Alleviating Anxiety

You deserve to feel peaceful, relaxed, and focused, and you do not have to an live with an underlying sense of anxiety, fear, or restlessness. Practicing this type of mindfulness meditation daily will re-wire the brain to enhance areas of the brain associated with feeling calm and centered, as well as reduce activity in the anxious, fight or flight areas of the brain. Relax, listen, and feel the powerful healing benefits of this practice.

Transcript

Hello and welcome to the alleviating anxiety guided meditation.

This is actually mindfulness meditation designed to help you work with the difficulties related to anxiety and restlessness and all of the other energies that accompany,

Oftentimes will accompany anxiety.

So the first thing you want to do for the meditation is to find yourself in a relaxed posture.

Oftentimes that posture can be helpful,

Especially with anxiety.

If you have extreme anxiety,

Comfort is the most important part.

If you need to lie down,

Feel more comfortable or sit up with a back supporting chair or sitting on a cushion,

Whatever serves you and serves your body.

And now taking some deep breaths,

Really deep breaths.

You're breathing into the nose,

Filling up the lungs completely.

And you're exhaling through the mouth,

Even blowing out through the mouth.

We're going to start out with a couple of minutes of these deep breaths,

Breathing into the nose,

Blowing out to the mouth.

If you're particularly anxious,

You may want to actually sigh in the exhale or make an audible sound.

As you're breathing in deeply,

Imagining that you're breathing in calm,

Nurturing energy and blowing out the anxiety,

Stress.

This deep breathing is actually giving the autonomic nervous system the invitation to relax,

To let go,

To soothe.

And now as you breathe in,

See if you can breathe in to your belly.

Or your chest region.

Feeling the breath expand in your chest and belly,

Bringing in calm,

Energy,

Relaxation.

And breathing into any of the parts of the body that feel particularly contracted or tight.

So checking in with your forehead,

Seeing if your forehead is relaxed,

Unfurrowed.

Releasing any stress in the forehead.

Coming to the jaw,

Unhinging the jaw,

Relaxing the chin,

Opening the mouth slightly.

Coming to the shoulders and seeing that the shoulders are dropped,

Heavy,

Relaxed.

Dropping them away from the ears.

Checking in with the belly and seeing that the belly is relaxed.

If you're holding it in,

Allow it to just pooch out,

Relax.

Nothing to hold in.

And breathing into the whole body,

Feeling the whole body breathe.

Sensing the body's movement up and down as if you're lying down on an intertube in the ocean or the river's waves.

Easy waves.

Up and down,

Relaxing,

Soothing.

And don't worry if you start to fall asleep.

This is fine.

It could be good for the nervous system.

Eventually you'd like to try and stay awake during this meditation.

If any time during this meditation you realize that your nervous system is just too queued up to relax,

A strategy that can be helpful is breathing in,

Tranquilizing the body,

Breathing out,

Tranquilizing the mind.

So you just very softly label in your mind a soft whisper,

Tranquilizing body,

In-breath,

Tranquilizing mind out-breath,

Tranquilizing the body in,

Tranquilizing the mind.

And do this for a few minutes.

Some folks who are numerically gifted often will find solace from counting their breaths.

Breathing in one,

Breathing out two,

To ten,

Then starting again at one.

And doing this for a few iterations until the anxiety calms down somewhat.

One,

Two,

Three,

Four.

.

.

And now some people really find solace from going into the body and doing a relaxing meditation,

Relaxing body scan.

Mindful awareness alone can reduce anxiety oftentimes.

So bringing your awareness to the top of your head and noticing all the sensations in the top of your head.

Some people like to mentally label them or note them silently to themselves in their mind.

Tingling,

Pressure,

Warmth,

Jumping,

Shaking,

Calmness,

Whatever's there on the top of the head.

Moving now down to the forehead,

Noticing all the sensations in the forehead.

If there are any areas in the body that are particularly anxious or tense,

Breathing in to those areas,

Breathing in relaxation and calm for a few breaths.

Sweeping down,

Bringing your awareness to your eyebrows and your temples and now your eyes.

Your eyes are closed but relaxed.

Coming down over your cheeks,

Your nose,

Slowly sweeping down the front of the face,

Over the cheeks,

The mouth,

Relaxing the mouth,

Even the inside of the mouth,

Noticing the sensations,

Sensing your teeth,

Your lips,

Your jaw,

Your chin.

Sweeping down the front of the neck,

Allowing awareness to do its job.

Sweeping over the shoulders,

Just noticing any sensations in the shoulders.

Allowing this healing,

Soothing,

Mindful awareness to sweep down both arms,

From the top of your arms down.

Remembering to include your elbows coming down over your forearms.

This is like a soothing,

Mindful massage coming over the wrists and finally the hands.

Feeling all the minute sensations in the hands,

Front and back.

Coming back to the base of the neck,

Front of the body,

Sweeping down the front of the body from the base of the neck down over the chest and over the rib cage,

Belly,

Coming down to the groin region,

Relaxing the whole front of the body,

Feeling ease,

Letting go,

Happen.

Coming back to the top of the head,

Sweeping down now the back of the head,

Slowly,

Gradually bringing awareness to the sensations as you go down the back of the head,

Back of the ears,

Back of the neck,

Back of the shoulders.

