These meditations for stress and anxiety will help to cultivate the skills to pause, notice, acknowledge, accept and redirect your thoughts with intention and control.
Meditation is not only a tool that can help calm you when you feel stressed or anxious – its real purpose is to train your mind to respond differently to life’s stressors.
It’s the ultimate empowerment building tool.
Common misconceptions keeping people from using meditation for stress and anxiety
- My mind is too busy to meditate
A lot of people think “my mind is too busy to meditate”. That is no different than saying “I’m too dirty to take a bath”. Meditation will eventually give you control over calming and slowing the onslaught of thoughts marching through your mind. - I can’t sit still long enough to meditate
Meditation does not have to happen while sitting. It can be practices while walking, doing the dishes, taking a shower, even active and compassionate listening during a conversation is a form of meditation.
And the more you practice, the more you’ll find the ability to sit for longer periods of time because you’ll notice the desire to move, allow and accept the discomfort, and redirect your thoughts back to your breath. - I don’t have time to meditate.
Just like those who feel they can’t sit to meditate – you can find small moments throughout the day to practice. From a few breaths, to the duration of a commercial break, to 5 minutes between meetings. Heck, even the time you spend sitting on the toilet can be used to focus your attention on your breath. - If I can’t clear my thoughts, I’m doing it wrong.
Our minds like to think. It’s what they do. Our eyes see, ears hear and our brains think. Complete quiet is not the goal, it’s not even really possible – except for brief moments. The goal is when you notice your mind is elsewhere, to acknowledge this without judgement and redirect your focus with intention. This is like going to the gym for your brain. You’re building the skill and strength to notice and let go of thoughts. - If I’m not relaxed, I’m doing it wrong.
Just as the goal isn’t to completely clear your mind of all thoughts, it also isn’t to relax. I know, you are meditating because you want to relax. And that’s awesome! Just because in this session and the last few and maybe the next few, you aren’t relaxed, does not mean you are doing it wrong and it does not mean you will never find relaxation when you meditate.
EXPECTING relaxation is bringing judgement to your meditation. Because you will be focused on finding relaxation, that is focusing in on a thought. And not achieving it brings more thoughts like “I’m doing this wrong, I don’t like this, I need to relax, I should be relaxed…”. Notice these thoughts. Acknowledge them. Accept them. And let them go as you redirect your attention with intention.
The bottom line
Meditation helps our stress and anxiety by:
- Calming the autonomic nervous system, decreasing and reversing the stress response
- Training the mind to look at things differently
- Teaching us to let go of thoughts that are no longer serving us
- To allow discomfort in order to let it pass through
Four meditations for stress and anxiety
Here are four meditations designed to elicit calm and to train your mind to take back control so that you can cultivate graceful resilience when life gets challenging.
These can all be accessed for free on Insight Timer.
#1 Getting Started With Meditation for Stress and Anxiety
Whether you are just starting out meditating or looking for a new perspective to focus your awareness, this guided meditation will help ground your focus in the present moment in a quick, 10-minute meditation bite. This meditation begins with relaxing music to start you from a calm place and ends with a more uplifting jingle to bring your attention back out so you can move along with your day.
#2 Meditation for Deep Relaxation
This relaxing meditation will calm your body, your mind, and put you at ease from stress and anxiety. Combining mindfulness of breath, progressive body relaxation, and visualization, this meditation will leave you feeling deeply relaxed.
#3 Meditation for Overcoming Anger & Judgement With Loving Kindness
A Loving-Kindness Meditation to eliminate stress through cultivating empathy and self-compassion. This meditation uses words, images, and feelings to evoke a lovingkindness and friendliness toward oneself and others. The best part is that this technique is easy to practice and can make you feel happier in minutes. It begins with soothing music to bring your energy down and in and ends with an uplifting jingle to bring you up and out.
#4 Meditation for Full Body Relaxation For Sleep Or Deep Rest
Calm your body and mind for sleep or deep rest. Ground your anxious energy by bringing your awareness to your body and releasing tension created from stress. There is no bell at the end of this guided meditation, allowing you to continue meditating on your own or to drift off to sleep.
Where to go from here:
- Work with me 1:1: For leaders and parents feeling lost trying to grow and heal on their own, ready for a guide on their journey out of anxiety into the happiest, most Zen-Badass version of yourself from the boardroom to the family room.
- 21 Day Meditation-in-Action emotional transformation (now only $37). In as few as 4 minutes a day, learn how to retrain your mind for resilience, peace and focus.
- Free Training – Learn the 4 Shifts to Ease Anxiety and Find Your Inner Zen-Badass: Access the free mini-but-mighty Graceful Resilience® training to learn the skills to become calm, confident and in control over your emotions so your career and relationships thrive.
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