Welcome to this meditation class for anxiety.
At the end you're going to feel grounded,
Relaxed,
And at ease.
And my hope is that it will help you manage your anxiety.
So let's begin.
Close your eyes and make sure you're sitting in a way that is comfortable.
We'll begin by starting to deepen the breath slowly,
Gently.
You can breathe through the nose or the mouth,
Whatever feels right.
And with every breath,
Just trying to make it a little bit longer,
A little bit deeper than the last one.
And now I'm going to start prompting you into a slow series of breaths.
So breathe in with me in exhale.
One more in exhale exhale,
Inhale,
Exhale.
And continue like this on your own at this pace.
And if it helps,
You can open mouth exhale a couple times,
Almost like a sigh,
To just get any jitters,
Any tension,
Any restlessness.
Get it out.
So we'll inhale together.
Exhale it out.
Good.
One more.
Feel with every exhale.
All that nervous energy just leave your body.
Good.
And you can return to your slow,
Deep inhale.
And notice if there's anything different now that you've decided to let that anxiety out.
It might just be a little different.
But the fact that there is a difference means that you're doing very well.
Good.
On the next breath in,
Bring your hands together.
And just slowly rub them together and just feel the warmth between your hands.
Making sure that you're continuing to breathe.
Just feeling one hand against the other.
Maybe you feel the skin,
And the difference in the skin on your palms versus your fingers.
Maybe you feel the heat.
And on the next breath,
Bring those hands to the tops of your thighs.
And just let them rest there.
And press gently into the tops of your thighs.
And just feel how nice it is to have that warmth there,
That contact there.
And we'll breathe in here.
In.
Exhale.
Good.
One more.
And another inhale.
Exhale.
Now I want you to start moving your hands gently back and forth in the tops of your thighs.
And same thing before when we were rubbing the hands together.
I want you to pay attention to that point of contact between your legs and your hands.
And just feel how nice it is to be touched and held by yourself here.
Making sure you're breathing.
And when you're ready,
You can allow your hands to come to rest.
And just notice the sensation that's left over in your palms and the top of your legs through the rubbing,
Like a little tingling.
And we'll breathe.
And I'd like you to check in with yourself again.
Compare how you felt from the beginning of the practice to now.
You'll probably feel different.
You'll feel a little more steady.
A little bit calmer,
A little more in touch with yourself,
With your body.
And as you breathe in this position and enjoy how nice it feels,
I'm going to tell you a little bit about the theme that we're going to explore today.
So we are going to be cultivating the feeling of groundedness into our meditation today.
And the reason for this is because that feeling of groundedness is a nice counterbalance,
Or you could say the opposite feeling of anxiety.
So I invite you to focus just for a bit on your anxiety for now.
Right away,
It might feel a little different in your body,
In your mind,
In your heart.
I just want you to notice the difference the anxiety feels in your body.
It might feel like a restlessness,
Like a little uncomfortable tension inside.
Maybe a flighty feeling,
Like something flitting around.
Okay,
Now I want you to come back to your body.
Breathe,
Inhale with me.
Exhale.
Good.
One more inhale.
Exhale.
One more time in.
And out.
Good.
Rub your hands a little on your thighs.
Re-establish that connection.
So the reason why I asked you to call in just for a brief moment,
That feeling of anxiety is because I wanted to reacquaint us with what anxiety feels like.
And hopefully you could feel how different it is from the feeling of groundedness.
Now,
What is groundedness?
Well,
Groundedness is what you're feeling right now.
That stability in your seat,
In that connection to your thighs.
That warmth and the comfort in your long,
Slow,
Deep breaths.
And now I'll just give you a minute to meditate on this feeling of groundedness.
And if you feel like your attention is moving away,
That's fine.
You can bring in some of that groundedness back into your experience by rubbing your hands on your thighs,
Rubbing your hands together by going back to that slow,
Deep breath,
Maybe doing a couple exhales to release that nervous energy,
That anxiety that might come up.
Whatever feels right for you.
So good.
And I want you to inhale with me.
Exhale.
One more in.
Exhale.
Good.
Just now you spent a full minute in unguided meditation.
I'm sure you did really well.
And it might've felt a little unsure or uncomfortable at first to be in that space,
But the beautiful thing about groundedness is that there's an element of trust in it.
Trust in yourself for being able to meditate and breathe so that you can feel better.
Trust in the chair or the ground supporting you,
Helping you feel even more grounded and trust that in the future,
If you feel anxious again,
That you now know what to do to help recalibrate yourself,
To help you feel better.
And with that,
I'd like us to take three breaths to close this meditation.
We'll breathe in exhale one more inhale,
Exhale and our last final breath in and all the way out.
Let your breathing return to normal.
If your hands are still on your legs,
You can bring them to your heart,
Place your hands on your heart and just feel how nice that is.
May you be grounded at peace and at ease.
