This is a journey that we're going to take to help you when you're feeling anxious.
The first thing to do is to just notice your breath.
You can even bring your hands to your chest and feel your breath rising on the inhale and falling,
On the exhale.
Feeling the pressure of your hands on your chest,
Just keep breathing.
You can start to deepen the exhale by giving a light sigh.
You can deepen that sigh a little bit more.
And notice if you can feel the vibration of that sigh on your hands that are pressed against your chest.
And then we're going to start to just give the shoulders a little bit of a rotation,
Moving them up and back and down,
Up and back and down with the inhale.
And the exhale up and back and down.
And giving the neck some rotations gently,
Continuing to breathe.
And if your thoughts start to go to something that's upsetting,
Creating more anxiety,
You can always return to focusing on feeling your hands on your heart,
Taking nice deep breaths.
And imagine that every single breath is breathing in peace and calm and that every exhale is releasing any tension,
Any tightness,
Any worry.
Breathing in peace and calm,
Letting go with the exhale of all worry.
And you can allow yourself to start to imagine as you're breathing,
As you're feeling the weight of your hands on your heart.
Imagine being in a beautiful garden.
Imagine what the weather is like here.
It's perfect for you.
Notice what the sky looks like.
What do you see when you look into the sky in this beautiful garden?
Clouds.
Notice if there are any birds.
Continuing to feel your hands on your heart,
Breathing in deeply.
Look around and see what's growing here in the garden.
What sounds do you hear?
Are there any smells that you can imagine?
Flowers blooming.
Fresh air.
And just knowing that this garden is here for you and that you get to decide what's here.
You get to decide who is here.
Maybe just yourself.
Maybe loved ones.
Notice what's here in the garden with you and make changes.
You can change the color of the sky.
Maybe there are fruits growing here in the garden and you can pick one of the fruits and smell it.
What does it smell like?
What does it feel like in your hands?
What does it taste like?
Continuing to feel the breath and feeling your feet on the ground here in the garden.
Maybe your barefoot.
What do you feel beneath your feet?
Is it earth?
Is it grass?
Is it a warm rock?
And just feeling your feet connected with the earth.
Feeling all of your weight pushing down into the earth.
And imagining that there are little roots growing from the bottoms of your feet growing down,
Down into the earth.
Imagining what that feels like.
Feeling those roots in the earth.
Imagine being connected to all of the many life forms in the earth.
And bringing your awareness again into the breath.
And imagine that breath releasing any worry,
Any troubling thoughts,
Releasing them with the exhale and releasing them down through those roots into the earth.
Imagine whatever is being released is being turned into new soil,
Earth that's growing all the beauty that you see here in the garden.
Just letting go of that worry,
Anything that's troubling.
And feeling all that you're releasing becoming new,
Rich,
Fertile soil that's growing this beautiful garden that's all around you.
And again,
What do you smell?
What colors do you see?
What's here in the garden?
What do you hear?
Sounds of birds?
Flowing water?
And what does the sun feel like on your skin?
Can you feel a breeze?
Bringing your awareness back again to the feet,
Pressing into the earth and those roots going deep into the earth and continuing to let go with every exhale of anything that's troubling you,
You can put it back into the earth.
And breathing in the beautiful smells that are growing in this garden,
Take in the beautiful sight,
The colors,
The shapes,
Flowers,
Fruits,
Trees,
Sky,
What else do you see?
And you can stay here in this beautiful garden as long as you need to,
As long as you want to.
Continuing to feel your hands on your heart.
Continuing to breathe,
Continuing to let go of any thoughts,
Any feelings,
Any tightness in your body,
Releasing through those roots going down from the bottoms of the feet into the earth,
Really seeing through the breath through that exhale.
Staying here as long as you want.
And when you're ready to come back from the garden,
You can feel your body,
Feel your body and where it's connecting with the material world.
Feel yourself connected.
Coming back to the breath,
Coming back to where your hands are,
Are they still on your heart?
Feeling your hands,
Giving yourself a little gentle wiggle of the fingers,
Gently rotating the wrists,
Gently wiggling the toes,
Just gently moving your whole body,
Giving it a soft movement and continuing to notice the breath and imagining that this garden has shrunk very,
Very small.
It's inside of a little bundle tied up beautifully in your hands and you can put that bundle in your pocket and bring it with you.
Any time anxiety or worry returns,
You can come again to this garden,
Starting with the breath.
You have permission to be here in this garden anytime for as long as you want.
So take your time.
