Body-Based Awareness Meditation For Anxiety

Anxious thoughts and sensations can often keep us from rest, relaxation, and a healthy way of regulating our nervous system. Simply put, anxiety keeps us in fight, flight, or freeze mode. Over time, this charged energy throws us out of alignment, forcing us to look for help. This meditation utilizes simple body awareness and breath to help us regulate our nervous system and get it back on track. It can be done anytime and anywhere, and it is open to anyone looking for rest and ease from anxiety.

Transcript

Welcome.

Thank you for taking the time out of your day today to meditate and show yourself some love.

My name is Alex and in this meditation,

We're going to scan our body in order to reconnect and then we're going to ground to Mother Earth,

Pacha Mama,

In order to release any anxiety or tension that we may be holding on to.

Anxiety often keeps us from feeling at ease in our body and in our mind.

From a somatic perspective,

Which is body-based awareness,

When we are in the throes of anxiety,

Our nervous system enters a sympathetic state of fight,

Flight,

Or freeze.

Our internal landscape enters survival mode,

Pulling us away from rational and strategic thinking and instead ushering in narrow-minded focus,

Often on the worst-case scenario.

This kind of thinking snowballs until we are deep in unpleasant thoughts,

Rising heart rate,

And triggering physical sensations.

It becomes difficult to exhale and fully release the burden we're carrying.

This meditation will help by bringing you back into an awareness of your body so that you may regulate your nervous system from the inside out,

Reminding your body and your mind that you are safe,

Stable,

Supported,

And loved.

I invite you to find a comfortable seat now in whatever position best suits you.

And when you're ready,

Begin to close your eyes and rest your hands either on your knees,

In your lap,

Or down by your sides.

Let's collectively take a nice deep breath in through the nose,

And then a deep exhale through the mouth,

Sighing it out.

We'll do that two more times.

Deep breath in through the nose,

Deep exhale through the mouth.

One last time.

Deep breath in,

Exhale,

Let it go.

Feel your breath now as it normally is.

Feel free to find your natural breath,

Breathing through both nostrils,

Perhaps closing your mouth,

And just noticing the breath as it moves through your body effortlessly.

Let it retreat to the background of your mind where it does what it does best,

Uninterrupted.

I'm now going to guide us through our body scan.

So as I call out each body part,

Just bring your attention to it,

Bring your awareness to it,

And breathe into it.

Visualize it in your mind's eye and send your breath to that place.

We will begin at our sitting bones at the base of our body.

And as you're sitting in your comfortable seat,

I'd like you to imagine your sitting bones rooting down into your seat and being held by your seat,

Whether that is a cushion,

The floor,

Or a chair.

Whatever you are sitting on,

Feeling that seat hold and support you.

Feeling your sitting bones and the weight of your pelvic bowl resting into the seat beneath you.

And as you do this through each exhale,

I invite you to get a little bit heavier,

A little bit heavier into your seat.

And as you do this,

Allowing the weight of your bones to be supported in this seat,

Feel that heaviness move through your legs,

Your feet,

And your toes until they too are just as heavy.

And allow the seat and the floor to hold you,

To support you.

Sometimes the mind needs a little bit of a visual to help us connect in this physical body away.

So I'd like you to visualize in your mind's eye these beautiful,

Rich,

And mighty tree roots growing out of your sitting bones and connecting down into the ground beneath you.

And imagine these roots,

These mighty roots breaking through floorboard and concrete and rock until they penetrate the black soil of Mother Earth,

The land upon which you call home.

And imagine those tree roots digging even deeper into the ground,

Into the earth,

Connecting you to this anchoring,

Grounding energy,

The land upon which we walk.

And as you do this,

I'd like you to remind yourself that this grounding energy is always accessible to you.

That no matter how many wind storms sway you in life back and forth,

You are never untethered.

You're always connected to your ground,

To your roots,

To the land,

That keeps you in place.

Take a nice deep breath in and a full exhale.

And as you exhale each and every time,

I invite you to visualize this grounding energy,

The tree roots connecting you to the ground that holds you and supports you.

