Progressive Muscle Anchoring

Follow Cristine as you relax and center yourself with the method of anchoring. This practice is effective in acute times of stress and anxiety. Either listen during the day for a quick SOS or at night as you drift off to a peaceful sleep.

Transcript

Hello friend,

I'm so glad that you've decided to take this moment and just pour back into yourself and learning a new skill that helps alleviate anxiety,

Stress,

And panic.

This guided meditation is the opposite of all of those and by practicing this and other methods of relaxation,

You can easily achieve your goal of becoming more calm,

Comfortable,

And relaxed.

Wouldn't that be amazing?

To come back to yourself,

To settle your nervous system,

And to just be more like you.

This isn't something that you need to try to do.

You just allow it to occur.

Just follow my directions and the sound of my voice and you will find at the end of the session you will feel more calm and relaxed.

And isn't that something wonderful?

So let's just take a moment and allow ourselves to take some natural breaths in and out.

Breathing in and out.

There's no right or perfect way to do your very own breath.

It's just your body's natural response to breathing.

It's something your body knows how to do already just as it will be to relax.

And know that as we go into this guided meditation,

I'm simply going to give you some instructions and some guidance that can help bring you to a point of physical and mental relaxation.

What I'd like you to do is simply make yourself as comfortable as you possibly can.

This may be sitting in your favorite chair or lying down on your bed or on the floor.

Whichever makes you the most comfortable in this moment is exactly as it should be.

This is your time to experience what it is that you would like to experience.

While we drift into the relaxation of this meditation,

I'm going to give you some suggestions in regards to relaxation.

And I truly do believe it can help you experience serenity and peace.

How much we so desire that in our day.

Our days filled with stress and anxiety,

To-do's and to-be's.

But at this time,

You need nothing other than to just exist and attend to yourself.

Now I'm going to ask you to after getting comfortable,

That you close your eyes.

You may notice some spots in your body where you're carrying a little bit of tension from the day.

Just draw your attention to those spaces and make the decision to let go of that tension.

Give it permission to just release.

Just allow all the muscles in your body to become more relaxed.

Just notice that your breathing has become a bit slower too already.

Very good.

Just breathing in and breathing out,

Our slow breaths bring us to a nice,

Easy state.

Very good.

And as you relax,

Just imagine the muscles in the top of your head,

The muscles in your brow,

And the muscles along your eyes and cheeks.

And all the muscles in your lips are simply letting go of any tension.

And as you allow your body to relax physically,

It's okay to let your mind wander and think of anything that brings you pleasant thoughts.

You do not have to perform right now.

Just continue relaxing the muscles in your body,

Along your shoulders,

Down into the arms.

Just a golden wave of relaxation through your fingertips,

Just warming its way to the very tip,

Coming back up into your shoulders and down through your upper back.

This golden wave of relaxation is sweeping up the tension and washing it away.

It continues moving all the way down your spine.

And you can picture all of the stress,

All of the overwhelm just leaving your body as you relax.

Pay attention to the muscles in your chest,

Your stomach,

And in your lower back.

If your mind notices that any of these muscles are tense,

Simply allow that golden wave to let go of that tension.

And notice as your muscles become limp and loose,

Like a big pile of rubber bands.

And as they become more loose,

You experience serenity and peace.

And this too,

Brings you even to a deeper state of relaxation.

Relaxing the mind is also an easy thing to do.

As you notice your body becomes more relaxed,

Your mind also becomes relaxed.

Our legs do a lot of work for us.

They run,

They jump,

They carry.

And sometimes the tension of the day can be stored in the muscles along the hip,

The buttocks,

And your upper leg.

And just a minute and just imagine that wave of golden warmth going through these places,

Flushing out any tension.

Just let that tension flow from the top of your leg,

Through your knees,

Down through your calves,

Through the muscles of the feet,

And the ankles,

And out of your toes.

And you notice at this point,

You feel very relaxed and very calm.

You notice that this experience is tranquil and peaceful.

And if you need to swallow or scratch an itch,

That's okay.

If you adjust for comfort,

That's okay as well.

From your head to your toes,

You've allowed that warmth of relaxation to become completely and totally in your body.

And your mind has the capacity to relax as well.

And now is the time to learn new ways of thinking.

This feeling of relaxation is exactly what you need to feel.

Sometimes relaxation makes you feel like you could open your eyes if you wanted to,

But it feels so good that you simply continue to choose to keep them closed.

Let's just experience this moment and enjoy it.

And as you allow your entire body to become limp,

Loose,

And relaxed,

These moments will become very meaningful to you because these moments are allowing your mind and your body to have control by being relaxed.

And you can just allow yourself to simply drift,

Float,

And dream,

Not paying any specific attention to the words that I'm saying.

Or you can carefully hear each word.

Either way is fine.

And either way will produce the opposite of anxiety.

As you relax,

Pay attention to your left thumb and index finger.

Just be aware of these two fingers resting.

As you relax,

It's perfectly okay to relax and pay attention as I ask you to touch the tips of these two fingers together.

So do that now.

Press the tip of the thumb and the tip of the index finger on your left hand.

And for a second,

Press those fingers tightly together.

Perfect.

Now let your hand and fingers relax as you continue to let every muscle in your body become loose and limp.

And just take a moment to enjoy this state of calm serenity you just created.

Now touch those fingers again.

This moment of relaxation.

Thumb and index finger together,

Pressing tightly,

Relaxing into a deeper state of physical and mental calm.

And release.

Perfect.

Now what we have done here is a very first lesson that allows you to create an anchor to being calm.

In the future,

When you want to return instantly to a state of calm,

Simply touch your fingers together for a moment and you'll return to a state of physical and mental relaxation.

You can use this little skill into every situation in life.

You can use it at this very moment to go deeper into a state of calm.

Try it.

Touch those two fingers together for a moment.

As you relax them,

You will notice that your experience of relaxation doubles.

You'll notice changes in the way you begin to experience feelings of hope and optimism.

And your body becomes even more relaxed.

And you continue to feel a sense of relaxation.

And as you relax,

You understand that all of these suggestions are going to be kept in your subconscious mind.

These are not suggestions that I think you must hear.

These are suggestions that you would like based on your desire to feel more calm and relaxed.

In fact,

When you hear these suggestions,

You can imagine that they are coming from you.

You are guiding yourself into a deeper state of being more calm.

And you know that in any situation in life,

You can create your own calm.

Just as you can create an anxious state,

An anxious state,

You can create a state of calm and relaxing.

And you know this because in just this little short time together,

We've relaxed both the mind and the body.

And we know that any time we need to create mental or physical calm,

We simply touch our left index finger to our thumb and we come right back to this place.

And as we decide to either come back to the here and now,

Or maybe our subconscious subconscious has decided it's time to sleep,

Whichever works for us in that moment is exactly as it should be.

There is no perfect way to program this new state of calm.

There is no perfect way,

Just the way that makes sense to us.

And we can trust that all the new beliefs that are needed and all the new skills we are learning are taking effect just as they should.

And as we dream,

Or as we go on with our day,

We feel a sense of hopefulness and optimism because we know that we are in complete control of our own experience.

And that which was yesterday does not have to be today.

We can choose a different outcome than we've had before.

As we allow our body to continue its natural rhythm of breathing,

We allow ourselves the autonomy to drift to drift or to come back to the here and now,

Whichever feels right to us in this particular moment.