Breathe Into Stress

A meditation to visualize stress as a storm. Learn to breathe into what is uncomfortable and know that you are stronger than any stressor. You and your body can be the calm eye of any storm of your life.

Transcript

Welcome to this meditation to help you through moments or days that feel very stressful.

Sometimes we're presented with situations in life that are very high stress.

Sometimes it is hard to focus on anything else.

We feel overwhelmed or we feel exhausted.

We are going to use our breath in this meditation to lower how stress feels in our own body.

When we have awareness to focus on our breath and body,

We can bring ourselves back into the present moment,

Bringing us clarity.

So let's take a moment and just breathe.

Notice where breath comes in your body and notice where breath leaves your body.

And remember that if your mind starts to wander,

It's what the mind does.

Let it go.

Come back to the breath and just breathe.

So let's take a big inhale,

Expanding your belly and your chest as much as you can.

Pause for a moment and then let the breath go.

Let's do it again.

Inhale,

Bringing even more breath into your body.

Pause and then exhale,

Feeling a wave of relaxation gently sweeping over you.

And again,

Deeply breathe in,

Hold and then exhale,

Feeling a little bit more relaxed on every exhale.

Again,

Inhale,

Really inhale as much air as you can,

Pause and exhale.

Let it all go.

One more inhale,

Breathe in,

Hold and then big exhale.

Let it all go.

And just notice how you feel in this moment.

We are created to feel relaxed and full of oxygen.

Breathing deeply and fully is an expression of self-compassion and self-love.

Let the flow of your breath become natural.

Just notice how you feel without judgment,

Without telling a story.

Just notice what's happening in your body right now.

Now visualize yourself standing in nature.

There's no one else around and this place is yours.

It's beautiful.

Everything is calm.

Everything is peaceful.

You're surrounded by beauty,

By natural wonders that you find absolutely gorgeous.

Sit down in this special place and look around,

Noticing the beauty all around you.

Realize that you're fully relaxed in this place.

In the distance,

You see some dark clouds closing in as the sky grows a little darker.

You see that a small storm is forming and you feel some raindrops falling down.

Imagine that this storm is your stress.

It could be a mild stress with just some rain and a little wind or it could be a very high stress with extremely strong winds and a very heavy rain pouring down.

In this visual,

We are going to face a very strong and powerful storm to make ourselves stronger within.

So you feel the storm getting even stronger and the wind is blowing harder and harder and as you sit and feel it,

You start to breathe.

This storm cannot hurt you.

You have a choice to react to this storm with fear or with love and compassion,

Knowing that this storm is harmless.

Stress is our reaction to fear,

Worry,

And even high demands.

Whether fear is real or not,

We have to learn the proper reaction to all these things.

Sometimes you can't help it and stress will take over in a matter of seconds and we must handle it properly or it will handle us.

Just like sitting through the storm in the field,

Stress cannot harm you if you know that it simply passes you by.

You know that this too shall pass.

What matters is your own reaction to life events.

So sit in this nature place,

Sit and feel the storm.

Let it fully exist and don't fight it.

Again,

This storm cannot hurt you.

You can see the storm of stress in front of you is very dark and the storm clouds get thicker,

Raining down with fury.

You decide to get up from where you were sitting and slowly start walking towards it without fear,

Without worry,

Just pure confidence that you are safe and in control.

You get closer and closer as the storm draws near and the wind blows with tremendous speed.

The wind and rain have no effect on you.

It's really easy for you to step forward and only your clothes are flopping around and even that does not bother you.

As you look forward,

You see the eye of the storm and around that eye,

The winds and the rain are extremely powerful and strong,

Yet you have zero worry as you step inside of the eye of the storm.

You are standing now inside this center and everything is calm and peaceful here.

You look around from within the eye of the storm and can see all the chaos around you swirling around,

But inside here it is calm,

It is peaceful.

This is your space,

Your safe spot.

And so when the stress has fully taken over you,

You have a choice to let it blow over without a fight,

Without resistance,

Or you can sit right in the middle of it,

Realizing that it cannot hurt you.

Know that your body is the center of any storm and any stress is just a storm that surrounds you that comes and goes.

You are in control.

Your body can become your safe space.

Breathe.

Take a deep breath in and take a deep breath out.

The storm is losing its power.

The rain is easing and now it's only drizzling.

You can see the clouds drifting away as the sky gets brighter and brighter.

The sunlight peeks through the clouds as they pass by,

Then eventually burst out with great intensity shining a beautiful light all around you.

You see birds coming out and start chirping.

You see butterflies and bees buzzing around the flowers that are blossoming now after the heavy rains.

Everything is beautiful now.

Take a deep breath in and take in all of the beauty.

This moment represents you being in a beautiful state of mind where stress has no control of you.

Take a deep breath in and let it out.

Another deep breath in and let it out.

We're going to take another deep breath.

Notice that you feel more full of energy.

Take another deep breath in,

Taking in all that you learned here today and exhale.

One more.

Take another breath in,

Allowing the memory of your strength in a storm to be present in your mind and your body right now.

Another deep breath in and let it out.

Use this session or this technique whenever you find yourself in a high stress situation.

You'll be amazed how you can just breathe in the moments that you feel stress knowing,

That you are strong,

You are capable and this too shall pass.

Namaste.

Reviews

Loved this! Very timely for me since we had some strong thunderstorms last night and it helped me to visualize. I loved the extra deep breaths at the beginning and end. I added some ongs at the end and I’m feeling grounded and ready to face the day.