Hello and welcome to this meditation to find a way to hold and regulate anxiety.
I imagine you're coming to this meditation maybe feeling anxious,
Nervous in some way.
Something has happened which has helped you feel this way.
My hope is that this meditation and this practice can help you find a way to find safety and stability and resilience in this moment.
This is based off a sensory motor psychotherapy acronym called PEACE.
So we'll work through it as a way of regulating this experience and also maybe it can become a tool to help you regulate other experiences too.
Wherever you are and however you are sitting,
Standing,
Lying down,
Begin with the P which is to pause what you are doing and identify any bodily signals of unrest.
This feeling of anxiety or nervousness.
Coming into contact with how that feels in the body.
Is there a quickening of the heart rate?
A furrowing of the brow?
A hunching of the back and the chest?
How do you notice the anxiety in your body?
And it is completely normal if you notice also the feelings of anxiety increase as you pay more attention to them.
So just also feeling the feet on the ground or whatever is in contact with the earth,
Just feeling that and feeling the weightedness of the body and the support of the earth.
And just being curious,
Noticing what are the bodily signals of unrest or unease in this state.
Arriving in it first before we can explore a new possibility.
And then we move to the E which is to embody a somatic resource that is supportive for you in this moment,
In these feelings.
So start with connecting with the earth.
Sensing your feet in connection with the earth.
Maybe even pushing down into it a little bit.
Feeling a push back.
Feeling that really have you.
And then we might connect with the spine,
Lengthening the spine up towards the sky.
Feeling length and also feeling weight in the body.
Then we might connect with the breath.
Seeing if you can slow the exhale a little bit.
Letting the exhale be twice as long as the inhale.
Just see if you can focus on the breath and let the exhale be twice as long as the inhale for about five rounds of breath.
Then just staying with the breath,
Feeling the length in the spine,
The weight in the body,
Earth beneath your feet.
Maybe placing a hand on your heart or on your chest or just somewhere in the body that feels good and right for you.
Maybe even opening your eyes and orienting in this space,
Looking around,
Naming the colors you can see to yourself.
Coming in contact with where you are right now.
And then in this present moment,
You are okay and it's okay.
And move to the A,
Which is acknowledging the positive effects of the resource.
So feeling how you feel different compared to when we began.
Do you notice in the body,
Is there more ease,
More space?
What do you notice in the space around the eyes?
And how do you notice the breath?
Acknowledging the effects of the practice.
And then C,
Concentrating your attention on these effects for a few moments,
Letting yourself savor in them.
Let them really fortify you and take effect.
And if they're not already,
Maybe closing your eyes again and as we begin to move to the E,
Which is to engage with your environment again.
Take a moment to just acknowledge and mark how you feel differently now compared to when we began.
What has shifted?
Let yourself mark the change in state.
Noticing that you can change your state as well.
It might happen automatically most of the time,
But with these practices we can also voluntarily influence our state,
Our stories.
And when you're ready,
Slowly opening your eyes to your environment again,
Reorienting,
Noticing what pulls your attention first.
And taking a couple of deeper breaths again.
And I hope this has helped you come back to this moment,
What it's like to be in your body here and now in this moment.
It's often nervousness or anxiety is based on something other than what is here.
It's not wrong,
It's not a problem to fix,
But it can mean that we become disconnected to a sense of safety and okayness,
Which is here.
So by connecting to the breath and the earth and the senses,
We come in contact with this moment.
And so I hope this has helped you find resilience and agency.
And if there are any questions,
Please do reach out.
And I look forward to practicing again sometime soon.
