Releasing Tiredness, Stress And Tension

Using breathing techniques and awareness of your body, you can use this meditation to encourage the release of stresses, tensions and tiredness whether they are mental, physical or emotional. Thi meditaiton guide you on a journey of compassion with yourself; simply noticing and allowing and creating space for things to move as they are ready to.

Transcript

Okay,

Welcome everyone to this meditation.

And just as usual,

I'd invite you all just to start that walk towards quiet,

However busy your day has been or however peaceful your day has been.

Maybe you've been physically peaceful but your mind's been busy or vice versa.

Just sending that invitation to you,

Whether you're watching in person,

Listening in person or on replay,

Just take a moment to set an intention to walk towards quiet.

And as you've heard me say before,

The great thing about setting an intention to walk towards quiet is it allows for all those moments where we notice the thoughts whizzing through our brains.

We can still just hold that intention.

So if you've not already done so,

Just turn your eyes down or close your eyes completely.

And just allow yourself to turn inwards.

And just take a moment to notice where you might be holding on to any mental tiredness or mental stress.

Our hamster wheel,

Brains.

Where are you holding that tension or pressure?

Just check around your eyes,

Your mouth,

Your shoulders,

Your neck.

These are the usual places where we hold our mental tiredness.

And we may not even sense it as an anxiety or a pressure,

But it can just be a tiredness from thinking about things,

A tiredness from having to focus on being safe on the road.

Or having to focus on new information coming your way or the need to remember information to handle,

To give to someone.

So just allow any mental tiredness or stress that you're aware of.

Just take a big breath,

A deeper breath,

And on the exhale,

Just allow that mental tiredness to lift.

And we can imagine it like the horror,

The mist lying on the field.

And we can imagine the sun coming down and just warming our shoulders,

Our eyes,

Our neck.

And just allowing that tension to evaporate,

To leave as much as it's able to,

As much as it's ready to.

Just take in a few more deeper breaths with the intention of releasing whatever mental tiredness or strength is ready to go.

All that intention to release it on the exhale.

And you can imagine the breath carrying in the warmth of the sun.

And just allowing that stress and tiredness to dissipate.

And now let's turn our attention to any physical tiredness or stress that we might be under.

Maybe we've been physically active in the garden,

Walking.

Or maybe that physicality of driving,

Our body being held in a position that we're not used to,

It being in for a long period of time.

The physical tension that can creep into our arms,

Our legs.

Perhaps we are noticing a physical tiredness or tension that comes of compensating for somewhere in our body that feels sore.

Maybe a hip or a knee is feeling sore and we're asking our other side to do a little bit more,

To work harder.

And when we have a pain or a tiredness,

We can quite often hold a tension around that.

Just as we notice any physical tiredness or tension,

Let's just allow the breath to come in again.

And we can imagine the warmth of the sun coming in on the breath.

And as we exhale,

We can just allow any physical tiredness or tension to release.

Just like the hare again,

Being warmed up,

Being burned off.

And as we take that deep breath in that has been warmed by the sun,

We can sense that that warmth,

That nurturing energy can reach all the way down through our skin,

To our tissues,

Ourselves.

Our muscles,

Our tendons,

All the way into our bones.

The warmth of the sun carried on the breath can seep down into all those parts of ourselves.

Warming and nurturing.

And on the out breath,

We can allow anything that's ready to release,

To release.

Just take two or three or more breaths in your own time,

With that intention of inviting in the warmth of the sun and the breath.

Allowing it to seep all the way through your body.

And on the exhale,

A beautiful release.

Let's just do that a few more times.

Let's imagine that warm breath coming all the way down to our toes.

The flat of our feet,

Our ankles,

Our heels.

And on the exhale,

Any tension releases.

Let's imagine that warm breath coming to our calves,

Our shins,

Our knees.

Being warmed by the sun and breath.

And on the exhale,

Our release.

Coming further up our thorns,

The back of our thorns.

Our pelvic area.

Warmed by the sun and breath.

And then a release.

And just feel yourself sinking further down,

Allowing more weight,

Allowing gravity to just take hold a little more.

