Dialing Down Anxiety

This is a healing meditation for use when we are feeling anxious or to train the mind to manage it skillfully when it arises. In this meditation, we practice dialing down the sympathetic response, cultivating resilience and skill.

Transcript

Some of the key symptoms of anxiety include tight,

Tense muscles,

Shallow,

Rapid breathing,

Worried thoughts,

And shaking.

In this meditation,

You will target each of these areas to reduce anxiety and induce the relaxation response.

Whether you are in the throes of it or simply want to train your mind for that eventuality,

May this be useful to you.

First,

Focus on breathing.

Breathe into your abdomen,

Feel your belly rise,

Continue breathing into your ribs and your chest.

Hold.

Exhale out from the chest,

The rib cage,

The abdomen.

Calm breathing is key to being calm and relaxed.

Take another deep breath in,

Breathing into the abdomen,

Feel the rib cage expand and the chest rise.

Hold.

Expel all the air out slowly.

Exhalation should be twice as long as the inhalation.

Breathing into the abdomen,

Feel the rib cage expand and the chest rise.

Exhaling out slowly from the chest,

The rib cage,

The abdomen.

Expelling all the air in the lungs.

Intentionally relaxing all the muscles in your body with each exhalation.

Breathing into the abdomen,

Feel the belly rise,

Continue breathing into your ribs and your chest.

Hold.

Exhale out from the chest,

The rib cage,

The abdomen.

Exhaling fully,

Intentionally relaxing the muscles.

As you inhale,

Focus on slowing down the breath to a calm rhythm and a frequency of six breaths per minute.

Exhaling fully,

Releasing all the air,

Letting the exhalation be twice as long as the inhalation.

Full breath in,

Abdomen rises,

Feel the rib cage expand and the chest rise.

Exhale out fully from the chest,

The rib cage,

The abdomen.

Inhale,

Abdomen,

Ribs,

Chest.

Hold.

Exhale,

Slowly chest,

Ribs,

Abdomen.

Expelling all the air.

Inhale.

Exhale,

Abdomen,

Ribs,

Chest.

Exhale,

Chest,

Ribs,

Abdomen.

Continue to breathe slowly and calmly.

Deep breath in.

Holding.

Slow breath out.

Exhaling muscles as you do so.

Now that you're breathing diaphragmatically,

Realize that your only job right now is to keep yourself as relaxed as possible while this feeling passes.

Fighting against the anxiety only makes it stronger,

So right now,

Except that you're feeling anxious,

It has arisen.

Self-compassion has also arisen.

You would not be doing this otherwise.

Curiosity has arisen.

Self-efficacy,

Which is the ability to self-regulate,

Has also arisen.

Self-love is also here.

Again,

You would not be engaged in this practice if you did not want to take good care of yourself and your anxiety.

So we'll begin by focusing on calming thoughts to relieve the anxiety.

You can repeat these phrases mentally.

I'm feeling anxious right now,

But I'm okay.

This feeling will pass.

I'm safe,

Even though I feel anxious.

Anxiety has arisen,

But self-compassion has also arisen.

Awareness is also here.

I will soon be calmer even though I am experiencing anxiety right now.

I will get through this.

By taking good care of myself,

I take care of this anxiety also.

Although this temporary anxious spell may be upsetting,

The emotion,

However unskillfully,

Means to keep me safe.

I am making myself as comfortable as possible while I wait for the anxiety to decrease.

I can help myself to become gradually more calm and relaxed until this feeling passes.

Continue to give yourself calming messages as you breathe in diaphragmatically,

Exhaling out slowly.

Use the breath to anchor you and trust the process and the science that informs it.

As you continue to breathe slowly in,

Exhaling fully,

And as you continue to repeat calming thoughts,

Now we can address any shaking or trembling or other sensations which you may be experiencing.

When you experience anxiety,

Your body is in fight or flight mode.

Your heart is pumping quickly so that oxygen can be delivered for your muscles to allow you to use those muscles to escape from danger.

There is no real danger right now,

So the adrenaline is flowing through your body but not being used.

Your muscles are ready for action.

They are so ready for action that they are trembling.

You can help this trembling to decrease by physically shaking out the tension.

Imagine that you are shaking water off your hands to dry them.

Shake your hands.

Imagine your tension draining out your fingertips and being shaken away.

Stop and allow your hands to be still.

Notice how they feel.

Continue with even breathing and calming thoughts.

Inhaling,

Think,

I am becoming more and more calm.

