This is a short relaxation exercise to help you reset your thoughts and calm your body when feeling stressed or overwhelmed.
Follow my lead as I guide you through this exercise.
At first,
I will help you count your breaths to ensure you're breathing deeply and slowly.
You will breathe in through your nose,
Pause,
And out slowly through your mouth.
Feel free to close your eyes and relax if that's comfortable for you.
Start by taking a large breath in to the count of about five.
So in,
One,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Five,
Hold,
And out,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Five,
Six,
Seven.
So nice and slow out.
Let's do this just a few more times.
In,
One,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Five,
Hold,
And out,
Three,
Four,
Five,
Six,
Seven.
Nice.
And now time,
Nice and in,
Hold,
And out.
Keep taking nice,
Calming,
Deep breaths as I explain the next steps in our exercise.
I want you to think about what's causing you stress or worry.
First,
Notice where in your body you feel that stress.
It could be tension in your hands,
Neck,
Or even your back.
So find that tension and now take a nice deep breath in and breathe in the air to where that tension is.
And when ready,
Blow that tension out nice and slow.
Release the tension in the body and bring on a sense of calm.
So let's do that again.
Breathe in,
Right to the tension,
Hold,
And out.
Releasing all tension,
Bringing on a sense of calm to the body.
One more time in,
And out.
Breathing out all tension,
Relaxing your muscles,
Feeling more and more calm.
You're going to take a minute,
Just take a couple more calm,
Deep breaths in,
Finding and releasing that tension.
As you're doing this,
Bring on a sense of relaxation,
Calm,
And focus.
Now as you keep breathing,
Notice the thoughts that you are having that may be causing you more stress or worry.
These thoughts are often unhelpful and many times not true.
So now take some nice calm breaths in and on the out breath,
I want you to release those unhelpful thoughts and imagine you were pushing them out of your mind.
So nice breath in and out,
Pushing out any unhelpful thoughts,
Any unhelpful tension.
One more time in and out,
Pushing out any unhelpful thoughts,
Any tension left in the body.
Take a couple more breaths,
Acknowledging the unhelpful thoughts and kindly and gently pushing them out.
Now think about how you'd like to feel in this moment.
Perhaps you'd like to feel calm,
Focused,
Or confident.
Think about a time when you felt that way.
What did that feel like?
Where did you feel it in your body?
Now take a nice breath in and bring that feeling or sensation that you want to feel into the moment and exhale.
One more time,
You're going to breathe nice and deep in,
Bringing that positive and helpful emotion into the present moment and exhale,
Breathing out any tension,
Unhelpful thoughts,
Or negative emotions.
One more time in and out.
Now what thoughts will go along with this hopeful or positive emotion?
We've pushed out the unhelpful thoughts and now we want to replace them with more helpful or more accurate thoughts.
Perhaps you're thinking the situation is difficult,
But we know you can get through it.
Think of those replacement thoughts and breathe in,
Focus on the hopeful thoughts,
And breathe out,
Pushing out any remaining tension,
Worry,
Or thoughts that are unhelpful.
Again,
Breathe in and out.
Nice and calm.
One more time in,
Focusing on those hopeful thoughts.
And now ignoring all other thoughts and pushing out any tension,
Any worry.
Now as you breathe in,
Focus on the emotion you want to feel.
Notice the calmness in your body and notice the hopeful thoughts.
Breathing out any and all stress and tension.
Can we breathe in and out?
One more time in and out.
Now,
As you're ready,
Slowly open your eyes if they were closed.
Keep breathing,
But take a couple of minutes to focus your attention on what's next ahead of you today.
The music is going to play for a couple more minutes and feel free to use it to bring your awareness back to the present moment and focus in a calm and thoughtful way.
Breathing out any remaining tension and breathing in positive thoughts,
Hopeful thoughts,
Calm,
Focus and relaxation.
Core Sphinx.
You
