Anxiety Reduction Heat Map Activity

Visualize your anxiety in your body as a heat map, and use directed, mindful breathing to see if it can be shifted. At best, you'll experience a shift in your level of anxiety and even a reduction in your anxiety. At least, you'll learn to visualize and sit with your anxiety, and breathe through it, empowering yourself to sit through difficult emotions.

Transcript

For this anxiety reduction meditation, We're going to be turning our attention inward into the body container. In English, We use words to describe emotions such as, That was gut-wrenching, Heartbreaking, I got all choked up. It's because emotions show up in the body. So in this meditation, We're going to be turning our attention inward towards this area between our chin and our pelvic floor. If you haven't yet already, Gently close the eyes. Start to allow yourself to sink into the surface that's supporting you. Let yourself sink another millimeter or two down into the surface beneath you. Start by taking a deep breath, The deepest breath you've taken yet today. Really feel into your belly, Letting the air reach places it hasn't yet reached today. Exhale a long, Slow exhale. Take two more of those. So turning your attention inward, Do a quick scan and find the area that is most active or anxious or energetic. Try to hold this feeling in your awareness without judging it. You can visualize this area of highest anxiety or energy as if you were viewing a heat map of the body. Perhaps this area of highest anxiety is a yellow-white, And around it, It fades into a red-orange, With the areas of least energy or anxiety being a blue-black. If it's difficult to imagine what this might look like, Find an area of your body where you're experiencing no anxiety, Perhaps your left big toe. If that area of least energy is blue-black, Where does the energy start as you move towards that body container? Can you visualize it turning into that red-orange, And that area of highest concentration being that yellow-white? Perhaps you can visualize your own body and the activation occurring, And the color and shape of it. And we're just trying to hold this sensation and this image in our mind without telling stories about it or judging it. Now we're going to use some directed breathing to see if we can massage into that area of highest energy, Just as if you had a knot in your muscle and could dig your thumb into it to loosen it. Can we use directed breath into this area of high energy to help loosen some of it and soften some of it? So keeping this heat map image in your mind, Direct your breath a little bit deeper and a little bit more intentionally. Visualizing the air moving into this area of high energy. Keep your attention on your breath and on this body heat map. We're going to do a minute of breathing at your own pace, Keeping your breaths mindful, Deep, And directed. Slow, Focused, Mindful breaths. All watch the time. Take a look at your heat map now. Has anything shifted? If nothing has changed, That's okay. Your ability to sit with these emotions and visualize them and breathe through them is enough of a success in itself. We're going to start waking up the body now. You can start adding a little bit of movement, Perhaps to your fingers and toes, Perhaps rolling the head side to side and stretching out your neck. Remember, Feelings are transient, Changeable states, Like all things. Nothing is permanent. Anxiety isn't permanent. Being able to sit with and breathe through difficult emotions is extremely powerful. Thank you for showing up today, Showing up for yourself. Hope you have a wonderful day.

Reviews

Awesome