Meditation For Anxiety: Instant Anxiety Relief

This guided meditation is meant to provide you with instant anxiety relief by helping you to experience the difference between reality and imagination. When you experientially discover this difference, anxiety relief naturally occurs.

Transcript

In this meditation,

You don't need to have your eyes closed.

You can keep them open.

But if you feel like closing them at some point along the way,

You're welcome to do that.

So to start out,

Make sure you turn off any distractions.

Close any browsers that are not this one.

And then you will get the relief that you are looking for.

So right now,

Just start out with taking a deep breath.

And then notice,

Right now you're just being here with me.

You don't have to do anything.

You don't have to make any effort.

You don't have to try.

Just let yourself sit there.

Right now,

Let yourself just listen.

There's nothing to apply.

There's nothing to fix.

There's nothing to solve.

Stop.

Bring your attention back to my voice.

Bring your attention back to my eyes.

There's nothing to do.

As you're sitting there,

You'll notice thoughts keep popping up.

Thoughts keep coming and going.

That's okay.

You don't need to stop them.

You don't need to silence them.

Don't do anything.

You can't control the thoughts in your head.

Because take a moment and look.

Do you know what the next thought to pop up in your head will be?

No.

Of course not.

You don't know.

It might be about the past.

It might be about the future.

Might be a judgment.

Might be a question.

Stop.

Bring your attention back here.

You don't pick the thoughts.

You don't control them.

So let them do whatever they want.

It's okay.

And then from time to time,

You'll hear me say,

Stop.

Bring your attention back here.

So when I say that,

It's not because it's bad to give attention to thoughts.

It's simply out of curiosity.

What is here?

It's not because it's good to give attention to my voice or my eyes.

It's just out of curiosity.

What would happen if I bring my attention back to this room?

What would happen if I bring my attention back to his voice?

Just for a moment.

And when mind hears that,

The tendency is to try to keep your attention on his voice.

Keep my attention on his eyes.

Don't.

You'll fail every time because you don't control where your attention goes.

Stop.

Notice that.

Your attention comes back here and then it goes to thoughts.

It comes back here and then it goes to thoughts.

That's okay.

It's not up to you.

Just take a moment and look.

Where is your attention going to go next?

You don't know.

You can't keep it here.

It will go to thoughts when it wants to.

If you try to force your attention on this moment or on my voice,

It's going to end in misery.

It's going to end in failure.

And what you do is you end up creating a battle in your head.

I need to make sure I focus.

Don't focus.

Don't focus.

Don't silence thoughts.

Stop.

Stop.

Stop.

Allow yourself to be as you are.

Allow this moment to just be as it is.

And that includes allowing thoughts to do whatever they want.

If thoughts don't know how to allow,

Allow that thoughts don't know how to allow.

It's okay.

Bring your attention back here.

There's no problem here.

Just look.

Where is your nose?

Where's a problem?

There isn't anything in this room that's a problem.

There's nothing here to create suffering for you.

Except imagination.

Imagination loves creating imaginary problems.

That's normal.

It's not you.

There's nothing wrong with you.

Every mind creates imaginary problems.

But just for a moment,

Stop.

Come back to my eyes.

Come back to my voice.

Not because it's good to bring your attention back here,

But just to see what is real.

To see the difference between what is real and what is imagination.

Stop.

There is nothing here to create anxiety in real life.

There is no problem here now.

How do I know?

Just look.

Where's a problem?

Where's a nose?

Where's an eyebrow?

Where's a problem?

Stop.

Bring your attention back here.

Allow thoughts to do anything they want,

But just notice.

You don't control them.

Allow thoughts to do anything they want.

And then notice.

What thoughts are saying has nothing to do with reality.

If thoughts are saying it would be bad if something happened,

That seems to create anxiety.

But how do you know it would be bad if it happened?

Do you know all the effects of that particular outcome?

Can you think of any good effects that could come from it?

How do you know the future?

Anytime we have anxieties,

We're believing an idea,

I know the future.

