Simple Meditation For Overwhelm

This meditation offers a straightforward approach to managing overwhelming feelings. You'll be guided through simple breathing exercises and mindfulness techniques to help calm your mind and reduce stress. The practice aims to create a sense of spaciousness and clarity, allowing you to step back from your thoughts and find a moment of peace amidst the chaos.

Transcript

Welcome to a meditation for when you're feeling overwhelmed.

So I'm going to take you on a journey that I do when I'm feeling overwhelmed and that's exactly what I'm feeling now.

So I'm going to talk you through what I do and I invite you to join me.

The first thing is I just get comfortable.

Just wiggle my body a little bit and I allow my body to relax.

Just by simply allowing my body to relax and not trying to do anything with my body,

It's almost like my body already knows how to do it.

And then if you need to get yourself a little more comfortable,

Just allow yourself to do it now.

And the idea of meditation is to just allow things to be what they are.

That's certainly the idea of this meditation now.

So you can either gently close your eyes or just soften your gaze a few feet in front of you.

I normally just soften my gaze and I bring my attention to my breath.

I don't do anything with my breath.

I allow my breath to be exactly what it is.

I allow my breath to be exactly what it is.

My body knows how to breathe.

My body knows how to relax.

Now at this point I normally find myself still thinking quite a bit.

Breathing through my nose,

Then through my mouth.

I keep looking around a little bit.

I just remind myself,

Just soften the gaze,

Allow the body to relax.

Allow the breath to be.

Breathing in calm,

Breathing out relax.

Breathing in calm,

Breathing out relax.

And as you do this,

You may notice everything just getting a little quieter.

You may notice your thoughts coming and going.

You may even notice a slight ringing in your ears.

It's because your body is quietening down.

As you become quieter,

The nuances and the subtlenesses all of a sudden disappear.

Just become more in the forefront.

And it's important to remember they were always there before.

We just couldn't hear them underneath the noise of overwhelm.

And now I just sit.

Taking every bit of notice of my breath.

You may notice the way your chest rises and falls.

You may notice your breath just slowing down.

Because the more your mind slows down,

The more your muscles relax.

The less oxygen your body needs.

And your body knows that,

So it just adapts accordingly.

If your thoughts continue to arise,

Just acknowledge them and be okay with them.

And thank them for your mind just doing what it does,

Thinking stuff up.

And give a gentle smile and bring it back to your breath.

And now I'm going to take a deep breath in,

And I'm going to take a deep breath out.

If the mind is a little relentless,

Just say to yourself,

I'm breathing in.

I'm breathing out.

I'm starting to feel like I'm more relaxed and my mind is quietening down.

And I'm okay with that.

Just do a little check in with yourself.

Just notice that you're a little quieter now.

There's a little more peace in this moment.

I'm going to allow you just to be aware of your breath for the next minute or so.

I will keep an eye on the timer.

I will keep an eye on the timer.

If any thoughts come up,

Gentle smile and back to your breath.

Now as you're breathing in,

Calm,

Breathing out,

Relax.

And just notice that nothing has really changed.

From where you were overwhelmed just a little under 10 minutes ago.

The whole world is the same world.

Yet the calmness within changes everything.

And you did this.

And you did this.

You created this calm peacefulness when you allowed the body just to relax and you allowed the breath to be what it is.

You allowed the mind just to soften its thoughts.

And you don't quieten the mind or quieten the body by doing it.

You do it by allowing it.

Just allowing your body to breathe in calm,

Breathe out,

Relax.

Your body has a deeper,

Wiser version of us.

The body knows what to do.

It's when we're getting involved,

That's when we get overwhelmed.

And there's a simplicity in and there's a simplicity in breathing in calm,

Breathing out,

Relax.

Really that's all we need to do.

We tend to complicate meditation and if we're feeling overwhelmed or anxious or having strong emotions or something,

We tend to think that we've got to find a specific meditation.

You probably played this one because it said to relieve overwhelm in the title.

But really it's all just the same.

Just breathing in calm,

Breathing out,

Relax.

Just allow the body to relax and allow this moment to be what it is.

In this moment very often there's nothing wrong.

There's nothing wrong in this immediate moment.

In your facility,

In the room you're in or in your space that you're in.

So in a moment I'm just going to come back from five and just bring your awareness back to the room.

So five,

Four,

Gently open your eyes if you had them closed.

Three,

Shake out your arms,

Wiggle your toes and fingers.

Two,

Look around the room.

One,

And just feel the energy coming back but you're in more control of it now.

Just by allowing the body to deal with the overwhelm in the way it already knows how to.

And just really it's us getting out of the way.

It's us that is overwhelmed.

The overthinking mind,

The I that we think is real is overwhelmed.

When really the body and the mind and the awareness of it,

There's no overwhelm.

Everything just is.

So thank you for joining me in all this meditation and I'm feeling less overwhelmed now so I really appreciate that.

And thank you for supporting me on Insight Timer.

Thank you for the follow and I hope you have a nice peaceful day.

Reviews

As ever…magnificent anxiety remover Stephen! You are a magician! Thank you so much. I have come away from this with the thought..’How did I get like that?’ Big love to you. ❤️

Great message, keep it simple, stay in the Is-ness of things

Ooooooooo sooooo good! Dear fellow… I thank you for letting me join you on your path to calm. I felt warmth in my veins seep into my body and just settle every limb. When my mind took a whirl at solvong some current problem, you mentioned it might do that b/c ‘the mind brings stuff up’. I smiled at that just as you suggested I smile. I felt soooo oozey and loosey and calm.
Thank you dear one. And your voice is so gentle and soothing.
Many blessings

Thank you so much Steven. I felt so much relief from your meditation. This was so down to earth and simple. The teaching is uncomplicated as it should be! We all just want peace and to feel less overwhelmed and this simple common sense practice made it feel possible again.
Many blessings to you. 🌸🙏😌

This is the most soothing meditation to alleviate overwhelm / anxiety. Steven’s calm, slow-paced delivery is like a balm for my nerves, and his gentle guiding takes me out of my head, & back to the reality that everything is fine right now. I will return to this throughout my day … forever. ❤️

Excellent grounded guidance. Thank you!

This meditation brought tears of relief. Thank you.

Thanks for the guidance, Steven. The US is a source of constant overwhelm right now. It’s very helpful to be able to find a voice in the night that can help recover peace.
With gratitude,
Donna

Absolutely phenomenal...wow. This took me from 100 to 0 within 5 minutes...a calmness and a presence I struggle to explain. I am eternally grateful for this and will repeat this when needed 🌟🌈

Lovely mediation. Really found this useful.

This is such a wonderfully comforting, grounding practice. Thank you.

You gave me a fantastic start to the day. Thanks, Steven!

Love this! I will be listening to this meditation over and over again.

Another simple and beautiful meditation. Thank you!🙏

Thank you

Very helpful, insightful, clearing, relaxing. Thank you!

Calming, thank you!

🙏💗