Making Friends With Stress: A Guided Visualization

This powerful meditation and visualization will provide you with a new way to understand the role that stress can play in our lives, giving you the opportunity to transform the way that you see it. Scientific research has shown that there is an upside to stress. It can actually be good for us. Shifting how we think about it has the potential to make a big difference in our physical and emotional well-being. May this visualization benefit your heart, your body and your mind.

Transcript

Welcome,

My name is Laura Garrison Brooke and I'm happy you're here.

This meditation is going to provide you with an opportunity to help shift your relationship to stress.

Before we get started,

I invite you to think about stress and the role that it plays in your life.

So let's close our eyes,

Feel yourself settling in.

I invite you to breathe,

Soften,

Relax.

Gently turn your mind's eye to the role stress plays in your life.

Breathe.

As you think about this,

What emotions rise up inside of you?

What is their color?

What is their tone?

In a general sense,

Are these emotions positive or are they negative?

I invite you to gently let that exploration go and come back to my voice.

I'm going to give you a quick two-minute overview on stress that's going to lay the groundwork on how you can powerfully shift your relationship with it.

In the quick visualization we just did,

My guess is that you experienced emotions that were negative in tone.

These might have been anger,

Anxiety,

Fear,

Shame,

Or overwhelm.

These are some of the things that might have been roiling around inside of you.

Have you ever heard of something called hormetic stress?

In a nutshell,

Hormesis is when our bodies adapt and strengthen.

Hormetic stress is when we have things in our lives that activate us in a good way.

Like,

That presentation's in a week and I really want to do well,

So let's get going with my preparation.

Wanting to do well is the stress.

Starting your work is the activation.

Or,

My body is feeling a little bit stiff and sore.

There's the stress.

So I'm going to get up a bit early to do some yoga.

There's the positive activation.

This stress activates us to take action.

The right amount of stress is actually good for us.

It gets us going.

But when we think of stress,

We often think of overwhelming stress or chronic stress,

Which can be toxic.

Kelly McGonigal,

A Stanford researcher,

Claims that stress may only negatively affect our health if we believe it will.

So reframing our relationship with stress can have powerful physical and emotional consequences for us.

Now that we have this bit of background knowledge,

Let's settle into our seat.

I invite you to imagine yourself on a hilltop.

See yourself there with the sun overhead,

The blue sky,

Maybe some puffy white clouds scutting across the horizon.

And in front of you is a monolith,

A big standing stone.

It's broad at the base and it rises up out of the ground like a sentinel blocking the sun.

It might be craggy and rough.

The surface facing you is dark and shadowed.

You come to realize that this represents a source of stress in your life.

Take your time to think about what this might represent.

Possibly something specific that's hanging over you.

As you think about it,

Maybe the undercurrent of your thoughts are that this stress is bad.

You might even think of it as your enemy.

I invite you to name your emotions out loud.

Maybe you say something like,

I am so anxious,

Or scared,

Tired,

Overwhelmed.

How are you feeling?

As you connect to this stress,

How are you feeling in your body?

Is it affecting you physically?

If yes,

Are your shoulders maybe tight,

Or your throat feels closed,

Your teeth are maybe clenched,

Your forehead is furrowed,

Your belly might be burning.

Where do you feel it?

Wherever that is,

I invite you to put your hand,

Warm and soft,

On that part of the body and just breathe,

Soften,

Relax.

Looking up at the monolith,

I invite you to ask yourself,

Is there another way to see this?

Would it be possible for me to change my internal story about this situation?

As you stand here in front of this stone,

Allow your gaze to shift and notice that there is a path that arches around the monolith.

Taking your time,

Walk along this path,

Noticing that it has a slight incline.

Feel the sun on your face as you walk.

In another few moments,

You find yourself on the opposite side of the standing stone.

The sun is now at your back,

Shining onto its surface.

You're now a bit farther away and higher up,

So you notice that the monolith doesn't look so big anymore.

Maybe you choose to sit down on the soft grass.

Take some time to look at it sitting there in the sun.

What color is it?

Is it smooth or rough?

Does it maybe have little bits of mica in it,

Making it a bit sparkly?

As you sit or stand in this space,

Feel your body relax.

Ask yourself again,

How might I be able to see this situation differently?

Big belly breaths.

Is there a way that I can see this stress is helpful?

Or even as my friend,

If your initial answer is that that's highly unlikely,

That's okay.

Just maybe let this question serve as an opportunity to crack the door open a tiny bit to see where it might lead you.

Even shifting your energy around one particular element of the situation can be powerful.

What might this look like?

Well,

Let's imagine that one of the things you're really stressed about is public speaking.

As you get ready to speak,

You notice that your heart is really pounding and you hear yourself saying,

I'm so anxious.

Well,

When else do our hearts race?

When we're excited,

Right?

What if you shifted your internal voice to say,

I'm so excited.

My heart is beating fast because I'm so jazzed up about this opportunity to share what I know with others.

This is a sports psychology strategy that coaching experts share with professional athletes.

It's a powerful way to change our mindset and it works just as well for those of us living our daily lives as it does for those who are performing in arenas.

Returning to your monolith,

Let your soft gaze wander and see if there is something to learn here.

Ask yourself,

How has this stress helped me take action?

How has it helped me grow?

How has it pushed me out of my comfort zone?

How has it made me stronger?

How has it made me braver?

How has it made me more resilient?

If you would like,

I invite you to slowly walk down to the stone.

The sun is still warm on your back,

Casting your shadow on its face.

If you feel called to,

You reach out to touch this stone,

Feeling your palms connect with its warmth,

Feeling grateful for the texture and activation that this challenge presents in your life.

Feel energy humming within both of you,

Like a dance back and forth.

Maybe for the first time,

Recognize that this is a partnership and that you are a willing co-creator.

As you're ready,

Come back to the body.

So as we wrap up,

I've got a couple of important things to share,

So thanks for hanging out with me for a few more moments.

So my question for you right now is,

How are you feeling?

If this meditation landed with you and helped,

That's great.

But if you struggled,

I have a few things to share.

First,

It's important that everyone recognizes your emotions are totally valid and real.

This meditation is not about discounting them.

It's about shifting our focus,

Saying something like,

This is hard for me and it's an opportunity for me to learn and grow.

Most of us focus on the part of the sentence that is,

This is hard.

This is hard.

This is hard,

Right?

That's me for sure.

But when we start leaning into the,

And it's an opportunity for me to learn and grow,

That is when we can start changing our emotions and our energy.

One of my favorite quotes from Dr.

Talban Shahar is,

When you appreciate the good,

The good appreciates.

So that's our question.

Where is the good in this situation?

How can we make friends with it?

My other invitation for you,

If you struggled with this,

Is to give this some time.

Next time you experience a stressor,

See if you can take a breath and ask yourself,

How might I see this differently?

Without an expectation that you're going to get a quick and easy answer.

And then in a moment of quiet,

After things have settled,

Maybe return to the question and ask it again.

How might I see this differently?

Where is the good in this situation?

Where is the opportunity for growth?

If you don't get results the very first time you try this,

Please don't give up.

Powerful work like this often takes practice.

Okay?

I'm here for you and I've got your back.

Let me know if you have questions and please know that I'm wishing you well on this amazing life journey of yours with all of its ups and downs.

Lots and lots of love to you.

Reviews

This was a very important meditation.

I’m struggling.. thank you helping me to see it more clearly and rename it.