Hi there,
And thank you for joining me for this guided meditation to calm an overactive or overthinking mind.
My name is Rishi and I will be your guide for this session.
So I'd like to invite you to come to a comfortable position and you may be happy doing this sitting upright with the spine straight or lying down somewhere that's comfortable,
Either is fine.
And try to choose a place where you'll be relatively undisturbed for the next little while.
So settle into that position now and when you're ready,
Close your eyes.
And as we make our way through this session today,
It's important that you understand that in no way are we trying to control or subdue our thoughts,
But we are going to be working on shifting our attention to something else.
And by doing so,
There is often a reduction in thoughts and that overthinking tendency tends to calm down.
So we'll start with a simple breathing exercise.
And I invite you now to take a deep breath in through the nose,
Fill the lungs,
And see if you can breathe out slowly through the nose or mouth.
And then again,
When you're ready,
Take a deep breath in through the nose,
Fill the lungs and breathe out slowly,
Slowing down the length of the exhalation.
And just one more of those,
Deep breath in and a long,
Slow,
Drawn out exhalation.
And then allowing your breath to settle in its own comfortable rhythm.
And we will start to turn our attention towards the body.
So you can take your attention now as far away from the thinking mind as possible,
All the way down to your feet,
And more specifically,
Your big toes.
See if you can become aware of and sense your big toes,
Both left and right.
You don't need to move them,
But if you're struggling to find them,
Just give the big toes a little wiggle and begin to focus on the sensation within your toes.
And you can do the same with all the little toes of both feet now.
Can you feel them?
Maybe yes,
Maybe no.
Can you feel some more than others or one foot more than the other?
And begin doing the same for the ball of each foot.
And the outside edges of the feet,
Can you sense them?
And how about the arches of the feet?
And the heels?
Depending on how you're resting now,
You may feel pressure of the heels against the floor.
Maybe the mind is still very active and attempts to pull you away from the practice,
And that's okay,
But when you remember or when I remind you,
Just come back to that part of the body that we're focusing on.
So right now,
We're still with the heels,
But see if you can become aware of your ankles.
Can you sense them?
Can you feel the left more than the right or the other way around?
And bring awareness into the lower legs now,
The calf muscles and the shins.
And see if you can sense this part of the body,
Both legs,
Left and right.
And then let that awareness move up and into the knees.
Can you feel the kneecaps and the backs of the knees?
And as you stay here with your awareness absorbed in the sensation at the knees,
Maybe the mind continues in its overactive way,
Just continue giving as much attention as you can to the body,
To the knees.
And now we move up into the thighs.
Can you feel the quads in front and the hamstrings in the back?
And now give your attention to the glutes,
Left and right.
And notice how the more attention and energy you give to the body,
The less energy there is to churn the thinking mind.
We naturally start to experience reduction in overthinking as we come more and more deeply back to the body.
This is our natural state.
Become aware of your hip joints now.
Left and right hip.
And then come further up into the abdomen,
Aware of the abdomen,
The waist and the lower back.
Scan in and around this region,
See what you can feel.
Maybe nothing at all,
Maybe there's some sensation.
And now continue up into the chest,
Into the ribs,
The upper back and shoulder blades.
Aware of the heart.
And right the way up into the shoulders.
Can you feel the left and right shoulder?
Now noticing the upper arms.
Give all your attention to the upper arms,
Left and right.
And then the elbows.
Noticing the forearms now,
Wrists.
And see if you can bring as much attention to the palms and the back of the hands as you can.
Noticing the thumbs and as much detail as you can,
Right out to the tips.
And do the same with the index fingers,
The middle fingers,
Ring fingers and little fingers.
The more attention you give to the hands,
Thumbs and fingers,
The more you can deeply relax into the present moment,
Inhabiting the body,
Residing in the present moment.
Now shift your focus to the neck,
See if you can feel the front of the throat,
The sides and the back of the neck.
Let that awareness flow into the chin and the jaw.
Look for any sensation in the lips.
Aware of the nose and the flow of breath.
Aware of your closed eyes,
Eyelids heavy.
Aware of your ears,
The music in the background.
Notice any other sounds you can hear in your room or beyond.
Aware of the back of the head,
The crown at the top of the head.
And now bring all of your focus to rest at the forehead.
Can you feel this part of the body?
Can you sense the forehead?
Is there observable sensation or is it devoid of any sensation?
It doesn't matter your experience,
Just notice.
If you feel something at the forehead,
That's a good observation.
If you feel nothing at all,
That's also a good observation.
Sharpening your concentration,
Increasing awareness at the forehead.
It doesn't mean anything,
It does not need to be analysed or understood.
Simply continue focusing at the forehead and notice how often the more attention you bring to the body,
The less momentum for the overthinking and overactive mind.
But allow your attention to move out and encompass the whole body now.
Deeply aware of the whole body from the crown at the top of the head right the way down to the feet and toes.
Feel the connection to and the awareness of your whole body.
And as you stay connected to your body in this way,
Notice if there is any observable difference in your thinking mind.
Has your state shifted from when you first started the session until now?
And even if the thinking mind continues,
If the thoughts continue churning,
Maybe you're slightly less attached to those thoughts,
Maybe they have a little less momentum.
And this art of coming back to the body is a skill just like anything else and you can become better at this skill with practice.
So I recommend you try this practice daily over a period of weeks and see if you can increase the skill of disconnecting from the overactive mind and reconnecting with your body.
And this is your natural state,
Your consciousness evenly distributed and permeating the whole body rather than being held captive in the thinking mind.
So whenever you need to disconnect from that overthinking state,
Remember,
Come back to the body,
Feel the body in as much detail as you can and you will slowly be able to detach from that overactive mind.
So see if you can stay aware of the body as we prepare to come to the end of the session,
Whole body awareness as you start wiggling fingers and toes,
Take some deeper breaths in and out,
Whole body awareness,
Move the wrists and ankles,
Whole body awareness,
Stretching the arms and legs,
See if you can stay aware of your whole body as you rub the palms together quickly if appropriate,
Generate some heat in the hands and once the hands are warm,
You can bring the warm palms to cover the eyes,
Feel the warmth of the eyes,
Take a deep breath in and slowly uncover,
Open the eyes,
Come back,
Aware of your surroundings,
See if you can stay connected to and aware of the body and go about the rest of your day with that knowledge that you can calm an overactive and overthinking mind.
This is Rishi from Good Karma Meditations,
I thank you for practicing with me today and I wish you a wonderful rest of the day and if you wanted to support the channel,
Please consider just giving a like or rating,
Subscribing or following and leave a comment,
Let me know how you got on,
Thank you.
