Procrastination Obliteration Meditation

The goal of this guided practice is to help you identify why you are procrastinating and give you an effective tool to defeat procrastination. It ends with a bell. You can listen to this anytime during the day.

Transcript

Let's work on discovering why you procrastinate and use a tool to help you defeat it.

To begin with,

Find a quiet,

Comfortable spot to get cozy and settled in.

And take a moment to allow yourself to get comfortable where you are.

Move around until you feel just right.

And now it's time to relax.

Go ahead and close your eyes and be present with yourself.

Very well.

Begin by focusing on your breath.

Notice how gentle it flows in and out of your lungs and your body.

Flows in and out.

In.

.

.

Out.

Now,

Take in a nice big deep breath.

And as you release it,

Imagine the tension beginning to leave your body.

Any stress that you're under is just leaving your body as you exhale.

And calmness and peacefulness are setting in.

With each breath,

Your body is relaxing more and more.

And you're becoming more in the present moment.

Breathing in,

Exhaling out.

In.

.

.

And out.

In.

.

.

And out.

Very well.

Now,

Just to practice,

I want you to think of something that brings you great joy.

Take a moment and bring that memory to your mind.

And notice where you feel that joy in your body.

Practice describing that joy to me.

Just do it silently in your mind.

Pretend I'm there with you and I can hear you.

Very well.

It's amazing how our bodies communicate with us.

And now you're feeling stuck and unsure how to move forward.

All of this procrastination is beginning to feel frustrating.

And it's keeping you from completing things in the way you'd like to.

Procrastination can feel like something is wrong with you when really,

Procrastination is a way for your brain to protect you and means that your brain is working well.

And now you need to find the point you detour from your goal or accomplishing your task that you had intended to complete.

What we do know is that you have completed tasks before,

Even when you did procrastinate.

Perhaps you continued to put it off until the last minute or you found a way to overcome internal resistance.

I want you to now find this time in your memory.

Find the time when you wanted to do something but you waited to do it.

You procrastinated.

However,

You did end up finishing this.

You completed this task.

So notice the picture that comes up for you and the feelings you have when you see this image.

Very well.

Now I'd like you to keep going back to before until you arrive at the place where you started when it came to doing this thing,

This task that you know you procrastinated at.

However,

You did complete.

Go back to before,

Back to when you were motivated to do this thing and your intention was to do this task even if it was something you didn't enjoy doing but you knew you had to.

It was the responsible thing to do.

So you did it.

There was a point when you said to yourself,

I'm going to do that now.

I want you to find that point in your memory.

Take yourself to that moment and notice what do you see and what feelings does that image bring up for you?

Now move yourself forward and explore what came up for you that fed the procrastination.

Was it a distraction or something you said to yourself?

Begin to notice what came up for you.

Was it a distraction or something you said to yourself?

Begin to notice the images,

Sounds and feelings that you experienced.

When you get to the image where you begin to procrastinate,

The start of the procrastination,

Slow that image down.

Slow it way,

Way down.

Make it slow motion.

Watch your images again as a movie from the moment you intended to do the task to the time you put it off.

Now find the image of the moment you tell yourself.

Not now.

I don't want to do it now.

Explore what is happening in that moment.

What do you see,

Feel,

Hear?

You're doing very well.

Now because this is a task you did eventually complete,

I want you to look for the moment you see yourself beginning to do the task.

Continue in slow motion.

What do you see,

Feel,

Hear that moved you towards taking action?

What do you hear yourself say to yourself?

Notice how you feel when you watch the image of you beginning to complete the task.

How do you feel when the task is completed?

And where does that feeling come up for you in your body?

Notice what you say to yourself when you're done.

And is this something you want to continue to say and feel?

If so,

How can you add it into your days moving forward whenever a task comes up that you need to or want to complete?

Very well.

Now let's take a moment to focus on something you're currently procrastinating on.

Find that task that you want to complete,

You intended to complete,

However you're currently procrastinating on it.

You want to follow through with what you had intended to do.

Let's support that now.

I want you to begin with by making an image of yourself doing your favorite thing.

Now this thing is something you do all by yourself.

It's something that really brightens your day and gives you so much joy.

Your favorite activity.

Now remember what it's like to do this and think about how much you'll enjoy doing this again and place yourself in that image.

Now really feel what it's like to enjoy that activity.

Imagine you're doing that activity now and you can feel how good it feels and notice in your body where this joy is communicating with you.

Let it grow,

Take it all in,

Feel how good it feels when you do this activity.

Now once you have this image,

Put it out in front of you.

Very well.

Now between that image of you doing your favorite activity and you,

Put a picture of the task you've been putting off.

Now right in the center of that picture of the task,

Make a little pinhole so you can see your favorite activity.

Make a little pinhole so you can see your favorite thing that's behind the task.

