Greetings.
Today I'm going to share with you a tool that you can use to help reduce anxiety,
That stress wheel of thoughts spinning and racing round and round and coming back to a place of mindfulness.
Before we begin,
A gentle reminder that this meditation is here to help support your mindfulness practices.
It's not intended to provide any medical,
Psychological,
Or health care advice.
Please consult a qualified healthcare professional if you have medical or mental healthcare concerns.
And as we go through this practice,
Listen and honor your own needs and participate in a way that feels safe and supportive to you.
Okay,
Let's begin.
Let's start with a deep breath in all the way up through our body.
A long,
Slow exhale out.
Let's do that again.
Take a nice breath in.
Exhale out One more time.
Inhale in.
Exhale out.
End this pause.
I want us to offer curious compassion.
To whatever we find as we sink into this space of being with ourselves.
So as you notice what comes up right now.
Is it a physical sensation?
Is it the thoughts about what happened yesterday?
What you might be doing tomorrow?
We're going to expand out our lens.
And allow all of it to be here with us.
So you're going to give yourself permission and notice.
Compassion and curiosity.
And as we are doing that,
I want you to imagine There's a big meandering river around you.
Whether it's at your workspace or your home space.
That this river has a slow moving flow to it.
So that hamster wheel,
That wheel that's moving and spinning with lots of thoughts,
I want you to pull one of those thoughts out,
Out of your body,
Pull it all the way out of your brain,
Your head,
Your mind,
However you want to imagine that to be.
And plop it down.
On this river.
Let it go for a moment.
The beauty of using this river.
Is that it loops around.
So if you need or want to come back to something later,
You can always do so in another moment.
That to-do list tomorrow,
That thing you don't want to forget.
Allowing yourself to have it come back around.
Some things you might want to place on your river and let them be forever.
Some things you might want to place there for an hour or a day.
And then come back to later.
Later the same day.
Later the next day.
Trusting your own rhythm.
However,
Allowing yourself to get out those thoughts and put them somewhere.
Somewhere where you know.
You can move about in a moment where they are captured.
And yet they are not holding you captive.
So let's pull another thought out.
What else is in that racing mind that you might have right now that keeps going over and over and over again?
You can do this practice as many times as you need,
Taking out the big thoughts,
The little thoughts,
Whatever it is that feels that energy of maybe unrest.
Of anxious energy where it's moving and it's not actually going anywhere.
Place it on your river,
Anytime,
Anywhere.
Allowing yourself to be in that space.
That gives the wiggle room.
That allows for the witnessing of the thoughts.
As you do this practice,
You may notice some of the same thoughts come out and onto the river.
You might notice some of them don't have the same.
A fact that they did.
Because you've noticed them,
You've witnessed them,
You've brought attention to whatever it is in your mind without judging,
Fixing,
Solving in this moment.
Bringing a mindfulness,
Bringing a presence.
That's the practice today.
You can come back to it anytime.
I thank you so much for being here and participating in this.
And have a beautiful day.
