Mindful Meditation For Anxiety
Mindful Meditation for Anxiety is a guided meditation designed to help individuals find inner peace and calm in the midst of anxiety. This practice focuses on cultivating awareness of the present moment while fostering a deep sense of relaxation and tranquility. The guidance encourages individuals to gently observe their thoughts and emotions without judgment, allowing them to detach from their worries and anxieties. By incorporating gentle breathing exercises and body scan techniques, this meditation aims to release tension and promote a sense of self-compassion and acceptance. With regular practice, this meditation offers a powerful tool for managing anxiety and cultivating a more mindful approach to everyday life. This meditation has been slightly adapted from a meditation found in the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Workbook by Bob Stahl, Ph.D. and Elisha Goldstein, Ph.D.
Transcript
Let's start by taking a position that will support ourselves to be awake and yet relaxed.
You're welcome to sit in a chair,
On a cushion on the floor,
Or perhaps lie down.
As we begin this practice,
Taking a moment to welcome and congratulate ourselves in being here,
That we are actually taking this time to be present,
To go inside into our own lives,
Noticing how we are feeling in the mind and body,
A mindful check-in,
Feeling any sensations,
Any tightness in the body,
As well as feeling into your mood,
Emotions,
And just acknowledging anything that is being felt and letting it be.
Now very gently withdrawing the awareness from the mindful check-in and bringing our attention to the breath,
Being mindful of the breath in the tummy,
Expanding on an inhalation and falling on an exhalation,
Breathing in and breathing out with awareness,
Breathing normally and breathing naturally,
Feeling the rise and fall of the belly.
This type of mindful breathing may help calm us down when we're feeling anxious,
Feeling fearful,
Just being mindful of the breath,
Coming in and going out,
Breathing in and out with awareness.
If we find in the silence that our mind has wandered off,
Gently making note of the wandering and coming back to the breath and the belly,
Breathing in and breathing out with awareness,
Just slowing our lives down,
Making it one inhalation and one exhalation at a time,
Moment to moment.
Now gently withdrawing the awareness from breathing and shifting our focus to a body scan,
Feeling into this body,
Into this world of sensations,
Thoughts,
And emotions and acknowledging whatever is being experienced,
Just like a meteorologist will objectively report the weather on the outside,
We,
As mindfulness practitioners,
Are like internal meteorologists reporting the weather objectively on the inside,
So whatever it is that we are feeling in the body,
In the mind,
Allowing ourselves just to acknowledge whatever is being felt and letting it be and bringing the focus of our awareness into the soles of each of our feet,
Feeling the heels,
The bottom of the feet,
Up to the toes,
The top of the feet and gently above into the ankle joints,
Feeling each of the feet up to the ankles with awareness,
Just acknowledging whatever is felt here or potentially in the mind and letting the awareness rise up into each of the lower legs,
Into the calves,
The hips,
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By all means,
Let that happen.
It's also important to know that if we are unable to soften,
Our practice informs us to let be.
Let whatever sensations ripple and resonate wherever they need to go.
The same applies even to our thoughts and emotions,
Letting them be and feeling into the back with awareness,
Letting the awareness begin to rise up into each of the shoulders,
The shoulder blades,
And gently bringing the awareness down each of the upper arms,
Into the elbows,
Into the forearms,
The wrists,
And the hands,
Feeling sensations from the shoulders to the fingertips and letting be.
Moving the awareness now away from the shoulders to the fingertips and placing our attention into the belly,
A great system of digestion,
Assimilation,
Feeling into the belly with awareness.
Whatever sensations that may be felt,
Tightness,
Nervousness,
Whatever is here,
Acknowledging and letting be as we feel into our belly with awareness.
Now,
Letting the awareness rise up into the chest,
The sternum,
The ribcage,
Then feeling into the great systems of ventilation,
The lungs,
Circulation,
The heart,
Feeling into the chest with awareness.
