Settling Anxiety

In this longer guided meditation, I invite you to lay down, connect with the body breathing, and take a journey around the body, noticing sensation and responses to sensation while building on positive associations and memories. An ideal way to come into presence with one's self, settle anxiety, and let the mind and body relax deeply. Practice every evening after a long day, ahead of sleep, or any time you need to slow things down.

Transcript

Welcome to today's meditation.

For this practice I'm going to invite you to make your way onto the back of the body or to find some supine position that feels really comfortable,

Getting yourself ready for a state of deep relaxation.

So just spend a bit of time arranging yourself,

Whether you're on the sofa,

A mattress or on the floor with some padding and support underneath you.

And as we're going to be laying still,

You might want to bring a blanket over the body and perhaps something to cover the eyes.

It's important that you make a comfortable nest for yourself.

You're prioritizing your body's comfort,

Which means that you can sink into a place of deeper relaxation and surrender.

Essentially you're opening yourself to receive this meditation,

This practice and its benefits.

So if you need to bring a cushion or a bolster underneath the knees or a folded blanket under the head,

Feel free to add those things as well.

And we might as we're just finishing arranging ourselves,

Making those finishing touches,

We might just imagine that we've come to a yoga studio or a meditation space or wherever it is that you're used to practicing outside of the home.

If it helps you to imagine that you're in another space,

Then you can always imagine that.

I know for many this year practicing at home has presented challenges.

We've made the practice more accessible,

But I think many of us long to practice with others in spaces outside of the home.

So as I say,

If it's helpful to you to imagine that you are in another space and with others,

Then go ahead and just bring that into your visual field behind the closed eyes.

And in these first few moments,

We're going to just arrive here in this space,

Just landing,

Making sure that the body is laying centrally so that the shoulders are in line with the hips,

The spine is straight.

For those of you on a yoga mat,

You're lying down the midline of the mat.

I mean,

It's that attention to detail that just helps you to settle a little more comfortably,

A little more deeply,

Letting the ankles roll out to the side,

Bringing some space between the feet so the hips have got some room to relax.

And your choice,

Either bringing the arms alongside the body with the palms facing upwards or resting the hands on the belly as you wish.

And as we begin to become stiller,

We can just notice how the body starts to soften.

You can bring your awareness to the parts of the body that make contact with the floor or the support beneath you and just give full permission to those parts of the body to relax.

Know that at any time if you need to move,

You are free to adjust yourself.

But just send a friendly invite from the mind all the way through the body to continue to relax.

No effort required,

No need to hold on to any muscles or to clench the jaw or to knit the eyebrows together or even to hold yourself up.

Instead,

Let's practice letting go of that control,

Letting go of that tension and softening,

Softening,

Softening,

Suggesting that the surface beneath you can hold your weight and has you.

Beautiful.

We can tend to some finer details that may just help us to relax a little bit more by consciously softening any wrinkles between the eyebrows across the forehead and softening the eyeballs away from the eye sockets,

Turning down the corners of the eyes and feeling the cheeks relax and the jaw too,

So important.

Just letting those bottom teeth drop away from the top teeth and allowing the tongue to go slack in the mouth.

And you might have noticed just in drawing those muscles of the face downwards,

Consciously relaxing them,

Perhaps the rest of the body has softened a little more too.

Interesting.

And now when you're ready,

I invite you to bring your awareness to the nostrils and just to observe or greet this next breath that enters through the nose.

And then to watch it as it passes back out through the nose.

And if you can,

Greeting the next breath and observing as it leaves.

And then the next breath,

Cool air in and warm air out.

And just for these next few moments,

Keeping a soft awareness on the tip of the nose or the nostrils and just tuning in to your natural breath,

Not thinking about the breath,

But receiving it,

Experiencing it,

Moment by moment by moment.

And yes,

Sometimes the breath is a little high in the body,

A little stressed,

Tight,

Frenetic,

Pinched,

Quick,

All sorts.

Or maybe today you notice this,

It feels a little easeful,

It feels a little softer than it did last time I did this.

Just noticing,

Noticing.

And as you notice this breath,

As you get close to it,

As you observe it,

As you are with it,

Do so kindly,

Do so with compassion.

We're suddenly not looking to punish ourselves or to judge or criticise.

We're just getting into the habit of observing and checking in,

Knowing that whatever arises is manageable and okay.

And often of course what happens when we bring our awareness to the breath is that we do start to try to control it or to change it in some way.

