Welcome to this mastermind meditation to reduce stress and anxiety.
I'm your guide,
Dorsey Standish.
Begin by closing down your eyes and finding a comfortable,
Steady meditation posture.
Today's practice is designed to harness the power of observation and mindful breathing for relaxation and release.
When we are experiencing intense stress or emotion,
It often affects our mind,
Body,
And breathing.
Begin to deepen your breath,
Giving you an opportunity to check in with your body,
Mind,
And emotions.
You can scan your body from head to toe,
Mindfully exploring what is present for you today.
You might even ask yourself,
How am I?
This practice of observing our difficult emotions without judging them or wishing for them to be different has actually been shown to lower our emotional response by calming the amygdala,
The part of the brain that initiates anxiety and stress.
Continue to use deep,
Relaxed breaths to explore the sensations in your body.
What do you notice?
See if you can observe even uncomfortable sensations and feelings.
Once we acknowledge what is,
We can relax into the present moment without resisting it.
Let's continue to cultivate calm by practicing diaphragmatic breathing.
Place your hands on your belly and begin to relax the muscles of the abdomen.
Deepen your breath into and out of the belly,
Feeling your hands rise and fall.
These belly breaths physically massage the vagus nerve,
Activating the parasympathetic or rest and digest nervous system.
Continue to breathe into your relaxed belly,
Into your hands,
Feeling the physical sensations of breath.
And finally,
We'll release some more tension by taking a few cleansing breaths,
Inhaling through the nose and then sighing out of the mouth.
Imagining you are breathing in strength and nourishment and breathing out stagnation and lethargy.
Take three more breaths in this way,
Imagining you are breathing in strength and nourishment and breathing out anything that's no longer serving you.
Wonderful work.
As mindfulness-based stress reduction founder Jon Kabat-Zinn reminds us,
You can't stop the waves,
But you can learn to surf.
Mindfulness practice gives us tools like non-judgmental observation and deep breathing to surf the waves that life sends our way.
Let your chin fall towards your chest and curl the corners of your lips up in a small smile.
Thank yourself for these moments of presence.
Finally blink open your eyes and bring your awareness back into the space around you.
