Taming Anxiety About Uncertainty

A 20-minute guided mindfulness meditation that will bring your attention to the aliveness of this present, soften any tension in your body, and relax into and release any emotions that are swirling. Use anytime you need to find grounding and recenter.

Transcript

So begin by finding a position,

A posture that allows you to on the one hand relax,

Let go,

Soften.

Letting go of any tension or clench that you've carried throughout the day.

And on the other hand,

A posture that's going to help you wake up.

Maybe a straight back,

Imagining your back as a stack of cards.

It just needs to balance right in the middle,

Straight up.

And we'll begin with three breaths that are a little deeper and a little longer than normal.

We'll do that together.

So start by breathing in.

Breathe out.

Breathe in.

Breathe out.

Finally,

Breathing in.

And then a big letting go,

Releasing the air.

Landing in this moment.

Letting the breath move at its own natural rhythm.

Letting the body breathe itself.

Begin to notice the aliveness in this moment right here,

Right now.

Starting with that movement of the breath.

Noticing the temperature differential at your nostrils.

How the air feels cool on the way in,

Warm on the way out.

Just sitting back and witnessing that.

Just watching it happen.

Noticing the air,

How it feels in your sinuses and throat as you breathe in and out.

Noticing your chest,

How it expands and contracts as you breathe in and out.

You might notice that the mind has trouble focusing on the breath,

Focusing really on anything at all.

That it likes to wander.

So maybe you're planning the rest of your evening.

Maybe you're preoccupied by an email or a text that you need to respond to.

Or maybe you're remembering something that happened today that was particularly difficult.

So as we meditate,

Whenever you notice that your mind's wandered away,

Just note in your mind thinking.

Just note the word thinking silently in your mind.

You're labeling what your mind is doing.

Let go of the thoughts and then guide your mind back to whatever we're attending to.

So right now it's the movement of the breath.

Notice let go,

Come back.

Then bringing this sense of letting go into your body.

Any place where you feel tension,

Where you feel a clench,

Do some softening,

Do some relaxing.

The shoulders can be helpful to have them back and down.

Maybe the lower torso,

Releasing the ab muscles,

Softening the stomach.

Maybe the hands,

Just releasing the grip on managing your day,

Trying to get work done,

Trying to make sure you have enough food.

Just trying,

Managing,

Striving.

Just let go in the hands.

There's nothing to hold onto right now.

Life is happening,

The moment is happening,

And you don't need to manage it.

You don't have to do anything.

So now bringing your mind's attention to your feet,

Really focusing on the feet,

Being inside the feet.

I want you to do two things.

Let go of the muscles,

Just let the feet relax and soften.

And then notice what you feel,

What sensations appear.

Do your feet feel cold?

Do they feel warm?

Are they tingling?

Are they numb?

What do you feel inside of your feet as you let go?

Now I invite you to move your attention up,

So bring it up through the legs,

Right in the center of each leg.

And again,

Two things,

Softening,

Relaxing,

And then feeling,

Noticing.

What do your quads feel like when you let go?

And continue to move up.

So in the pelvic area,

The lowest part of the torso,

What does it feel like when you just let go?

Now moving further up into the lower torso,

The ab muscles,

The stomach,

And allowing the stomach to receive each in-breath,

To soften with each in-breath.

Our society puts a lot of pressure on so many of us to look a certain way,

So we clench in the stomach.

We hold back.

Here's an opportunity to just let go and be yourself.

Take up space.

Have no shame.

So now moving your mind's attention up and focusing on the chest,

Right in the middle,

Side to side,

But back towards the spine,

So the back of the chest.

Some people call this the heart center.

What do you feel there?

What are the raw sensations?

Do you notice tenderness,

A flow of energy?

What's going on?

Just be curious about the chest.

And again,

When the mind wanders away,

Which it will,

That's what it does.

Just note the word thinking softly in your mind.

Let go of the thoughts and come back.

So now moving into the shoulders,

So continuing up.

Being inside of both of the shoulders,

What do you feel?

What happens when you let the shoulders melt downward?

What do the bones and cartilage and muscles feel like?

The shoulder blades.

Now moving down the arms into the hands,

Just letting go inside of the hands.

What do they feel like?

What do you notice?

And then move up to the face,

Particularly the muscles around the eyes.

Even the muscles behind the eyes that control where you look.

There's nothing to look at right now,

So you can fully relax.

Soften the brow,

Relax the forehead.

What do you feel?

Now I invite you to take a step back with your mind.

So take a wider view.

Notice the whole body.

Be inside the whole body at the same time,

Head to toe.

It's almost like being at the movie theater,

Sitting in the front row,

Engrossed in the movie and having to go to the bathroom and standing up,

Walking to the back of the theater,

And noticing that the movie or thoughts,

It's just a movie on a screen.

It's not reality.

We're not stuck inside the thoughts.

We can watch them go by.

Taking that step back,

Noticing the whole body and watching the movement of the breath.

It's like a wave in and out.

The whole body breathes.

You might even start to allow sound into this picture,

To this wider perspective.

So without losing sight of the body and the movement of the breath,

Start to notice the noise.

What does it sound like inside of the room?

What do you hear?

Receive the sound.

Let it come to you.

At this point,

When your mind wanders away,

When you start to worry,

Plan,

Remember,

Fantasize,

Think,

It should feel like a narrowing of your attention.

We have this wide open,

Larger perspective,

And then the mind narrows down into thought.

The trick now is to notice the thoughts,

Let them go,

And then open back up,

Relax back into this consciousness.

Come back to the anchor of this present moment,

The aliveness in this present moment.

And I invite you to,

Instead of just noting thinking,

The word thinking in your mind,

Whenever you notice your mind's wandered,

Label whatever the emotion is.

So maybe there's anger,

Maybe there's anxiety,

Maybe you're worried about how things are going to go in the future.

So you would say anxiety,

Worrying,

Whatever word works for you,

Letting go of it,

And then coming back.

So try to label the thoughts,

Worrying,

Angry,

Remembering,

Fantasizing.

Just keep coming back.

Keep opening back up to the body,

The movement of the breath,

And sound.

And as we approach the ending of the sit,

I prepare to ring the bell.

Let's check in with your body,

See if there's anything else that you can relax right now.

Maybe your shoulders,

Your stomach,

Your hands.

And with the sound of the bell,

Just notice the sound,

And then listen to it fade out,

And open your eyes when you feel ready.

At that,

You

Reviews

This meditation will help me with my meditation practice moving forward. Thank you!!

Very relaxing and comforting

Really worked for me. Will keep coming back. Just what I needed. Thanks