Ease Anxiety And Worry

This 11-minute practice uses guided imagery and breath. It is designed to ease anxiety, worry, and panic by refocusing the mind and triggering the parasympathetic nervous system. This is a subtle and short but powerful way to push beyond limiting, anxious thoughts.

Transcript

Hello,

I'm Jen.

Today we will release worry and anxious thoughts by grounding down,

Remembering our strength,

And redirecting misguided energy.

So find a nice,

Comfortable position,

Ideally in a quiet space.

Ensure you have a tall spine,

Tuck your chin slightly,

Lift the crown of the head toward the ceiling.

Begin to settle in here with your hands face down on your knees and breathe in and out slowly and deeply just to ground down.

Check in with your thoughts,

Begin to notice your thoughts,

Even the anxious thoughts.

Don't try to ignore them,

Just notice them,

Watch them,

Let them do their thing.

As you continue to breathe here,

Just notice how your body feels.

And notice where the energy is collecting in your body,

How your body responds to anxiety and worry.

Notice if there are any areas of tension,

Any areas that feel tight or numb,

Shaky.

And as you continue to breathe here,

See if you can breathe even deeper,

Expanding the breath out to these areas.

And as you exhale,

Focus on exhaling the tension,

Exhaling the sensation.

Take a few more breaths like this,

Just really filling the body and really releasing even just a little bit of this tension or this numbness or this shakiness.

Very subtle changes add up to great changes over time.

So be patient with yourself and continue to breathe.

Continue to expand to feel rooted down into the earth.

Now gently bring your right thumb up to block your right nostril and breathe in and out through your left nostril,

Slow,

Deep and complete.

By breathing through only the left nostril,

We're kicking the parasympathetic nervous system into gear,

Allowing the body to calm down.

Ensure that your exhales match your inhales.

And breathing through the left nostril only,

Imagine again this breath expanding throughout your body,

Releasing any tension,

Any worry,

Releasing what you hold in the body,

Breaking this energy up so that we can use it for more productive things.

After your next round of breath,

Gently release the thumb down and breathe in through both nostrils and release through both nostrils.

Continue to breathe slow and deep and just notice any shifts,

If any.

Now bring to mind whatever it is that worries you or makes you anxious.

We're not here to run from these thoughts.

We're here to sit with them,

Acknowledge them.

So bring these worries,

These anxieties to mind.

If you can,

Assign an image to whatever is worrying or bothering you.

Bring this image to the forefront of your mind.

Whatever outcome,

Whatever ailment,

Whatever interaction that is bothering you,

Just bring it to mind.

Don't run from it.

You are strong and supported here.

You are rooted down to the earth.

You are breathing slow and deep.

Now take this image and push it to the back of the mind and bring up a new image,

An image of yourself when you felt confident,

Where you felt strong,

Where you felt you could navigate ambiguity or difficulty.

Imagine a time when you felt you were showing up with grace as your full self.

You'll see this image as well as you can see it and allow it to grow stronger,

More vivid,

More colorful.

Even if it's abstract,

That's okay.

Even if it's just the idea of an image,

That's okay.

Allow it to grow stronger.

And in the background is your worry,

Your projection.

See that beginning to fade,

Beginning to matter less.

As you show up as this ideal self,

This self that you know that you can be,

There is less need to be anxious or to worry.

There is the realization that we can show up even to difficult situations as our best self with grace,

With strength.

Breathe into this image of yourself,

Strong,

Steady.

It may be from an event in the past.

It may be an image of yourself right now meditating,

Feeling the ground beneath you,

Breathing through,

Breathing beyond,

Breathing strong.

Now sit up even taller,

Crown of the head reaching up toward the ceiling.

Take a deep breath in all the way to the lower belly.

Hold at the top and squeeze your body,

Squeeze your fists,

Squeeze your legs,

Squeeze your abdominals in and release through the mouth.

Two more times like that.

Inhale,

Feel your strength,

Squeeze,

Pull all of the muscles in toward the bone and release.

One last time,

Inhale,

Squeeze the body,

Feel your strength.

And before you exhale,

Imagine all of the things that have been bothering you.

Imagine all of the power they've had over you and then exhale,

Let that power they had over you go.

Feel steady,

Feel connected to yourself,

To the earth,

Feel connected to others,

To your journey.

Now as your breath goes back to its normal cadence,

Allow your mind just briefly to go completely blank.

And from here,

With a blank slate,

Gently blink your eyes open,

Roll your shoulders back,

Take in the light of the room and for a final time,

Acknowledge your strength,

Your grace,

Your ability.

Well done.

I wish you a lovely day,

A lovely evening.

Reviews

👍👍 highly recommend if you need to calm your nerves and worries!

Genuinely thank you so very much, the biggest drawback in my life has always been worry, usually based on nothing just am a “born worrier”
This meditation has really helped me a lot especially as one of the few things that has always helped is yoga ( am 72 and practising for well over 30 years) and I relate very much to the breathing exercises in this guidance
Namaste & Bright Blessings

Quarantine day #24 - wow did I need this. Thanks so much, Jen! Love your meditations 🙏🏼
[Edit: Came here to say this guided meditation always helps me. And see from my review I’ve been using it for several years! Definitely a favorite💜]

That helped start my day worry free! Thank you! 💜💛💜💛

This was awesome! Love the imagery, the strength and Grace finding, couple w/the breathing exercises. This came to me at exactly the right time!

This short little meditation felt so much bigger. It really packed a lot in, and was so helpful. It's definitely going on my rotation for those days when I can use a little boost...can't we all use that, EVERY day?! Thank you, thank you!

Really helped me move on from anxieties & worries & gain perspective, feel more resilient & calm

That put my mind in a much better space. Thank you!

Thank you! I liked the breathing exercise to tighten up and then let go. It is very difficult for me to allow my mind to go completely blank! There always seems to be something to think about. But perhaps that’s what I need to keep working on… to create more peaceful times and practice this more.

This was great! Thank you, bless you! 🙏👼🙏🏾👼🏽🙏🏼👼🏻🛐🌺🌻❤️

Such a great, practical, practice for releasing anxiety and worry. Thank you!

Very helpful to remember and visualize my strength. Thank you!

One of the strongest and effective sessions I've experienced. Thank you for that.

Wow.. That was really powerful. Thank you so much for sharing🙏. Is it normal to burst out in tears during this ?

Lovely calming voice , thank you 🙏

Very grounding. I love how you guide us to observe the dark troubling thoughts and to sit with them before releasing them. The thoughts have been too loud lately

Beautiful, creative, and touching. Thank you so much for your wonderful work.

Exactly what I needed. Phenomenal.

Thank you for this powerful meditation. Each step helped me feel calmer & the final breathing exercise really released my fear & tension. I will definitely listen again. 🙏❤️

Excellent calming release for stress with helpful visualization.