And that's quite natural,

That's quite normal.

But just for these next few moments as we lay here in the quiet,

Observing together,

See if you can rest,

Really rest in your awareness as you witness each breath coming and going exactly as it is.

Nothing to change,

Nothing to improve.

Good,

Lovely.

Well done.

If you feel to deepen the breath from here and just to draw a breath in from the nose and then to open the mouth and release,

You're welcome to take what the body needs,

What feels natural.

And just as you do that,

If you are deepening your breath,

Just do that again,

Staying with it,

Knowing that you can slow down the exhale or open the mouth to breathe it away,

Keeping the body soft and the attention kind.

All right.

So from here,

I'd like to offer the option of bringing the left hand to the heart and the right hand to the belly.

And just checking in on how that feels,

Feeling the fabric of your clothes against your hands,

The warmth of your hands against your body and the breath rising and falling moment to moment.

And we're going to offer compassion to ourselves here.

At first acknowledging and honoring the presence of any emotions that feel unmanageable or overwhelming or heartbreaking.

And just to direct these words to our own hearts.

I see you.

I hear you.

I feel you.

I see you.

I hear you.

I feel you.

I'm taking a deep breath in down into the heart space,

Feeling the heart blooming open down into the belly,

Feeling the belly rise and slowly out in the opposite direction.

Breathing back out,

You can open the mouth if you wish.

Good.

So let's stay here.

Let's stay here in this closely connected space,

Feeling the connection of our hands and our bodies and our hands to our hearts.

And we can collectively acknowledge the disruption,

Pain,

The challenge,

The struggle and the difficulty of this year.

Which has affected everyone around the globe,

Every human.

We can acknowledge the grief,

The dismay,

The despair as we watch our world close down day by day.

All of the systems,

Habits,

Cultures,

Ways of being and living and communicating and connecting changed so quickly.

And just to spend some time acknowledging the uncertainty that that disruption has provoked.

The uncertainty which for many has sparked anxiety and stress.

And just to notice,

Is that something I feel in the body?

And if so,

Where do I feel that?

So together just scanning our awareness through the body as we lay here.

Noticing too if anything has tensed in response,

The shoulders maybe.

Sometimes we just do a sort of micro lift of the body away from the surface,

That tension,

An instinctive reflex to protect ourselves.

So connecting with the body again just noticing,

Okay,

Where can I really let go a little more?

Where can I really come back down into the support beneath me?

Maybe the wrists or the shoulders,

The eyes or the jaw.

And as you settle take another deep welcoming breath into the length of the body and then just sighing it back out.

So just acknowledging how our thoughts affect our bodies.

What the chain reaction response is as we bring to mind challenging or difficult subject matter memories.

And knowing that we can choose to change the physiological response by relaxing,

Releasing,

Honoring what's occurring and arising.

And then noticing how those tensions or emotions or thoughts begin to dissipate.

And we say begin because what we're doing here is practicing.

Practicing checking in with ourselves.

Practicing seeing what stories and memories and responses lie in the body.

And practicing befriending those,

Acknowledging those so that they don't take a hold on us.

Good,

Lovely.

So anytime we notice those emotions associated with the uncertain times that we're living in,

We can come back to this practice of resting and looking,

Honoring and letting go.

Reminding ourselves that we have this ability to frame how we experience our lives individually and collectively.

Knowing that when we embrace uncertainty rather than tighten,

Resist or run away,

We always,

Always embrace creativity.

The option to think of new solutions or to live in new ways.

But that creativity,

That flexibility of thought and emotion only,

Only,

Only comes out of us paradoxically relaxing,

Letting go.

And that when we trust ourselves in that space,

When we come into a state of relaxation and softness and openness to receive,

To change,

To adapt,

That is when those solutions come forward.

We trust our intuition.

We're more open to signs and opportunities that present themselves.

And though all of us are living with this uncertainty of not knowing which kind of a world is going to take shape.

What we can do is root down into the ground on which we stand.

We want those seeds that are generated by this sort of practice,

Meditation,

Inquiry,

Relaxation.

So that eventually with practice,

Uncertainty can become generative and exciting.

That new things really can grow out of soil that has been turned and turned and turned.

And of course,

When we are uncertain,

The mind flits this way in that it's our brain's response to what it perceives as a threat,

A real threat in this case.

And so our brains try to imagine all the scenarios,

All things that could go wrong.

So if you're noticing that that's happening for you,

Let's just take a couple of breaths into that.

And again.

And again.

