Meditation To Understand Anxiety

This is a twenty-minute guided meditation to try and understand the source of our anxiety and how to be better equipped to deal with it. We begin the meditation with a centering along with some deep breathing.

Transcript

Welcome,

I'm David Breen and today I'd like you to join me in a brief guided meditation and today's topic will attempt to address anxiety.

So if you've experienced anxiety at some point or you're experiencing anxiety right now,

This might be a good way to try to understand it and to try to work with it.

So find a comfortable chair but not too comfortable.

You should be sitting upright so a folding chair or dining room chair works really well and then go ahead and close your eyes and begin by taking a deep breath in and filling up the lungs completely and then exhaling and emptying out the lungs completely.

So this practice of taking a deep breath in and filling up the lungs completely and then exhaling and emptying out the lungs completely can be our reset.

So at any time during the meditation,

Whether you're listening to this guided meditation or you're working on your own with meditation with no one guiding you,

Always remember that you can reset at any point when you find yourself distracted or daydreaming or even dozing off.

You can come back and take a deep breath in,

Filling up the lungs completely and then exhaling and emptying out the lungs completely.

That will be our reset.

And as you sit here with your eyes closed,

I'd like you to notice and become aware of your physical body,

Your head,

Your shoulders,

Your arms,

Your legs,

Your back,

Your feet,

Your hands and see if you can begin to allow your physical body to relax.

Noticing anywhere where there's tension and that you're not comfortable and making any adjustments so that you can move toward being a little bit more comfortable.

And then I'd like you to bring your awareness to your belly and try to allow your belly to be relaxed so that there's no tightening there or tension there.

Now I'd like you to notice your breath as your breath is flowing in and out of your physical body.

So just take a moment and follow the inhale into your body and follow the exhale out of your body.

So the first step here simply might be noticing our breath,

Being aware of our breath,

Maybe breathing a little bit deeper than normal and trying to keep the belly relaxed.

And as you continue to work with this particular portion of the practice,

Know that deep breathing with a relaxed belly will have a positive and calming effect on your nervous system.

So it will help you to relax physically.

And then we'll reset.

Take a deep breath in,

Filling up your lungs completely.

And exhale,

Emptying out the lungs completely.

Body's relaxed,

Your breath is relaxed,

And your belly is relaxed.

And then remembering that meditation is not the practice of shutting off our mind or shutting off our brain,

But it's a multifaceted practice where we can practice mindfulness,

Mindfulness of the body,

Mindfulness of our breath,

And also a sort of mindfulness of the mind itself.

When you meditate on your own,

You'll begin to realize that there are things that distract you.

Maybe there's some discomfort in the physical body,

You're not used to sitting like this or for any amount of time without moving,

Allowing your body to relax,

So there's maybe some discomfort in your back or your knee or your shoulder or somewhere,

And you just notice that,

And notice that it's a distraction,

It's grabbed your mind's attention,

And then just come back to your breath for the time being.

Taking a long,

Slow inhale,

And a long,

Slow exhale.

Also with practice,

You can become aware that there will be sounds,

Either in the background here where I'm speaking,

Or perhaps if you're doing a meditation on your own,

There's a sound outside or in the other room,

And that can distract your awareness,

Your attention.

When you do notice that,

You can turn back to your mindfulness of your breath.

You're following your inhale into your body,

And following your exhale out of your body.

Relaxed body,

Relaxed breathing,

Perhaps a relaxed mind.

Now the topic for today was anxiety.

So many people experience anxiety at some point or another throughout their life,

Some of us more often than others.

So I thought we would take a look at what anxiety is,

And where anxiety comes from or stems from,

And how it adversely can affect us.

Take a deep breath in,

Filling up the lungs completely.

Exhale and empty out the lungs completely.

Anxiety,

For the most part,

Is when we're worried about something.

So in this meditation,

We try to recognize or become aware of the source of our worry and anxiety.

First we could think about anxiety or worry is somewhat of a feeling or emotion in us or inside us that we're experiencing.

We're worried about something,

We're anxious about something,

It's a feeling or an emotion that we're experiencing,

And sometimes that feeling is very,

Very strong.

Other times it's just a slight bit of anxiety.

But by meditating and exploring and investigating and getting to know and understand the mind,

We can perhaps realize or become aware of where worry and anxiety come from.

So anxiety and worry,

These feelings or emotions,

Are not floating around us in space,

In the ether at all times.

Anxiety and worry don't just at some point during the day say,

Oh,

Look,

There's Dave.

Let's go visit him and make him worry and make him anxious.

