Let's do a practice to help you release and relieve some anxiety.
What I find is that there's a pattern to anxiety that involves your thoughts and your feelings.
And you'll have an anxious thought,
And that will lead to an anxious feeling,
Which then feeds into another anxious thought,
Which leads into an anxious feeling.
And those two things will cycle between your thoughts and your feelings and emotions.
You'll cycle between those two things,
And it can feel like you can't get out of that cycle.
So this technique I created in order to help you to get an off-ramp out of that cycle.
So let's try it now.
Feel your feet on the ground.
Go ahead and close your eyes if that feels available.
Put one hand on your heart and another on your belly if that feels good.
And just begin to take a couple of nice breaths.
Inhaling and exhaling.
With every breath,
You go deeper inward.
With every breath,
You pay attention to that world behind your eyes.
That vast and infinite world all your own.
And now,
I want you to use your imagination as I suggest this next piece.
I want you to imagine inside of you a light turns on.
And however that looks is awesome and uniquely yours.
It might have been a light bulb.
You see the string coming down from it,
And you see that light bulb turn on.
It might be that you see a flashlight,
And the flashlight beam moves all around.
It might be that it's like a sunbeam,
Rays of the sun coming through the clouds.
It might be like that kind of light.
It might have been that just all of your insides felt illuminated.
Whatever it is,
Is wonderful.
Imagine that a light goes on inside of you.
And now,
What I want you to do is allow any thought to come into your mind and notice it.
So just the next thought in your mind,
Notice it.
Maybe it says something like,
This is stupid.
Maybe it says,
I like her voice.
Maybe it says,
This will never work.
Maybe it says,
Ugh,
Another meditation.
When will I be done with these meditations?
Maybe it says,
I'm up for this.
Whatever it is,
Is totally fine.
But whatever that thought is,
Notice it.
And then,
Put the beam of your light on the thought.
And when you put that light on the thought,
Just say,
Hi thought,
I see you.
Hi.
And you'll notice in my voice,
There's no negativity.
No matter what that thought is.
You just see it,
Like a neutral observer.
And you shine a light on it.
And it's not even a gotcha light.
It's just a light.
A light that says,
Hello.
I see you.
You're here.
Okay?
And then,
Just notice any feeling that wants to accompany that thought.
Any emotion that arises.
And then,
Again,
Shine the light on that emotion or on that feeling.
Hi feeling.
I feel you.
I see you with this light.
I see you with my inner light.
Hi.
And again,
You're just making space for it.
You're just observing it.
Okay?
And now,
I want you to allow yourself to build this very simple technique as a practice for yourself.
When thoughts come in,
You shine a light on them and you say,
Hello.
In a neutral,
Matter-of-fact way.
What this does is it creates observational distance between you and the thoughts and feelings that are creating the anxiety.
Oftentimes,
When we're in that cycle of anxious thought and anxious feeling,
We can feel so in it,
There's no observational distance at all.
We feel like we are the thoughts.
We feel like we are those feelings.
And there's nothing else.
What this technique does is it creates a space.
And this is a muscle that you build as you practice this.
And as you shine this light,
Just say,
Hi.
Hi,
I see you.
It creates a space.
And that space grows.
And that space is enough for your own presence to come through.
For something other than anxious thoughts and anxious feelings to arise.
It's an opportunity,
For instance,
For your deeper wisdom to come in.
It's an opportunity for you to feel something other than anxiety.
It's space.
And space is a huge gift when you're in that pattern.
And notice that your light might change from day to day.
Maybe it slightly changes color.
Maybe it changes its form.
Maybe it shifts how connected to your light you feel on a certain day.
But let yourself,
Yes,
In your meditation,
But also any time anxious thoughts arise,
Or truly any thought at all,
You can bring your light to it.
And just say,
Hi.
See what happens as you grow this space,
This illuminated space within yourself.
Come back here as often as feels good.
Build this practice.
Even make it a daily practice for three,
Or five,
Or ten days.
Begin to build some momentum.
And notice what arises in this space you are creating.
Thank you for being here with me.
I will see you next time.
Take care.
