Hello,
My name is Sam.
This guided meditation is to help reduce anxiety which can be quite a destructive emotion.
Put simply,
Anxiety is characterized by feelings of fear,
Worry or unease.
These feelings can range from subtle to strong,
Varying the influence they have over our lives.
For some people,
It stands in the way of deep inner peace and contentment.
Now while we think of anxiety being largely within the mind,
It has a profound effect on the physical body too.
And some of the physical symptoms include irritability and agitation,
An elevated heart rate,
Chest pain or palpitations,
An upset stomach and digestive issues,
Sleep disturbance and insomnia and even sweating.
Mindfulness and meditation are really great tools for managing the experience of anxiety.
And as we shine a light on our experience through a mindful lens,
We develop new perspectives and gain clearer insights.
So let's begin and start foremost with taking a moment to thank and congratulate ourselves for being here,
Taking this time to be present,
To go within and to explore our own lives.
Let's start with a mindful check in,
Noticing any sensations,
Any holdings,
Any tightness in the body,
As well as feeling into your mood,
Your current emotions and just acknowledging whatever's being felt and letting be.
Taking a gentle awareness and acknowledging whatever there is to be felt.
Now very gently,
Withdrawing the awareness from the mindful check in,
Let's now turn it towards the breath,
Being mindful of the breath in the abdomen,
Expanding on the inhalation and falling on the exhalation,
Breathing in and breathing out with awareness.
Allow yourself to breathe normally and naturally,
Simply feeling the rise and the fall of the belly.
This type of mindful breathing alone can help calm us down when we're feeling anxious or fearful.
So just be mindful of the breath coming in and going out,
Breathing with awareness.
If you've noticed that your thoughts have wandered off during this practice,
Gently guide them back to the breath and back to the belly.
We're slowing our lives down with breath,
Just taking one inhalation and one exhalation at a time.
Breathing in and breathing out from moment to moment.
Just gently move our focus to a body scan,
Feeling into the body,
Into the world of sensations,
Thoughts and emotions and acknowledging whatever there is to be experienced.
It's like we're just taking stock of what is going on right now without making any changes or making any judgements.
We're just letting it be.
Beginning at the feet,
Move your awareness to the soles of each foot,
Feeling the heels,
The bottom of the feet,
The toes,
The top of the feet,
Behind the Achilles tendon,
Moving into the ankle joints,
Feeling each of the feet up to the ankles with awareness,
Just acknowledging whatever is felt in the body or potentially in the mind.
Allow this awareness to rise up into each of the lower legs,
Into the calves,
The shins,
Coming up into the knee joints,
Feeling into the body with awareness.
Letting the awareness rise up from the lower legs now into the upper legs,
To the thighs,
Our hamstrings,
Feeling into the upper legs and feeling its connection to the hip joints,
Noticing any sensations as they may arise and letting them be.
Allow your awareness to come up into the hips now,
Into the pelvic girdle,
Into the centre of the body,
Feeling the sit bones,
The buttocks,
The deep abdominal and genital regions,
Feeling into the centre of the body with awareness.
Whatever arises in the body or the mind,
Just acknowledge and let them be.
Feel your awareness now coming to the tailbone and then gently moving up into the lower back,
Allowing the spine upwards into the mid back and eventually into the upper back,
Observing and noticing any sensations in your back with awareness and letting it be.
As we go through this body scan,
From time to time you might notice tensions,
Tightness,
Aches,
Twinges and so on.
If possible,
Allow those areas to soften and if it's not possible that's okay.
Our practice informs us to let it be.
We're going to let whatever sensations ripple and resonate wherever they need to go and the same applies to our thoughts and emotions.
Feeling into the back with awareness,
Let's allow that awareness to start to rise up into each of the shoulders and through the shoulder blades and gently bringing that awareness down each of the upper arms into the elbows,
The forearms,
The wrists and the hands,
Noticing any sensations from shoulders to fingertips and letting them be.
Let's move our awareness now from the shoulders and bring attention to the belly,
Feeling the belly with awareness,
That space that houses that fantastic system of digestion and assimilation.
Whatever sensations may be there,
Tightness,
Nervousness or just rightness,
Whatever's there,
Acknowledging and letting be as we feel into our guts,
Into the belly with awareness.
