A Meditation For Alleviating Feelings Of Stress And Anxiety

Take a journey into the eye of the storm in this guided meditation for alleviating feelings of stress and anxiety. Discover your power as you find peace within. In this meditation, you will be using focused visualization and gentle guided breathing techniques.

Transcript

Hello and welcome to today's meditation for helping alleviate feelings of stress and anxiety.

Before we begin I'd like you to bring some kind awareness to how you are feeling right now in terms of your stress and anxiety level.

So on a scale of 1 to 10,

1 representing a feeling of relaxation and ease and 10 representing the height of stress and overwhelm.

Take this moment to gauge where you are right now.

One of the best ways to tackle feelings of anxiety and stress is through full and conscious breathing.

When we are not present in our bodies,

Our thoughts tend to carry us away from the present moment,

Making stressful situations seem almost debilitating.

When we overthink things,

We tend to get stuck in our heads.

But when we have awareness and focus on our breath and body,

We can bring ourselves back to the present moment,

Giving us a moment to pause and bringing us a sense of peace and clarity.

So that's what we're going to do right now.

So let's begin by honoring our breath.

Let's acknowledge how the breath has the power to bring us back to the present moment.

Let's take five significant and purposeful breaths together.

Inhaling through the nose and exhaling out the mouth.

Releasing the breath as either a sigh or a yawn or a ha.

But however you choose,

Make sure your breath feels authentic to how you are feeling right now.

And so breathing in and breathing out.

Perfect.

We're going to do that again.

Full deep breath in.

Feel the ribs expanding to the sides and hold it for just a moment.

And then breathe out through the mouth.

Allowing yourself to be completely emptied out before breathing again.

We are going to do that again,

But this time as you inhale,

I'd like you to feel the ribs expanding to the sides and then hold the breath for just a moment.

So here we go.

Breathing in.

Full deep breath.

Expanding the ribs and holding.

And then breathing out the mouth.

Allowing yourself to be completely emptied out before breathing again.

Again,

Inhaling more,

More,

More.

Filling up your lungs,

Your belly,

And your back now.

Hovering here for a moment at the top.

And now release the breath slowly out the mouth as if it were escaping through a straw.

That's it.

Breathing in the nose,

Growing,

Expanding,

Feeling every muscle in your body soaking up this oxygen.

Feeling a wave of relaxation sweeping over your entire body.

And whenever you are ready,

Release the breath slowly,

Calmly,

And fully.

Being sure to relish the moments in between each breath.

Again,

Inhale.

Filling up your entire being with delicious,

Nourishing oxygen.

Breathing in life.

Feeling this beautiful wave of relaxation washing over your face,

Neck,

Back,

And shoulders.

And feeling it spilling out onto the floor as you exhale slowly and completely.

Purifying your entire body from the inside out.

That's it.

Now taking note of how you feel at this very moment.

You now have an abundance of oxygen flowing throughout your body.

This is how we were created to feel.

Breathing deeply and fully is an expression of self-love.

You now have an abundance of oxygen flowing throughout your body.

This is how we were created to feel.

Breathing deeply and fully is an expression of self-love.

So now let the flow of your breath find its natural rhythm.

And just imagine your entire being filling up with gratitude and abundance with each breath.

Good.

Now we're going to do a visualization exercise together,

Where we are going to imagine our stress and anxiety as a storm.

So I'd like you to picture standing in a huge open field.

No one else is there but you.

Everything around you is calm and peaceful and serene.

You are surrounded by the beauty and magnificence of nature.

You decide to sit down,

And as you look around,

You notice birds in the sky.

You see leaves on the trees,

And you feel the sun shining down on your face.

Enjoy the soft breeze on your skin.

Feeling fully relaxed and at peace.

Suddenly,

You notice everything becoming very still.

Too still.

You look up,

And in the distance,

You see some dark clouds beginning to form.

The sky is growing darker,

And you see a small storm making its way towards you.

And then it begins to rain.

Imagine that the storm is your stress.

It begins as a mild stress with light rain and a little wind,

But it can quickly escalate to very high stress,

A big storm with extremely strong winds and heavy pouring rain.

You see the storm is picking up speed now.

It seems to be getting stronger and more powerful by the minute.

The clouds are getting thicker.

The wind is blowing harder and harder.

And now it's raining down with fury.

This dark storm of stress is eminent as you sit there in the field contemplating your next move.

So you decide to get up from where you're sitting,

And you start walking towards the storm without fear,

Without worry.

Just pure determination to get there.

Even though the winds are blowing with tremendous speed and the rain is hitting you so hard,

It is both deafening and numbing.

It has no effect on you.

You have faith,

And you are unwavering.

You are confident that you are in control,

And you are getting closer.

Feeling totally empowered,

You look directly into the eye of the storm,

Completely surrounded by the winds and rain crashing down all around you.

Yet you have no worries because you are in the storm's powerful center.

You know that the storm cannot hurt you here.

You have a choice to react to the storm with fear or with love and compassion,

Understanding that this storm is harmless in this visualization you are creating.

Stress is our reaction to fear,

Worry,

And high demands.

Whether our fear is real or not,

We have the choice of how we react to everything we face.

Sometimes we can't help it.

Sometimes life feels out of our control.

Stress can take over in a matter of seconds,

And we must handle it with care,

Or it will handle us.

Just like sitting through a storm in a field,

Stress cannot harm you if you know that in time,

It will pass you by.

What matters is your reaction to the events around you.

Embrace the stress now,

And let it fully exist without fighting it.

You are a peaceful warrior.

You are standing now inside the center,

And everything is calm and peaceful here.

You look around from within the eye of the storm and can see all the chaos around you.

But inside here,

It's safe and calm.

This is your sacred space.

And so,

When stress has fully taken over you,

You have a choice to let it overcome you,

Or to let it blow over you without a fight.

Just sitting right in the middle of it,

Realizing that it cannot hurt you here.

Witnessing your body as the center,

And understanding that any stress is just a storm surrounding you that comes and goes.

You are in control and can always come back to your safe space.

And now you see the storm is losing power.

It's beginning to die down slowly.

The darkness beginning to fade.

The rain is easing up now to only a soft drizzle.

And you can see the clouds above beginning to drift away as the sky becomes lighter and brighter.

The sunlight is peeking through the clouds,

And you sense a beautiful shining light all around you.

You notice birds in the sky once again.

The grasses beginning to separate and dry.

And the sweet scent of flowers is returning to the fresh air as you breathe.

After the heavy rain,

Everything is beautiful now.

This moment represents you in a beautiful state of mind,

Where stress has no control over you as it passes you by.

And now we are going to take three deep breaths together to slowly bring ourselves back to the present moment.

One,

Breathing in fresh energy.

Two,

Breathing in this new perspective.

And three,

As you breathe,

Allowing the memory of your strength through the storm to be present in your mind right now and always.

Good.

How are you feeling?

On a scale of one to ten,

One being peaceful and at ease,

And ten being at the height of stress and anxiety,

Where do you fall now?

I hope this meditation has proven to be helpful.

Please feel free to use this technique whenever you find yourself in a stressful situation.

I really hope this helps you.

We are all in this together.

Namaste.