Anxiety Meditation 05

Transcript

Welcome back and thank you for joining me. I’m so glad you are here practicing with me.

Let’s begin by taking a few deep breaths , breathing in , and out.

Every breath will take you deeper to deeper levels of relaxation , deeper and deeper as you breathe easily and peacefully.

If it’s helpful you can rest your hand on your stomach and feel as your belly rises with each deep inhalation , and deflates completely with each exhalation.

Breathe in on a count of 4…1…2…3…4 then exhale on a count of 5…1…2…3…4…5

Just continue like that for a few moments…

PAUSE

Now you are in such a lovely relaxed state , with nowhere else to be , nowhere else to go for the next few minutes , nothing else to do or think about , except to listen to the sound of my voice.

Let’s revisit the subconscious mind , you may have heard of the iceberg – the tip of the iceberg that can be seen above the level of water represents the conscious mind – everything we are consciously aware of , but if we were to look beneath the water, we see how huge and vast the iceberg actually is – because most of it is below the water line , that is our subconscious – most things are happening below our conscious level.

It is has to this way…imagine if we would have to be consciously aware of the rate of our heartbeat, the division of cells, rate of breathing – we wouldn’t have time for anything else!

Our subconscious mind works automatically and mostly to our advantage.

Under pressure or threat our subconscious emotional mind takes over and helps us to survive – we are able to act instantly, instinctively.

There are undeniably stressors in our lives – money, jobs, family, sickness, dense populations and so forth – and the subconscious or emotional mind creates a stress response to protect us.

But if we cannot develop flexible responses to our circumstances, we develop sickness – such as chronic anxiety.

When we imagine a threat, the subconscious mind does the same thing – it comes to the rescue and responds with anxiety.

We often can’t change events or our circumstances , we have limited power to change external factors , but we have the power to change how we see them, how we respond to them.

Brief PAUSE

Research has shown that during meditation there is more activity in the frontal cortex – our intellectual mind , the mind that helps us to make sense, come up with new ideas and ways of doing things, our rational mind , that means we are better able to assess situations rationally and not from a place of fear or anxiety – isn’t that wonderful?

The more we can deeply relax , the more we are able to take control of our thoughts and feelings.

The more we relax , the more time we spend in our intellectual mind , and the more we train our mind to think positively , the less time we spend in a state of fear – in our emotional mind.

The breath allows us to relax deeply , breathing in with and through the stomach , filling your entire being with refreshing air , exhaling and expelling all the used air , inhaling on a count of 4 and exhaling on a count of 5 , to slow down and calm down the nervous system.

Continue to breathe and just drift for a while , if your mind wanders , which it inevitably will , just gently bring it back to your breathing when you notice.

The mind is unlikely to ever be completely quiet , but over time you will notice more and more and more quickly when your mind has wandered and can bring it back , to the present moment.

And remember it is only the present moment that exists , we don’t have direct experience of past or future

PAUSE

Continuing to breathe , inhale…relax , inhale…relax.

Let’s once again return to our body , relaxing each body part , noticing any subtle tension that might arise , take a journey through our body.

Now, let’s bring our attention to the top of the head , think about all those little muscles of the scalp , and just allow them to let go and relax.

Now all the muscles of the face , just let them go slack , your forehead…your eyelids…the space between your eyebrows , the cheeks…mouth…and jaw muscles.

Unclenching your teeth and relaxing your tongue , the more you physically relax , the more you can mentally relax.

Moving your awareness to your neck and shoulder muscles , letting all the tension drain away , as you think on down through your arms , and all the way down to the very tips of your fingers and tips of your thumbs.

Bring your awareness to your chest and allow any tension to just float away.

Think on down to your stomach , and how it rises and falls with every deep slow breath you take , you notice how your breathing has slowed down , is more relaxed and slow , as you relax more and more.

Now your back , the upper, middle and lower back , all the muscles along your spine – relax and let go.

Bring your awareness to your hips and pelvic area , take a deep inhalation and gently move the fresh breath to your hips , as you exhale deeply and completely.

Now moving your awareness all the down through your thighs, knees, lower legs and all the way down to your feet until your reach the tips of your toes.

All the muscles of your body are now so beautifully relaxed , so relaxed and easy.

And you can allow this pleasant and comfortable experience of heaviness in the whole body to continue.

Let’s take a last deep inhalation , and exhale completely.

Continue to enjoy each breath.

PAUSE

And I want to remind you that , you unlearn fear by learning to be positive and realizing that the only thing that can hurt you is fear itself , No longer do you accept fear or negativity , you only allow good thoughts and positive feelings to grow.

You do this easily now , because you are in control.

And you will continue to reap the benefits of this meditation , in the next minutes…hours…days.

And now I will count from 3 down to 0 and when I’ve counted from 3 down to 0 you will come back to the room so beautifully relaxed.

3…2…1…0

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