Hello,
I'm David Younger,
Clinical psychologist,
Therapist and coach.
Welcome to this calm breathing meditation to support grounding and lowering stress.
In this brief guided meditation,
I'll help you bring awareness to your breath and to your body so that you can slow down and begin to create and hold a supportive,
Calming space for yourself.
We live in a fast-paced world and many of us have very busy lives that involve repeatedly moving from one task to another throughout the day.
We also tend to place pressure on ourselves to perform and achieve,
As well as to solve problems,
The result being that all too often we end up existing in a state of chronic stress.
The area of mind-body science tells us now very clearly that chronic stress can lead to many different types of health challenges,
Physical and emotional.
So let's take a few moments now to bring awareness to the breath,
To support grounding and to provide your mind and body with the opportunity to take a healthy break from chronic stress.
Just check that you're seated comfortably with your eyes closed and now start to bring awareness to your breath,
In and then out.
And with the next out breath,
Allow yourself to drop completely into yourself and to just start to let things be.
Taking on a non-judgmental and just noticing approach,
Keep your awareness on your breath,
Breathing in for four seconds by counting silently to yourself,
Holding ever so briefly and then exhaling for four seconds.
And just repeat now for a few moments,
Allowing and supporting yourself to settle in to a nice calm breathing rhythm.
And whenever your mind becomes distracted,
Just gently escort it back to your breath.
Within our amazing bodies,
There's an established interrelationship between our nervous,
Endocrine and immune systems.
Busy and demanding periods in life that lead to chronic stress activate these systems and keep them working harder than they need to.
With time,
Ill health often emerges.
But by choosing to live life in a more intentional way,
By developing a daily practice that promotes slowing down and holding space for ourselves,
We can start to reduce the activation of these systems.
Calm,
Deep breathing is one way to stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system,
Which is the part of our nervous system that helps to apply the brake and to slow things down internally.
So let's return now to your calm breathing rhythm.
In for four.
And out for four.
In for four,
Making sure that you breathe right down into your stomach.
And then out for four.
Visualise now,
If you will,
A beautiful,
Calming place in nature.
Perhaps somewhere you've been to before or maybe some place completely new.
And keeping your awareness gently on the breath whilst feeling the ground underneath you that is supporting you.
Take a few moments to connect with the beauty and the wonder of this place.
Allow the nature connection to flow through you,
To calm you,
To bell for four and exhale for four.
Mounting silently to yourself.
And now as we start to move toward ending this guided meditation,
Taking a moment to notice changes in the body and the mind and how you're feeling.
Calmer,
Less stressed,
Grounded.
But also realising that,
As is the case with most things in life,
When we start something new that's unfamiliar,
Like cultivating a daily practice that supports slowing down,
A bit of time,
Patience and consistency is needed.
So I want to encourage you to be kind to yourself and to try not to place too many expectations on yourself.
Just let things be and just keep coming back to a daily practice that fits in with your routines but that is also one that helps you to take a healthy break from chronic stress.
Thank you.
