Meditation For Stress And Overthinking

A 12 minute meditation practice to soothe an anxious, overwhelmed and overthinking mind. Includes a soothing breath practice to settle the nervous system and some mindful self inquiry to bring you space and a sense of inner calm.

Transcript

Hi,

Welcome to this practice for stress and overthinking.

So this one's designed to help you connect to a sense of openness and gentleness and receptivity when your mind feels everything but that.

So that your head and the endless pursuits that are going on in there can rest and find a sense of okayness with things in your life exactly as they are right now regardless of how they look.

So either find a comfortable seat or come to lie down it's up to you you can lie down or sit for this one and let yourself settle in so sitting tall in your seat if you are seated and laying fully down and relaxed if you are laying you might want to bring one hand to your heart one hand to your belly or both hands on the belly or both hands just resting in the lap if you're seated totally up to you and close your eyes and give yourself full permission to be here now starting to connect to your breath just natural breathing here not adjusting the breath at all and just noticing each inhale and exhale traveling in naturally through the nose and offer yourself this time here nowhere else to be nothing else to do noticing your breath finding space I'm going to offer you a rhythm that we can apply to the breath here that will help to settle the mind and calm down your nervous system so we inhaling for a count of four and when you do that I want you to take a full breath so you're inhaling a full breath for the count of four and then a slow smooth exhale for the count of eight okay so small in not as long inhales and longer exhales and that's going to help to calm and ground so finish the natural exhale you're on now and then together we're going to take the next inhale for a count of four three two one and then exhale for eight seven six five four three two one inhale for four three two one exhale eight seven six five four three two one and continue on like that inhaling for four and smooth stream exhale so no bumps smoothing out any jagged edges that you might find in the breath out for eight and in for four and get a sense that on every breath out you're peeling back or releasing another layer of tension of thought of needing to be anywhere else or doing anything else and if it feels okay to you feel free to pause at the bottom of the exhale just for a count or two and notice how that feels calming smoothing grounding releasing just take a few more cycles like that feeling yourself land more and more here last cycle in for four out for eight and then pausing at the bottom for as long as feels good for you and then releasing the technique completely I'm returning to a natural breath keeping the eyes closed and staying either in your seat or you're laying down posture and relax your face here relax your belly now I'm going to give you a direction to connect to a sense a felt sense of openness and emptiness in the environment you're in so cast your mind's eye ahead of you and feel or sense or envision absolutely nothing physically in front of you all the way into the horizon so nothing there and then the same to the right of you nothing total spaciousness all the way into the distance and then to your left nothing there either all the way out for as far as the world stretches and as well nothing behind you completely empty space open spaciousness extending above you nothing there at all completely open and empty and beneath you nothing empty spacious and free so from all directions you are almost suspended in this moment here and get a sense of how this spaciousness that surrounds you helps to awaken a sort of a sense of openness to in your mind and maybe even in your heart as if your whole being has a way of being wide open right now and then you are simply here so I want you to direct this relaxed awareness into rest in the very center of your body and just watch now as you effortlessly breathe yeah watching the body breathe itself and as you observe the body and you observe the breath moving through you so naturally and effortlessly can you do it in a way that you don't place any label on the breath at all so you're just watching it you're not defining it as being good or bad or deep or shallow you're just simply watching the breath watching it calm and go with zero effort and notice if your mind does want to label your breath as as good or bad or something else and gently pose this question back to yourself what if I don't know what if that opinion or that label isn't actually accurate and just notice how with that question your mind is suddenly disarmed but relaxed as though your mind has permission here to relax the tendency it has to need answers or to need clarity and to simply just allow spacious observation what if I don't know what if the breath is just the breath now bring your awareness to the field of your mind and just observe what's going on up there noticing what comes up and see if you can observe again without any labels there might be a thought or an emotion or an opinion or a memory that arises and you might notice here how your mind has a tendency to want to label those things or to categorize them or tie a thought to every element that passes through but can you loosen that grip and just observe it all from a place of non-judgment non-labeling how about asking yourself again what if I don't know what if that belief or that opinion or that label just isn't accurate and what if I don't actually need to know what if I'm wrong and what if I don't actually need to be right what if there is no real right answer ever just notice how these questions help to loosen the grip of your mind's discriminative faculty so that's the part that wants things explained and in boxes all of the time feel how it instead just creates this open and safe field where you can relax your opinions you can relax your judgments your attachments and your perceived needs and the urgency that can build see how here you can just start to open into the experience of this moment exactly as it is and exactly how you are too here and now so there's nothing to fix nothing to pursue nothing to change nothing more to know and nothing else to be just allow yourself to gently rest here in this spaciousness this okayness and relax into it again and again what if I don't know and what if it's all okay gently bring your awareness back to your breath now and just observe this sense of openness and gentleness and receptivity that you've awakened from within you big or small just notice it there now and let let that be what guides the way that you meet yourself from here and how you meet the rest of the world open gentle and receptive it's okay have a beautiful day namaste

Reviews

I’m book marking this meditation. Really helpful in getting out of my head.

I loved this! Grateful I found this. It is just what I needed.🙏💚

Great way to quietly find came and peace in a racing mind 🙌🏼💓🙏🏼

Calming and lovely as expected x

Exactly what I needed today 💜

Amazing!!! Thanks for helping me start my morning calm and collected 😘🙏🙏