So when you're ready,
Find somewhere comfortable to sit.
You can lie down also.
You can gently close your eyes.
Draw your attention to your breath as it passes in and out of the nose.
And if you can't breathe through the nose for any reason,
That's fine.
Slow the breath right down about five seconds in,
Five seconds out.
I'll count for you.
Inhale,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Five.
Exhale,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Five.
Inhale,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Five.
Exhale,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Five.
Continue at that pace on your own.
Relax your shoulders.
Relax every muscle in your hand.
Relax the face.
The forehead.
The cheeks.
The jaw.
And just know that this is exactly where you need to be.
All your obligations,
All of the weekend plans,
They'll come,
Don't worry.
For the next 10 minutes,
Try to totally surrender to this moment.
And you may have noticed that your mind is chatting away about all kinds of random nonsense.
Nonsense.
This is totally normal.
It may be thinking,
I feel so stupid.
This meditation's really cool.
This meditation's really bad.
I can't wait for dinner.
I can't wait to walk the dogs.
Whatever it's chatting about,
Just allow it to do so.
And continue breathing through the nose.
Can you locate stress right now?
Perhaps it's in your chest and heart.
Maybe it's in your throat and neck area.
Maybe it's in the face or the head.
It could be everywhere all at the same time.
Find your stress for me and lay it all on the table in front of you now.
This is your chance to confront and see your stress.
So take your breath and bravely and gently breathe into your stress slowly.
This won't be easy,
So you're doing a great job.
Thread your breath into your stress.
We are doing this so that we don't continue to unconsciously run away from our stress.
We're integrating our stress.
You don't have to do anything with the stress.
You don't have to try to remove the stress.
Your only job is to breathe into it.
Feel it.
I'm giving you permission to feel the flavors of your stress,
To taste your stress.
Keep going a little longer.
Well done.
And return to your shoulders.
Relax your shoulders and relax those.
When we face our pain,
We often clench up.
See if you can find any muscles that you're gripping onto and let them go.
Slow nostril breathing,
Soft body,
Weaving the breath through the stress.
We are doing this so that we stop running away from our stress.
Most of us,
Myself included,
Are trying to some degree to run away from our stress.
So this moment is to see it.
And this takes away all the power from the stress and places it in your hands.
And I'm going to give you some affirmations now.
You don't have to believe the affirmations.
Just allow the affirmations to absorb into you as much as they want,
As much as you want.
Repeat them in your mind.
I bravely sit in my stress.
I bravely sit in my stress.
And my stress dissolves.
And my stress dissolves.
And my stress dissolves.
I'm so proud of myself for facing my stress.
I'm so proud of myself for facing my stress.
Even though I still feel stressed,
All is well.
And when you're ready,
Gently open your eyes.
We're still meditating.
It hasn't finished just yet.
And just allow the visuals around you to arrive into your mind.
We've finished our meditation.
Well done.
