Transforming Anxiety (In A Thunderstorm)

I have put this practise together to be one with the global initiatives to support those suffering with anxiety, fear, and panic in response to this pandemic. It is a practise based around connecting with ourselves first, and calming our feeling of anxiety, and then opening and transforming that space with compassion to help heal as a community.

We can unite in meditation and send the gift of compassion onto all those who are suffering.

Transcript

Thank you so much for taking the time to come and sit and practice what I call a forgiveness meditation but really it's about reconnecting and Opening our heart not just for ourselves,

But to everyone else that's struggling around you and Recognizing that common humanity within all of us that this is a truly global pandemic it is something that is touching every nation.

I saw a stat the other day It's like 160 out of 190 countries this virus has spread to and What it shows is Is that color race?

Class Culture society age doesn't matter that we are all one human species and If there's anything that we learn from this People call in a crisis a pandemic is that we are one Connected human race Now with this little meditation just want you to get yourself comfortable I'm sure you probably already are But just relaxing and resting into your practice It's taking a few moments just to let me breathe Feel the body underneath you And With that shift of attention just seeing if you can start with just your toes and your feet Just resting your attention there for a few minutes,

You know,

How do they feel?

What do they feel?

I just want you to breathe out and relax and as you're breathing out just really extending your outbreath and just letting your toes and your feet relax.

Just breathing out relaxing Just letting it go And guiding your attention into your legs So from your ankles all the way up to your hips now if you're sitting maybe you can get a sense of pressure Maybe you can feel your hands in your lap if you're lying down again Maybe just feeling the legs being supported by the couch or the bed wherever you are You're just resting your attention there.

That's what you're doing Don't need to judge Nothing really defined Other than just resting your attention and noticing whatever is available to you Letting the awareness just move about freely Really interestingly Again breathing out and just seeing if we can relax our legs just breathe out long and slow Breathing out just seeing if we can relax that part of our body Then bringing our attention up into the torso From the hips all the way to the shoulders Just feeling as much of this part of the body as you can.

How much of the torso can you feel?

Now we're trying to do this without trying to create a sensation just resting your attention there and just seeing how much you can feel What is it you feel?

