Hi there,
This is Shannon from Mindful MBA.
I'm here with a short guided visualization exercise to help you manage anxiety you may be feeling.
Perhaps you have something coming up,
Feels challenging,
Exam,
Performance,
Presentation.
This will help you manage anxiety that may ebb and flow as you approach that event.
Start by settling into a comfortable space.
You can be seated or laying down.
As you do consciously allow your body to relax here.
That feels challenging,
It's okay.
Send yourself those messages anyway.
I can rest here.
As you draw your focus inward,
Perhaps even by closing your eyes,
You may start to feel that sense of anxiety.
It's okay,
Allow yourself to experience it here and notice where in your body you feel it most.
There's no right or wrong place,
Just observe where do you feel it?
How does it feel?
Then bring your hands onto your lap or by your sides if you're laying down.
Turn them up like little bowls.
If they're on your lap you can stack them on top of each other.
Make a single bowl.
Imagine yourself clearing through your body.
Wherever it is you feel that anxious tension,
Whether it feels cold or warm or tight.
Whatever it is you're clearing it out like cobwebs in an attic.
Maybe you see it a certain color.
Maybe it's even a certain substance.
However this anxiety appears,
Let it appear and fill your bowl or bowls up.
As you gather and fill those bowls,
Take a deep breath in and as you exhale turn it over.
Spill it out.
Allow that anxiety to release down into the earth.
Notice if there are shifts in your body as you consciously allow this anxiety to leave.
Nothing aggressive about it,
You've simply gathered it and let it go.
Bring yourself back into stillness,
Sitting or lying down.
Breathing in and breathing out here at your own pace.
Allowing your breath to be your anchor,
The intentional focus of your energy,
Attention.
It would be normal in this space to begin to notice residual anxious feelings.
That's okay.
There's nothing to be afraid of here.
Anxiety is trying to help you,
Trying to prepare you,
Warning you against all kinds of possible imaginary outcomes.
Although it means well,
You don't need it.
Once again you can turn your palms up and gather it perhaps even with compassion.
Trying to help you,
Not really doing so.
Just gather it up and imagine your hands,
Once again the fullest you can get them.
There it is all that anxiety.
Take a deep breath in.
As you exhale,
Flip your palms over and let it all spill out.
Imagine it making its way to the earth,
Sinking down deep underneath the earth surface.
Knowing that the earth can turn that energy into something else.
Back into your awareness within your body.
Notice the clarity and strength of your breath now flowing with ease in and out.
Knowing you can repeat this cleansing exercise as often as you need to.
It doesn't mean anything.
Feelings of tension,
Anxiety,
Worry arrives.
Put them in the bowl.
Take a deep,
Deep breath and let them go.
Release them out,
Give them to the earth.
Really letting go of them so that you can return to the clarity,
The peace,
The ease that is naturally yours.
Take a few more deep breaths here together.
Not forcing anything,
Just allowing your breath to explore this newfound extra space within you.
Sometimes I like to imagine anxiety as a house guest.
Means well.
Often overstays its welcome or shows up at times where it's not really invited.
We gently move through,
Pack up its things and with compassion see it on its way.
With that clarity,
That presence,
We return to ourselves and step into any challenge in front of us.
Prepared.
Strengthened.
Armed with all of the gifts and strengths that are naturally ours.
Let's take another breath in and for good measure a big old exhale out.
Thank you for joining me for this practice today and know that whatever it is you're working with,
You've got it.