I know what all the effects are of a particular outcome and they all add up to being bad for my life.

You don't know.

You don't know whether something will be good or bad for your life.

Just look at the past.

How many times did you think something happened that was bad and it had some good effects and ended up being useful?

You don't know what you will learn from a bad outcome.

You don't know what you would,

What effects,

Good effects would come from it.

But beyond all that,

There's no such thing as a bad outcome.

Because look,

You're here now.

Is this hand movement good or bad?

Is this one better or worse than this one?

Neither one is bad or good.

Neither one is better or worse.

They're just unique.

Just different.

Bad or good doesn't exist as part of the action.

It only exists in your imagination.

Not here.

You can't find bad or good on the movement.

You can't find bad or good inherently a part of any fact.

It is separate.

So just stop.

Come back to my voice.

Stop.

Allow this moment to be as it is.

Allow yourself to be as you are.

Where's your nose?

Show me.

Now where's something wrong with you?

Where would it be?

What would it look like?

What would the shape of wrong be?

What would the size of wrong be?

What would the smell of wrong be?

There's nothing wrong with you.

Not as a belief there's nothing wrong with you.

But just look.

Where's something wrong?

Where's something broken about you?

Where's something insufficient in reality?

Imagination can create a million ideas,

A million problems that don't exist.

What I'm saying,

Where's your nose and where's a problem in reality?

Where's something wrong with you?

You don't have to fix anything about yourself because there's nothing wrong.

You can spend your entire life fixing personal growth,

Improving.

But why do you want to improve anything?

Just to make you happy.

But here's the shortcut.

If you discover there's nothing wrong with you now,

Then there's nothing to improve and you're already happy.

You're already in peace.

Stop.

Come back to my voice.

Come back here to this moment.

And as I'm speaking,

You'll notice at different times attention goes to thoughts and then it comes back here.

That's okay.

It's not up to you.

It's not bad to give attention to thoughts.

So you don't need to make sure you keep your attention here.

It's okay.

Stop.

Let yourself be as you are.

Just as you are.

And then notice.

Notice how when I speak,

Thoughts might try to figure it out.

Might try to understand it.

But notice that's not you.

That's what thoughts are doing.

But you're noticing those thoughts.

You're watching those thoughts.

You are here whether thoughts are here or not.

If thoughts are busy,

You are here.

If thoughts are quiet,

You are here.

You are not the thoughts.

Whether thoughts are in the future or the past,

You are here.

Let this moment be as it is.

There's nothing to harm you here.

There's nothing to create suffering here.

There's nothing wrong with you here,

Now.

Stop.

Let yourself be.

Don't become anything.

You can't become anything.

You can't become great.

You can't become worthy.

You can't become successful.

That's impossible.

Because where's failure or success right now?

It doesn't exist in reality.

Stop.

Where's unworthy or worthy?

It doesn't exist in reality.

If I do this all day or this all day,

I don't become an accountant or a telephone rep.

I'm just doing something different with my hands.

You can't become anything that you're not right now because you are here,

Now.

How would you know you're a success other than as a thought?

How would you know you're a failure other than as a thought?

It doesn't exist.

Stop.

Let yourself just be as you are.

You don't need to become anything.

You can't become anything.

When you were five years old,

You were you.

When you were ten,

You were you.

Now you are you.

Things change,

But something remains the same.

Who is that?

Who are you?

Personality changes,

Emotions change,

Thoughts change,

But something remains the same.

That something is you,

Just here,

Being.

Let yourself be.

Forget about doing.

Forget about getting rid of.

Forget about fixing.

Before you spend your entire life fixing,

First check right now to see if something's broken,

To see if something's wrong.

This moment is okay,

Exactly as it is.

How do I know?

Because I look for a problem and I can't find one.

I don't see one on my shoulder.

I can't find one on my chest.

I can't find one around here.

What would it look like,

A problem?

Just come back.

Come back to this moment,

To the room you're in.

Look around.