Worrying and anxiety stem from something that we're thinking about,

Something that we are perceiving.

So for instance,

An example might be I have a meeting in a couple of days with my boss and things could go either way.

Things could go bad or things could go good,

But I'm not sure how they'll go.

So I keep thinking about I'm meeting with my boss in a couple of days and I'm not sure how things will go.

And I ruminate over this over and over.

I keep thinking about the meeting coming up in a couple of days.

I keep thinking about which way it could go or not.

And then the longer I spend with my mind attached to that perception of that upcoming meeting with my boss,

It begins to grow an emotion or a feeling.

And in this case,

That's worry or anxiety.

I'm worrying about what could happen or not happen at the meeting with my boss in a couple of days.

I keep thinking about it over and over.

And at some point,

I actually become anxious about that upcoming meeting,

Even though that meeting hasn't happened yet,

And even though it's just only happening in my field of perception,

In my mind.

So now that we have a little bit of an understanding about the root of where this worry and anxiety comes from,

We can decide to change the focus of our awareness or of our mind,

Right?

We know that the worriness and the anxiety came from our mind being attached to that perception of,

Ah,

The meeting with the boss in a couple of days could go one way,

Could go the other way,

I'm not sure.

But I think about it over and over,

And then I become anxious about it.

And then the anxiety is with me,

And the anxiety stays with me,

And the anxiety gets stronger because I won't stop thinking about that meeting that's coming up with my boss.

And this could be any other scenario that you'd like.

Perhaps you've got a medical appointment coming up.

Perhaps you've got to deliver some news to somebody in the near future that you're not sure how that's going to go.

Or maybe you're simply not looking forward to doing something that's planned in the future,

And you think about it,

And you think about it,

And you think about it,

And the next thing you know,

There's worry and anxiety.

So the first step to dealing with this is to realize how the anxiety came to be.

And now we know that it came to be because our mind is attached to this perception about something that's going to happen in the near future,

Or it doesn't have to be the near future,

It could be something in the far future,

But the mind is fixed on that thought or that train of thought,

And we keep going over it,

Over it,

And over it,

And the anxiety is born,

And then the anxiety gets stronger and stronger.

So let's take a reset right now.

Take a deep breath in,

Filling up the lungs completely.

Exhale,

Emptying out the lungs completely.

Realize how your physical body feels.

It should be comfortable.

If it's not,

Make any slight adjustments that you can to make your physical body a little bit more comfortable.

The muscles of your face are relaxed.

Your head and neck are relaxed.

Your shoulders are relaxed.

Your belly is relaxed.

Set your attention on the breath as it moves in and out of your body,

Smoothly and comfortably,

With no effort on your part.

Your body is relaxed.

Your breath is relaxed.

And now,

Perhaps your mind is relaxed because we understand anxiety is born and anxiety exists here,

And the reason we're feeling it is because our mind has attached itself to the perception and the anticipation of whatever we're thinking about.

So if we take the mind's attention or the mind's awareness off of that perception of that potential thing that's going to happen in the future but is not happening right now,

And change what we're focused on,

So instead of the mind being focused on that perception of that meeting or that appointment coming up in the future,

We shift the mind's attention to physical body and how the physical body feels right now.

We focus on our breath moving in and out of our body.

And the muscles of our belly are relaxed.

And we're breathing and we're relaxing.

So moving forward,

If you notice that you're anxious,

Pause,

Take a deep breath in,

Filling up the lungs completely.

Exhale,

Emptying out the lungs completely.

And know and understand that the reason that you're experiencing anxiety or that you're worried about something is because your mind has attached itself to that train of thought about that upcoming appointment,

About that upcoming meeting.

Detach the mind from that train of thought,

Focus on your physical body and how it feels comfortable and relaxed.

Focus on your breath as it flows in and out of the physical body.

And that your breath is relaxed,

There's no strain.

You can watch the breath and know with certainty that it's happening automatically.

You don't have to constantly think about inhaling and exhaling.

The body does it automatically.

Keep your mind on the physical body.

Keep your mind on the breath as it flows in and out.

And if you find that your awareness or your attention has wandered back to that train of thought about what's making you anxious,

Just hit the pause button.

Take a deep breath in,

Filling up the lungs completely.

Exhale,

Emptying out the lungs completely.

So now let's sit in silence for a moment and then take a deep breath in.

And then we'll relax.

And then we'll blink our eyes open.

So I hope that was helpful and it's my pleasure to share meditation practice with you today.

And I'll see you next time.

Reviews

Very helpful insights and a calming experience.