Let's warm the soul,

Keeping this left hand on the heart and the right hand on the belly.

And as we're drawing away from future anticipation or dread,

Or scenarios that just perpetuate anxiety and worry,

I invite you to bring yourself back into the present.

To remind something or someone for which or for whom you're grateful,

Like really,

Really grateful.

To let that thing or person just fill your mind's eye,

You may well notice the smile widening on your face.

And notice if there's a shift in sensation in the body,

A warming perhaps,

A softening,

An expansion.

A feeling of the thermostat having been turned up.

And just keep smiling at this thing or this person.

Keep letting those feel-good hormones radiate around your body.

Until the whole body is warmed by the light of this person or thing.

Until the whole body is receiving the joy and warmth that they bring.

Until all the cells have absorbed that joy.

Until all of you is touched by it.

You may even begin to experience this warmth and this light radiating out beyond the confines of your body,

Beyond your skin.

And it may even have a colour or a distinct shape.

And so with this feeling enlarging within and around you,

Let the film screen of your mind just play a host of memories and associations and thoughts and images that come with this object of your gratitude.

There may be smells that come with it.

There may be things that make you laugh.

Whatever comes up in association with this person or thing,

Let yourself enjoy it as if it's really here and now.

Filling in as many details and colours and textures.

Anything that brings pleasure,

Anything that brings joy.

Bring it into the picture.

And as if you were filling up a vase with water.

Let these associations and images fill up your energetic being with love and pleasure.

You can move between the past and the future as you wish.

The only rule is to just let yourself feel it now.

Your awareness resting on this movie screen.

Creating a pleasure dome for yourself that has an immediate cascading effect through the hormones,

Through the endocrine system.

Releasing all those feel-good chemicals.

It's so important that we allow ourselves to experience the feelings that come with these chemicals.

They're there to uplift us,

To motivate us,

To inspire us.

So just let yourself receive them fully in this moment.

Knowing that you are topping yourself up.

Filling the reserve and nourishing yourself from the inside out.

Together we have this beautiful imagination.

And we have this opportunity to retreat to it.

To be in it and to feed ourselves.

Really,

Really feed ourselves.

Anchoring in things that matter,

Which support us and which make us feel good.

For these final few minutes,

I'm going to suggest that we rest here on the back of the body in savasana.

You can keep the hands on the body or release them alongside you with the palms facing up.

And we'll just let these next few moments,

Few minutes,

Be about absorption and continued rest.

At the end of savasana,

I will mark the time with three soft bells.

And you're welcome to continue laying there.

Or just to come out whenever you're ready.

Unok rolling.

Gbased on G Good Jumps.

You You You You You You You You You You You

Reviews

Thank you Ellie, after 45 minutes I feel soothed 😊🌸

Perfect, I woke up early and couldn’t go back to sleep. This meditation allowed me to rest for a while longer, so calming. Thank you.🙏🏻💗🕊️

Very, very relaxing for me. Thanks for sharing this meditation.💕🌸🙏🏻

Even almost 3 yeast later I still needed this! Thank you so much.

Stunningly beautiful meditation. Thanks so much Ellie for the obvious long hours you put into creating such meaningful meditations . I am so grateful to the impact your practices have on my life and look forward to some Astral if you have any .
Thanks again , much love
Namasta
🙏🏻

So beautiful, thank you 🙏🏻

Really enjoyable meditation. I didn’t get as deep as I would have liked. Next time!

Such a beautifully healing journey… thank you and blessings.💜🙏

Very good

Thank you for your meditations. Haven't been able to sleep with pain. You have a very calming presence in your meditation. 🙏💜

Really soothing voice but can’t remember much more as I happly fell asleep! Thanks ☺️

Amazing meditation thank you!!

This was truly beautiful and provided such a level of calm like I had not felt in a long time. Thank you 🙏

Beautiful words
Thank you
Namesta

Amazing! Thank you so much for this exactly what I needed 🙏🏼🙏🏼

Truly beautiful meditation. Felt so calm and restored at the end of the practice. Really interesting to fully experience my body's response to anxiety provoking and positive thoughts. Did not want to leave the warm, comforting glow of my little nest! Thank you - will definitely be returning to this to deal with ongoing anxiety issues 🙏💞💖

I didn’t realize the meditation focused on challenges of the last year, but it’s a lovely one.

Amazing. Lovely soft voice and calming pace of words.
Highly recommended

Incredibly helpful and soothing. Thank you!

This is golden.