Breathe Through Anxiety

A short breathwork meditation to help you ease stress and anxiety. We'll be using the breath to activate our rest and digest response, allowing you to completely relax and let go of any anxiety in the body and the mind.

Transcript

Hey guys and welcome to this breathwork session for anxiety. It's going to be a very simple short session to ease any anxiety that you're feeling in the body and also start to settle the mind and we're going to be down regulating our nervous system using simple breathing techniques. Moving into that rest and digest state feeling really nice and relaxed. So find a comfortable position either seated or lying down somewhere you're not going to be disturbed for about five minutes and once you've found that position I'm just going to invite you to close down your eyes. Starting to go inside, Look inside and using this first opportunity to check in with yourself. How do you really feel right now in this moment? What's going on in the body? Where are you holding tension? And just starting to become aware of really how you're feeling now that you've taken this opportunity to stop. And as you take this opportunity to check in with yourself we're just going to start following the breath. Not trying to consciously control it in any way. Just following the breath as it moves. Seeing whether it's moving down into the belly nice and low and nice and slow or maybe a little bit more shallow into the chest. But right now we're not trying to change anything. And as you start to follow your breath I just want you to bring your attention to your face and your neck and your shoulders and just scanning down over the face letting go of any tension you have around the eyes and the eyebrows. Letting go of any tension in the jaw making sure you're not clenching your teeth. And then just letting the shoulders drop letting go of any tension that you're holding here. And together we're just going to take three deep clearing breaths in through the nose and out of the mouth. So first one breathing in and sighing out. And again in sighing out. Last one breathing in and as you sigh out letting everything go letting the body relax completely letting go of any tension that you can feel. And throughout this practice if you feel yourself starting to get distracted by thoughts or sounds or anything that's going on just come back to the breath. Bring your attention and your focus back to the breath. Observe those thoughts and then come back to how you're breathing. And now we're going to move into our first conscious breathing exercise. So this is cadence breathing. We're going to be breathing everything in and out of the nose. We're going to be breathing in for four seconds and out for six seconds. And I want you to focus on breathing down into the belly. Feeling it rise on the inhale and fall on the exhale. So following my count taking a breath out. Here we go we're going to go in two three four out two three four five six in two three four out two three four five six in two three four out two three four five six in two three four out two three four five six in and out. Keeping the breath moving keeping that count yourself just allowing that nice slow exhale to release any tension any stress any anxiety that you're feeling. Keeping it going you're doing a great job guys just keeping the breath flowing keeping it moving. Feeling the belly rise on the inhale and fall on the exhale. Something as simple as a few rounds breathing into our diaphragm can start to activate that parasympathetic restful response in the body. So just keeping it moving nice slow exhale. And if it feels comfortable for you you can start to push this up maybe to five seconds and eight seconds on the exhale whatever feels okay for you right now. Just as long as that exhale is longer than the inhale keeping the breath moving keeping it flowing. Taking a few more rounds just like this letting that relaxation wash over the body feeling completely and utterly relaxed. And then together taking a full breath in breathing in deep opening the mouth and sighing out. And then just letting your breathing drop back to a comfortable natural place. Not trying to control it in any way. And keeping the eyes closed down just very slowly scanning over the body taking another opportunity now to check in with how you're feeling. How you're feeling in the body any physical sensations but also how you're feeling in your mind. Allowing yourself to completely let go of any stress and any anxiety. And in your own time starting to bring some small movements back into the body going back to the space around you and blinking open your eyes.

Reviews

I enjoyed this short yet uplifting meditation. The pacing was good and Jamie's voice was soothing. Thank you.

Good natural voice with very simple and clear directions. Feels like you have a friend with you without the ASMR-like-distraction you get from many other guided meditations.

This is just what I needed. Thank you. So very relaxing and you have a very soothing voice. ❤️🙏

Really useful practice. I sometimes awaken with anxiety during the night. Will remember this and also recommend to my granddaughter who sometimes struggles with anxiety. Thank you 🙏💞

Gentle and calming guided breath work at a length of time that is easy to fit in and helps with navigating anxiety.