Ramps away.
Anxiety is something that we all experience.
What does it feel like in the body?
We might know it very well as an emotional state where the mind maybe is a little confused.
But can we drop lower right into the body to know how the body is responding to whatever trigger?
There are many triggers for anxiety.
To know in this moment what that means for your body,
My body.
And the birds have come to show us,
But it's a little bit like ahhh,
Ahhh,
Ahhh.
So if the mind is going ahhh,
Ahhh,
Ahhh,
And the voice if it could,
If it were given a voice would go ahhh,
Ahhh,
Ahhh,
How does the body say ahhh,
Ahhh,
Ahhh?
I could name a few things from my own experience.
One is like a shortness of breath,
A feeling that the breath is very high up in the chest.
And even noticing and naming,
Oh look my breath is high in my chest,
Encourages the breath to change.
And we can try and force it to be longer,
Maybe to breathe out a longer breath.
But actually if we simply take our mind to the noticing of how high the breath is in the body,
It will probably shift by itself.
It's more gentle this way.
We might notice also that our sensations feel very close to the skin,
Almost like an itching,
An irritation of the skin,
The outer extremity of the body.
And can this be an invitation to come deeper inside the body,
To bring the attention in closer to the middle,
To the centre,
Towards the spine.
And one more thing seems to be when the mind gets engaged,
Whether the body is triggered first or there's a mental trigger,
When the mind is engaged it finds it hard to be quiet.
It keeps on finding more reasons to be anxious,
It's stories.
And so taking our attention out of the head,
Inviting that attention lower,
So as well as inside the body to the centre,
Lower towards the belly,
Towards the pelvis,
Towards the legs,
The ground,
Bringing somehow the attention down deeper.
So watching also for the physical responses,
When we follow this guidance there will be a response,
Maybe a sigh will happen,
Maybe we'll feel the shoulders soften a few millimetres,
Maybe we'll notice the ground underneath us.
The body might want to shift or move,
So allowing these responses to take their place,
To show up and be seen and known.
And one final thing that shows up for today seems to be that anxiety can make us feel a little bit like we're squished into a small space.
So using the imagination now to push out the space beyond the skin,
Making a little like bubble around ourselves really in which we can feel safe.
And that might feel like the body then can expand a little,
The chest might lift,
We might actually move our limbs out a little into that space.
And so we can circle through these invitations,
One to notice the breath,
How it is,
Two to invite that attention deeper inside the body,
Both to the centre and down.
And then to invite a little bit more space around the outside of the body,
Including the back of the body,
Including the back,
Including above the head.
And let's notice now for the remainder of the meditation if we can rest a little with these instructions.
Rest a little inside the space we've created for ourselves.
And Rama nah.
And the last moment,
Maybe even more softening,
Even more sense of release,
Even more rest.
And the last moment,
Maybe even more sense of release,
Even more sense of release,
Even more rest.
And the last moment,
Maybe even more sense of release,
Even more sense of release,
Even more sense of release,
Even more sense of release.
And the last moment,
Maybe even more sense of release,
Even more sense of release,
Even more sense of release.
