Easing Anxiety Guided Meditation

Here for you when you're lost in unsettled and anxious thoughts. Be guided through the process of giving your body and mind permission to rest and be safe, and allow the anxious thoughts and sensations to leave your body with every breath. Background music: Kevin Macleod - Tranquility Base

Transcript

Hello and welcome to this guided meditation to help you when you're feeling anxious or unsettled,

Nervous or just not at ease in the way that you wish you could be.

Before we get started just taking a moment to make sure that you're completely comfortable,

That there's nothing around you that might disturb you.

Getting anything that might make you feel more comfortable,

Whether that's an extra pillow underneath your knees,

A soft cuddly toy to hold onto,

Maybe an eye pillow to place over your eyes to help you relax.

But what we are intentionally creating is a space that feels safe so that we can help you come out of this anxious and unsettled place that you are existing in at the moment.

So get settled and comfortable.

And placing maybe one or both of your hands on the belly.

Let's begin by just taking a deep breath and sighing it out.

Noticing how a sigh can be so powerful in releasing some tension when we need it.

But also noticing if you can feel the tension that you're still holding onto even when you're trying to sigh it out.

Seeing how stressed and anxious your body feels and recognising it and accepting it.

But also knowing that you're not going to feel any worse than you already feel.

Take a moment to acknowledge that.

Everything we do together in this time that you have set aside is only going to help.

Now that doesn't mean that your anxiety is going to disappear.

That you're suddenly going to feel better and you'll never feel anxious again.

But what it does mean is that you might begin to be able to put some trust back into your body and into your mind.

These anxious feelings don't last forever and they are within your control.

And however much it might not feel like that in this moment,

It is the truth.

And it is a truth that your body is going to learn to trust.

Because really anxiety stems from a place of distrust,

Of fear and doubt,

Worry.

And ultimately,

Concern.

Love.

Your brain loves you so much that it's trying to protect you from something that it thinks might be a risk.

So to begin we say thank you to the anxiety.

Maybe you want to give it a name in this moment so that it's easier to have a sense of separateness from it.

So that you can recognise that you are not your anxiety.

It is just something that you experience.

So picking a name or maybe just visualising what your anxiety looks like in your head.

Thank you for protecting me and looking out for me.

But now it's time for you to leave.

Thank you for looking out for me and protecting me from danger.

But I don't need to be protected from this danger right now.

So now that we have given our mind permission to stop feeling anxious,

It's now time to try and hopefully succeed in convincing the body that we're safe.

We don't need to be afraid right now.

Now part of this is accepting that maybe those anxious thoughts might appear and they might come in and ask for our attention again.

And that's okay.

We're not here to be perfect.

We're here just to try our very best.

So when those thoughts come in,

We don't ignore them,

We don't push them away.

We acknowledge them.

And we say,

I give you permission to leave now.

And now beginning to draw all of our attention and our awareness to our breath.

So we're taking a journey out of the mind and into the body.

Just seeing how that feels for you.

You might notice that your breath is very shallow.

Maybe it's quite fast because in your anxiety,

You might have entered this place of fight or flight,

Engaging the sympathetic nervous system,

Which doesn't like us to rest.

It doesn't like us to calm down because it thinks we need to run away from something.

But right now there is absolutely nothing you need to run away from.

So we need to convince our body and our mind that this is the time and the place to rest and be safe and nurture yourself.

And when you come away from this guided meditation,

Feeling so much better,

Maybe you even fall asleep,

Then you'll know with absolute certainty that your anxiety is within your control.

It is something that you can manage.

And then maybe you won't be so afraid of it.

And when you're not so afraid of it,

Maybe it might happen less and less.

So first let's focus on our breathing and really feeling the belly rise and fall with every breath.

We're not counting these breaths straight away.

We're just bringing our attention and awareness to this area.

Really feeling that breath as it leaves your body,

Your stomach sinking back towards your spine.

And when you inhale,

Your belly rises and lifts your hands.

And it's just moving in this gentle rise and fall of breath.

Just like the waves on an ocean shore,

And they just gently flow in and out.

That's exactly what your breath can feel like.

And when we breathe really deeply with our belly,

We are immediately signaling to our brain and our nervous system that it's time for us to relax.

