15 - Minute Meditation For Transforming Anxiety

Hi,

This is Michelle Jacob and welcome to today's meditation.

Today's meditation is all about transforming your intense feelings of anxiety and helping you step into your inner peace and calmness.

Before we begin,

I'm going to invite you to sit up straight,

Place your palms on your knees and when you're ready,

You may close your eyes.

Take a moment to just notice your thoughts.

You may even imagine you're sitting under a beautiful shady tree.

It's a sunny day,

There's a slight breeze and you can feel the breeze against your skin.

And you're sitting under this tree and in front of you,

You see the traffic going by and the traffic represents your thoughts.

You're just going to observe your thoughts,

Observe those cars going by.

You're not going to run into the traffic,

You're just observing them.

Start to notice what is causing you,

Your anxiety.

Allow the thought to just be.

You're not trying to fix it,

You're not trying to chase it.

Just observe.

Allow the traffic to come and go,

Allow the cars to come and go.

Allow your thoughts to come and go.

Start to notice are your thoughts thoughts of the future or thoughts of the past.

Notice the nature of fear in the thoughts as a fear of judgement,

Fear of rejection,

Fear of not being good enough,

Fear of not doing enough,

Fear of failure.

Just observe.

Now acknowledge the presence of the thoughts and drop into your heart.

Allow the mind to notice the beating of the heart.

Notice the space around the heart.

If this is difficult for you,

You may even place a hand on your heart.

Notice the heart beating.

Is the heart beating fast?

Or is it beating the way it usually does?

Just observe.

Notice the space around the heart.

Does it feel constricted or does it feel expansive?

Notice how anxiety feels in the area of your heart.

If you were to place those feelings in the area of your heart,

Notice how it feels.

Does it feel heavy?

Does it feel light?

If you could give your anxiety a shape,

What shape would you give it?

Maybe a circle,

A rectangle?

Maybe it has no shape at all,

It's irregular.

Maybe it's cylindrical.

Just observe.

Observe the emotion of anxiety in the area of your heart.

If you could give it a color,

What color would you give your anxiety?

Notice the density of the emotion.

Is it dense or does it feel light?

With your next breath then allow the breath to go through the area of your heart all the way.

Breathing all the way down into your feet and imagine this breath going all the way from the feet into the core of the earth.

So imagine your breath going in through the heart all the way down into the core of the earth.

And now imagine as you breathe out your breath coming back from the core of the earth up your feet out through the heart.

Once again imagine the breath going through the heart all the way down into the core of the earth and out through the heart.

And as you keep breathing this way imagine,

Imagine the breath grounding you to earth.

You start to feel more grounded,

More rooted.

You start to become more present.

Becoming aware of this present moment.

See if you can play with your breath and make it a little slower or a little deeper than you usually breathe.

Continuing to send it all the way into the core of the earth.

Imagine yourself as you slow down your breath,

As you deepen your breath.

Now see if you can add a rhythm to this breathing.

Breathing in for 5,

Breathing out for 5.

Breathing in 2,

3,

4,

5.

Breathing out 2,

3,

4,

5.

Breathing in 2,

3,

4,

5.

Breathing out 2,

3,

4,

5.

Breathing in 2,

3,

4,

5.

Breathing out 2,

3,

4,

5.

One more time.

Breathing in 2,

3,

4,

5.

Breathing out 2,

3,

4,

5.

Now see if you can bring to mind a beautiful memory.

Maybe it's a place you've been to that was beautiful.

See if you can go to that place.

You can even bring up the memory of someone you love dearly.

Maybe it's a pet,

Maybe it's your children.

Just allow yourself to feel grateful.

Grateful for that place.

Grateful for the children,

For the person,

For the pet.

And just allow the feelings of gratitude to grow in your heart.

Notice how the heart feels when you feel the feelings of gratitude.

See if you can feel the feelings of calmness,

Peace.

Just allow these feelings to grow in your heart.

See if you can radiate these wonderful feelings towards yourself.

It's as though you're radiating light,

Beautiful light,

Light of calmness,

Peace,

Gratitude towards yourself.

All the way from your head to the bottom of your feet.

You feel this light.

You start to feel more grateful,

Start to feel calmer,

More peaceful.

Even blessing yourself.

May I be happy.

May I be free of suffering.

May I abide in peace.

One more time.

May I be happy.

May I be free of suffering.

May I abide in peace.

Continue breathing through the heart,

Breathing in peace,

Breathing in inner calmness.

And as you breathe out,

Imagine grounding into that peace,

Grounding into that calmness,

Anchoring it into your heart,

Feeling more peaceful,

More grounded,

More calm.

Start to notice,

Notice how the area of the heart feels,

How the emotion feels.

Notice the shape of it.

It's starting to change.

Notice the color,

Notice the intensity.

If it's struggling to shift,

I invite you to breathe right into that shape.

Breathing in peace,

Breathing in calmness.

As you breathe out,

Allow the shape to dissipate,

To expand.

You're breathing in into the emotion in the area of your heart,

Breathing into that shape.

And as you breathe out,

Allow it to expand.

It's as though it's starting to fill,

Fill with light.

And continue to allow it to expand until you notice light shining through.

It starts to break and you can start to see the light shining through.

Continue breathing,

Continue breathing until that shape becomes light has dissipated fully.

And it's just light shining through your heart.

You're breathing,

Breathing into the heart,

Breathing into the anxiety.

And as you breathe out,

Allow the anxiety to dissipate.

Let light fill in.

You can even imagine that light radiating out,

Out into the world.

And you just notice,

Notice what's happening to your anxiety,

How it's dissipating,

How it transforms to light and how it's radiating out from your heart,

Out into the world.

And you get to declare,

I am peace.

I am calm.

I am powerful.

Life is always happening for me.

I am brave.

I am enough.

With the next breath in,

Imagine breathing in power,

Breathing in strength.

And as you breathe out,

Anchor this into your heart.

Feel the power,

Feel the strength in every cell in your body.

Imagine your entire body filled with light.

Notice how there's no longer anxiety in your body,

It's turned into pure light.

All you feel is calmness,

Peace,

Strength,

Power.

Be with those feelings,

Feel the peace,

Feel the calmness.

And slowly start to orient yourself back into the room,

Noticing the sounds coming from outside the room.

Noticing the sounds coming from inside the room.

You may wiggle your toes,

Wiggle your fingers.

Start to deepen your breath.

And whenever you're ready,

You may open your eyes.

As you breathe out,

You feel that you're breathing in and breathing out.