And allow your physical body to receive this grounding energy.

Allow yourself to be soft.

Let go of the weight of your body.

Allow the muscles to relax.

From your sitting bones,

We're going to move our attention and awareness upwards until it rests in your belly space.

And I'd like you to visualize and feel your belly and how it feels in this moment.

If it helps,

Take one of your palms and place it gently over your belly.

And then as you breathe,

On your next inhale,

Fill your belly with the breath.

Feel that belly protrude outwards,

Taking up space as it takes in new oxygen.

And then exhale,

Feel that breath deflate and leave your body before being replaced by something new.

Oftentimes,

Belly breathing is foreign to us.

We're so used to shallow,

Anxious breaths in our chest.

But within our belly,

It calms us down.

It regulates our nervous system.

So find that inhale into the belly,

Like you're opening and inhaling a balloon and then exhaling to deflate and repeating that same cycle without tension,

With ease,

With awareness,

With full inhales and full exhales.

And just stay here for a few more rounds of breath and awareness.

Keeping yourself nice and heavy,

Roots connected,

Belly soft and full of receiving breath.

And now bring that attention upwards even more into your heart space.

And if you'd like,

Take your other palm and place it over your heart.

And just notice your heart space.

Maybe you can even feel your heart beating beneath your palm.

And as you feel this space,

I'd like you to invite a subtle sense of softness.

We do this by relaxing the shoulders down the back.

So imagine you have these heavy sandbags on your shoulders and you're dropping them down onto the floor behind you so that your shoulders can effortlessly pull away from your ears,

Exposing all of this beautiful heart space so that your heart can shine forward and be open and free.

So that now when you breathe in,

Not only are you filling your belly,

But you're making that inhale a little bit bigger,

A little bit richer so that now your chest expands as well as your rib cage.

And your full inhale is radiating through your lungs,

Filling them with this beautiful prana,

This life force that keeps you living and thriving.

Do this with ease,

As big of a breath as you can make.

And then exhaling fully,

Letting go of any old stagnant oxygen that might have built up in the lower bowels of your lungs.

And then repeating that inhale,

Bringing in fresh life force.

This breath is our anchor when we're anxious,

When we're overwhelmed,

When we're overcome with emotion or thought.

Our breath helps us regulate.

It brings us back into present awareness of our body and of what we can control.

So take a couple more rounds of this full body breath right here.

Breathing bones are still heavy.

Belly is soft.

Heart is open.

Now I'd like us to move up towards the crown of our head.

And imagine that you have a golden thread that's tied to the crown of your head.

And it's pulling you upwards towards the heavens above you,

Towards the sky,

Father Sky.

Imagine that this thread lengthens your spine,

Helps you sit up a little bit taller in your seat,

At the same time that you're grounding through your roots.

And we do this so that our tall exposed spine brings in even a deeper breath,

An even deeper life force that swims through each vertebra of our beautiful spine,

Creating more safety,

Security,

Stability,

Health,

And wellness for years to come.

So finding a little bit of a taller lift,

Feeling that crown of the head reaching upwards towards the sky as we descend down through our sitting bones,

Connecting to our ground,

Pachamama,

Mother Earth beneath us,

As well as connecting to our divinity through Father Sky through the crown of our head.

Last but not least,

Allow your brow to unfurl.

Let your eyes be heavy in their sockets and let your jaw relax.

Breathe right here.

And through each exhale,

Allow yourself that heaviness,

That receptivity,

That awareness of your breath and of your body as it is right now,

Because the body does not lie.

And the body is what we can control when the thoughts become too much,

When the emotions feel like they are washing over us like a wave.

The body and the breath become our anchor,

Our salvation.

Take a few more rounds of breath just like this.

You are welcome to stay in this beautiful space of your own.

Enjoy this space for as long as it feels comfortable.

And whenever you're ready to slowly ease yourself back out,

Begin to gently wiggle your fingers and your toes and make very small and subtle movements with your body before blinking your eyes open.

And when you do feel it's time to open your eyes,

May your sight land on something beautiful.

Namaste.