Welcome to this meditation for calming anxiety.
Find a comfortable position and either close your eyes or lower your gaze.
Breathe deeply and evenly slowing down your breath.
And in particular concentrate on elongating the out breath,
making your exhale as long as possible.
Breathe slowly as you feel pressure and tension melt away.
Let your body soften, your shoulders can drop down,
your stomach unravels, your jaw lowers.
Everything pulled down towards the ground ... gravity doing its thing.
Anything that has been occupying your mind does not need to be attended to
right now, let that melt down into the ground too.
There is nothing you need to do, nothing you need to achieve, everything is exactly as it should be.
Imagine, visualize or sense you are bird watching with a pair of binoculars.
You are tightly focused on a part of the tree
where you've been watching the activity of a bird's nest.
You have been watching intently for seconds, minutes, hours
and because you are so intently focused on one spot
you are making a choice to miss other beautiful things.
You don't see the old couple sitting on the bench under the tree.
You miss the cute puppy chasing a ball and the toddler eating an ice cream.
No, for you the whole world is currently one spot on one branch of this tree.
A feather from the nest gently floats down from the tree and it breaks your intense concentration.
You follow the feather as it slowly drifts down to the ground.
It's okay to let go.
You set your binoculars gently to one side and soften your gaze.
Allow your eyes to soften and your field of vision to widen.
Even though your focus is softer everything becomes clear.
It's okay to let go of control of being so tightly focused.
You might worry that you could miss something important,
but you won't. Everything you need is already within you.
You realize how exhausting it's been to watch so carefully
and as you continue to imagine being so carefree and mellow say to yourself quietly
I accept what is happening right now
I accept my past and old griefs
I accept my current situation
I accept both my limitations and my strengths
I accept all of my emotions
I accept myself
I accept I may never achieve everything I want to
I accept I may never achieve what others want me to
I free myself from holding on so tight.
I am willing to let go and accept
You feel yourself mellowing
No expectations, no shoulds
no judgments
Continue to take slow deep breaths allowing each exhale to be a bit longer than before.
Feel the journey of your breath through your body
and notice any places where your anxiety may have crept back into your body.
and breathe into that area
Sending love and acceptance to every part of your body each breath softening in the belly.
It is time to come back and when you are ready open your eyes.
But before you continue with your day let your eyes soften
gazing dimly into the distance so there are no hard edges to your sight looking straight ahead
without turning your head move your eye line slightly to the left
still on the horizon and feel yourself let go
let your eyes drift back to the center again focused loosely on the horizon
and then keeping your head still facing ahead
move your eyes slightly to the right breathing in and out
and then guide your eyes to the front again may you be happy healthy and peaceful
thank you for meditating today with generation calm