Welcome everyone to this meditation for anxiety.
My name is Sean and I'm a mindfulness coach and a meditation teacher.
And so suffering from anxiety is actually quite common.
Many many people suffer from anxiety more than you might imagine.
Anxiety tends to happen when we spend a lot of time thinking about the future and worrying about what if this happens and what if that happens.
And if you worry enough then anxiety can become quite a physical experience as well.
You know you might experience a lot of physical symptoms because of your anxiety.
And these can range from having an increased heart rate or heart palpitations to feeling tense,
Feeling stressed,
Having irritable bowels,
Headaches and all these kind of different symptoms that come from having anxiety.
One of the amazing things though is that we can treat anxiety and one of the best ways is using mindfulness meditation and that's what I teach.
And anxiety happens when we enter the fight or flight response and we'll get triggered by something and that could be anything at all.
It could trigger anxiety,
It could be work stress,
It could be relationship stress or it could be no seeming reason at all.
Maybe we just feel particularly anxious on a certain day.
And what happens then is we enter the fight or flight response and we tend to get very tense and very very stressed in those times and those situations.
Mindfulness is amazing because it helps us to learn how to calm down our nervous system and calm down our response to anxiety and stress and it helps us to feel safe again ultimately.
Anxiety happens when we don't feel safe.
Some part of us is freaking out and so training ourselves to come back into safety is how we heal from anxiety.
And like I said,
Mindfulness meditation I personally feel is the best way to do that.
So we're going to run through about an eight minute meditation together now.
So just make yourself as comfortable as you can be for this meditation.
Normally we meditate sitting and you're very welcome to sit cross-legged or sit on a chair if you like.
But you're also welcome to lie down.
If you're experiencing anxiety often lying down feels like the best thing to do.
So it's totally up to you.
The main thing is that you feel comfortable and that you feel like you're in a restful position for you.
And once you feel comfortable just make any last little movements or wriggles or adjustments you need to so that you can be comfortable for this meditation.
And then allowing your eyes to close and just taking some time just to turn inwards.
Know that there's nowhere else that you need to be right now.
There's nothing else that you need to be doing.
There's no work to do or no one else for you to please in this time.
This time is all for yourself.
So can you just simply allow your body to relax?
It's very normal to feel tight or tense in your body.
So just do a little scan of your body.
Notice if there's anywhere where you're still holding on to tightness or tension.
It could be in your hands and your fingers and if so can you just soften there.
Maybe your shoulders.
Sometimes we carry the weight of the world on our shoulders,
All of our responsibilities.
Can you just simply allow them to relax?
And also the muscles in the face and the jaw.
Even your tongue can relax right now.
And just feel more of a sense of relaxation in the whole of your body.
In the whole of your body.
And then I want you to just start by noticing sounds.
Notice what the furthest sound away is from you that you can hear right now.
Maybe sounds outside of your room or your house.
And then noticing sounds that are a little bit nearer.
So sounds within your room.
A sound of my voice.
And then noticing what the nearest sound to you is that you can hear right now.
Maybe you can even hear the sound of your own breath.
And just starting to notice your breath.
We're not trying to change your breath in any way.
Just start to be aware of and notice your breath as it moves.
I want you to bring to mind now a time in your life or a moment in your life where you felt very relaxed.
Where you felt very calm.
This could be a memory from childhood or it could be a more recent memory.
Just bringing up this memory into your mind's eye right now.
See and feel yourself to be there in this very moment.
Could be a moment you spent on the beach watching a sunrise or a sunset.
Could be another time in nature you had.
Could be some enjoying time or enjoyment time you had with friends at some point.
Just bringing to mind a time in your life where you felt really calm and really relaxed.
Remember how it looked to be there.
What were the sights that are around you?
What were the smells?
What were the feelings and the emotions that were present in you at that time?
Really feeling and imagining yourself to be there in this very moment.
And also notice the relaxation you feel in your body to be back in this time in this period.
Where there were much less worries.
So many less responsibilities.
Life seemed a lot easier somehow.
And just really feel the relaxation in your body that comes from remembering this time.
Notice everything that was around you in this time.
And just simply allow your body to rest in this memory.
A time when you felt so relaxed,
So calm,
So at ease.
A time where you felt really present and in the moment.
And then just coming back to this meditation now.
Notice how your body feels after just bringing up that memory.
Part of healing from anxiety is retraining our brain to not go down the neural pathways that it's been going down.
To actually start going down more positive and nourishing pathways.
One of the best ways we can do this is to bring up memories of times where we felt good and where we felt calm and relaxed and at peace.
So just notice your body right now.
How does your body feel now?
Maybe it feels relaxed.
Maybe it still like there's some tension or tightness there.
And if so,
That's okay.
This will ease over time.
The more you can remind yourself through your day to rest,
To relax,
To come back into the present moment,
The better.
Just for the final moments of this meditation,
Just simply allow yourself to rest here.
Allow yourself to rest.
We're going to take three deep breaths to close this meditation.
So when you're ready,
Take a nice big deep inhale through your nose.
When you're full of breath,
Open your mouth and just exhale all the breath away.
And then another big inhale through your nose as deep as you can this time.
Whenever you're full,
Open your mouth and maybe sigh the exhale away.
Just one final time,
Big inhale through your nose as deep as you can.
Open your mouth and just exhale all of the breath away.