Maybe you feel the breath the movement There's no right or wrong feelings no need for judgment And then as we breathe out just breathing out and seeing if we can relax the torso Just breathing out long and slow and just relaxing the torso Just letting it go letting it relax And then finally into the arms and into the head Maybe you can feel the warmth of each hand Maybe you can feel the arms shoulders head the eyes the nose the mouth Just remembering any type of distraction maybe you heard a big fella of a dog wandering in the room You got distracted by the noise of the movement maybe it's thoughts or sounds outside of you Just being patient with yourself A wonderful part about this practice is catching it as the mind drifts And just gently guiding it back into the arms into the head the mouth the teeth the tongue Maybe the movement of the breath through the nose tingling in the hands whatever it is And just bring your attention now to the breath And doing one long big breath out letting go of all the tension in the shoulders the hands the arms the head As best as you can do maybe you'll feel the definitive letting go You'll breathe out you'll feel more relaxed Maybe you won't both are okay it's the intention that we set behind doing this practice Like I said right back at the start the real intention of this practice is about compassion for ourselves and for others connecting forgiveness I want you to do two more big deep breaths but this time we're just going to try and do the whole body just breathing out long and slow Just breathe out really long and slow All the way to the end of the breath to your most to your most have nothing left Just doing that twice and allowing your breath to come back to its normal rhythm What we're going to do is just spend the next minute or two just watching our breath Just watching as it gently moves into and out of the body Watching the movement of the mind as it talks about reminds you of things that you're supposed to have done today or yesterday just calming that down using the breath bringing that attention back to the breath again Doing that as many times as you'd like don't worry about busy mind The less we worry about how busy our mind is the less busier our mind gets It's impossible to out think thinking with thoughts So what we do is just train ourselves with the breath Train ourselves with the body Just get acquainted with this movement this constant movement and change Our breath changes a lot more than what we're currently seeing in the world at the moment So it's not that we can't deal with change It's just sometimes we forget how incredible we are as human beings And let our fear and anxiety overtake us Leading to all this panic Now it's easy to criticise and judge those that are hoarding toilet paper and meat But they are scared they truly are scared and yes they're only thinking of themselves but Unfortunately they may not have been given the same morals and values and upbringings that you have And within that it's a wonderful opportunity to bring some kindness and some compassion towards them Now if you can't do that at the moment if they're really upsetting you frustrating you Greed and ignorance and that's okay just working with your own feelings of greed and ignorance And remember any distractions any sounds Occasionally you might hear my dad wandering around upstairs Just noticing the steps footsteps and just coming back to the breath again Now the practice isn't perfect It's not supposed to be it's not about seeking perfection in any way what we're doing at the moment is just watching our breath Watching the movement watching the change This first rule steps into compassion Just breathing Let it go Doesn't need to be perfect just using that breath Let it go Now please just please try and imagine you stood in front of you Imagine seeing you stood there in front of you with open arms Now if you're anything like me and you're not too great at visualizing I just want you to imagine it I don't need to see the visual side of it just imagining You stood there remembering yourself in some way And just setting that intention you know that even though I can't see me I can imagine me being there with open arms And how that might feel And as you're imagining standing in front of you you take this embrace from yourself You just hear yourself whispering I wish you compassion I wish you happiness and health I wish you to be free And as you stand in front of you You continue to whisper I forgive you for being anxious I forgive you for panicking I forgive you for putting me down about it I forgive you for the choices you've made And I forgive you for feeling sad about it Now please be patient with me I know I'll get better Everything will be okay This too shall pass You will never ever have no one you'll always have me I forgive you for feeling guilty I forgive you for being impatient I forgive you for hurting I forgive you for being emotional It's okay and normal to be upset I love you You are so very important You are truly amazing Incomparable Unique in every way There will never be another like you Ever Love this And as your voice begins to rise to yourself You hear your words There's some authority telling you I can do it This anxiety is like breath it comes it stays and then it goes I can realize that just like my breath it changes in every moment That every moment is an opportunity for me to see through fresh eyes It's an opportunity for compassion And I can realize that just like my breath flows out of me So will this anxious feeling I can realize that these anxious feelings They aren't permanent they come and they go They are transient they flow in as quick as they flow out sometimes Sometimes they like to stay and frustrate me But often it's because I let them And that's okay I remember my happy times and I know these will come again soon but I won't Beat myself up about those days of happiness There is no point in comparing how I am now to when I was happy They are two Totally different parts of my life impossible to compare That this anxiety this sensation it's not me It's not the true me I know me As I breathe in I breathe in calm And as I breathe out I smile As I breathe in I breathe in calm And as I breathe out I smile As I breathe in I breathe in calm And as I breathe out I smile And as I breathe in I breathe in calm and as I breathe out I smile just keep breathing with me let's breathe through this together let's use that breath to bring that calmness harnessing that anxious energy I always have in the forefront of my mind that wonderful response from Thich Nhat Hanh when asked about the horrible situation that he went through in the Vietnam War and his reply was if my heart is filled with anxiety then how can I help?

