SOS Help For Stress & Anxiety

This practice is specifically designed to help you when you feel overwhelmed with stress and anxiety. For these moments of distress, Tomek offers his support and guidance to lead you to a safer place where you can be yourself again. During intense stress we automaticaly switch into surival mode, and our instinct in this situation is to fight or flee, not to think rationally. Regain a sense of yourself by focusing on the breath in this supportive exercise.

Transcript

Hello,

If you are listening to this meditation,

Your body and mind are in distress.

This may have been triggered by a situation,

By a person,

By a thought.

It doesn't really matter.

I'm here to assist you and take you to a safe place,

From which once again you can be yourself.

It is not uncommon to feel this way and acknowledging this state of distress is necessary if you wish to take actions to change this.

Say to yourself,

Either out loud or in your head,

I experience anxiety,

I experience stress,

I experience fear.

Choose your own words and know it is okay to feel this way.

I'm sure you have already tried to talk yourself out of this state.

Use your intellect to justify the way you feel.

Did it work?

In my experience,

It never does,

As your ability to process information is greatly hindered by the stress hormones that circulate throughout your body right now.

Your intellect operates from the place of survival and your objectives are to fight or to flee,

Not to think.

Since your ability to control your thoughts and your physiology is limited,

We will use one thing that you can control right now.

That is your breath.

Science shows that in the same way as certain breathing patterns represent certain emotional states,

Think of a sleeping baby breathing deeply.

By breathing in a certain way,

We'll send a signal to your body to switch from quote unquote the danger mode to so-called rest and digest mode.

As you may have already realized,

This cannot be done by simply talking to yourself.

Okay,

Let us begin.

Start this meditation in any position that allows you to breathe freely.

Standing,

Sitting or lying down,

Whichever suits this moment.

It is important that you breathe in as deeply as possible through your nose and exhale slowly through your mouth,

As if you're trying to blow a balloon.

Don't be afraid to make some noise as you exhale.

This is an emergency procedure and this is no time to be shy.

This way of breathing is specifically designed to release sympathetic part of your nervous system that governs the stress response in your body that you feel right now.

Put your right hand on your heart and the left hand on your belly.

Breathe in on a count of four,

Hold your breath on the count of seven and exhale on the count of eight as I guide you.

Be deeply aware of every phase of your breath.

Ready?

In,

Two,

Three,

Four,

Hold,

Two,

Three,

Four,

Five,

Six,

Seven and out,

Two,

Three,

Four,

Five,

Six,

Seven,

Eight.

In,

Two,

Three,

Four,

Hold,

Two,

Three,

Four,

Five,

Six,

Seven and out,

Two,

Three,

Four,

Five,

Six,

Seven,

Eight.

In,

Two,

Three,

Four,

Hold,

Two,

Three,

Four,

Five,

Six,

Seven and out,

Two,

Three,

Four,

Five,

Six,

Seven,

Eight.

In,

Two,

Three,

Four,

Hold,

Two,

Three,

Four,

Five,

Six,

Seven and out,

Two,

Three,

Four,

Five,

Six,

Seven,

Eight.

Breathe normally.

Put your hands down.

You just send a signal to your body to relax.

Now,

Your body needs some time to respond and in the next part,

We will be carefully observing as this happens.

Notice how does your body feel right now.

Recognize which part of your body holds the most tension.

Use your internal senses.

You may feel something in your throat.

Perhaps a tension in your chest.

Some sensations in your belly.

Perhaps you can sense it through your entire body.

Let it be the way it is.

As you engage your inner sensing,

Most likely your active mind will try to drag you back into thinking.

That's normal.

Every time this happens,

Calmly but firmly bring your attention back to the bodily sensations.

I'll be here to remind you if this happens.

As you get a better feel of the sensations in your body,

Try to give them a shape.

An intensity.

Perhaps those sensations are sharp on the edges.

What color comes to mind when you connect with those sensations?

Does it feel warm?

Cold?

Do those sensations change over time?

Same pattern that you just did sent a signal and the changes that you observe right now are the response.

Now,

To support this,

Allow your breath to go through those sensations in your body.

