Meditation for Anxiety - Yoga With Adriene

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- Howdy pal, and welcome to Yoga with Adriene. I'm Adriene and today we have a meditation for you to help you with anxiety. Happens to the best of us. It can get out of control fast. So, thank you for joining me in this meditation to help quell and soften and maybe even cure you from regular anxiety attacks. Hope into something comfy and let's get started. (gentle music) Alright, my sweet friends, so we're going to begin by finding a comfortable seat and what was a comfortable seat yesterday or where you may end up years from now in your meditation practice or just in your body is just always right in a constant state of flux for so many reasons. So, I'd like to invite you today to really consider what's gonna feel best. If it's leaning up against a wall, snuggle up against a wall. If it's sitting on the edge of your couch or participating in a chair, fabulous. Or you can lie down, you can practice this meditation lying down. So, we definitely wanna come to a place where we feel comfortable and safe to do this brief meditation and to practice the breath, the pranayama, and so today, just an extra gentle nudge to find a comfortable seat and really be honest about that. So, if it's not Sukhasana today, find something that feels supportive and good. For those coming into Sukhasana, you can even play with the legs here, one foot in front of the other, maybe give yourself a nice wide base. So, we'll all come into a position that we feel is the most supportive of us today. Again, it can be lying down. And when you arrive there, really choose to arrive by acknowledging, oh I chose to turn on this video, I made the choice to tend to what's going on, and the first position that I'm even taking here was also a choice to feel supported and comfortable. So, basically we're shifting gears a little bit from a mindset that might feel a little bit anxious or off, and we're starting to get organized in the brain and body and say, okay, wait, whoa, whoa, whoa, I have some power here, a lotta power to help guide myself out of that which doesn't feel good and to help guide myself to a place that feels more supported. So, hopefully by now, you found your seat for today, whatever it may be, your place where you are going to reside, and when you arrive there, you can use the sound of my voice now as a guide, so close your eyes and just bring some awareness to your chest, your heart space, and depending on where you're at today, my sweet friend, you might already start to lean in and just feel what's comin' up, let the emotional body have a seat at the table and just notice. And wherever you are today, see if you can begin to do just that, notice. Come into the role of the observer. So, I find it very helpful to close the eyes, relax the shoulders, and bring your awareness to your heart center or your chest area and just allow whatever feelings come up, whatever thoughts, just notice them. And then notice where you might be holding or gripping in the body, the fingers or the toes, the ankles or the wrists, and see if you can use this idea of the observer to just notice all of those points and then in time to allow just the noticing to bring a softness, an awareness. So, your only real job here in this practice today is to pay attention. We use Pranayama technique to help guide the energy of the body and to hopefully help relieve you from feelings that are not serving, if you feel stuck or off or anxious, stressed out. Hopefully, the Pranayama will allow us to just shift our perspective or break the pattern that we might be stuck in. So, after you've taken a couple moments to just arrive here and settle in, acknowledge that you chose this, start to notice your breath. You don't have to do anything, just acknowledge it, notice the natural ebb and flow. Notice what it feels like as you breathe in and notice what it feels like as you empty the breath out. And then again, bring your awareness to your chest again, your heart space, this place that tends to get really tight and collapsed when we feel anxiety, and see if you can start to lift up through that area, even if it's not a big muscular movement but just a little energy. Then allow that to affect your breath, maybe taking a more fuller inhale, feeling the heart lift a little, then perhaps feeling the shoulders relax and soften as you breathe out. So, the neck and shoulders also get a lot of tension, a little tightness when we feel anxious, so use your inhale to feel expansion, and as you start to deepen the breath, use your exhale to find a softness, a surrender. Alright, you're doing great. Stay with it, stick with it, eyes closed, shoulders relaxed, lots of awareness around your heart center, your chest, your sternum. On your next inhale, see if you can bring the tip of your tongue to the roof of your mouth now, just right behind the teeth, and breathe in, and then breathe out, jaw nice and soft. Again, the tip of the tongue comes to the roof of the mouth and we breathe in. The jaw stays soft, not clinched, as you breathe out. And on your next inhale, we're gonna count to four. Breathe in for four. Here we go. Tongue comes to the roof of the mouth. And we inhale, one, two, three, four, and then just let it go soft and easy. Inhale for four, one, two, three, four, and then let it go. Notice how you feel, stay present, keep observing. Adding onto this ratio, now we're going to hold the breath, retain the breath in between the inhalation and the exhalations for a seven count. So, we'll do one breath cycle, just in and out, and then we'll start with the four. So, breathe in deep here, nice, soft, easy breath. And exhale just to relax the shoulders, empty everything out. I'm breathing in for four. Inhale, one, two, three, four, holding, retaining the breath for seven, six, five, four, three, two, one, and let everything go. Notice what thoughts come up, stay present, let it unfold. Try to keep the body still. And the last bit of the ratio is an exhale for eight. So, we'll inhale for four, I'll guide you with my voice. We'll hold at the top, retaining the breath mindfully for seven and then a nice smooth exhalation on the eight. Four, seven, eight. Soften through your fingertips and toes. One breath cycle, in and out to start, and then we'll begin. Here we go, inhale. Empty it all out. And inhaling for four, inhale, one, two, three, four. Holding for seven, six, five, four, three, two, one. And exhale for eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one. Just notice how you did, no judgment, just observing. Inhaling for four, inhale, one, two, three, four. Retaining on seven, six, five, four, three, you got this, two, one. And big exhale, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one. Inhale for four, three, two, one. Retain for seven, six, five, four, three, two, one. And exhale for eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, and one. Inhale for four, three, two, one. Retain, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one. Exhale for eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, and one. Let everything go. Stay with it. Notice what comes up. Reside in that wonderful role of the observer. And wherever you are, whether you're seated in a chair or Sukhasana or lying down, you're gonna find soft, easy movement with the neck. So, if you're lying down, you might rock the head gently side to side. You might shake the head yes and then no. And then you'll start to bat the eyelashes open. Soft, easy movement with the neck and shoulders. And then we'll take a big inhale in and exhale, sigh it out, so this is important, little big of sound here. Inhale in. Sigh it out. (sighs) And one more time, inhale. (deeply sighs) Hands come together, notice how you feel. Thank you for sharing your time and your energy and your practice with me and all the people around the globe participating, working towards a happy, healthy balanced life. Namaste. (gentle music)
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Channel: Yoga With Adriene
Views: 4,073,056
Rating: undefined out of 5
Keywords: yoga, meditation, yoga with adriene, 15 min meditation, yoga for stress relief, yoga for depression, yoga for nerves, meditation for mental health, mental health, holistic health, wellness, spirituality, breathing techniques, hatha yoga, healing yoga, yoga therapy, yoga for wellness, health, healthy, yoga lifestyle, yogi, meditation for beginners
Id: 4pLUleLdwY4
Channel Id: undefined
Length: 14min 14sec (854 seconds)
Published: Sun May 14 2017
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