Secular

Stress & Anxiety

Relaxation Meditation

Stress

Secular Mindfulness

Visualization

English

This guided meditation restores your awareness by focusing on the breath and is designed to shift stress and anxieties, strip away mind clutter and distractions and allow space to connect to yourself through the breath as you enter a blissful state experiencing a deepening of contentment and inner peace. 

Unwind The Mind With The Breath

 Welcome to this guided meditation which restores your awareness by focusing on the breath and is designed to shift stress and anxieties, strip away mind clutter and distractions and allow space to connect to yourself through the breath as you enter a blissful state experiencing a deepening of contentment and inner peace. I invite you to find a comfortable position in a quiet space that allows you to be at ease for the duration of this practice. When you have found your comfortable position take a few deep breaths and gently close down your eyes as we prepare to unwind and relax. The human mind is vast and complex most people live their lives completely unaware of what lies in the deeper region of the subconscious mind and right now is the moment we start by bridging the conscious and the unconscious mind and I invite you to turn your attention and awareness inwards now. Let your mind settle down and allow your body to relax. Gently bringing your awareness to the breath over and over again change your mind to be here right now in this moment. There is nowhere to go, nothing to do, only to arrive at each moment with the breath to simply be present with your experience as it is and as you gently bring your attention to the breath you know that the breath is one of the functions of the body that works both consciously as well as unconsciously. So let's use it to tap into the unconscious part of the mind. Just observe it from a distance without interfering with it. Let the breath come and go and be present and aware with it. If your breath is shallow right now let it be shallow, if it's deep let it be deep. Just remain aware. Notice how you are breathing right now without trying to change anything. Is the breath moving through the nose or the mouth? Notice the rhythm and depth of the breath. Notice if there is a difference between the breath coming in and the breath coming out. How does the breath feel as it moves through the body? Take a few moments to simply stay present with the breath as it comes and goes and allow your body to breathe you. Though we do not often grant the breath much attention during the busyness of daily life, in this moment of stillness you can bring kind attention to the breath and know it is always a steady anchor that is always available to us to help us to settle into the space we are in. To wind down, calm down and appreciate how the breath is a gift that keeps giving. That's right, the breath sustains life wherever you go and it is more loyal than any companion and some people have the tendency to control the breathing and this makes the breathing uncomfortable and to overcome this I invite you to imagine that you are a passenger in a car looking through the window at your breath. You are not the driver nor a backseat driver. There are no need to give instructions or directions. All you need to do is let go and enjoy the ride. Let the breath do the breathing while you simply watch without interfering. That's right and when you observe the breath going in and the breath going out sustaining all your attention on the breath you can take in every single moment of the breath as it goes in. Observe the in-breath at the very first moment when the first sensation of in-breathing arises. Observe those sensations develop gradually through the course of one in-breath not missing even a moment of the in-breath. In that moment when that in-breath finishes you see in your mind that last movement of the in-breath. You then see the moment as a pause between breaths and then the out-breath begins. You see the first moment of the out-breath and each sensation as the out-breath evolves until the out-breath disappears when its function is complete. All this is done in silence and in the present moment. That's right you can easily experience every part of each in-breath and out-breath. You can easily experience every part of each in-breath and out-breath continuously for many hundred breaths in a row as you rest in this stillness and you might become curious to the space between breaths. A space we often rarely notice or visit and this space is the ground of all being from which everything arises and falls. Every breath, thought, action, behavior, movement and event. You may find yourself starting to live more and more in that special space rather than getting caught up in the busyness of daily life. When you notice thoughts and emotions passing through, simply coming and going, you are able to maintain your ground, your center and balance life more easily. This empty yet very rich space between breaths has always been there, is always present and will always just be. We recognize it as the place we always are and is always gently and peacefully holding us and is what gives everything needed pause and meaning. It is this precious pause between the breath you can heal, make more space to live in, more love, more energy, more hope, more belief, more health and more living in the moment. And whenever you notice your mind thinking, simply recognize the content as just another thought that you can easily let the thought go and kindly, gently and patiently return your attention to the breath. Letting go of everything in the entire universe except for this momentary experience of the breath happening silently right now. And isn't it interesting to know you don't reach this stage, the mind reaches this stage, the mind does the work itself, the mind recognizes this stage to be peaceful and pleasant. Just being alone with the breath, this is where the ego starts to disappear. As you let go and watch it all happen, the mind will automatically incline if you only let it towards this very simple, peaceful and delicious unity of being alone with one thing, just being with the breath in each and every moment. This is the unity of mind, the unity in the moment, the unity in stillness. And some people can enter into the blissful states simply by maintaining this unity of consciousness, by not interfering. That's right, and the breath will begin to disappear, the breath appears to fade away as the mind focuses instead on what is at the center of the experience of the breath, which is the place of peace, freedom and bliss of the beautiful breath, allowing the mind to recognize that this peaceful breath is extraordinarily beautiful. You are aware of this beautiful breath continuously, moment after moment, with no break in the chain of experience. You are aware only of the beautiful breath. Without effort, all there is to do is let the breath disappear and all that is left is the beautiful. Allow beauty to become the sole object of the mind, the mind is now the mind has its own object, you are now not aware at all of the breath, body, thought, sound or the world outside, all that you are aware of is its beauty, peace, bliss, light or whatever your perception reveals. You are experiencing only beauty with nothing being beautiful, continuously, effortlessly. You have long ago let go of the mind chatter, let go of descriptions and assessments, let go of any judgements, here the mind is so still that you cannot say anything, not even think of a thought, you are experiencing the first flowering of bliss in the mind, that bliss will develop, grow, blossom and become firm and strong, there is absolutely nothing, only how smooth and beautiful and timeless the breath can appear. The mind recognises this beautiful breath and bathes in it, delights in it and lives in this moment. The mind experiences a deepening of contentment, it is happy just to be there, watching this beautiful breath, the mind does not need to be forced, it stays with the beautiful breath by itself. There is nothing to do other than passively observe the beautiful breath, all that is known is this experience of the beautiful breath happening right now. The mind is not concerned with what part of the breath cycle this is in, nor on what part of the body this is occurring, only the experience of breath in the moment, stripping away all the unnecessary details, moving beyond the duality of in and out and just being aware of a beautiful breath which appears smooth and continuous, hardly changing at all. That's right, the breath is the bridge linking the mind and body, do absolutely nothing and see how smooth and beautiful and timeless the breath can appear. See how calm you can allow it to be, take this moment to saviour the sweetness of the beautiful breath, ever calmer, ever sweeter. Now the breath will disappear, not when you want it to, but when there is enough calm, leaving only the beautiful, the mind, to merge in this blissful experience that will be the most profound of your life. Being intimate with the beautiful, and I will give you a minute to fully relinquish control and experience all there is for yourself in this blissful state, blissful state of the beautiful. As this practice comes to an end, slowly allow your attention to expand and notice your entire body and then beyond your body to the space you are in. And know that every time you take this moment to be in this intimate space and give yourself the gift of just breathing and being present, you let life breathe you and merge into oneness. When you're ready, take a deep full energising breath, drawing your awareness back to the space around you and softly open your eyes, ready to refocus, feeling relaxed and refreshed. Thank yourself for having this intimate moment, just to be as you are and you may like to stay with your breath and these wonderful feelings as long as you wish and appreciate your beautiful self and your beautiful breath.