What is Anxiety?
Anxiety is something I think that most of us experience to greater or lesser degrees at various points in life.
And even when subtle,
Anxiety can have a powerful impact on how we engage with the world and with ourselves.
In this meditation,
I invite you to settle in for the next 10 minutes or so as we explore the peace that can be found beneath our anxious thoughts and behaviors,
Freeing ourselves a little bit right in this moment.
Before we get started,
Bring yourself to a comfortable seated position.
Sitting upright on the floor,
In a chair or on a bench,
Soften your shoulders.
Allow your hands to rest comfortably in your lap or on your thighs.
And straighten the neck so that it's in line with the spine.
Take a deep breath in and out.
Perhaps letting a little bit of tension go with a sigh on your next exhalation.
This meditation is not designed to rid ourselves of anxiety.
It's meant to help us sit with it,
See beneath it,
And where possible move through it.
The idea here is that anxiety is a present moment experience like anything else.
So all we can work with is our experience in this very moment.
Letting go of any thoughts or expectations as to what the future will bring can be helpful.
And at the same time,
Seeing if you can open yourself up to simply being here right now.
I invite you to begin by honing in on your breath for the next few cycles.
Simply watching the natural flow of this life force into and out of your body.
Notice if the breath changes in any way as you melt further into this practice.
Perhaps deepening or softening.
Or perhaps staying exactly as it was just a few breaths ago.
Whatever is the case for you,
See if you can soften your assumptions or judgments about what should happen.
Or about what is happening.
Just allow the breath to rock you gently back and forth into this unfolding moment.
Notice where the mind attempts to intervene with this present moment.
Knowing that it is entirely natural for it to do so.
As thoughts arise,
See if you might shift your relationship to them.
Taking a step back as you become an observer of these thoughts rather than being of these thoughts.
It might be helpful to label what arises without attaching yourself to whatever label you assigned the thought.
So you might observe the presence of fear,
Of contraction,
Judgment,
Of resistance.
Or any other feeling,
Sensation,
Or movement of energy.
Spend a few more moments silently observing your thoughts in this way.
Noticing as well the points where there is nothing you can identify.
Gently sink into the peace and stillness of these unidentifiable moments with each exhalation.
Draw your attention to the heart space now.
Seeing if you might open it up a little further to the empty space in front of you.
Does the breath,
Mind,
Or body deepen,
Expand,
Or shift at all when you bring your attention here?
If any worried thoughts are still present,
Just gently invite them down to the space.
Welcome them into the heart unconditionally,
Compassionately,
And without judging their presence.
Continue to focus on your breath here for a few moments.
Allowing it to enter the very base of your belly.
Become aware of any tension that might habitually reappear.
Perhaps in the forehead,
The belly,
Or in the shoulders.
And gently soften these areas as you return to the breath as it moves through your heart.
The mind can be persistent.
So no matter how many times you must come back down to this moment,
To the heart,
Just continue to do so.
Rather than arguing with your experience,
See if you might open yourself up to it with compassion and non-judgment.
Not to the stories,
Simply to the direct experience.
Meditation helps us to shift the lens through which we view whatever weighs heavily on us.
In any moment,
We can practice mindfulness of the breath,
Of the body,
And of our emotions.
Becoming an observer of this experience rather than being the experience itself.
Take one more deep breath in.
And out.
And to close this meditation,
Raise your hands to your heart in either prayer position or one on top of the other.
And thank yourself for taking this time to rest and reset.
Thank you so much for listening.
Have a beautiful day.