Now you can further increase this encouragement by stimulating the vagus nerve that runs at the back of the throat and branches out all over the body.

Now this nerve likes to be stimulated in order for us to relax.

There are several ways of doing this,

But one that's very effective when we're meditating or when we're breathing is an ocean breath or in yoga,

Ujjayi breath.

This is a sound we make at the back of our throat with our mouth closed.

And the sound is somewhat what it feels and sounds like to fog up a mirror.

A sort of rasping in the back of the throat.

So when we do it with our nose closed,

It might sound something like this.

And maybe that's something you want to give a try,

But also if it feels too difficult and unusual and uncomfortable,

Then we won't.

But if you feel called to and it feels easy and natural,

Then on every exhale,

Maybe making that ocean sound,

That Ujjayi breath at the back of the throat,

Naturally oscillating against the vagus nerve and helping us relax even more.

Really what we want to be doing here is focusing even more on our exhale,

On how slow the exhale can be.

How can you drag out your exhale just a tiny bit more?

If you're breathing in for four,

Could you maybe breathe out for five counts?

A conscious effort to slow down because when we feel anxious,

Everything feels so fast.

So fast that our thoughts feel like they're running away from us.

And as they are running away,

We feel like we're losing ourselves and we're getting further and further away from ourselves and from this calm place that we should be able to access whenever we need it.

So how much can you really slow down right now?

How much can you extend your exhale?

Maybe you start breathing in one,

Two,

Three,

Four,

Exhaling eight,

Seven,

Six,

Five,

Four,

Three,

Two,

One.

But you don't need to follow a particular count or a particular pattern.

You just need to do what feels comfortable right now.

I'm just giving you an idea of how you can extend your exhale.

How powerful that can be when we really draw it out.

Slow breath in and even slower breath out.

Maybe with ocean breath,

Maybe not.

Ultimately is complete deep down to what feels comfortable for you.

But how powerful and how wonderful that you're here holding space for yourself.

Just listening to me talk,

Feeling yourself breathe and you're using all the tools at your disposal to feel better,

Feel calmer.

And I'm proud of you for doing that and you should be proud of yourself.

When you've settled a bit more into these two,

You're going to feel more relaxed and more into these deep and slow breaths.

Maybe just scanning your body to see where you're still holding any tension.

Maybe in your face,

Maybe your jaw is clenched.

Just let that go for me,

For yourself.

Maybe your shoulders are tight and pulled up around your ears.

Just let them go.

If you're lying down,

Just melting like warm butter,

Slowly seeping into the bed or the floor beneath you.

Knowing that you're held and supported in this moment exactly as you need to be.

Some thoughts might still be disturbing you but again,

We give them permission to go.

This is not the time for them to take up space.

They have taken enough of your joy and enough of your energy that it is your time to call it back.

To regain all of the peace that your mind,

Your body and your spirit deserves.

You might feel some emotion come to the surface as you acknowledge that.

How much of your present joy has been stolen by these unruly anxious thoughts.

That's okay.

But also know that you being here is doing something about it.

How beautiful would life be if there were less stolen moments?

And all that joy,

All of that presence was just here for you to enjoy and experience.

See how you can trust your body and your mind to cooperate.

You asked it to help you let go and relax in this moment and that's exactly what you're doing.

It is possible to regain control whilst also letting go.

And the two things are very powerful when we can use them together.

Taking back control and letting go.

Letting go.

Letting go.

Be here.

With me,

With yourself.

Feeling presence.

Peace.

And maybe gaining some new perspective on the things that were making you feel stressed and anxious to begin with.

I'm now going to start to leave you here with your breath.

Now that doesn't mean that this meditation has to end.

That peaceful place that you've created has to end.

Please continue to breathe.

Maybe take a nap if you feel tired and exhausted by the anxious you've been feeling.

We'll just continue with that presence,

That breath and just being here.

I am sending you so much love and gratitude for being here and I'm proud of you for showing up for yourself.

Take care.

Reviews

Thank you for sharing this gentle meditation 🧘‍♀️ so many suffer from anxiety and panic attacks your suggestions are most welcome. 🙏Be Well 💜

Such a wonderful meditation. The teacher beautifully sets up a safe space in the beginning which allows listener to sink deeper into the practice.