Sos For Anxiety & Calming The Nervous System
This meditation offers immediate relief from anxiety through a soothing breathing technique to calm the nervous system. Gently guided to connect with your body and breath, you’ll find a sense of calm as stress melts away. Practice this daily to ease your body’s stress response, cultivating a lasting peace within.
Transcript
Welcome to this guided meditation by Chaba Walruths.
If you are listening to this then you are probably feeling a little bit overwhelmed or you have some anxiety or you feel just some nerves.
And just know that the first step to shift this state inside of yourself is to acknowledge that this is how you are feeling.
And in normal life it is so normal to feel overwhelmed by all the impulses that we get in our external reality and just know that it is okay.
Explaining a little bit about the nervous system for you to understand what is actually happening right now is that your mind has sent a signal to your nervous system that you need to survive right now.
So your heart is probably racing a little bit more,
You are quite high in your breath and it is quite high up in your chest.
And all of that is the nervous system trying to respond and react to being in danger.
The first thing that you can do is to slowly calm down your nerves is to become really aware of your surroundings.
So take a moment to look around,
What can you see?
When you have done that,
You have taken a moment to look around,
What can you see?
It is already starting to send a signal to the mind and the mind signals the nervous system,
Actually I am not in danger,
I am here,
I am safe in a room or somewhere outside where I don't have to run away from a lion,
I am just here.
Taking a moment to find your first nice long big breath in through the nose and as you are breathing in,
Holding it for a second at the top and releasing the breath.
Doing that again,
Taking a nice long big breath in through the nose,
Again holding it at the top and release through the mouth.
Again taking another nice long big breath in through the nose,
Holding at the top and release the breath through the mouth.
Taking a moment now to become aware of the nostrils and the movement and the flow of breath entering through the nose.
You might notice a temperature difference as it enters your body and also take a moment to notice the rising and falling of the chest.
And as we are becoming more aware of our bodies,
Can you take a moment to locate where this stressful feeling that you are feeling is sitting.
Perhaps it resides in your chest,
Or maybe in your throat,
Can you take a moment to acknowledge that this is how you feel,
This is happening right now,
Can you connect to the sensations in your body,
Without needing to do anything or change anything,
Can you take a moment to just become the observer of what's happening.
Take a step back to being the awareness behind the sensation,
Fully allowing for the sensation to be there,
Fully experiencing what is.
When the mind signals the nervous system that there is danger or there is overwhelm,
The automatic response of the nervous system is to go into fight flight,
Activating the sympathetic nervous system.
And when we are in the sympathetic nervous system,
There's parts of our brain that actually shut down,
Therefore it becomes really difficult to focus on other things as all you're seeing and feeling and hearing right now is danger,
That's the nervous system responding.
And a beautiful way to really stop calming the nervous system is by breathing,
By being aware of the sensation,
And by becoming absolutely present in the here and in the now.
So as you are sitting or laying down,
Take a moment now to find a comfortable seat,
Or maybe lay down,
Do whatever feels right for you.
And as you do,
We start to do a small body scan,
Just to come into the body a little bit more,
Starting with the breath,
Really connecting to the breathing,
Even though they are short breaths,
That's fine,
Can you still connect with the breath,
Allowing it to flow in and out through the nostrils,
Tuning into the sensations in the chest as it rises and falls with the breath,
And taking a moment to notice until where you can breathe.
Maybe use your hand to actually locate that on your body,
Where can you breathe to,
Maybe it's the upper chest,
It could be that you can also breathe into the belly,
Or you might even be able to breathe all the way down into the lower belly.
As you are becoming aware of the sensations in the body and you're keeping breathing,
Starting to bring awareness towards the shoulders now,
Allowing for the energy and the focus to just go to the shoulders,
Gently tracing down to the elbows and the wrists,
Bringing your awareness to all ten fingers,
And back to the wrists,
Shifting and moving your awareness now towards the elbows,
And back to the shoulders,
Traveling down through the spine,
All the way towards your sitting bones,
And feeling if you are sitting on a pillow or something else,
Just feeling the sensation of your bottom touching something else,
Tuning into the difference in warmth,
Shifting your awareness towards the pelvic area,
And traveling to the knees,
Shifting your awareness now towards the ankles,
And from the ankles we're traveling down to the toes,
All ten toes,
Coming back to the ankles,
And the knees,
Back towards the pelvic area,
And the belly button.
If your mind wanders off,
That's okay,
Try and see if you can bring it back to the breath,
To the sensations in your body,
And where your focus and energy flows.
From the belly button we're now traveling up towards the chest,
Taking a moment to connect with your heart,
With yourself,
You are doing amazing,
And bring the awareness now back to the breath.
We're going to be gently moving into a guided pranayama,
A breath exercise,
To really calm your beautiful nervous system,
And signal to the body that everything is actually okay.
Activating the parasympathetic nervous system,
As the parasympathetic nervous system is where you live your experience from,
And where you are able to digest your experience,
Process,
And integrate.
We're doing a breathwork exercise that is the 4-7-8 breathing technique,
Inhaling for 4,
Holding for 7,
And exhaling for 8.
Wherever you are in your breath cycle now,
Take a nice long big breath in through the nose,
And a nice long breath out through the mouth.
Starting the first round,
Inhaling for 4,
2,
3,
4,
Hold for 7,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7,
Exhaling for 8,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7,
8,
Inhale for 4,
2,
3,
4,
Hold for 7,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7,
Exhale for 8,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7,
8,
Inhale for 4,
2,
3,
4,
Hold for 7,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7,
Exhale for 8,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7,
8,
Inhale for 4,
2,
3,
4,
Hold for 7,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7,
Exhale for 8,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7,
8,
And returning back to the normal breath now.
In yoga we call this the tidal breath or the ocean breath.
Allowing for the body just integrating the breath work that we've just done as the first rounds.
As it will take a little while for the nervous system to integrate and for the nervous system to really activate into the parasympathetic nervous system.
Now preparing you for another cycle of breathing.
So again,
Wherever you are in your breath,
Take a nice long inhale in through the nose and a long exhale through the mouth and then inhaling for 4,
2,
3,
4,
Hold for 7,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7,
8,
4,
5,
6,
7,
Exhaling for 8,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7,
8,
Inhale for 4,
2,
3,
4,
Hold for 7,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7,
Exhale for 8,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7,
8,
Inhale for 4,
2,
3,
4,
Hold for 7,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7,
Exhale for 8,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7,
8,
Inhale for 4,
2,
3,
4,
Hold for 7,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7,
Exhale for 8,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6,
7,
8,
And returning back to the normal breath now.
Feeling as the body starts to relax a little bit deeper,
And feeling slightly heavier in your body,
Allowing for the mind to calm down,
And you may rest here for as long as you need,
And if you have some severe anxiety or even panic attacks,
My advice would be to do this breathwork exercise or this meditation at least 7 times,
And really notice the difference in your anxiety and your nervous system.
I hope this really helped you,
And I hope you feel a little bit calmer.
Thank you so much for listening to this meditation,
And have a wonderful day.
4.7 (24)
Recent Reviews
Stephanie
July 6, 2025
This breathing meditation 🧘♀️ was so helpful for my anxiety.