Relief From Overthinking

Relief from overthinking and anxiety with this guided meditation and small dharma talk to help you understand the process and give you the planned instructions needed to help you find stillness and peace within.

Transcript

This meditation will have three parts.

First we'll have the initial grounding and just settling into this moment,

Relaxing the body and relaxing the mind a little.

And then we'll do a little mini Dharma talk about the mind and how it works and about the overthinking.

And then finally we'll settle into a grounded meditation that will help you to overcome this overthinking mind and just quiet in and get out of that rat race of just the continual overthinking.

So first of all let's make ourselves comfortable.

Shake out your bum a little and wiggle your arms and just allow them to settle and place them on your lap.

With your palms up if that's comfortable,

If not just place your hands facing down and you can be sat in a chair or sat on your yoga cushion or meditation cushion you might call it.

It really doesn't matter but as long as you keep your back up straight the idea of meditation is that you stay alert but comfortable and relaxed.

We want to be wide awake but we want to allow the body and the mind to be in a calm state.

So then we tuck our chin in a little and we become aware of our breath.

I'm breathing in and I'm breathing out.

Breathing in calmness and breathing out relax.

Calm and relax.

And relaxing is not something we actually do without having to force the muscles to relax.

It's just allowing them to relax.

It's inviting them and allowing them just to let go in this moment.

So as you bring your awareness to your muscles in your face,

In your cheeks,

In the back of your eyes and your forehead just allow all those muscles to relax.

And the muscles in your neck and your shoulders to relax.

And on each breath just allow them to relax that little bit more.

And allow your arms to relax and your hands and then your fingers one by one just relaxing each one as you go.

Breathing in calm and as you breathe out just relax the body every time.

And as you're allowing the body to relax and as you're inviting each muscle to and each part of the body to do the same.

Just imagine yourself becoming more connected with everything around you.

The seat you sat on,

The cushion or the air around you.

You're becoming one with everything.

The separate you is fading away and becoming part of the room and the air and the seat.

And as you relax your chest and the lower part of your chest and your belly,

Relax your bum and your groin and the top of your legs.

Just all of it.

Just allow it to relax into this moment.

Your body doesn't have to do anything.

It doesn't have to stay alert for anything.

Just,

Just in this moment,

Just allowing all your muscles.

And the lower part of your legs and your feet and each one of your toes in turn just relaxing them.

And we're going deeper and deeper into this relaxed state in this moment.

And now finally we'll just,

Just imagine a wave going right down over your body.

Starting from the top of your head down right down to the tips of your toes.

Just as you breathe in now and then you breathe out.

It's just going to wave right over you that relaxes any muscles or any pockets of tension that you have left.

And as I do a little bit of talking about the overthinking mind to stay with your breath.

And if you find your mind wandering,

Just bring it back to your breath and listen to the words I'm saying and stay with present with this moment and just allowing it to be psychoactive.

And it doesn't matter if you miss any,

It doesn't matter if you lose your focus,

Just bring it back to your breath and smile.

And the important thing is to be gentle.

The intention of this meditation is to help you find some relief from this excessive busyness,

The day to day thinking patterns that constantly keep us in our mind.

They stop us from being in the present moment.

That almost constant agenda,

The planning,

The reliving past events,

Wishing something was different and thinking,

Can we do better or worrying about something that's coming up?

It almost feels like it's relentless.

It's just a continuous stream of thoughts or one thought that just doesn't seem to give you any kind of break.

It almost feels like we're trapped in this spinning cycle much like the wheel in a hamster cage.

You know,

You've got the hamster running around on the wheel and we want to get off,

But we just don't know how to.

And the moment we do get off and find that little bit of relief,

We're back on it again.

You know,

The mind's constantly thinking,

Well,

That's the mind's job.

That's what the mind's here for.

That's what it evolved to do.

It evolved to think stuff up to protect you.

It's actually doing its job very efficiently.

The problem is your mind doesn't know what you want to think about.

So it's just thinking.

And along with thoughts,

Emotions arise.

Then we get caught up in the emotions and we get caught up in the thoughts and emotions.

And they both help each other to grow and become bigger.

And then we become tired and fatigued.

And we just want the mind to quieten down.

We put our head on the pillow and we just want,

Please just give me a few moments.

Give me that little bit of window of no thought and then I can fall asleep.

Wouldn't that be nice?

And then we start to lose focus day to day and our health suffers and everything.

And really we just,

We just want that bit of relief.

If the mind is unchallenged,

It becomes relentless thoughts and they achieve nothing but just more and more mental chatter.

If they're left untamed,

They become troublesome and ultimately they disturb any peace and stillness that we may enjoy.

We often think that we would like to have no thoughts,

Complete stillness.

The truth is we just want awareness.

We just want,

We just want awareness in this moment.

Awareness of this silence,

This word,

This syllable.

And finally the gap between the syllables.

Asking the mind to stop speaking is like asking your heart not to beat.

It's not a good idea.

The mind evolved to think,

To protect you,

To have an imagination,

To have a story and to help you in the world.

These stories help us to function and help us to see what we like and what we dislike.

They help us to fulfill our purpose.

The only difference really is that the mind becomes over powerful.

It becomes the boss instead of something that serves us.

So it becomes the mind rules the emotions and it rules our lives.

