Visualize your stress as a passing storm and find the peaceful center where you remain safe and in control.

English

In this guided visualization, you will engage with stressful events as a passing storm.  Powerful, yet fleeting.  You will experience your own power and resilience in the face of the storm, emerging on the other side, peaceful, calmer, stronger, and knowing that you can weather any future storms.

Music: Ether by DJ Taz Rashid

Stress is Simply a Passing Storm

 Hello, and welcome to this meditation. Sometimes when stressful events enter our lives, they can feel incredibly disruptive and difficult, and we're not quite sure how to deal with them when we end up feeling like we're running for cover, much like we do when there's a sudden storm that erupts. But with this meditation, instead of focusing on the chaos and the disruption that a storm can bring, I'm going to invite you to visualize your stress as a storm that's simply passing through, and engaging your strength to see yourself through to the other side, and to take wonder in the beauty that the storm can sometimes provide. To begin, find yourself a comfortable position, whether that be seated or lying down, and if you'd like, you may close your eyes or simply gaze softly at a spot in front of you. To prepare ourselves, I'm going to invite you to take a few deep breaths with me. Take a nice deep inhale, and then exhale out of your mouth slowly, just bringing awareness to the feeling of the air leaving your lungs, and inhaling once again through the nose, and exhaling, starting to feel some relaxation, beginning to take hold. Another inhale in through the nose, and exhale, and one more time, inhaling through the nose, completely feeling your lungs, and then nice and slow out through the mouth. Now, allow your breaths to come back to a natural pattern, and just take note of how you're feeling right now, in this moment, noticing how just a few rounds of deep breaths can impact how you're feeling, your mind, and your body. Now, to begin our meditation, I'm going to invite you to take one more deep inhale in. As you do, I want you to hold it at the top, and then release it with a sigh. And now, in your mind's eye, I want you to picture yourself, you're standing in the midst of a large open field. This field could be in a pasture, it could be near the mountains, or close to the ocean, wherever you naturally find yourself at peace. And as you're standing in the middle of this field, everything around you is calm, it's peaceful, you're completely and utterly alone, surrounded by nature. Now, sit down comfortably in the middle of this field, maybe even lie down if that feels good to you. And as you breathe in, smelling the air around you, and noticing the sounds of the birds singing in the distance, the wind rustling the leaves or the grasses, and just take this moment to soak all of this beauty in, looking around you, noticing everything that you see, how it looks, how it sounds, feel of the earth under you. And now I want you to focus your attention off in the distance, off towards the horizon. Begin to notice that there are some dark clouds beginning to form, the sky begins to darken, and you notice these clouds, these darkening skies beginning to move towards you, and you begin to feel raindrops, slowly, just beginning to rain down upon you. And they begin to pick up a little bit of pace, you begin to feel a breeze from the wind of this approaching storm. I want you to imagine whatever stressful events you are going through now, or have been going through recently, I want you to imagine this storm that is approaching you as that stress you've been experiencing. Maybe it's a mild stress, like a soft gentle rain, a passing shower, or maybe something more intense, more disruptive, and a heavier rain, and stronger winds are coming with it. And if that's the case, I want you to visualize this storm is approaching, and it's stronger as it approaches, and as you feel it getting stronger, and the wind blowing harder, you're still sitting peacefully, or lying peacefully in this field that you're in, and you're unfazed by it. You know it's there, you know that it's coming, but it's okay. You know that you have a choice on how you're going to react to this storm that's coming. Will you react with fear and worry, or will you react with calm, knowing that the storm is approaching, but it was also past. Sometimes stress is a reaction to fear, to worry, to high demands in our lives, and whether that fear is real or not, how we react to it can determine its effect on us, much like how we prepare for a storm that's coming. Sometimes it will take over in a matter of moments, and we must deal with it in the immediate moment. But just like you're sitting in a storm in the middle of a field, you know that that stress cannot harm you if you know that it will simply pass you by. Embrace the storm as it approaches. Allow it to exist without trying to fight it. As you see this storm of stress in front of you, it's very dark, and those clouds become to get thicker and thicker, and the rain is now pelting down on you with a fury. Decide to get up, stand up from where you're sitting or lying, and begin to walk towards the storm, not away. And you're not afraid in this moment. You're not worried, but you're confident because you know that you are in control. And as you get closer to the storm, and you can see the winds swirling and blowing and the rains getting harder, they don't have any effect on you. You continue to confidently step forward towards the storm, and soon you begin to see the eye of the storm. And in that eye, those winds and those rains, they are swirling like a tempest. They are powerful. They are strong. But you still are not worried. You still are strong. And continue to approach it. And as you pass through that wall of wind and rain, you're now standing in the center of the storm, in the eye of the storm. And it's calm, it's calm, and it's peaceful, and it's quiet. And as you stand there, you can still see the storm around you. You can see the chaos swirling all around you. But inside where you are in this eye of the storm, it is calm, it is peaceful, and you are safe. So even as the storm is swirling around you, even as your stress is swirling around you, you have the ability to step into the eye, to step into that calm middle of the storm without fighting, without resisting, and just be amongst it. Be in the storm, and realizing that in the midst of it, you still are in control. You cannot be hurt here. You are safe. And in this scenario, your body is the center of that storm. And any stress is just surrounding you, like a storm. And it's going to come, and it's going to go. You will always be in control, and can come back to the eye of the storm, into your safe space, whenever you need to. And as you stand in the eye of that storm, just watching the wind and the rain circle around you, but not touching you, not affecting you, you begin to notice the storm start to lose its power. The winds begin to die down, the rain begins to ease, and eventually becomes just a drizzle. Clouds begin to lighten, the sky begins to brighten, and eventually, through the clouds, the sun begins to peek through again. And when the clouds eventually will completely pass, the sun will take over, and it's in full intensity, shining light all around you and everything you see. And soon, the birds will return to singing. Everything is back to where it was before the storm. And you're back in this place, in this moment, where you are in a beautiful state of mind, as you realize that you survived the storm, that the stress did not take over, the storm did not take over. You were in control, and the storm passed, and all is still okay. You are back in this beautiful field, just as you began, just as beautiful as it was in the beginning, just as strong as you were before the storm, and even stronger now that it has passed, because you realize that you have the power to make it through the storm. So I'll invite you to sit down again in the middle of this beautiful field, in the middle of this beautiful field, meadow. Take another nice deep inhale through your nose, soaking in all of that new fresh air, fresh from the storm, holding it in at the top, and then slowly exhaling out through the mouth. And one more time, inhaling through the nose, filling your belly, filling your lungs with that beautiful air, and sighing it out, allowing the shoulders to relax, allowing your breath to return to a normal pattern, and taking this last few moments to seal in this beautiful visualization, and storing it away, to come back to the next time you feel a storm of stress approaching. Allow this memory to be present for you in this moment, and in the future, whenever you need to call upon it. Whenever you're ready, you can slowly open your eyes, and bring some movement back into your body, and go on with the rest of your day.