Exhaling,

Think,

I am feeling more and more relaxed.

You can abbreviate with calm on the inhalation,

Relaxed on the exhalation.

Relaxing the muscles in the body more and more with each exhalation.

Calm as you inhale,

Relaxed as you exhale.

Continue breathing diaphragmatically into the abdomen.

Lips expand,

Chest lifts,

Thinking calm.

Breathing out slowly,

Thinking relaxed as you relax all the muscles in your body.

Going deeper and deeper into a state of relaxation,

Dialing down the sympathetic response.

Sitting all the adrenaline dissolved back into the body as you continue breathing deeply,

Slowly,

Thinking calm as you inhale,

Relaxed on the exhalation.

When we are anxious,

You may notice the eyes moving quickly from side to side as if scanning for danger.

Simply notice.

If you can remove attention away from the storylines and simply observe,

Curiosity may also arise.

The eyes are moving quickly side to side and you are aware.

As you continue to practice deep diaphragmatic breathing,

Pay attention to the changes in this movement as it gradually decreases.

Inhaling calm,

Exhaling relaxed.

Calm,

Relaxed.

That last area to focus on now to relieve anxiety is your tense muscles.

Your muscles become painful,

Tired and cramped as a result of stress or anxiety.

You can help your muscles relax now by first allowing your lower jaw to drop so that your teeth are not touching.

Let your jaw be relaxed and loose.

Scan the muscles of the face.

Tension often nests there between the eyebrows,

Forehead,

Cheeks.

Let your muscles be relaxed and soft.

Relax the muscles of the neck and shoulders.

You may even want to raise them on the inhalation,

Dropping them on the exhalation.

Several times,

Taking a deep breath in,

Raising the shoulders to the ears,

Breathing out,

Breathing in.

You can continue to move like this and relax,

Allow your muscles to become less tense.

To summarize,

The four steps for quick relaxation to relieve anxiety are deep diaphragmatic breathing.

Remember to breathe in slowly,

Exhale fully.

Let the exhalation be twice as long as the inhalation.

On each exhalation,

Relaxing muscles.

Any tension you may feel.

With each exhalation,

Relaxing.

Step two,

Calm your thoughts.

Find yourself that anxiety will pass.

If necessary,

You can abbreviate with calm as you breathe in,

Relaxed as you breathe out.

The better you get at this,

The more resilient you become,

The more confident you become.

Developing self-efficacy,

Just the ability to self-regulate no matter what arises.

Step three,

Physically shake out any tension.

If necessary,

If there's a lot of adrenaline,

You may find walking meditation or yoga or some other movements,

Tai Chi,

Qigong,

Very helpful.

Step four,

Relax your muscles,

Especially in your jaw,

Shoulders,

Upper back,

Your face.

You continue to do these things until you feel calmer and the anxiety is either gone or has been dialed down.

It may be necessary to cycle through this meditation again as it takes time for the stress chemicals circulating through the body to dissolve back into the body.

Continue breathing like this,

You get more confidence,

It becomes faster to dial down the stress response.

I wish you peace,

Good health,

Resilience,

Confidence,

And all good things.

Reviews

So helpful…I get horrible panic attacks..I’m hoping this will help. Thank you so much! Love & Light

Very effective & shall return to this practice. Authentic voice & calm, unhurried instruction. Thank you.

Exactly what I needed: guided help to relieve tension.

This meditation is a life saver. Thank you for sharing this gift. Namaste 🙏

Very helpful, thank you

Excellent, practical steps to reach calm and relaxation in anxious times. Thank you.

Good information and practice… so very helpful. Thank you!

Thank you! This is a bookmarker and will use when the anxiety arises.🙏🏽♀️❤️🙏🏽

Very helpful! Thanks for helping me dial it down.

Excellent meditation for reducing anxiety and stress. Lovely soothing voice with excellent pace. Am saving this to my favourites as so effective for reducing stress. Namaste 🙏🏼

Good talk down🌹🙏🙌☯️ thank you

A very helpful practice during a trying time. Thank you

Excellent step by step instructions.

Amazing
Very nice tools
I have done mbsr but this is also helpful

Wonderfully relaxing, thank you.

This is wonderful! Very calming.

Very helpful meditation in my time of need. Will be returning to it again.🧘🏻

Thanks for the steps.

Excellent, thank you. I felt really ‘held’ in the meditation and the clarity of instruction was great. This is a session I’ll return to.

So good. Lovely voice 🙏