Just keep breathing in that calm maybe if you breathe out bringing a smile to your face if you want to or feel like you'd like to if you haven't already just breathing out and get a sense of the smile that's always within you it's never without never outside it's always there sometimes it's well hidden in these more disruptive times of our lives and as we now really begin to harness that energy harness that sense of anxiety and fear and starting to do some good with it a wonderful practice I remember always getting taught with anxiety is remembering it is part of the human condition whilst we all feel anxiety in different ways it is a part of all of us it is our response to fear it is a disruptive emotion and if we can move outside of the sense that is just I that I'm feeling this and into the we as a common space that all of us may be feeling you begin to recognize and feel compassion for others that are struggling with that anxiety with you that is not you it is us as a collective it is no longer this idea of I am that it is now the collective of we are and we will get through this we will struggle through this together how we struggle through this set benchmarks point the way for our children and their children's children of how we can come together as a society through compassion through embracing this fear which I know is different for others I'm not trying to belittle it in any way just given an option as we move and try and harness this practice into some compassion just want you just in your eyes and your mind's eye just imagine a color of compassion for you right now maybe it's a healing green deep red of love whatever it is just want you to imagine in your eyes and your thoughts again if you like me maybe the color of your compassion is black which isn't a bad thing just imagining this color all around you you don't have to see the color you can just imagine I want you to imagine breathing this color directly into your heart breathing straight into the heart every breath that we take this ball of compassion begins to grow and grow within our heart maybe it's starting off as this little bubble growing with every breath that we take in we feed this compassion held within our heart letting this ball of kindness grow and grow until we are immersed within it I just want you to imagine every breath maybe you can feel the breath go straight into the heart sometimes we really can feel this sense of coldness not that the coldness is a bad thing but it's almost like we can breathe the freshness of this next moment directly into our heart we're lacing that freshness with kindness breathing that compassion in the nice thing to do as well as you're breathing in is just saying the word compassion to yourself or maybe something else that you need just now so breathe that kindness directly into our heart this bubble begins to keep growing and growing maybe like I said just saying compassion as you breathe in as it grows and grows it doesn't need to be perfect maybe you haven't got the most perfect word and that's okay right now the most important part is this intention of growing that compassion within us letting it expand with each breath remember any distractions you just come back into the breath again never with criticism one loves to wonder loves to know if it's doing it right of course you are I just want you to start immersing yourself still in this ball of kindness I want you to imagine whilst I'm sure there aren't but maybe hundreds of thousands of others all sat in their rooms or their couches or lay down in their beds wherever they are all around the world harnessing this ball of kindness I just want you to imagine that imagine this all these people all around the world all sitting in this ball of compassion I want you to just try and connect with them imagine maybe linking out from your heart linking up with everyone in jersey all these meditators coming together at once and harnessing harnessing compassion and kindness and connecting the view of sharing this energy to all those struggling just taking a few moments now just imagining that connection one universal energy of kindness now I want you to imagine this universal energy begins to seek out all those that are struggling at the moment those that are isolated those that are suffering the ill the health carers and the nurses and the doctors anyone and everyone you can harness some of that anxiety and send out kindness connecting with their struggle watching this ball of energy just growing flooding through streets into hospitals and homes and seeing your compassion wrap around these people like a warm blanket when it's cold those loving arms of yours wrapping around them and telling them not to be scared well thank you for everything that you've done or that you're never alone we are always here as a community we've got this far all we need to do is believe in ourselves and believe in others again hope underpins all that we do in times of crisis this is our opportunity to meet this pandemic with compassion for ourselves now as we're doing just sharing that light of hope for others just imagining that warmth covering them this kindness coming out of our bedrooms all over the globe and joining together as a universal blanket of compassion and feeling that warmth feeling that connection feeling that security we will get through this life does not end here now what you do I just want you to imagine just leaving that compassion out there you've done an amazing thing today just spreading that love harnessing that anxiety connecting with that common humanity and leaving that warmth with them before I finish I just want to offer one of my most favorite quotes so pertinent in times like this by Elizabeth Kubler-Ross the most beautiful people we've known are those that have known defeat they've known suffering,

Known struggle,

Known loss and have found their way out of the depths these persons they have an appreciation,

A sensitivity and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion and gentleness and deep loving concern these beautiful people do not just happen and now just bringing a bit of attention back into your breath again the next breath I just want you to see how much of it you can feel how much of the next breath is there how much of that next breath I'm feeling it flow in and flow out watching it change just for the next 60 seconds just resting watching this breath watching movement not worrying about thinking,

Feeling,

Worrying about anything and take this compassion with you into the rest of your day thank you so much you

Reviews

This felt so good, thank you, Dan