Welcome to this meditation for cultivating the relaxation response.
When we're feeling stressed or anxious,
Our breathing can become fast,
The heartbeat goes up,
You may even notice yourself perspiring or the mouth becoming dry.
And this can lead us to seeking for some way to get away from our anxiety and the uncomfortable feelings in our body.
We may well reach for whatever substance it is that we are addicted to that will take away briefly these uncomfortable sensations.
But it is possible also to connect with a relaxation response in your body using the breath.
Just as the breath becomes fast and shallow as you feel stressed,
Slowing down the breath,
Taking long,
Slow,
Deep breaths,
Will initiate the relaxation response in your body.
Learning to connect with this will give you a resource that you can turn to at any point when you're feeling stressed.
So let's have a look now at this guided practice for how you learn to connect with the relaxation response that's here within your own body and that you can connect with within a few moments of breathing.
If you're doing this on your own,
It takes three minutes for the body to switch from the fight-or-flight mode,
Whereby you're feeling stressed and anxious,
Into the rest and digest mode.
So giving yourself at least three minutes to use this breathing at times of stress or worry.
So let's begin.
Settling into a comfortable posture and taking a deep breath all the way down into your belly.
Noticing if you're only breathing into your upper chest.
Sometimes we have learned to take shallow breaths,
Breathing only into the chest.
And if you notice that you're not breathing into the belly,
Seeing if you can soften the muscles here in the abdomen.
Placing your hands on your belly and imagining that you're filling up a balloon as you breathe in.
Feeling your hands gently expanding as you breathe in.
And contracting as you breathe out.
Slowing down your breath.
Taking deep,
Long,
Slow breaths.
And breathing in for a count of three.
One,
Two,
Three.
Holding.
One,
Two,
Three.
Breathing out.
One,
Two,
Three.
That's right.
Really noticing that relaxing,
Floating feeling that could begin to develop somewhere in the body or somewhere in your head.
Breathing in again for a count of three.
One,
Two,
Three.
Holding.
One,
Two,
Three.
Breathing out.
One,
Two,
Three.
And then enjoying that relaxing,
Floating feeling in the body and the head.
And each time you breathe in,
Slow,
And deep into the belly,
Imagining a coloured light flowing into your body.
Any colour you would like to imagine.
Filling up your body with relaxation and calm.
A healing,
Soothing light.
As if the body were a glass and you were filling up the glass with water.
But instead of water,
You are filling up your body with that warm,
Coloured light.
And each time you breathe out,
Imagining stress and bad feelings leaving the body.
Breathing it out of your body like a dark coloured oil,
Soot or tar that leaves your body as your body relaxes from the head all the way down through the legs,
Down into your feet.
Your feet connecting to the floor and through the floor down into the earth.
Cleaning and ridding yourself of all stress.
Your breath relaxing.
Muscles relaxing.
Body relaxing.
Breathing in that healing,
Relaxing,
Coloured light for a count of three.
Holding for a count of three.
And breathing out that dark coloured oil,
Soot or tar for a count of three.
And as you breathe that relaxing light into your body,
Your body relaxes from the top of your head to the tips of your toes.
From the inside out.
Breathing out,
Letting that stress go like a dark coloured oil,
Soot or tar leaving your body.
Cleaning your body.
Clearing your mind.
Peace and calm,
Increasing with each passing breath.
You can relax as you let those stressful thoughts and feelings go.
You can relax as you let those cravings go.
Breathing them out with each passing breath.
Letting them go.
Releasing them into space.
As you float more and more freely here,
Now,
In the relaxing peace of your breath.
Whenever the mind wanders to stressful thoughts or feelings,
To cravings,
Bringing your mind back to the breath.
The pleasure of a nice,
Deep,
Slow breath.
Breathing in peace.
Breathing out all worry,
Stress or anxiety.
Feeling freer as you remain substance-free.
Nurturing yourself with the breath.
Remembering you can turn to the breath at any point in the day,
Taking three minutes to slow down your breath.
Breathe long,
Slow,
Deep breaths.
Breathing out all anxiety.
And now,
When you're ready to finish this meditation,
Taking a deep breath in,
And as you breathe out,
Bringing some movement into your body,
And opening your eyes.