And now from the base of the neck in the back,

Going down slowly over the back,

Including each vertebrae,

Each muscle,

Tendon.

Including your middle back and your lower back.

If you have back problems,

Stopping and pausing at these areas that are perhaps contracted,

Breathing into them,

Bringing extra kind and caring attention to these challenged areas.

Without needing to get rid of the pain or contraction,

Just being there with it like you would a good friend who's needing kindness.

As you sweep down to the rear end,

Pausing at the rear end,

Feeling the pressure of your body,

The weight of your body at your rear.

Coming down both legs,

Front and back,

Sweeping down over the thighs and hamstrings.

Coming down to the knees,

Leaving your knees and going to your calves,

From the top of your calves and shins down,

Down to your ankles and finally your feet.

Feeling all the sensations in your feet.

If you're still particularly anxious after this body scan,

You may want to sweep back up the body,

The same direction we came up or came down.

If you feel a little bit more relaxed now,

At ease in your body more so,

You can come back to a regular breath.

You're not controlling your breath,

It's not the deep breathing,

It's just the normal breath you'd have if you weren't noticing.

And just resting in the awareness that your awareness is here,

Present,

In this body that's breathing.

And at this moment,

Everything is okay.

Giving yourself the gift of meditation,

The gift of presence,

The gift of relaxation.

Another great strategy for working with anxiety is to actually,

Once you've calmed down enough to be able to explore it,

To bring your awareness to the body of anxiety,

The energetic body,

Locating it in your physical body.

How is it manifesting?

What sensations,

If you could find this energy body,

Where is it?

And notice,

Is it contracted?

Is it tight?

Is it loose?

Is it pulling,

Pushing,

Throbbing,

Solid,

Moving?

Does it have a color?

Does it have a texture?

Is it changing or staying the same?

Does it feel more jumpy in areas?

If the anxiety is too much,

Too difficult to be with,

Seeing if you can expand the idea of your body,

Growing,

Expanding to take up the whole room.

So now your body is the whole room,

Allowing these sensations,

Anxious sensations,

To bounce around in this very large room.

Occasionally the mind might start making up a story,

Analyzing,

Trying to figure out,

That's what the mind does,

It's not a problem.

As soon as you notice that,

Seeing if you can let that go,

Doing your best to not buy into any storylines.

And as you stay with this energy,

See if it relaxes,

It grows.

So you're not trying to get rid of it,

You're just trying to hold it with kindness and compassion,

Allowing it to be here,

Allowing it to express At any point if the anxiety becomes too overwhelming,

Leave this body of anxiety and find an area in your physical body that feels pleasant to you.

Perhaps it feels warm or soothing or relaxed,

And bring your awareness for a moment to this pleasant area.

Allow your mind to rest,

Your awareness to soak up the pleasantness of these sensations,

Breathing it in,

Bringing balance to the mind,

The heart,

And the body.

And as you feel more courageous or balanced,

Coming back to the body of anxiety if it's still there.

And ping-ponging between the anxiety and the pleasant areas in order to be able to hold the anxiety with kindness and not get overwhelmed.

You can also breathe into the body of anxiety.

And as you become curious about this body,

Exploring it,

Notice if there's anything there,

Any other emotions with the anxiety,

Perhaps restlessness,

Guilt,

Shame,

Fear,

Anger,

Whatever's there,

Exploring it,

Becoming curious,

Letting your anxiety know,

Dear,

I'm here with you,

I'm listening to you,

I care about you.

And you may want to ask this body of anxiety if it has any wisdom or any requests of you.

And now coming back to deep breathing,

Breathing in through your nose and through your lungs,

Feeling them completely and then blowing out through the mouth.

This time as you're filling in your lungs,

Energizing your body and your mind,

Preparing it for getting on with your day,

Unless you're going to sleep now,

Then bring breathing in relaxation.

One more time.

Character telepathy is on this level or higher.

Congratulations for meditating today.

If you did feel any relaxation or any sense of ease during this meditation,

To know that you can bring this energy into by remembering it into your heart or your body at any time during the day.

Remembering every so often to stop and be with your body and take a few deep breaths.

Being kind awareness to yourself for just a few seconds from time to time.

And may you be happy and may you have extended inner peace.

Reviews

Thank you, Ronya!

Nice body scan meditation explaining different methods for addressing anxiety

Very calming and relaxing
Thank you

Amazing. Pure relaxation

So relaxing and soothing. Thank you

This is an excellent relaxation exercise. The final bell is jarring for someone trying to relax. I was startled.

I woke up far too early feeling anxious again about the new job I'm about to start this week. I found this meditation and it worked wonders for me. I will come back to this one regularly. It relieved me of my belly ache. Thank you so much for that 🙏🏼⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Namaste 💜

I appreciated the multiple techniques given and the calm voice. Some background and microphone noise but it wasn't too distracting. Thank you!

Very effective! So many great techniques; I’d love to be able to access them individually!

This is a very effective guided body scan meditation. Much appreciated 🙏🏻. Would love to have more Theravada offerings from you available here. You have had two of our finest teachers, Jack and Joseph. Lucky you!