Anxiety Meditation 04

Transcript

Welcome back and thank you for joining me for our fourth session.

As you begin to make yourself comfortable  either lying down or sitting  I wonder if you can remember how relaxed you felt in the last meditation session  letting go of all tension  becoming aware and being in control of your own ability to relax completely and deeply.

Allowing the tension to flow away from you  as every muscle relaxes  every fiber relaxes  and your mind relaxes too.

Take a few deep conscious breaths and allow that lovely feeling of relaxation to sweep over your body and into your mind  breathe in and fill your stomach like a balloon  and then exhale and allow it to deflate.

Breathe in…1…2…3…4 breathe out…1…2…3…4…5

PAUSE

Just letting go and drifting off as you guide your awareness down to that beautiful heaviness in your arms…legs…face  your whole body  as you discover how easy it can be  how pleasant  to allow those feelings to continue.

To deepen even more.

Deeper and deeper levels of relaxation  as you breathe slowly and steadily  expanding your stomach and exhaling completely.

And you realize that you have the ability to relax  to let go completely and to be totally unconcerned  nothing concerns you  nothing bothers you  as you continue to relax  to go deeper and deeper  into deeper levels of relaxation.

And drifting down into that place inside  where all is still  quiet  and peaceful.

Where there is only the sound of my voice and the wisdom that is yours.

You’re aware now  more than ever before  of that inner part of you  deep inside your mind  where the truth lies  every tool  every resource that you require to be the best version of you.

Now you start to use that power  to help you tackle all of life’s problems  knowing  deep within  there you already have the answer  the solution.

PAUSE

Continue to enjoy that beautiful relaxed feeling while you listen to the sound of my voice  as it drifts with you.

Today, let’s consider what happens in the brain when we are anxious.

And in order to do that  we will go back  way back in time  to very first women and men that inhabited this earth.

Evolution had a way to reward early man and early woman  they were rewarded when they went out to hunt and gather  they were rewarded when they supported their families and their communities  and when they were social – because they knew that they were more likely to survive if they were in groups than if they were alone.

This reward I am talking about is a chemical response in the brain  it allows us to cope with life and even physical pain and fear  to feel motivated and joyful  yes, when we are carrying out important evolutionary tasks we are rewarded with serotonin and dopamine – when we have a constant flow of those chemicals we are nice, happy and coping!

Most of us don’t have to go out to hunt and gather  but we feel good when we are active in a positive way, interact in a positive way and think in a positive way  and our brain produces a lovely flow of serotonin.

When we aren’t operating in that way  when we are anxious  we are producing too many stress hormones and it throws our whole system out of balance.

But through training our mind to think more positively and learning how to relax through breathing, physical exercise and positive social interaction  we can regain our lives  regain our happiness and take back control.

PAUSE

Now bring your awareness back to your breathing  breathe naturally and notice the air flowing in and out of your body.

In each session of this series we will practice to release tension in our body through bringing our awareness to each body part and using the breath to relax more and more.

The more you practice  the easier it will become to notice tension in the body and to let it go.

So take one more deep inhalation  and exhale completely  continue to breathe naturally  calmly.

PAUSE

So let’s begin.

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  your forehead…your eyelids…the space between your eyebrows…temples…eyelids  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 move your awareness 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 let any tension simply drain away.

Think on down to your stomach  and how it rises and falls with every deep slow breath you take  you notice how you’re breathing even more steadily and slowly  as you relax more and more.

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

Bring your awareness to your hips and pelvic area  take a deep inhalation and gently move the fresh clean breath to your hips  as you exhale deeply and completely  all the tension flows away.

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 very tips of your toes.

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

And as you know when our body is relaxed  our mind is relaxed too.

And I wonder if you can enjoy allowing 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

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.

So I will count from 3 down to 0 and you will come back to the room relaxed and at ease.

3…2…1…0

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