Stress And Anxiety: Turn It Off

This guided meditation is the first of a series of three that are a key part of a 3-week program called Yoga for Chronic Stress, Anxiety and Depression. This meditation is designed to move you gradually through a process of turning everything off - everything that is causing you to feel stress and anxiety. David then helps you induce deep relaxation, a physical and emotional release and a peace that promotes profound inner change.

Transcript

You can choose to either sit or lie on your back.

Just make sure that you are comfortable.

Once you are,

Allow yourself to settle in.

Allow your body to become still,

Quiet,

And relaxed.

You don't need to be doing anything right now.

You don't need to be thinking about anything.

You don't need to be planning.

You don't need to be thinking about your day.

Let go of the need for control.

Let go of the need to be doing something.

Let go of wanting things to be different.

Let go of worry.

Let go of yearning.

Let go of wishing that you were better.

Let go of anxiety.

And let go of tension.

Now I want you to stay with my voice.

All you're doing is staying with me throughout this entire meditation.

Now feel the sensations in your entire body as one sensation.

Now relax just the surface of your body,

Just the skin.

Now relax the inside of your body.

Now do the same thing with the arms.

Relax the surface.

And now relax the insides of your arms.

Now relax the surface of your legs.

Relax the insides of your legs.

Now relax the outsides of your feet.

Relax the insides of your feet.

Relax the surface of your toes.

Relax the insides of your toes.

Relax the surface of your fingers.

Relax the insides of your fingers.

Relax the surface of your hands.

Relax the inside of your hands.

Now relax the surface of your arms and your legs,

Including your hands and your feet,

Together.

Now relax the inside of your arms and your legs,

Hands and feet.

Relax the surface of your pelvis.

Relax the inside of your pelvis.

Relax the surface of your torso.

Relax the inside of your torso.

Relax the surface of your shoulders.

Relax the inside of your shoulders.

Relax the surface of your neck.

Relax the inside of your neck.

Relax the surface of your face and head.

Relax the inside of your head.

Now feel the whole body again as one sensation,

From head to toes.

And now relax everywhere,

Inside and out.

Really allow tension to drain out of your body.

Let it go.

Now feel your heart beating in your chest.

Feel your digestive organs in your belly.

Feel your eyes moving under your eyelids.

And again,

Allow tension to drain out of your body.

Let go.

Turn off your nervous tension.

Turn off your need to be busy.

Allow your heart rate to slow down.

Turn down the activity in your brain.

Allow everything to become quiet,

Peaceful and still.

Turn everything off.

Turn off the seeking.

Turn off being concerned about what other people think.

Turn off self-judgment.

Turn off your beliefs about yourself.

I want you to bring your awareness to one spot in your body that feels particularly tense,

Or tight,

Or stressed.

And just feel the sensations there.

No judgment,

No expectations,

Just feel.

Notice everything about it.

Do the sensations change?

What's the temperature?

Is there a color?

Do you feel an emotion?

And I want you to bring your awareness to the very center of this tension and hold your awareness there.

Hold it there without allowing it to wander.

And now from that center point,

Start allowing the tension to unravel,

To peel away from the center.

The gripping starts to let go.

And you feel the tension loosening from the middle moving to the outside.

Everything relaxing as the grip on this part of your body softens.

And it feels like tension peels away,

Breaks away.

And as your mind stays there,

As your awareness stays focused,

It continues to relax.

It continues to let go.

The muscles loosen their grip.

Then they loosen their grip again.

And tension drains out.

And the muscles relax.

And the muscles relax.

And the muscles relax.

And now you feel this sensation of complete relaxation spread to the rest of your body,

Filling every tiny space,

Every cell.

And as it flows through you,

Tension everywhere drains out of your body.

Tension breaks away.

And you feel your body relax deeply.

And relax even more deeply.

And relax even more deeply.

And now your mind is quiet and calm.

So clear and present.

Allow yourself to feel open and vulnerable.

Wake up your senses.

Listen.

Feel.

Stop resisting life.

Stop seeking a solution.

Stop looking for a way to alleviate your suffering.

Look at life with a mind that is not suffocated by the search for solutions.

Stop seeking.

And know that even though this may not be solved now,

You will begin to see the true cause.

The most important thing is that you stop looking for one.

Stop looking for the answer to your problems.

Look at yourself with unwavering clarity,

With curiosity,

And the desire to understand.

Allow yourself to stay with this feeling.

You can sink deeper into who you truly are.

You can do it by allowing others to see you.

Allowing yourself to feel vulnerable.

You can do it by letting go of your nervous tension,

Taking a breath,

And simply relaxing in your life.

Soon you will hear a bell ring.

At that point,

Feel free to make your way out of the meditation or remain longer as you choose.

Here you are.

.

.

You

Reviews

Found this so deeply relaxing and different, helping me to release. Thank you so much 🧡

Fantastic! Calming, letting go, rejuvenating. Really helped me on an anxious day. And I love you on Do Yoga With Me too!

Delighted to find David here on insight. I have done many of his yoga videos, ‘do yoga with me’ Lov

Beautiful! Very calming! Feel amazing! Thank you ❤️

So deeply relaxing that I took an unintended nap. 🙏🏻

Incredible body reset, full release of tension and anxiety into presence and peace 🙏

Very relaxing. Had a lot of pain in my shoulders due to tension. Felt them twitch as they relaxed during this meditation. Thank you 🙏

I was having a very stressful and emotional day. Thank you your meditation calmed down my heart and nerves system 🙏

Perfect meditation to let go of the outer world, calming the mind and experiencing deep relaxation. 🙏🏻

I really enjoyed meditating to the beginning of this recording. I sort of tuned out when the focus shifted to feeling a series of body parts, but felt quite relaxed toward the end of the recording.

Thanks so much for your lovely meditation. May the joy be with you. Nàmaste

Your meditation has reduced my anxiety for 2 nights in a row of good sleep. Thank you 🙏

Exquisite!!! Thank you.

That was so helpful, I find it very hard to switch off to the detriment of my health. Would love a longer one too. Thank you 🙏

Wonderfully done! I usually respond better to meditation with a background music. In this case I think your voice is the music. 😊 I easily relaxed to the words and the cadence of your voice. Thank you.

Just what I needed. Thank you. X

Very calming, wise, and helpful. Thank you.

One of the best guided meditations I’ve experienced of late. Could feel the layers of tension and anxiety peel away. Thank you.

Perfect, thank you so much.

Lovely! And so effective. I will definitely come back to this meditation again.
Thank you kindly, David 🙌🏼