Hello,
Beautiful one.
Welcome to this guided meditation for times when you're experiencing anxiety or panic.
So for right now,
Just settle in as best as you can,
Sitting someplace where you can feel supported with your head,
Neck,
And spine straight,
Or in whatever way feels comfortable to you.
And then begin by taking a nice deep breath in and letting it out fully and completely as best you can.
And then just begin to breathe in whatever way feels good to you and just noticing the quality of your breath.
Is it shallow,
Irregular?
Can you slow it down a little bit,
Creating some space between the inhale and the exhale,
Consciously trying to slow down your breath.
And then breathing in whatever way feels good to you and immediately bringing your attention to your hands and your feet.
You might want to open and close your hands and top your feet a little on the floor just so that you can begin to feel some physical sensations.
And then allow your hands to rest gently on your thighs and feel your feet on the floor,
Noticing the physical sensations in the soles of your feet,
Cool,
Warm,
Buzzy,
Tingling,
Numb,
Noticing your hands as well.
And then as you're noticing your hands and your feet,
Feel the pressure of your feet against the floor,
Grounding you to the solidness of the floor or to the ground if you're outside and noticing the pressure of your hands against your thighs,
The gentle weight on your thighs.
And just allow yourself to feel grounded through your feet and your hands.
And then shifting your attention now to the sounds around you,
The sound of my voice,
The sound of the music,
And whatever other sounds are hitting your eardrums right now.
And just really tune in to those sounds.
See if you can focus all of your attention to the sounds.
And if your mind wanders,
That's okay.
That's what minds do,
Especially when we're feeling anxious.
Our minds want to think.
Just gently bring it back to either your feet on the floor or your hands or the sounds.
And then shifting your attention to the felt sense in your body,
Feeling your clothes against your skin,
Your glasses against your face or your watch against your wrist,
Feeling perhaps any gentle air that is moving across your skin.
And starting at the soles of your feet,
Come up through your legs and your knees and your thighs into your hips,
Up into your spine,
All the way up the length of your spine to your head,
Just noticing the felt sense against your skin.
And then finally just allowing the thoughts to come into your mind.
But instead of engaging with them,
See if you can just allow them to be.
Observe them.
You might want to imagine that you're sitting on the bank of a river and your thoughts are like the leaves or the sticks that are tumbling down the current of the river.
And you can just observe.
You don't have to reach in and pull them out and look at them.
You can just let them go by.
You can notice them.
You can name them if you want.
And then just let them go.
And as you practice just letting them go,
Allow your body as it sits on the bank of the river to begin to let go as well of tension and tightness.
As you sit there breathing and watching on the bank of the river,
Allow your breath to help your body to get as comfortable as it would like to be.
Feel the ground supporting you.
Feel the breeze on your face and watching the thoughts just go down the river.
And as your breath slows down,
You might notice that the amount of thoughts in the river slow down as well.
And perhaps it just gets easier to allow them to float on by.
And then bringing to mind a place that's really wonderful,
That you really enjoy,
And developing that place fully and completely in your mind.
Maybe even allowing a little smile to come to your face.
Feeling a little more peaceful and easy perhaps.
Take one more nice deep breath in and let it out.
And then wiggling your fingers and your toes,
You can open your eyes and return to the room whenever you're ready.
Namaste.