And we try to get rid of the mind or try to get rid of the thinking by more thoughts,

More thinking.

It doesn't quite work like that,

Unfortunately.

You know,

Adding more thoughts to get rid of thoughts is like adding more clothes to cool down.

We often try to quieten the mind by just forcing it to stop.

Stop thinking,

Stop thinking.

And of course stop thinking.

If your mind is doing the thoughts it's perfectly fine.

So let's continue the meditation.

Let's bring it back to your breath.

I'm breathing in,

I'm breathing out.

And just by being aware of your breath,

You're no longer inside of your mind.

Just sitting back and watching the air going in,

Observing the air going in through your nose,

Raising your chest and filling the base of your lungs and expanding your belly.

The pores on your belly going in and the air coming back out.

Just by slowing down and becoming aware of our breath and becoming aware of what's going on right in this moment right now,

The mind automatically quietens.

Notice how your breath automatically becomes deeper and the breath out becomes longer.

The body knows how to relax,

We just have to give it a chance.

And by just sitting in our breath right now,

Sitting observing and being part of the breath and just allowing it to happen,

That's simply As you become even more aware,

Even the awareness starts to fade and your connection with everything else becomes more whole and complete.

Notice how you and the chair become more connected.

You and the air around you become more connected.

There's no longer you and the world.

Everything is just one.

As you breathe in,

The whole universe,

All the planets and the stars become slightly closer.

And as you breathe out,

The planet and the stars and our sun become slightly further away.

You are not separate to anything else.

You,

The thoughts,

Even the awareness and emotions fade and you become softer and you become more still in this moment.

Notice how the mind has become more quiet and at peace.

Just like this whole moment seems to have just gone ahh.

This moment is completely whole,

It lacks nothing.

For the next couple of minutes,

Just enjoy the awareness of breath and the awareness that you are connected to this moment,

This eternal truth and the quiet and stillness that this connected brings.

In a moment,

I'm going to come back from five and we'll bring this connected stillness and this quiet mind back with us to the rest of the day.

Imagine your life with a quieter stillness in the mind.

Imagine enjoying the qualities of this skillful wise thought.

Imagine your day with this quiet stillness without the relentless mental chatter.

And as I count back from five,

We'll bring the presence back to this moment.

Five,

Four,

Gently open your eyes.

Three,

Shake out your arms.

Two,

Look around you,

Look around the room or wherever you're to and become part of this present moment.

But keep hold of this stillness and this quietness that the mind enjoys when we live more from our body and the present moment.

Take a couple of deep breaths and really be truly one with your breath,

This moment and your mind just automatically quietens.

I'm Stephen Webb and thank you for this time together.

I truly appreciate the calmness that just having these moments brings to the world.

The world needs it more now than ever,

I think.

I'm your host of Stillness in the Storms podcast and you can check it out by going to stevenspodcast.

Com as Stephen with a V,

Stevenspodcast.

Com.

Thank you.

Reviews

Great stuff Steven, thank you, I really needed this moment. I will be certain to check out your podcast, I believe I followed you on amazon music 🤔. I will check

Just what my over-thinking mind needed this morning, Steven! I’m definitely going to check out your podcast as well. TY!
Molly from CA/U.S. 💜🙏

He has overcame his challenges and stepped into the spotlight with calmness and grace. His voice is soothing . I know you will come out feeling more grateful and peaceful.

Effective instruction to calm a ragged mind!
Thank you, Steven!
Donna

Completely wonderful! Thank you so much, this one is a keeper for sure .

Negative chatter is mankind’s, and my, worst enemy.

I didn’t want this session to end Steven. My mind slowed right down and it felt clear and calm. This is a beautiful meditation and one I will come back to many times I know. Thank you so very much. Much love. 🧡

I’m deeply grateful I found Steven’s message after a week of relentless rumination. The recording gave a break in my thoughts just long enough to allow my heart to open, and release a flood of tears. I’m hoping I can come back and get relief when needed later. I certainly intend to try. I will leave a donation, and bookmark Steven’s podcast. Thank you from rhe bottom of my heart.

This was so helpful and so beautifully said With a perfect slow background sounds .thank you!

Just what I needed. I could feel my body relax as my mind calmed. Thank you Steven.

Absolutely beautiful meditation, I love your voice and presentation.
I got so much out of the whole time listening 🙏
Will definitely go back to it and I look forward to listening to more from you Steven. Namaste ❤️

Thank you, Steven! This is a fantastic meditation- one of your best.

I love the teaching! Just what I needed this morning.

A very nice relief from the anxiety I’ve been experiencing. Thank you.

Simply lovely. Deeply felt calmness for all beings. Thank you Steven.

Soooo calm and a quiet mind. I'll check out your podcast too. Thank-you.

This is the first time I’ve listened to you, Steven . I truly enjoy the meditations. I’ve listened to today, I offer a free meditation class in our community. I will play your meditation for them. Thank you for doing this work.

Loved the format of the session...
Will come back for sure 🤍
Thank you
#grateful

Excellent! You calmed my OTM: Over Thinking Mind! This is something that is so difficult for me as I am dealing with post cancer care complications. I will circle back to your peaceful message and wonderful presentation. Favorite meditation so far! Thank you!

Thank you. This helped me so much to calm my mind. 🙏🏼