belly, a rehearsed thought — without throwing it away.
Letting go can be one degree looser. Not a dramatic drop. A small unclenching.
What else do you notice that you have been carrying as if it were glued?
What is it like to loosen the grip one degree, and then stop there?
You can release without discarding your life. Softening is not exile.
There is nothing you must banish. Hands can open and still be yours.
Soften the jaw. Soften the shoulders. Let the fingers uncurl on the thighs.
And letting the hold ease one notch.
Continue now with the exhale as a quiet unhooking, as well as the body.
On the out-breath, offer the gripping one degree. Not all of it. Just one.
Thoughts may keep moving. You do not have to wrestle them to the ground.
Keeping your eyes closed, allow your awareness to include space the fingers just made.
As if there is room around the old story, and you do not have to shove it out.
There is nothing to throw away. There is only this slightly kinder hold.
If your mind wanders back to the grip, that is okay. Loosen one degree again.
Being connected to hands, breath, and this short stretch of unclenching.
You let release be possible. Including what you still keep.
Now let your attention travel back. Roll the shoulders. Feel the open hands.
Take this one-degree softness with you, as you slowly open your eyes.