And you can easily hold yourself upright,

You can easily support yourself,

But you're feeling it now in a more relaxed way,

A settling in.

And that warm breath can come now to your lower tummy,

To your midsection.

All the organs allow the warmth of the sun to bathe all those organs in your body.

And on the release,

On the exhale,

Just allow anything that is ready to go to go.

Allow any tensions that you're holding in your stomach to release.

Coming further up into your rib cage,

Your chest area,

Your lungs.

Breathing in deeply so that all the tissues and tendons here are nurtured.

So that your heart is nurtured.

And on the exhale,

Let out the sigh.

And just allow any physical tiredness to leave your body.

Invite your breath to come to your hands,

The warmth of the sun to reach your fingertips,

The palms of your hand,

The back of your hand,

Your wrists,

Forearms,

Elbow,

Upper arms,

Sense the warmth carried on the breath.

And as you exhale,

Just allow your hands to relax,

Allow your elbows to become heavy,

Your shoulders to become heavy.

Invite that warm breath to come to your shoulders,

Your neck.

And this time we're releasing any physical tension.

And you can also invite any mental tension that may be more ready to release now.

Breathing in,

Sensing the warmth on the breath,

And on the exhale,

Soft sigh.

Just allowing any physical tension to release.

And let's just notice now for a few moments any emotional tensions or tiredness that we might be holding.

Are you holding the neck around your throat area?

Are you holding tensions or words not said or words spoken in the past?

Move down to your heart area.

Just notice any attitudes that you may be holding here.

How do you hold yourself?

With compassion or with judgment?

With anger or with softness and understanding?

Below the diaphragm,

Midsection,

Just notice any tensions that you may be holding here.

Any emotions you might be noticing,

Frustrations,

Sadnesses.

If you're ready to let any of these go,

If they don't serve you well,

If they're from your past,

Then if they're ready to go,

Then invite them to leave.

Or if they're not ready to go,

Then invite them to your heart.

Or you can hold compassion to yourself and your predicament,

Whatever that may be.

If you're noticing a particular area,

Emotional area where you are feeling you need some support,

Maybe you're sensing a sadness in your heart or a stuckness in your throat or a churning in your tummy,

Whatever you might be sensing,

You can place a hand on that area to support yourself.

And if you want to remind yourself to treat yourself with compassion,

You can always use your other hand to place on your heart,

Your chest area.

And just invite whatever it is that you're sensing,

Whatever predicament you feel you're in,

Invite that to come to your heart.

Not even to get rid of it or to change it,

But just to acknowledge it,

Just to allow yourself to feel whatever it is that you're feeling.

But as we're on this meditation,

You also have a sense of you being bigger than any of these tirednesses or tensions.

There's something in you,

There's an is-ness in that,

An I am quality that needs no qualifier that is just there.

And that's the quietness that you have intended to walk towards.

That's the stillness that you have intended to walk towards.

And you can hold an awareness of this inner stillness and notice all the jumble of everything else,

The tensions,

The tiredness,

The frustrations.

You can just watch them,

Notice them,

And appreciate that that isn't everything that you are.

It's a part of you,

But it doesn't actually define you.

And remember,

Just you can breathe in the warmth of that sun to support any place that feels like it needs support,

Your lower tummy,

Midsection,

Heart area.

Invite in the warmth of the sun to nurture you,

Carry it in on the breath and just allow it to swirl around your body.

And on the exhale,

Invite anything that is ready to leave to leave.

And remember that you could do this anytime you like.

You can use your breath as a way of inviting in a sense of nurture.

And you can use your breath to invite in the sense of release.

Just inhaling and exhaling.

And if you ever need a reminder to treat yourself with compassion,

Then just place a hand on your heart.

And you can do this wherever you are,

Whatever you're feeling.

And just start to walk back up to the surface now and start to become more aware of your physical surroundings,

Become aware of your body on your chair or couch.

Or perhaps you're lying down listening to this.

Become more aware of your physical surroundings,

The quality of the air,

Your breath.

Any noises that might be in your room.

Just notice all that and use your breath now to walk back up to the surface.

Just becoming aware of the external again.

Whenever you're ready,

You can open your eyes.

You can open your eyes.