Dissolving Your Stress & Anxiety

This 20-minute meditation is intended to quickly shift your stress and anxiety into a sense of calm and groundedness. Brandon shares breathing techniques and guided visualization that will bring you into a state of harmony and well-being.

Transcript

My name is Brandon and I'll be leading us through this 20 minute meditation.

This meditation will help with releasing any anxious energy.

It will help in settling the nervous system and assist in regrounding your body.

So to begin I invite you to find a comfortable position,

Whether that is sitting upright in a chair or sitting on a meditation cushion or simply laying down,

Feeling fully supported by the surface beneath you.

And when you're ready,

Slowly close your eyes,

Bringing your awareness to your breath,

Inhaling through your nose,

Exhaling back out through your nose,

Allowing the jaw to stay loose,

Checking in with your body,

Scanning your awareness from the top of your head down to the toes of your feet,

Asking yourself if there is any part of your body you are holding on to and without creating a story around the tension you may find within your body,

As you take a deep inhale gently feel yourself letting go of any physical stress within your being,

Continuing to stay focused on your breath,

Noticing your body sinking just a little bit deeper,

Continuing to observe the thoughts that arise and without attaching yourself to them,

Understanding that we are not here to judge ourselves or have any expectations around our thoughts.

We are not here to control our mind,

We are simply here to observe our human experience in this present moment.

So if you find that your mind is anxious or if you feel stressed,

Simply acknowledge that your mind is anxious or that you feel stressed and gently bring your awareness back to your breath,

Understanding the law of impermanence,

Whatever arises will pass,

The feeling you are experiencing right now will subside,

Continue to draw your awareness back to your breath every time you notice your mind wandering away,

Beginning to draw your awareness from the top of your nose down to the sides of each nostril,

Feeling the texture of the air move past your nostrils and on the inside of your nose,

Beginning to draw your awareness from the top of your nose down to the sides of each nostril,

Feeling the texture of the air move past your nostrils and on the inside of your nose,

What is the sensation you are feeling on the inside of your nose,

What is the temperature of air that you feel passing your nostrils,

We will now enter a few moments of visualization,

Focusing on your exhale beginning to visualize any tension leaving your body in the form of a color,

If you feel anxious or stressed this color could be a deep violet or indigo blue whatever feels right for you,

This is entirely your creation,

Continuing with your eyes closed begin imagining your breath leaving your body in a form of a color as you exhale,

Noticing the texture and the way the color moves out of your body as you breathe,

Now begin focusing on a white light as you inhale,

Begin to inhale this textured white light,

This energy and exhale whatever color light that represents your stress and anxiety,

This white light feels warm and inviting observing any sensorial shifts within the body as you continue this visualization,

Gently bringing your awareness now to the top of your head,

Your forehead,

Sides of your temples,

Your cheeks,

Your jaw,

Letting go of your jaw,

Letting go of your mouth,

Bringing the awareness to the sides of your head,

The back of your head breathing into these areas,

Breathing into this headspace,

Beginning to tense these parts of your body,

Tensing your face as you inhale and exhaling letting go of this tension,

Bringing your awareness now to the sides of your neck,

Your shoulders,

Your upper arms,

Your forearms,

Around your wrists,

Feeling the sensations around the palms of your hands,

Your fingertips,

And breathing into these areas,

Feeling the lightness of breath enter the body,

Feeling your arms,

Your limbs just a little bit more heavy,

Releasing any tension in these parts of your body,

And gently drawing your awareness now to your throat,

Your heart center,

Down into your stomach,

Checking in with your belly,

Fully allowing your stomach to expand out,

Allowing the breath to drop in just a little bit deeper,

Breathing into these areas,

Breathing into your stomach,

Breathing into your heart center,

Your chest,

And gently drawing your awareness now to the back,

Your lower back,

Your sacrum,

Drawing your awareness up your spine,

Breathing into your spine,

Up to the base of your skull,

Feeling any sensations along your back,

Noticing what this breath is doing to the body as you observe the natural expansion of your physical being,

Continuing to breathe into your spine,

Gently drawing your awareness now to your sit bones,

Your upper legs,

Your knees,

Your calves,

Around your ankles,

And the soles of your feet,

Breathing into these parts of your body,

Noticing if the breath is landing in a deeper part of your physical being,

Acknowledging any thoughts that may be arising,

Simply watching them,

Continuing this breathing,

Continuing this breath into every part of your body.

We will now take a few moments to enter a technique of boxed breathing.

This is a technique where we will quickly be able to bring ourselves out of fight-or-flight mode to help guide our stress response.

We will be using a four count in this breathing technique.

The process will be to inhale,

Hold,

Exhale,

Hold.

So let's begin.

Checking in with our stomach,

Allowing it to fully expand out,

Breathing in through your nose,

Exhaling out through your mouth,

Beginning our box breathing,

Inhaling one,

Two,

Three,

Four,

Holding the breath in the body for one,

Two,

Three,

Four,

Exhale four,

Three,

Two,

One,

Holding the breath for four,

Three,

Two,

One,

Beginning this process again,

Inhaling one,

Two,

Three,

Four,

Hold for one,

Two,

Three,

Four,

Exhale out for four,

Three,

Two,

One,

Holding the breath for four,

Three,

Two,

One.