Allow the awareness to rise up into the skin of the chest,
To the sternum or breastbone and the rib cage,
Feeling into those great systems of ventilation,
The lungs and the circulation of the heart,
Feeling into the chest with awareness and being mindful of whatever comes up in the body or mind.
Letting any waves of thoughts,
Emotions,
Feelings ripple and resonate wherever they need to go.
Bring that awareness now from the chest up into the throat and to the jaw.
The jaw joint is one of the most exercise joints in the whole body.
It's also the home of communication,
Of how we take in food.
So feel into the jaw,
Feel into the mouth,
The teeth,
The tongue,
Noticing any sensations and letting them be.
Let those feelers of awareness reach into the cheeks of the face,
Into the sinus passages,
The temples,
The head and forehead,
Feeling into the eyes and the muscles around them,
Reaching into the facial structure,
The top,
The back of the head,
Finding sensations and letting them be.
Feeling through the ears,
The inside of the head and the brain,
Taking in the entire head and face with awareness.
Now gently connecting the face and head with your neck and throat,
With the shoulders,
The arms,
The hands,
Your chest,
Your belly,
The back,
Your hips,
Legs and feet,
Feeling the body as a whole from head to toe.
As we're feeling into this body and mind,
We may at times continue to experience some anxious thoughts or worries or fears and there are times when we can use the practice of mindfulness,
Of inquiry to discover potentially the underlying causes of our fears.
Sometimes bringing attention to those feelings themselves to acknowledge what's being felt,
Feeling into the fear,
Can actually soften it.
It's a bit like when you slowly enter cold water to go swimming.
You start off just by dipping your toes in to see how it feels.
We can acclimatise the mind in the same way by allowing ourselves to experience a little bit of the fear to slowly become more accustomed to that emotion.
So we're just very gently dipping the toes in,
Feeling the fear,
Acknowledging what's there and letting it be,
Feeling into the fear with awareness.
Now there's no need to try and analyse and figure things out.
We're just allowing ourselves to feel or to have the experience of feeling anxious,
Fearful,
Worried and letting it be.
We're just acknowledging and letting it be,
Feeling into the heart of the fear.
Listen with compassion just as your best friend might.
There's no need to push yourself further than feels comfortable.
We're just softening the edges.
We're just dipping into that feeling of anxiousness and acknowledging it.
As we learn to be with things as they are,
We may discover the underlying causes of our pain.
Well done.
So let's gently withdraw from the mindful inquiry practice and come back to the breath.
Breathing in and out,
Feeling the abdomen lifting as you breathe in and falling as you breathe out.
Breathing in and breathing out with awareness.
Just staying present with the breath.
In the same way that we're watching the breath come and go,
We can do the same thing with our thoughts.
Imagine you're sat beside a stream and you see various things floating down.
Those could be your thoughts,
Your fears or your worries.
You're sat here on the comfortable bank and you're just watching them go by without getting wet.
You can think of the mind and those worrying thoughts in the same way and observe them passing by from this comfortable bank.
Thinking of them as nothing more than passing mental phenomena like pieces of driftwood or leaves.
You're just observing any fearful anxious thoughts as mental events that come and go.
Impermanence just like any of the other senses of sight and sound,
Taste and smell.
They all come and go,
All showing the mark of impermanence.
As we observe the mind,
We notice the ever-changing nature of thought showing their impermanence and fleetingness.
They come and go on this non-stop carousel.
As we become aware of thoughts and understand the nature of the mind,
We can be free.
They're just thoughts and a thought can be left adrift on by.
Let's come back to the breath in the belly one last time.
We're just mindfully breathing in and breathing out.
Let's take a moment now to congratulate ourselves of proactively facing our thoughts and working with them rather than resisting.
And let's affirm that as we acclimatise ourselves to the fears that we cannot be so challenged by them.
And let's offer wishes to all those other humans who are experiencing similar challenges.
May all beings,
All those anywhere that live in fear,
May we all be free from fear and may all beings be at peace.
You've done something wonderful for yourself today,
So well done.
In your own time and in your own way,
Slowly make your way back into the rest of your day.
I hope you enjoy this meditation and I wish you all the best.