It's okay here.

It's safe here.

Nothing to fix here.

Stop.

Bring your attention back.

Let yourself be with yourself.

We spend all day,

Every day,

Trying to avoid ourselves,

Avoid our thoughts.

Stop.

Stop the incessant distractions.

Let yourself be with yourself.

There's nothing to fear here.

There's nothing wrong with you.

There's nothing missing.

You are not incomplete.

That is an idea.

Let yourself be.

It's okay.

Stop.

Come back here and if the tension keeps going back to thoughts,

Fine.

No problem.

It's fine.

Who says that's bad?

Who says it's a problem to give attention to thoughts?

Just another thought.

It's fine.

It's not up to you.

It doesn't matter.

Bring your attention back here.

What is wrong with this moment?

Where's my nose?

Where's something wrong?

I'm just here being with you.

You don't have to get value from this.

There's no value to give.

I'm not trying to give anything.

Just pointing.

It was never a problem.

Pointing.

It was never something insufficient about you.

It's okay.

Stop.

Allow everything to be as it is.

Allow everything to be as it is.

Why?

Because you'd only try to fix something if you were first convinced something was wrong.

Of course,

What a trick.

What a clever,

Clever trick from mine.

But right now,

Stop.

Bring your attention back to my voice,

Back to reality.

Back to this moment.

You don't have to keep your attention here.

Let your attention go wherever it wants.

It's okay.

Now,

As this video ends,

You allowing this moment doesn't have to end.

You allowing yourself to be as you are doesn't have to end.

Stay with yourself.

Stay with the quiet.

Stay with the quiet.

It doesn't have to be a quiet mind,

But just without distraction.

Let yourself be with yourself.

There's nothing to avoid here.

Who you are is peace itself.

This moment is always peaceful when you just take a step back and look.

What's wrong?

So thank you for watching this video.

I hope you got to see there's nothing here to create anxiety.

And that there's nothing wrong with you or your life in this moment right now.

Reviews

Very helpful. I'm struggling and was reflecting on feeling detached from my body. I checked in to a tightness in the chest. So glad I did my next step which allowed me to hear your take on thoughts This really helped. Thanks

I have listened to several of your talks and they are so helpful to me. I am deeply grateful 🙏

I alternated between laughing at myself and crying, and at the end a knot in my stomach that has been there for weeks had loosened so much. Thank you!

So simple, where is your nose... where is your heart beat, where is your breath, where is your problem. Thank you

Where has this been all my life? I need to play this daily. I wake up and immediately start having anxiety mostly over silly things. I try noting but I like this technique much better. I feel calmer, happier, less anxious and at peace. Thank you for this wonderful gift!

This was life changing for me and believe system altering. I got a lot out of it but I think the listener need to already be at a certain level of mentalisation and motivation/readiness...

You spoke to me. Even made me cry twice. I’ll come back to this one again and again. Thank you.

Thank you so much, I really needed this today ☺️

This works for me.

Very cool. I like the way this works. It’s as real as it gets 👌

It calmed me during a panic attack.

Brought me back to reality. Will share with friends.

Well done. Thank you.

I found this really helpful - although it's not a mediation as such.

I absolutely loved this! It calmed me completely! Bookmarking and will use again.
Thank you!

I love when he says you can think about the future, you can think about the past.. but you are here in this moment right now. Nothing is wrong.. bring yourself back to right here right now

Some of the thoughts I found myself coming back from were "this is so great" and "I am so happy I chose to listen to this right now". Loved it, loved the laughs and the light, joyful approach still full of insight. Definitely will do this again and look into your other meditations. Thank you!

Very original! Never had such experience like i had here

Feels like a friend talking to you with compassion to help pull you through anxiety

People complain about the little bits of laughing, I didn't mind at all, it comes across as an authentic message from a friend, reminding me of the lightness in the present moment.
Also, because the original format is video, the translation to audio might feel awkward. I could imagine him smiling while he speaks, which was nice. I like his approach.