Distress To De-stressed

This guided meditation is going to take you from distress to de-stressed. It can feel at times like stress is running your life so, in this meditation, you are going to reclaim that power from stress and return to your inner peace and stillness.

Transcript

Hi everyone.

In today's meditation,

I'm going to take you from the feeling of distress to de-stressed.

98% of what takes people to the doctor are stress-related illnesses.

Stress has a major impact on both our physical and our mental well-being.

It affects our immunity,

The way in which we view the world,

And even our interactions with others.

It can feel at times like stress is running your life.

So in today's meditation,

We are going to reclaim that power and return to our inner peace and stillness.

When you're ready,

I want you to find a comfortable position and a quiet place.

Turn off any and all distractions and gently close your eyes.

Let's do a quick breathing exercise.

On my count,

I want you to breathe in for the count of four,

Hold the breath for the count of four,

And then exhale slowly for the count of eight.

We're going to do this three times.

Inhale,

One,

Two,

Three,

Four,

Hold,

One,

Two,

Three,

Four,

Exhale,

One,

Two,

Three,

Four,

Five,

Six,

Seven,

Eight.

Inhale,

One,

Two,

Three,

Four,

Hold,

One,

Two,

Three,

Four,

Exhale,

One,

Two,

Three,

Four,

Five,

Six,

Seven,

Eight.

Inhale,

One,

Two,

Three,

Four,

Hold,

One,

Two,

Three,

Four,

Exhale,

One,

Two,

Three,

Four,

Five,

Six,

Seven,

Eight.

I want you to imagine you're standing at the edge of a river.

The sun is shining on your back and you hear the steady current continuously moving.

In your hands,

You notice you're holding a toy sailboat.

Maybe it's even one you had from your childhood.

As you look at this boat,

I want you to call to mind something that is stressing you out right now.

I want you to pick just one thing right now that you feel add stress to your life.

Something that maybe even today you thought,

I need to stop stressing about this.

Good.

Now,

Once you have that one thing,

That one stressor picked out,

I want you to write what that is on the side of your sailboat.

Once you write that down,

Take a look at the word on the sailboat and notice any feelings or sensations your body might have when looking at the word.

Notice the feeling of clarity you may have to have just identified that stressor,

That one thing you wish to get rid of,

To release.

Now,

I want you to take your sailboat and place it in the water.

Looking at the sailboat in the water with your stressor written on it,

Repeat to yourself,

I release you now.

Take a big deep breath in and on your biggest exhale,

Imagining the current of your breath blowing the sailboat away.

Again,

Deep breath in,

Deep breath out and the sailboat blows further away.

Continuing to breathe in and out,

Watching the sailboat drift farther and farther away with each exhale.

Now,

Take a deep breath in and on your biggest exhale,

Imagining the current of your breath blowing the sailboat away.

The water may try and blow back to you,

But the strength of your breath and of your being is stronger.

Your desire is stronger.

You are the one in control of the sailboat and just like this ship,

You are the captain of your life and you get to choose the direction in which things go.

Take a few more deep breaths,

Watching the sailboat drift farther and farther away as your breath blows into the distance until you can no longer see it and all you can see is the river carrying on as it did before you put the sailboat in the water.

Notice now how good it feels that it is no longer in the picture,

That the stressor is no longer present,

But far,

Far,

Far away from where you are standing at this peaceful river.

Feeling nothing but the sound of your breath and the gentle current of the river.

You are the one in control of the sailboat and just like this ship,

You are the captain of your life and you get to choose the direction in which things go.

And just as still as the river,

You now feel a sense of stillness gently and slowly wash over your body,

From your head to your neck,

To your shoulders.

To your elbows.

Down to your fingers.

And down to your ribs.

To your stomach.

And your hips.

Down your thighs.

To your knees.

Down to your ankles and your feet.

Down to your toes.

Allowing now your entire body to sit in that full feeling of peace that has washed over you for a few more moments.

And taking advantage of it is helping you to forgive yourself.

Recognizing now that any stress in your life,

Just as it comes,

It will be gone.

It also goes.

It is only temporary and that sense of peace within you now can always be re-accessed again.

Finding peace that in the word stressor we have the word or,

Meaning we have choice.

Stress or peace.

Stress or compassion.

Stress or gratitude.

Take a moment to reflect on what you want your or to be when you end your meditation today.

Now that you have your or and you're ready to move on with your day,

Gently bringing your awareness to the room.

Shut your arms above and you can open your eyes.

It is my sincerest wish that you're now feeling de-stressed.

I hope you can carry the sense of peace with you as you tackle the rest of your day.

The next time you're feeling stressed,

I want you to remember to pick the or,

The other feeling you'd like to have instead.

Thank you everyone and enjoy the rest of your less stressed day.

Reviews

It was really relaxing to watch it leaving me 🧘🏻‍♀️namaste 🤲🏻

Amazing. A little background noise and some lengthy pauses but that didn't concern me much. I love this type of visualisation because you can bring to mind a real place and real objects. SUPER HELPFUL in helping me deal with the accidents my senior cat is having. Its stress OR understanding.

I'm laying in a hospital bed with pretty bad pneumonia & saw my physio this morning who gave me some breathing exercises. I thought I might find a nice meditation to do them to. Yours was the first I played, I couldn't believe how perfectly it suited my need. The 2 breathing exercises were exactly what my physio told me to do. 1st one was perfect except for the timing for the inhale, hold & exhale but it wasn't too hard to adjust to what I needed. Then I have one where I have to deep inhale the exhale as hard as I can so the sailboat analogy was perfect, that sailboat reached half across the river 1st breath. I also found your voice extremely calming. I will playing this several times in the next few days & beyond I'm sure. Thank you Natalie from the bottom of my heart. May peace be with you. 🙏 ❤️

An amazing meditation containing different elements, very powerful and memorable I will use this daily for a few days
Thank you for recording this for us all

Great! The voice audio channel cutting back in was a little distracting though.

Exactly what I needed! Helped calm my headache with healing breath and gentle visualizations. Thank you ❤️

Put all my worries on a boat and blew it away. Thank you

I cried following the relief I felt from this track. Working through trauma in therapy and this was lovely. Thank you.

very relaxing! helped a lot with my anxiety!!! tysm <333

So perfect. Sitting by the bay. Distressing. Just perfect ending to a stressful day!!

I found this really powerful and I have a sense of calm clarity after thank you

This is exactly what I needed for the moment. Thank you

Wonderful. Stress is less. I choose “or” feeling. Thank you so much.

Excellent. Have had a super stressful morning. This helped me choose the “or” for the rest of my evening.

Wonderful meditation with wonderful imagery! This helped me so much with my stress levels thank you

That was JUST what I needed 🙌

Great! I liked the imagery of the boat sailing away with the stressor. And the use of stress ... or.

Really liked how easy this was to get into. Will be returning.

Thank you! Such a beautiful, warm, calm voice. Such a beautiful guided meditation. I could feel the stress draining out of me as my sailboat drifted away out of sight down the river. Blessings!

Lovely! Thank you. For future meditations you could try fading out the end music. Not a big deal at all but something I thought of. The content and your voice are very calming and I really needed this 😌