Once again,

Inhaling one,

Two,

Three,

Four,

Holding the breath in the body for one,

Two,

Three,

Four,

Exhale four,

Three,

Two,

One,

Holding the breath for four,

Three,

Two,

One.

Continue this boxed breathing of inhale,

Hold,

Exhale,

Hold for five more cycles and I will come back to you.

Noticing how your body can intake a little bit more air,

Observing the natural expansion and contraction of the breath within the body and if you find your mind is wandering away,

Gently bring it back to the counting of this breath,

Coming back to the awareness of the body.

Finishing your last cycle of breath,

Coming back to natural breathing,

Observing any shifts or changes if any that may have occurred within your physical body.

And we will now enter a few moments of coherent breathing.

With the coherent breath,

Our intention is to breathe five breaths per minute and if you do more or less,

That is perfectly okay.

Our intention is to breathe deep elongated slow breaths beginning now,

Slowing down the breath.

And it's through this coherent breathing we will be able to settle our nervous system,

Settle the body,

Settle any stress.

Again,

The intention is five breaths per minute.

Finishing this current breath,

Entering our second cycle of five breaths per minute,

Letting go of any physical tension within the body,

Letting go of anything you're holding on to physically within the body.

Noticing where the breath is landing,

Observing any sensations that may be arising around the belly,

Taking deep elongated slow very slow breaths.

Finishing this current breath,

Entering our next cycle of five breaths per minute,

Seeing if you can slow down the breath even more,

Acknowledging the thoughts that are arising during this process of breathing,

Simply observing and watching them continuing to count your breath.

And finishing this current breath,

Coming back to natural breathing,

Noticing how the body can intake a little bit more air,

Observing the natural ebb and flow of your breath.

I'm bringing your awareness now to your heart center,

Your chest,

Beginning to imagine a light forming around your heart center,

Noticing the texture of this light,

Observing any color that may be formulating around this light.

Gently breathing into this energy,

This light,

Moving this textured light throughout your entire body,

Feeling the lightness of sensation as it moves through your entire physical being.

And repeating these words silently to yourself,

Only if you feel called to.

May I be happy.

May I feel peaceful.

May I be liberated from all of my suffering,

All of my misery.

Gently taking an inhale through the nose,

Exhaling out through the mouth,

Letting go of this visualization,

And letting go of any residue of physical stress within the body.

Gently bringing your hands together,

Rubbing both of your palms together,

Creating friction,

Creating heat between both of your hands.

And gently bringing both of your palms up towards your face,

Feeling the sensations and energy around the palms of your hands against your face,

And gently letting go of your hands.

And very slowly begin to open your eyes,

Coming back into the space,

Coming back into the awareness of the body,

Noticing any shapes,

Colors,

And textures,

And sending yourself gratitude in this moment for taking the time to practice,

Inhaling through the nose,

Exhaling out through the mouth.

And welcome back.

That was our 20-minute guided meditation for stress and anxiety.

Again,

My name is Brandon,

And I thank you for joining me in the session.

Namaste.

Reviews

Very peaceful and calming. Now bookmarked. Thank you Brandon. 🙏

Extremely powerful and relaxing with all the breathing exercises. Thank you ❤️

So soothing and just the nervous system reset I was needing. Thank you. 🙏

That was one of the most peaceful guided meditation I have done. Thank you Brandon 🙏🏽

Easy to follow. I was able to completely relax. Enjoyed the breathing exercises.

Enjoyed this practice this morning. Woke up with anxiety. Great visualization work. Feeling much better and ready to take on the day. Namaste

Excellent mid-day meditation! It really helped to alleviate my anxiety.

Wonderful Brandon. 🙏🏼🙏🏼

Just what I needed today. Thank you.

Thank you Brandon. A wonderful way to start my day.

Thank you Brandon. Really hit the spot.

That was really lovely! I don’t often do guided meditations, but I was in a car accident (I’m ok) yesterday and felt like I needed guided support today. This was really perfect and helped me release some of the residual stress and tension I was still carrying. The practices you offered were simple and effective. Thank you!

Calm and gentle voice. Namaste 🙏🏽

Really love your calm voice and variety of breathing techniques. I will be back repeatedly♥️♥️

Beautiful practice. Thank you

Thank you Brandon - just what I needed to soothe in the middle of the night. Namaste.

Brandon, thank you so much for these much needed 20 minutes of serenity. Your voice and your guidance are so soothing and perfect. Do you have more guided meditations?Namaste 🙏

Thank you for sharing the blessings of your life. Peace, Mary

This meditation was peaceful and ended on just the right note- asking for release from stress and anxiety. (I ask that for all other sentient beings as well.) I would welcome more meditations from Brandon. 🌈🙂