Procrastination Meditation

This mindfulness style meditation begins with a soothing focus on the breath and a brief body scan. A short visualization helps you to move away from the habit of procrastination into a completion mindset. Repeated practicing of mindfulness meditation can rewire your brain to become less distractible and more readily able to focus and complete the task in front of you.

Transcript

Welcome,

Beautiful ones,

To this guided meditation to help you with procrastination.

Begin by getting into a comfortable position,

Sitting up with your head,

Neck,

And spine straight or whenever way feels comfortable for you,

So that you can be relaxed yet alert.

And then close your eyes if it feels comfortable to do so,

Or soft focus at a place across from you.

And take a nice deep breath in.

And let it out with a sigh.

And then take another deep breath in.

And as you let it out,

Just allow your body to release any tension or tightness.

And then just breathe in whatever way feels good to you,

Finding your breath in your body,

The rise and fall of your diaphragm,

Or perhaps the way the air feels as it enters and exits your nose.

Just really allowing yourself to focus in on the rhythm of your breathing.

And if your mind wanders,

That's okay,

That's what minds do.

Just very gently notice where it went,

And then bring it back and focus on your breathing once again.

Noticing the ebb and the flow,

And the way it feels different on the inhalation than the exhalation.

And just allowing yourself to settle in.

And as you continue to breathe comfortably and easily,

Shift your attention to the soles of your feet,

Noticing the physical sensations in the soles of your feet.

Are they tingly or buzzing or numb?

And again,

If your mind wanders away,

Just bring it back to the soles of your feet very gently,

No judgment,

No criticism.

And then bring your attention up into your lower legs and your knees,

Your thighs,

Your bottom as it rests in the chair,

Feeling the support of the chair holding you.

Coming up into your lower back and your belly,

All the way up your spine,

Around your rib cage and your chest.

Noticing how your shoulders feel.

Bring your attention down into your arms all the way to your hands and noticing the physical sensations in your hands.

Tingly,

Buzzing,

What's the temperature of your hands as they rest in your lap or by your sides.

And coming up into your neck now and your throat,

Maybe swallowing gently and allowing your tongue to rest on the floor of your mouth.

Bringing your attention to all the muscles in your face,

Around your eyes and your ears and your jaw,

Coming up into your forehead and then to the top of your head,

Maybe wiggling your eyebrows a little so you can feel your scalp move.

Just getting a general sense of how you're feeling and if you notice any discomfort,

Just allowing the gentle warmth of the breath to breathe into any of those tight or tense places,

Allowing yourself to become as comfortable as you want to feel right now.

And now bring to mind something that you've been putting off,

Something that you've been procrastinating or if there's nothing right now,

Then think of something in the past that you've put off and really develop that situation in your mind.

And then notice what are the thoughts associated with this thing that I'm putting off.

You might notice that you've been catastrophizing or awfulizing,

Really believing that this task or this chore or this situation is much worse than it probably actually will be.

So just notice those thoughts.

Whatever the thoughts are,

See if you can become an observer,

Just observing the thoughts instead of getting caught up in them or attached to them.

Seeing the thoughts as bright white clouds in a blue sky on a breezy day.

See those clouds just moving across the sky of your mind.

See those thoughts as the clouds and allow them to drift on by without getting attached to them at all.

And now see if you can visualize or imagine yourself actually performing this thing that you're putting off,

Doing the task,

The chore,

Engaging in the situation.

And as you're doing that,

See if you can shift from the negative thoughts to noticing something pleasurable or a silver lining about doing this particular thing that you've been putting off.

Perhaps even looking toward this sense of accomplishment that you'll feel when this task is completed.

And really allow yourself to see yourself doing this very successfully,

Allowing a smile to come to your face that you've noticed that it's not as bad as you were predicting it was going to be.

And come all the way to the end and the task is finished now.

And allow yourself to feel that sense of accomplishment,

That satisfaction in finding the pleasurable parts of it,

The silver lining,

And having completed it successfully.

And then if it feels comfortable to do so,

Go ahead and place your hand on your cheek or your chest and just allow yourself to feel any feelings of warmth or caring,

Perhaps bringing to mind someone or some being that you care about a lot and that cares about you.

And just imagining that you can share your accomplishment and feel the warmth and the satisfaction coming from them as well.

And just allowing that warm feeling to just permeate through your whole body until all of you can feel very warm and peaceful and successful and that you've accomplished this task.

Now releasing your awareness to the task and coming back to your body,

Finding your breath in your body once again,

Noticing the rise and the fall,

The in and the out.

And just beginning to wiggle your fingers and your toes and moving around a little bit.

And as you begin to reorient,

Just bring with you into the rest of your day this feeling of success and accomplishment.

And now taking a nice deep breath in and letting it out,

You may slowly open your eyes and return to the room with a new motivation to recognize that everything has a silver lining,

A pleasurable moment.

And then many times we imagine or we catastrophize things to be much more unpleasant than they really are.

Be well and have a wonderful day.

Namaste.

Reviews

Sehr gute und hilfreiche Meditation, zum Thema überwinden von Prokrastination! Danke

My new favourite teacher, her voice is so calming. 10/10 recommend

This is awesome thank you I love the way you guided us into a meditation before thinking about the task that we put off I am a real procrastinator with my anxiety and it took me a long time to realise that the two of those we're all part of one thing and to do with my self confidence and everything that I do and that having to be a professional switch oh nobody is so you reminded me how easy and how valuable visualisation is so thank you I stood in the shower listening let the water run over me and even that felt better visualise the tricky task and before you said smile I did I smiled because I had picked it up and then saw that I had space in the lounge because the mess was gone and my son and I could play games together so thank you so much I really enjoyed it and I'm about to listen to it for the second time and a row because you have given me the determination to go on and get things done that I need to. 🤗❤️

TY for this! I have ADHD and am trying to break through the Procrastination that has been ruling/destroying my life. I think this will really help me on my journey 💜🙏🌹🕉

I was so refreshed and motivated by this that I popped up with 2 mins left in the session to start tackling things. Honestly, I was using this to avoid the thing I needed to do. Thank you for this gentle, but effective push!

I found the teacher’s voice pleasant. I appreciated the body scan to help me relax a bit. I really appreciated the possible ways to reframe my thoughts about some of my tasks. Looking for the pleasurable moments in it and knowing that my sense of accomplishment (versus shame) can be shared. Thank you for offering this.

🙏🏾🧘🏾‍♂️📿