5 Minute Meditation For Anxiety

This is a short, helpful meditation which brings our awareness to the physical body, as a way to center our attention during moments of anxiety, overstimulation, or grief. Use this meditation as a tool to reconnect to the present moment through the sensations in the palms of the hands, the heart, and the stomach. It ends by centering us into compassion. Thank you for meditating with me!

Transcript

Hello and welcome to this five minute meditation for anxiety. We can often find ourselves overstimulated, Overwrought, Or with a sense of foreboding, Or collective grief. This experience is very normal and it is essential that we find practices that help us return to our body. So I'll offer this five minute practice to you, Hoping that it does exactly that. You can do this practice pretty much anywhere. I will suggest that if you're driving or doing anything that involves critical awareness on your surroundings, That you put it aside and find somewhere that you can be seated comfortably or lying down, And allow your attention to be fully with your body. Once you have found a comfortable seat, Or a place lying down on a bed or your floor or yoga mat, Begin by bringing a hand to your heart and a hand to your belly. You might sink in the sensation of the cool or the warmth of your hands as they meet the torso and the heart space. And then take a deep breath in through the nose and out through the mouth. Count three more breaths like that on your own. Allow yourself to feel the body breathing. Then bring your awareness to the sensation of the palm. So you can start with the right hand, Wherever the right hand might be. Is there temperature? Is there texture? And then move to the left palm. You might feel the body move up and down slowly with the breath underneath the palm. Now sink your awareness into the torso where the hands lie. Feel the torso respond to the sensation that's warm and comforting of your hands on the body. And as you breathe, You might say to yourself, I am here. I am here. I am here. And then lastly, You might bring to mind the feeling of compassion. This can be done sometimes just through the word, But if it takes more for you, You might think of a person that brings warmth and love to your heart. And then you might center around that sensation of warmth and love and use your hands to be a conduit of that back to your body. I am here. I am here. I am here. Return the attention now to the breath. The inhale and the unburdened release of the air through the lips. One more time like that. And exhale. Thank you for joining me for this practice. You can return to this anytime you need it.