Being mindful of whatever comes up in the body,
Letting any waves of thoughts,
Emotions,
Or sensations ripple and resonate wherever they need to go,
Feeling into the chest with awareness.
Now,
Bringing the awareness from the chest back up into the shoulders again,
Feeling the shoulders and the connections into the neck and throat,
Letting the awareness from the shoulders,
Neck,
And throat come up into the jaw joint,
One of the most exercised joints of the body.
Home of communication,
Home of how we take in food,
Feeling into the jaw,
Into the mouth,
The teeth,
Tongue,
And letting be.
Feeling into the cheeks of the face,
Into the sinus passages,
Temples,
The head,
And the forehead,
Feeling into the eyes and the muscles around the eyes,
Feeling into the facial structure,
Feeling into the top of the head and the back of the head,
Feeling sensations and letting be,
Feeling in through the ears,
Into the inside of the head,
Into the brain,
Feeling the face and head with awareness.
Now,
Gently connecting the face and head with the neck and the throat and with the shoulders,
Arms,
Hands,
Belly,
And the ears.
Back,
Hips,
Legs,
Feeling the body as a whole from head to toe to fingertip.
As we breathe in,
Feeling the body rising ever so gently on the inhalation and falling on the exhalation.
As we are feeling into this body and mind,
As we are feeling into this body and mind,
We may at times continue to experience some anxious thoughts,
Worries,
Fears.
There are times when we can use the practice of mindfulness,
Of inquiring,
Of investigating to discover potentially the underlying causes of our fears.
If it appears that even after practicing the body scan and mindful breathing,
We are persisting with some anxious feelings,
Bringing attention to those feelings themselves now to acknowledge what is being felt,
Feeling into the fear.
And I say this with a word of compassion and gentleness.
Just like on a hot day,
If we would like to go swimming and we dip our toes into the water and feel how cold it is.
But through gradually dipping the toes in and out of the water,
We acclimate to the temperature and slowly,
Part by part,
And slowly,
Part by part,
Our body becomes accustomed to the temperature of the water and we go swimming.
So very gently dipping the toes into feeling the fear,
Just acknowledging it's here,
Letting be,
Feeling into the fear with awareness.
There is no need to try to analyze or figure things out.
Just feeling into the experience of feeling anxious,
Fearful,
And worried.
Letting be,
Just listening with such compassion,
Not needing to push ourselves more than we need to.
Not pushing ourselves more than we can handle.
Just working at the edges,
Feeling into the anxiety and acknowledging.
And as we learn to be with things as they are,
The underlying causes of our fear and pain.
Now gently withdrawing from the mindful inquiring practice and coming back to the breath again,
In and out.
Feeling into the belly,
Expanding on the inhalation and falling on the exhalation.
Just staying present with each breath in and out.
Just like you are watching the breath coming and going.
We can even begin in this last part of the practice to watching the thoughts we think.
Just like watching the clouds floating by in the sky.
Beginning to observe the mind and even the thoughts of fear are nothing but passing mental phenomena like clouds.
Just observing the fearful anxious thoughts just mental events that come and go just like any of the other senses sight,
Sound,
Taste,
Smell,
Body sensations all coming and going.
All showing a mark of impermanence observing the mind,
Thoughts noticing the ever-changing nature of thoughts showing its impermanence just coming and going and as we become aware of thoughts the traps we find ourselves in in that moment we can become free they are just thoughts Now gently letting go now gently withdrawing our awareness from the mindfulness of thoughts coming back once again to the breath in the belly just being mindful breathing in and breathing out As we begin to end this meditation on working with anxiety let's take a moment to remember all those who are being challenged with these feelings all those living with fear and worry let us extend our well wishes of healing,
Of peace all those living in fear May we take these moments now to congratulate ourselves for proactively turning into the fears and working with them May we affirm as we acclimate ourselves to the fears that we cannot be so challenged by them May all beings wherever they are may they be free from fear May all beings be at peace