Notice how that picture is brighter and you can see through it.

Make the pin hole bigger so you can see your favorite thing.

Continue opening the pinhole until you get the feeling of your favorite thing.

Once you have the feeling of your favorite thing,

Your favorite activity,

Start to close the pinhole.

If the awesome feeling starts to go away,

Open back up the pinhole until you can really feel the good feelings of your favorite thing.

Once your good feelings get really strong,

Close the pinhole.

Continue to do this until your really good feeling stays with you even when you completely close the pinhole.

Take some time and do this now.

Very well.

Now take a moment and pay attention how do you feel about doing that task now.

Do you feel better about it?

Are you more likely to do it?

If not,

Do this process again.

If so,

Congratulations.

I want you to go ahead and return to your breath and as you return to your breath,

Take a moment and honor yourself for the work that you just did and the honesty you gave yourself.

You did a wonderful job and continue to breathe for a moment just following your breath as it comes in and goes out.

Knowing and reminding yourself that you are capable of great things,

You are capable of small things,

You are capable and ready and willing to complete the tasks you intend to do.

That procrastination doesn't have to continue to be a part of you.

Procrastination is something that you can overcome,

That you find ways of motivating yourself and completing the tasks that you want to do or need to do.

You follow through with what you say you'll do and this feels good and then you have time for your favorite activities and this feels even better.

This process is here for you whenever you need it and in the meantime,

Enjoy your journey of completing your tasks.

Reviews

Thank you so much. I cannot express how deeply cathartic and useful this session is. Bless your heart. ☀️🌻

Powerful and transformative! Now that I see the belief I can't unsee it and that's where change begins. Thank you! 🙏🏾✨️😌🎊

I love this connection! I feel excited to do my task now, I just need to find the time to do it!

Good visualization

Thank you 🙏🏻 this really helped me and I know I will come back to this practice whenever I am struggling with procrastination! ❤️😊

This was so amazing that I genuinely had to pause it in shock at how well it worked hahah. Thank you !

Oh my god. I decided to dig deep on a topic to focus on for meditation tonight and “procrastination” popped into my head. This meditation was by far one of the most powerful experiences of my life. Maybe I am just more amenable to meditation and introspection at this point in my life, but NO other meditation has hit me this deep! Thank you! Namaste 🙏🏻

This visualization really helps, especially when tying in feelings. Thank you!🙏🏼

Really helpful meditation

Loved your guided meditation. Your gentle voice and words resonated to bring me back to calm and focus.
Im going to use it when i am getting stuck with not being able to focus on the activity i am having trouble with at the time. Thankyou 🙏❤

This is a practice I can use again and a again. Your voice is very soothing. Thank you.

Thank you! I think that I can begin my task!

Thank you for sharing this practice with us. I'm not sure I gained much insight yet as to HOW to overcome my procrastination, but I did discover (finally!) some specific WHYS I procrastinated, along with exactly when that started in earnest. Knowing the reasons will help me pinpoint ways to move past them, plus select practices that will allow me to move beyond those issues.

The "when" was as an undergrad in college. The "what" was writing papers for my various classes. The "why" was threefold, all fear based:
1) Not knowing "enough" to appropriately discuss all relevant topics pertaining to the paper's topic (what if I missed some groundbreaking discovery and my entire premise is now flawed because I was not well-enough informed?)
2) The never-ending and pretty much impossible quest for perfection. (Must get that "A" and show I really know my stuff; all my citations and formatting are precise and stylebook exact - an even bigger concern for me then since I was a senior peer tutor in the English Department's Reading/Writing Lab.)
3) Fear of being judged. (I knew I would be submitting the paper for the purpose of being graded. The grade was bad enough, but I had a significant reputation as a deep thinking star student, academically, I felt I needed to maintain at all costs. Each assignment put more and more of that pressure on me. I became addicted to the rush of the positive feedback and praise written on my papers when I got them back.)

These were critically important insights for me today. I knew about them all in very abstract ways and in isolation from each other, but never before had I seen how they shared a similar situational point that created a new tendency towards procrastination. Beyond helpful, truly. I can now utilize that origin point to begin re-writing my procrastination story moving forward.

My only note would be that the phrase "very well" seems to be used a bit more often than necessary. My mind started to experiment towards the end with whether or not it was needed at that particular place, and at one point, attempted to replace your lovely, soothing voice with that of Sir Patrick Stewart in his role as Captain Jean-Luc Picard from the TV show "Star Trek: The Next Generation." (I'm a Trekker, it just bubbled up...but I clamped the lid down on it right quick!)

Tht in no way whatsoever diminished the overall practice for me, other than giving me a smile. The purpose as outcome of the practice were priceless to me, truly. Thank you again for sharing this with us here. I see the light within you. 🤲🏻❤️🤲🏻