Meditation For Facial Blushing Or Flushing

Somatic meditation for people who suffer from facial blushing or flushing. A guided process and teaching by Timothy Long, a psychotherapist who has suffered from blushing for many years and has helped many people overcome this issue.

Transcript

Hi,

This is Timothy Long and today I'm going to create a meditation for you for blushing.

Blushing is something that I suffered from for many years and through all my trial and error I wish that I understood at the beginning that we really need to get in touch with the body and to connect the mind and the body.

This meditation I'm going to do for you is going to give you a really good idea how to go about it.

So this is a very important and key aspect that I work with all my clients that have helped resolve blushing.

So here we go,

I'm going to do this for you and just find yourself in a comfortable position.

You can be lying down,

You can be sitting,

Just as long as you're comfortable.

And you can close your eyes,

You don't have to,

But I think it's best that you close your eyes and just start to go inward.

You're going to begin to follow your breathing.

Your breath helps connect your mind with your body and we use the breath to go into the body.

So this is somatic sensing exercise where we're going to move into the muscles and the nerves and into the body because what happens with blushing is we get up into our heads.

We don't want to be seen.

We don't want people looking at us.

We are afraid people are listening to us or judging us or criticizing us.

So it's very much a mental issue,

A mental type of anxiety.

So we're going to learn to ground ourselves because you're going to do this type of thing that we're practicing right now.

And during the day you could be driving,

You could be talking to somebody,

You could be at work.

You're going to learn to do some of the aspects of what we're doing now in this meditation.

And the first thing is you're going to notice your breath.

You're going to put your focus on your breathing.

And again,

You can do that anytime,

Anywhere.

Observe your breathing.

That's number one.

Really notice the breath.

Feel it coming in through your nose.

Notice where your body expands,

Where it contracts.

Encourage,

Allow the breath to drop down.

It will naturally,

As you begin to focus on it,

Drop lower into your abdomen.

Though if you've had a lot of anxiety and been worrying about blushing for a long time,

You most likely are still breathing up here in the chest.

So we're learning,

We're going to reteach the body to allow the breath to drop down,

Down into your belly.

When you really relax,

You're breathing down near your navel and the lower abdomen.

And feel your legs and your feet.

And if you're ever anywhere where you're thinking about blushing,

You're afraid you're going to blush,

You're feeling anxious,

You're feeling socially anxious,

Just begin to feel your legs and your feet.

You can squeeze your toes back and forth from the right side to the left side,

Right side,

Left side.

You're going to have your hands on top of your thighs and just tap the right thigh and tap your left fingers on your left thigh.

And again,

Back and forth.

This helps your body balance itself,

Relax,

Ground itself.

Again,

Blushing is a rushing up of energy from the below up through your belly and chest and up into your face.

What we're doing is we're turning the tide back.

We're connecting to the lower body.

We're staying conscious.

We're moving down into the body.

So the first key was the breathing.

The second is sensing,

Sensing your limbs,

Sensing the body,

Feeling your legs,

Your feet,

Feeling your arms and hands,

Bringing your mind down into the lower body,

Into the belly and navel area,

And just keeping focused there.

You can do that while you're talking to somebody.

Feeling the breath,

Being aware of the breath,

Feeling the body.

The third key or helpful skill to have is the bilateral.

So again,

Either tapping or moving or squeezing the left side back to the right side.

It doesn't matter which side you start with,

Just side to side in a nice even rhythm while you're sensing the physical,

While you're sensing your breath and observing.

Another major,

Major key to resolving blushing is learning to have self-acceptance and self-love.

So while you're doing this somatic sensing and breathing and bilateral movements,

Begin to just sense and feel the inner peace,

Like a peaceful feeling about yourself,

A love and acceptance toward yourself.

Yes,

You want to love and accept the blushing itself.

Behind that,

Really the deeper root goes into a love and acceptance of your whole self,

Your self-worth,

Your belief in yourself,

Your confidence.

So you could say inwardly,

I choose to love and accept myself,

I choose to love and accept myself even when I blush,

And I'll think what goes along with that,

Even though I'm not perfect,

Even though I don't think I said that last thing very well,

Even though I don't think I'm as intelligent as that other person,

Even though I don't think I'm as attractive as so-and-so,

Even though I don't like this or that about myself.

Whatever it is,

Send love and acceptance.

I am okay.

Say internally,

I am okay.

I'm good enough.

I am enough.

Every day,

Look in the mirror and say to yourself,

I love and accept.

I love and accept myself.

Look yourself in the eyes and say,

I love and accept you.

I'm enough.

Feel that in your heart.

Feel that in your belly.

Feel that throughout your whole body.

Sense it.

I am enough.

I love and accept myself even though I blush,

Even though I'm nervous,

Even though I'm sweating,

Even though I stutter,

Even though I'm afraid.

No matter what,

I love and accept myself.

Rather than disconnect,

Rather than dissociate from yourself,

Which actually increases the blushing.

What we're doing here is learning to reconnect,

Reconnect with the body,

Reconnect with the inner senses,

The inner feelings,

Literally,

Semantically,

Sense and feel the body.

No matter what we notice,

No matter what feelings we have,

Even if they're feelings of not feeling good enough,

Feeling shame,

Feeling embarrassed,

Feels and love,

Smile.

Allow a smile to come across your face and allow that smile,

That love to flow down through your body.

Again you can add in the bilateral at any point to help anchor that,

Bilateral movement,

The right left movements,

Tapping or movement.

Truth is most people don't even notice when you blush.

So busy in their own heads,

Their own anxieties and their own worries about what they're going to say next or whether they're good enough or who knows where their minds are at.

Most people do not notice.

They do.

It's just a fleeting observation.

I don't remember it later.

So just let yourself know it's okay.

Well I'm figuring out this blushing issue.

I'm busy trying to resolve it,

To understand it,

Because actually there can be a number of different factors that contribute to the blushing.

But for now,

Just practice feeling your body,

Calming yourself,

Loving yourself,

Accepting yourself,

Because I know that when I used to blush,

Which went on for years,

I was shaming myself,

Judging myself,

Worrying what everybody else thought.

And all that did was increase the blushing because then I was hyper focused on the idea that I might blush or that I did blush and I would blush again.

And all that does is continue the cycle,

The shame cycle,

And keep laying down neural pathways and recreate the blushing.

And we're going to break that blushing cycle by practicing,

Taking a few moments every day before you get out of bed in the morning,

Before you go to sleep,

Somewhere in the middle of the day.

Only after any episode that really is upsetting to you,

Make yourself comfortable,

Go apart from everyone for a little bit,

Observe your breathing,

Sense your body,

Use the bilateral movement,

Send love and acceptance and words of loving affirmation down through your body,

Into your heart,

Allow yourself,

Your beautiful self that's down at the core of you,

Underneath all of this.

And blushing is a little thing when it comes down to it.

Get in touch with your beautiful loving self and talk to yourself in a loving,

Positive way and watch your thoughts each day and catch those negative self-defeating thoughts and turn them around.

Even though I don't feel good about this or good about that,

Or even though I don't think I did this good enough or that good enough,

Or even though I blushed,

Even though I have shame and embarrassment,

I choose to love and accept myself and know that I am enough just as I am.

I wish you peace.

Peace be with you.

Reviews

Very helpful :)

Loved it! Such a positive and calming voice, thankyou

soo incredibly helpful!! i’ll definitely be revisiting this often!