An SOS Meditation to Unwind Anxiety

Often the toughest part of experiencing anxiety is just the sense of being helplessly caught up in the thought loops that keep us feeling stuck and stressed. It’s tough to unwind anxiety, and we long for the kind of support that could actually help escape the tangle of those anxious webs. 

In this week’s guided meditation, teacher and author Melli O’Brien offers a practice that uses gentle, steady awareness to help you find your calm center again when you’re feeling wound up with stress or anxiety.

Read and practice the guided meditation script below, pausing after each paragraph. Or listen to the audio practice.

If you’re playing this meditation, chances are that something has you feeling a bit stressed or anxious or the body and mind are feeling really tense or wound up. I’m here to support you in finding your center again and helping you to ground in a gentle and steady awareness. Make sure that you are sitting comfortably. Even if the mind is very busy or the body’s really tense right now, we’re still taking the time to settle. You might even like to lie down on the ground or on a lounge chair or a bed. When you’re ready, allow the eyes to gently close, if that feels okay for you, knowing that you have this time and space just for yourself. Remember, you don’t have to try to figure anything out or mentally fix anything. There’s nothing you really need to worry about during this time, and there’s no problem to solve. You’ve given yourself this time for meditation, so give yourself full permission to let go of everything else for a while and simply be present, grounding yourself in the here and now and following these instructions as best you can. Start by letting go of any agenda to get rid of stress or anxiety, or actually to get rid of any part of your experience. Instead, we’re going to practice relaxing with this moment just as it is, and making peace with it. Take some deeper, slower, and fuller breaths into the belly. As you breathe in, allow the belly to swell a little like a balloon. As you breathe out, allow the belly to soften and subside. Again, long steady and smooth breath in, filling the belly. And then a long, steady, smooth breath out. If anything about this practice feels uncomfortable for you, you can feel free to just let the breath be natural. If there’s any sense of strain or gasping for air, then you can make the breath much more gentle, much more subtle. You might even like to place a hand or both hands on the belly, so you can really feel that rising and falling sensation. Focus on the feeling of the breath in the belly and allowing the movement of the breath to soothe you and settle you. You’re doing great. As you continue breathing into the belly like this, see if you can get a sense of softening and relaxing a little more with each and every exhale. Let tension begin to melt and soften in the body. Really surrender the weight of your body into gravity, knowing that the ground beneath you is more than able to take your weight and support you and that it’s safe to let go and relax the tension into the here and now. At the top of this next inhale, if it feels okay for you, hold the breath for a count of three. So breathe in and hold for 1, 2, 3, and then let the breath go. Continue on like that, holding the breath in for the count of 3, and then letting it go. If that doesn’t feel right for any reason, then just continue as before. Now, after the next exhale, let go of controlling the breath at all. Let the body settle back into its own natural rhythm of breathing, but continue to focus on that rising and falling sensation of the breath in the belly. Again, you can place a hand or both hands there and just feel the hands rising and falling. That’s it.  As you follow the breath, if at any point you get lost in thought again, it’s not a problem. Each time you’re drawn by a distraction, mentally note to yourself, Just thinking. Then guide your focus back into the breath, feeling the rising and falling of the belly. Ride the waves of breath moment by moment, letting everything else go, resting here in the present moment and breathing, giving yourself this time to rejuvenate, to tap into inner strength. Notice how the body is being rocked and cradled by the flowing sensations of the breath moment by moment. Remember, distraction is normal. You can return as many times as you need to, settling into the breath, letting yourself soften into the present moment. Continue practicing like this.  As this practice begins to draw to a close, take another deep, slow, full breath in, and let it go. Two more in the same way, so breathing in…and breathing out. One more time breathing in, this time rolling the shoulders up toward the ears a little on the inhale. As you exhale, relax the shoulders down. Then begin to wriggle your fingers and your toes. Open your eyes, looking around the room, taking in the colors and the shapes all around you. As you prepare now to go about the rest of your day, make an intention now to take this more centered energy with you into the rest of your day. Thank you for your practice. Go gently with yourself today. And as always, let’s go out there and be kind, be brave, and be the change we want to see.

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