Breathe in into the part of your body that you feel the sensations the most and breathe out through the bottom of your feet as if you try to release and let go of all the tension.

Continue this way of feeling and breathing for a moment as I hold the space for you here.

You did well.

By now,

You should feel a difference between how you felt at the beginning of this meditation and how you feel now.

I encourage you to practice the 4-7-8 breathing technique together with sensing your emotions in your body as often as you'll feel overwhelmed by strong emotions of anxiety and stress.

The more you practice it,

The more your body will recognize the pattern and the faster it will get back to the balance.

That's it for now.

Thank you very much for meditating with me.

I wish you a peaceful day.

Reviews

That really helped me to calm down after I had expressed something I needed to do, resulting in an argument and me being told I am rude and unorganised and when I speak up it’s always a problem to others. This is why I don’t ask for help because it comes with pressure that I don’t need

I have used the 4-7-8 breathing with some regularity since stress overload increased after my husband’s unexpected sudden death. I found it helpful, but found myself ignoring it when I needed the most. This morning, I found your meditation quite by happenstance. Not in overwhelm at the time, but curious, I listened. Your explanation of the physiology of what happens as well as the prompt to state what is happening - speaking the truth; I feel anxiety, I feel stress, etc was brilliant. My executive brain needs to learn, to understand, to know in context with the situation I am in in order to be motivated to use the tool whatever it might be. In this case, the 4-7-8. I used the 4-7-8- as a once daily practice which is helpful, but understanding it’s place in context to stressoverload and anxiety is a game changer. I now fully get that I must stop overthinking and trying to power through the stress. This afternoon when I felt stress building and noticed the need to stop what I was doing, I used this meditation. It worked beautifully. Your meditation has better equipped me to recognize the stress, stop what I’m doing, and use it to stop the stress hormones from flooding me to the point of knocking me down for the count. This is a masterful, powerful meditation for everyone. Since everyone goes through various levels of mental and physical situational stress throughout the day which can trigger stress overload and anxiety, and getting the prefrontal cortex and amygdala back in balance is paramount. I thank you!!! 💜☮️💜☯️💜Namaste 🕉️

Perfect stress relief meditation! Thank you so much for this 💙

Soooo helpful. Calming voice, easy to follow. Directly into my SOS folder. Thank you. Namaste.

Love Tomas’ voice, his pragmatic and spiritual observations and guidance … and his soothing tone. Love the 4-7-8 practice. Thank you Tomas

So helpful for me today.

The urges have been very dominant - your guidance and patience helped me feel calmer so I can love myself and believe in myself

Pleasant voice, great guidance. Something I truly needed but didn't know how much I needed this. Thank you!

Amazing. Very effective, and I am feeling a lot better. Thank you so much. I'm very grateful. 🙏🏻

I am very grateful for the invitation that was shared today. The breathing techniques taught I find to be very helpful and relaxing! Thanks again!

I feel calmer after listening! My anxiety was intense so this was really helpful, thank you! 💫🫶🏼

This actually worked for me. I hate breathing practice because my lungs are weak from asthma and another disease. But I was having caregiver PTSD and had to stop it. Thank you for helping me past it. Thank you for using decent music and sounds too!

Good to do at home before going out to a stressful event

Feeling as though life is manageable on the other side of this meditation.

Definitely feeling a bit better after doing this meditation, in terms of my overwhelm. I'll def be returning to this track and the breathing/observation practice

I am so glad to have found this meditation and your work. I experience nervous system dysregulation, anxiety and fatigue and often resist sensations I experience in the body. I have been practising this technique over the last few days and I have found it so helpful in regulating my nervous system and coming into the body and out of the mind. Thank you 💙

The past few days I have felt anxiety for the first time in years. Today it became overwhelming so I went searching for a meditation to help and I’m glad I tried yours. I feel better now than I did just before. Thank you so much.

Very helpful thank you. I’d love to have a version with a much slower music in the background. 🙏🏽❣️

Great one for me to add in mornings. Thank you 😊

Great methods of breathing that I find very useful to use in moment in stress. With today I feel a more reassured balance.

So good. I will come back to this when feeling anxious and stressed. Thank you for this. 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