Hi there,
It's Eva here and I'm glad you decided to join me in a moment of stress.
I hope you are okay because I know stress and nervousness can feel very intense.
Did you have a chance to talk to someone already about what made you feel stressed?
Let's take a moment together to think about what happened.
This may make you feel uncomfortable again,
But that is okay.
Nothing will ever go away if we try to ignore it.
So let's look at it for a moment,
Both at what happened and how it made you feel.
Thank you for taking this on and if you need a little bit longer,
Feel free to pause this meditation.
However,
We don't want to be doing this for too long.
We don't want to ignore the feeling,
But we also don't want to be swept away by it.
Now let me teach you some tricks how you can reduce your feelings of stress or anxiety.
We will use some tools that we have always with us,
Namely our breath and our feet.
Is your breath there?
Check.
And are your feet there?
Check.
Great.
Now you can do this lying down,
Sitting up or even standing up.
You may close your eyes,
But you can also keep them open.
You may want to let your choices depend on where you are.
If you are at home,
It may feel good to lie down and close your eyes.
If you are,
For example,
In school and you're trying to memorize what we did,
You may prefer to keep your eyes open and remain standing or sitting,
So nobody even needs to know what you're doing.
Let's start by taking some breaths into our lower bellies.
Put your right hand under your belly button and your palm down on the belly.
On your next inhale,
Send your breath into this hand,
So your lower belly inflates.
And when you exhale,
The hand and the belly comes down.
Inhale,
Make it a bit longer.
Exhale,
Make it a bit longer.
Again,
Long full inhale,
Slow full exhale.
You may release your hand from your belly.
Make any changes you want.
Again,
Your eyes can be open or closed.
My friends Joshua and Nurb have taught me a great trick,
Which is called the soles of the feet.
And yes,
You guessed it right,
It involves bringing your attention to your feet,
Especially the part of the feet that touches the floor.
So can you try to feel your feet for a moment?
It will help if you place your soles on the floor for a moment and then gently press your soles onto the floor.
Let's explore our feet.
Focus on your toes.
You may want to wiggle them a little bit to connect with them.
Feel the balls of both feet,
That beautiful round part of your foot right behind your big toes.
Feel the bridge of the feet,
The inner part of the feet that's slightly arches and usually does not touch the ground.
Feel the heel of your feet.
It's at the backside,
Supporting your strong active legs and carrying so much weight.
Feel it.
And then feel the whole soles of the feet and how they touch the floor.
Great,
You may release the attention from your feet and again also make any changes you like.
We will finish this meditation with thinking of something that made us feel warm and fuzzy inside,
Something that made you laugh or smile.
Can you think of something that happened today?
It could be something that happened but it could also be a person,
Say one of your parents,
A brother or a sister,
A friend.
And when you think of this,
You can say in your mind or even out loud,
Thank you.
Thank you for this moment or this person and then thank yourself most of all for being honest about how you feel and what you need.
Keep being you and join me anytime you feel stressed or anxious again.
