Letting Go Of Stress And Anxiety

This 20-minute guided meditation touches on letting go, it is an open-awareness meditation but guides you into it. Primarily a body scan but using sounds too. Remember this is only a guide so if you find yourself fighting with the instructions find and go to where the fight is in your body

Transcript

So let's start by getting into a comfortable position. Closing your eyes and bringing our attention into the body, Onto our breathing. So knowing that breathing is happening. So we can start the meditation and anytime we want to be mindful just by giving our bodies a quick scan internally. Now scan will come to your shoulders. Are they around your ears or can they be loosened and softened a little bit? Not forcing them to go down but just watch them go down if they want to. Coming to our face and jaw, Our throat. So bringing awareness to these areas. It brings a few things. First of all it will just acknowledge if any tension is there that we may not have been paying attention to and in that moment as we acknowledge that it's there or see that it's there, The stress can start to leave us. So I was listening to a podcast about letting go last night and sometimes you hear oh if something's bothering you just let it go or just let those thoughts go. And that can be quite difficult because things keep popping back. Something that's bothering us won't just disappear in one instant and never bother us again. So what they're really saying is just let go of thinking about it or getting lost in thought about it. It's not a problem if that thought keeps coming back, Just that one thought, The start of a train of association. It's just we don't follow the rest of the train. And over time the mind will let go by itself or just become non-interested in things that bother us. So the way we do that is build our awareness, Build our mindfulness to make it stronger. So let's do that now. Every time we're paying attention to the body or the present moment, We're strengthening our mindfulness. So feel your feet on the floor or scan the body. Sensations of sitting, The whole lower half of the body, Bringing that to the foreground. And at any time our thoughts will get, Take over and we might be lost. You might not be paying attention. That could be a few seconds or just momentarily. So we're just cultivating persistence and patience. Bringing our arms and hands and the front of our bodies into awareness. Sometimes we may feel just a gentle hum of vibrations, Just the body sitting here. Sometimes there might be throbbing or pulsing. Sometimes an area might call for our attention. Maybe there's some tightness that can, Is calling for us. We go there and the body relaxes. And sometimes an emotion might come up. Maybe we're frustrated or annoyed. Sometimes I used to get frustrated with my mind, Always wondering. And you just notice that frustration. That's just as equally valid to be mindful of. In fact, Maybe more important to be mindful of because that's how we notice that we are getting frustrated and we can free ourselves from that. So our task really is just to sit comfortably. Not trying to get anywhere or achieve anything. Trying to maintain our mindfulness of physical sensations. And we learn, Or can we learn to, That it's okay with whatever comes up. So whether that's something pleasant or unpleasant, Something neutral. And we just sit and watch it come up, Watch it fade away. And especially when something unpleasant part leaves us, It does leave a gap or space of relaxation, Peace. Once again, Feel sensations in our shoulders and jaw, Eyes, Face. And we just start to recognize what sort of thoughts come up, Maybe different parts of the day. As our mood or hormones change, That does affect how we think, How we feel. So I was watching a yoga teacher and he was saying, He always felt his mind is busier in the mornings. There's a bit more anxiety in the mornings. So we just learn to know and accept this part of ourselves. Maybe that means we need to just do a bit more meditation in the mornings to bring ourselves back to calmness. So see if we can just let whatever wants to come up, To come up. Maybe we struggle at first, But then can we just let it happen? Notice breath in our nose, Bring in sounds and then come back into the body and see if we can feel the whole body sitting. It's like it's radiating energy. To build a strong mindfulness practice, We can, As well as obviously the meditation we've just done, But just little and often throughout the day, Just feel our body sitting as we work, Just pause for a few seconds, Maybe just even for one breath. And then re-establish calm and then we can carry on for the next few minutes. And carry on what we were doing and then just come back again, Now and again. Bringing our attention back into the body as we stand still or sit. Perhaps if we're in a meeting and we're not talking, We can just meditate, Have one eye, As it were, On the meeting, On the rest of our attention in the body. So finally, A deep breath. Really feel the breath entering the lungs and the shoulders and then breathe out naturally. Breathe in naturally, Breathe out naturally. Open our eyes and, Yeah, Just sit for a second, Attention within. Have a soft gaze, Not really looking at anything. Perhaps just feel our breathing once again and we'll end it there.

Reviews

Great pace to the guidance. Also, the invitation to reflect on types of thinking at different times of day. Interesting to consider .