Start by finding a comfortable position.
You can choose to be seated or lying down.
If you're seated,
Try to find a position that is erect and upright,
But not stiff.
You can have your eyes open or closed,
But if your eyes are open,
Try to cast them down at the floor.
Keep your gaze soft and your eyelids heavy.
Throughout this meditation,
If anxious thoughts or feelings arise,
Practice just allowing them to be and not struggling with them.
And practice returning your attention to your point of focus and de-emphasizing the attention on anxious thoughts and feelings.
So we'll start the meditation by settling in with three deep breaths.
Take a deep breath in and slowly release the breath,
Letting your exhale be as long as possible.
And you can do this two more times.
And as you do this,
Try to relax your muscles on the exhale,
Sinking into your position.
Once you've completed your third breath,
Allow your breathing to return to normal.
And we'll take a few moments to go through the body,
Relaxing the various muscles.
Starting at the top of your head,
Release your forehead muscles.
Moving down into the eyes,
Allow your eyes to be very soft,
Relaxing all the muscles around the eyes.
Release your jaw and allow your entire face to be soft.
Moving down into the neck and throat,
Releasing muscles there.
And down into the shoulders.
It's sometimes helpful if your shoulders are very tense,
To squeeze them up towards your ears,
Roll them back,
And then release them down towards the ground.
Allowing your shoulders to be very soft,
As this is an area where we hold a lot of anxiety and tension.
Now moving down into the chest,
Noticing if there's any tightness there,
And trying to release it.
Moving down to the belly,
Allowing the belly to be very soft.
And this is another area where we hold a lot of our stress and anxiety.
And so if you notice any there,
Just practice allowing it to be,
While trying to soften around it.
Moving down into your hips,
Releasing the muscles all throughout your pelvis.
Moving down into the legs,
Releasing the muscles of the upper legs,
The lower legs,
And the feet.
Now moving into the shoulders,
Notice if any more tension has built up in the shoulders and neck,
Since you last were here.
And release again.
Moving down into the upper arms,
Releasing the muscles there,
And the lower arms,
And the hands.
Now just being aware of your entire body and seeing if there's any muscles that still need to be relaxed.
Just take a few moments to sit,
Being aware of the entire body.
And notice if there are any sensations of anxiety present,
Allowing them to be,
And allowing them to exist in the wider perspective of your entire body.
For instance,
If you feel a tension in the belly,
Notice that it exists in a wider field where you have other sensations besides just this tension.
There are neutral and pleasant sensations also happening in the body.
Try to pinpoint some of those.
Take a second to scan through your body,
And try to identify some sensations that are not associated with anxiety that might be neutral or even pleasant.
Maybe the feeling of your body sinking into whatever surface you're on.
Sometimes there's a pleasant tingling in the hands.
Whatever sensations you find,
Just practice being aware that there is more than just the anxiety happening right now.
And now we'll move into some breathing.
For anxiety,
It's most helpful to extend the exhale when breathing.
For example,
If you're breathing in for two seconds,
Try breathing out for at least four seconds.
Try breathing in counting to two,
And breathing out counting to four.
If it feels like you can extend the breath even further,
You can try counting in to three and out to six,
Or even in to four and out to eight,
And so on.
The idea is you'd like to double the exhale.
Try experimenting with this,
Counting on the inhale and the exhale,
Using the counting as a way to help you focus on the breathing.
If at any point you get distracted by thoughts,
Memories,
Sensations,
Just gently return your focus to the counting and the breathing.
As you're doing this,
See if you can relax the body even further as you exhale.
With each exhale,
Releasing the muscles and sinking deeper into your position.
If your mind has a hard time focusing,
That's perfectly normal.
Just continually bring your focus back to the breath and the counting,
And make an effort not to fight or struggle with the anxiety or the distractions that arise.
Just simply let them go,
Allow them to be,
And turn your attention back to the breath and the counting.
Okay.
We'll do this for a couple more minutes in silence,
And for these last couple minutes,
See if you can sustain a gentle but constant effort to maintain your focus on the breath and the counting.
And try to extend the exhale even further this time,
Really relaxing into this practice.
Okay.
When you're ready,
Slowly allow your breathing to return to normal.
And before opening your eyes or getting out of your seat,
There's a couple of things that we want to do to end this practice.
The first thing we want to do is let go of any judgments about how this experience was,
Any thoughts about having had a good or a bad meditation,
Having done it correctly or incorrectly.
None of these are important.
Just simply the act of practicing this is what matters.
So taking a moment to let go of any of those judgments.
And next,
Keeping some of your awareness internally on the breath as you slowly start to open your eyes and adjust your posture,
Getting ready to go back into your day.
And see if you can keep some of this internal awareness with you as you transition out of the meditation and into the rest of your day.
And throughout the day,
See if you can check back in and practice,
Allowing any of the uncomfortable,
Anxious thoughts or sensations to just be and instead focusing on releasing the muscles and focusing on the breath.
