When Anxiety Feels Like Too Much

If anxiety is gripping your body and your mind won’t slow down, this guided meditation is here to help.

Designed for acute anxiety, overthinking, panic, and nervous system overwhelm, this session gently guides you out of the spiral and back into calm through breath, imagery, and deep relaxation. You’ll learn how to contain anxious thoughts without fighting them, allowing clarity, safety, and emotional relief to return.

Get comfortable, press play, and let your body settle.

Transcript

Today,

The meditation is on anxiety.

So,

If that's why you've tuned in,

Then I am that person who has overcome anxiety.

Crippling,

Crippling anxiety.

So,

If you find yourself really feeling it,

Not just thinking fearful thoughts,

But also just kind of shutting down physically.

You know,

You don't want to leave.

It's all too much.

You feel overwhelmed.

There's so much second guessing.

There's so much self-doubt.

Then this meditation is for you.

So,

When you're ready,

Get an eye mask.

Get a blanket.

Lay down.

Get so comfortable that my voice can help you just feel safe and supported.

So,

When you're ready,

Sit back,

Close your eyes,

And let's begin.

Let's begin this guided meditation for anxiety.

If this moment has caught you in one of those spirals where thinking has just turned into a battlefield,

And the body now is tense,

Restless,

Uncomfortable,

I want you to know you and I have experienced many,

Many the same day,

The same hour.

So,

Even though up until now,

Anxiety may have been the driver,

May have stepped onto center stage,

Right when you're planning on having a good day or a good evening,

I do know what that's like.

And that's why we're here together.

Because up until now,

You may not have taken action on what you need to know you need to do.

Write it down.

Exercise.

Talk to yourself.

Talk to a friend.

Go out in nature.

But not when anxiety hits.

Not when it captures your whole body and mind.

Not in hours like that.

So,

If by chance you're having one of those ruminating moments,

Minutes,

Hours,

I want you to find a place where you can simply sit back and let go on a journey together.

Let's enter your imagination.

Because what I want you to know that's taken me years to understand is that warriors like myself have a great imagination.

So do the anxious crew.

But we can also utilize that powerful engine within us in the right way.

In the way that can encourage us and set us thinking,

Believing,

Behaving,

In the right direction.

Now drop your shoulders.

Now slow the breath down.

In and through your nose.

If you haven't already.

I want you to imagine that I'm just in front of you.

And I want you to know that not only have I been isolated inside my own brain,

I have found a way out of that torment.

And it's been decades upon decades of freedom.

So,

Slow the breath down just a little bit.

Not a big deal.

And we're going to enter your imagination.

But first,

I want you to take care of your body.

So notice if you need to change positions or the temperature or grab a blanket or if there's anything else that you need.

And then allow all the muscles across your face to be smooth.

And allow your jaw to be slightly open,

Just a little bit,

So there's no clenching.

And then travel down and across your shoulders.

And just allow your shoulders to melt and soften.

And then maybe even your arms to begin to relax.

And allow yourself to become heavy.

Don't worry.

I know that your thoughts may still be trying to center stage and yell how important everything is.

And it's never a quiet voice.

Until you can have your attention rest on your breath.

Slowing down.

We're not deleting those thoughts.

We're not even trying to clear them out.

We're just going to put them somewhere so that most of your attention can be on two words.

Breathing in calm.

And breathing out relaxation.

Breathing in calm.

Relaxation.

Right now it's just about the body.

We're going to let the mind do its little merry-go-round of thinking about a certain topic over and over.

It's okay.

Right now those two words.

Calm on the in-breath.

Relaxation on the out-breath.

Those two words offer up just a suggestion.

That your body can enter a calm relaxation.

Feel your body sinking into where it is.

Remember we can always go back to those hurried,

Scurried,

Busy thoughts.

We can always go back there.

But what if right now we go into calm relaxation?

Stay in the body a bit.

Notice if you breathe a little bit slower.

Notice the places of calm.

Then notice the places of deeper relaxation.

Thoughts are still there.

What I want you to imagine is a huge glass jar.

Where you can place those topics.

Those situations.

Those relationships in this glass jar.

So that you can organize the anxious thoughts from the neutral thoughts.

So now in your mind's eye,

You can just see the situation.

The label of it.

You might even see a picture of what the situation is.

Where it is.

Is it a person?

Is it a diagnosis?

Is it a situation?

A challenge?

And I want them all to go in this glass jar.

It's a big glass jar.

And even though there are some days,

Many different things go in that glass jar.

It can always contain those anxious responses and activators.

And put those things that you have conflict about,

Anxiety about,

And even some resistance and avoidance.

Let's put them in that glass jar.

So that you can have some clarity between those things that activate anxiety and then places where you can enjoy thinking,

Imagining,

And feeling.

That even pulls into this jar those things that you didn't even realize that have an anxious thread to them.

I'm anxious about that too.

I want you to allow everything to go into this jar.

I want you to put a lid on it.

Just put that lid on it and make it sealed,

Shut tight.

This moment up until now has caused a lot of unrest.

Has disturbed your peace,

Your sleep.

Now I want you to turn your attention to nature.

I want you to imagine that you could walk away from this jar and you could walk right into a place in nature waiting for you.

A place of neutral thought.

A place where the temperature is just right.

Where the time of day is your favorite.

You realize when you're in this place your perspective shifts.

You can look back at this jar and realize it is in its right place too.

It has no place where you are now.

Perhaps even for the first time in a few hours or days or weeks you can look back and you can see I want you to breathe a new breath and I want you to bring in that which gives you comfort.

Is it more nature,

The sun or the moon?

Is it the universe?

Bring in the divine,

The beloved,

The dear trusted elder.

This is your place to simply be.

In that organized container of different topics,

Situations that right now you know and feel at the deepest level that this is where you need to place your attention.

So get more comfortable now and begin welcoming in that connection.

The connection to your inner wisdom,

The connection to guidance.

Everything is in its place now and you can listen from within.

You have made the clearing and you can listen from within.

Let that shift in perspective.

How else can you think about this?

How else can you respond?

Now soften your shoulders.

Listen to your soul emerge.

Again,

That connection,

Our sensations in the body.

As my voice drifts off into the background,

Your connection to that still small voice,

To that inner wisdom,

Becomes clearer and clearer.

Enjoy this time until my voice returns.

Come back and gently and slowly.

I want you to pause here and reflect.

What are you going to take with you?

What is the guidance,

The wisdom that you can apply and take action on?

If it feels right,

You can even begin journaling after this meditation.

If you could take direction from that calmer,

Wiser place within you that you and I know is there.

Right now,

You may have more access to it.

So if that's the case,

Enjoy this time.

Just begin moving your body a bit and remembering to allow the body to help you the next time when your thoughts have stormed the stage and just taken over.

Enter stage forever.

So when you begin slowing down,

Allowing the body to feel calm relaxation,

Slowing the mind will follow.

And you may want to have a glass jar or a glass jar of water.

Where you can put the contents,

The topics,

The challenges in one place and then give yourself that distance between those thoughts and what you actually want to think about.

Though it is so simple,

It doesn't make it easy.

And each time is different.

Each challenge,

Situation is different.

So most of all,

Be patient,

Be gentle with yourself when anxious.

And when it feels right,

I want you to slowly open your eyes and just gaze right in front of you.

Maybe look left and to the right.

Then give a big stretch,

Thanking yourself for this time.

Thank you.