De-stress

De-stress by retraining your reaction to daily stress. Follow this practice for a visualization to release the tension and heaviness that we often carry from stress. Also, learn about stress and how to more effectively use daily stresses to improve our senses and make choices according to our true feelings and emotions.

Transcript

Thank you for joining this meditation.

We're going to focus on de-stressing.

Make sure that you're in a comfortable position.

Sit upright,

Elongating your spine and your neck.

Drop your shoulders away from your ears.

Rest your hands on your legs,

Face up or face down.

Take a few deep breaths to connect you to the present moment.

Remember that by taking a few minutes to meditate and to be here,

You're creating progress.

Once you feel like you're here and connected to this present moment,

Take another couple deep breaths,

Breathing deep into your lungs and out intentionally.

As we talk about stress,

Be aware that stress is totally natural and normal and a function of your body.

Realize that it has a purpose and that it's extremely helpful in your daily life.

Where we get into trouble is when we create poor reactions to our stress.

When we develop triggers that create tension throughout our body,

Throughout our head and neck,

Our stomach or our hands,

This is where we start to recognize stress.

But this isn't stress.

Stress is just the way that we've trained our bodies and our emotions and our brains to handle or combat stress.

Stress itself can be calm.

It can be full of information and it's for our use so that we can know to make adjustments throughout our day and throughout our life.

Stress is extremely useful and necessary.

Without it,

We wouldn't be able to know how we truly feel.

We wouldn't know where we need to make adjustments or where we need to set boundaries or where we need to reorganize.

We need stress and what that means is that we need to retrain the way that we react to stress just like any mindfulness or meditation.

The more that we retrain the way that we feel stress,

The better we will become at recognizing it quickly and making adjustments.

So knowing that we need stress and acknowledging that we already have stress,

Let's use this time during our meditation to remove the heaviness and the tension that we've created from the triggers of stress.

You might feel these throughout your neck and your head,

Maybe your jaw or shoulders,

Maybe a tightness in your hands or your stomach.

These are all adverse reactions to stress and they can come in many different forms.

At this time,

Acknowledge and notice where you hold stress unnecessarily.

Holding onto these feelings of tension will do no good and quite a bit of damage.

Know that letting go of the heaviness and having that intention will increase your ability to adjust when you feel stress.

You'll be more capable of making decisions and adjusting to your true feelings and emotions.

Go ahead and be aware of your body at this time.

Dial into the sensations that you might have,

Any tension and heaviness,

Any feelings of discomfort that might be coming from your reactions to stress and acknowledge where you feel them.

Again,

Some common ones are in your neck or head,

Your jaw or shoulders,

Your stomach or your hands or anywhere else.

Next let's create a space in front of you,

Perhaps a white ball.

You can choose to envision holding it out in front of you or simply let it float in front of you.

This is going to be a place for all of this tension and heaviness to travel to.

This process can begin as soon as you feel ready to let go of the tension.

Take another deep breath with an intention to breathe down to your stomach and then breathe it out.

As you do so,

You're creating these pathways for your own self to this white ball,

A place where your attention can travel to.

Remember that there's no use in holding on to this heaviness and that you'll be much more of yourself and be more aware without these things holding you back.

We'll envision this for a few minutes.

Good night.

As this process is taking place,

Take a moment to be aware of the lightness that you feel,

Even if just for a moment you have a slight improvement throughout your body.

When you're in more of this relaxed state,

Again you're more of yourself and more able to make decisions based on your own emotions and feelings.

You're capable of having this lightness and this improvement at all times.

I'd offer you the idea that when you feel stress rather than feeling it in the triggers we previously mentioned,

You can feel it as an awareness to make adjustments.

When you feel that discomfort,

Involve all of your senses so that you can make changes and reorganize or set boundaries or all of the above.

Moving forward,

This is a way to feel natural and normal stress that will be useful to you.

When you feel these things,

Remember to acknowledge that stress serves a purpose and it's extremely useful to you.

There's no need to resist the stress,

But rather you can utilize it.

Shifting your focus back to those pathways that are leading the tension and heaviness to an exit,

Visualize again that white ball in front of you or in your hands.

Remember that this process can continue to happen even after the meditation and even after you are done visualizing.

Go ahead and look at the white ball as if it's a helium balloon that starts to drift away.

It floats upwards and it begins to get smaller and smaller and it floats into the distance.

Bring your attention then back to these new pathways that we're creating.

We can be so grateful for the stresses that we feel and for the discomfort that allows us to know our true emotions and feelings.

Be assured that you'll have a clarity of mind so that you can make adjustments,

Set boundaries or reorganize when you have the feelings of discomfort from stress.

Have gratitude for the clarity of mind that you have,

For the options that it brings you throughout the day and remember that we practice these things in meditation so that they can become more natural throughout the day within our normal life.

Reviews

I appreciate the teacher's detailed approach to stress, both in terms of redefining it and in terms of how to handle it and let it go. Sometimes on Insight Timer the meditations or other sessions feel vague, as if the teacher is speaking to no one. That is not the case here. I felt engaged with
Whitney as if she were my teacher right here in my living room. Thank you.

This really helped me connect with this tension in my body in order to release it. Thank you!

Well done and very effective. I did it on a mid day break at work to relieve the stress of the day. It worked. 🙏

Thank you for that. Super helpful in a moment of stress. Was interesting to hear some facts and the body and stress to help normalize the sensations.

First time using the app and this session was amazing and relaxing.

Felt better, less stressed, knowing how I should handle stress in my life. Hurting due to Health issues PMR & RA, but stress does make the PMR worse by far. My body did feel more relaxed after this exercise or meditation. Thank You

Simple and effective. Thank you. Visualizations are often difficult for me, but this one actually made it easier to stay present and focused.

Excellent meditation! Loved the message and the music was perfect.

I woke up on the wrong side of the bed, and this meditation helped me turn my morning around. Thank you very much💛

Awesome message, very relatable!

This really help me detress myself and put me in a good mind set 😊

Loved the simplicity of this, really helped me to feel better and lighter after a tough day - thank you

Omg, THANK YOU! This helped me to finally relax my racing heart & release what no longer serves me. Bless you for this! 🙏

Thank you! I really enjoyed this meditation. It was a great way to unwind after coming home from a busy day at the office. The visualisation really helped me to leave the stresses of the day behind before settling into the family routine for the evening.
Namaste 😊🙏🌺

Good ideas and thoughts.

I LOVED LOVED this so much. Thank you!

really interesting! I'm not sure I agree about stress being good, but, visualisation is great.

So kind and supportive and clear, thank you!🙏🌈

Loved the white orb and balloon! Really helped me work on being conscious with stress. Thank you ❤️

Remarkably striking in its simplicity and effectiveness.
THANK YOU!