Guided Meditation to Reduce Anxiety - Relax and Calm Your Mind and Body

Welcome to this guided mindfulness meditation to  reduce anxiety by relaxing your mind and body. This session is intended to help you  ease that grip of stress when you have anxiety and find inner peace  and tranquility within yourself. Let's begin by just enjoying  the space that we are in.

Allow yourself to get comfortable  and find a position, whether seated, maybe on the ground with your legs  crossed, or just upright in a chair. And just begin to enjoy this present  moment and take notice of it. Sense the space around you and just start  to bring your attention to your breathing, just naturally and comfortably in and out.

And as you focus on this, just be  reminded that we don't need to worry about the past right now and we don't  need to have any fear about the future. This is just your time right here  and now to be focused, present, alert, and just enjoying being here.  So aware of everything around you.

And as you focus on this, feel free to  focus on your body and notice any areas where you might be holding  some tension or tightness. It might be in your neck and shoulders,  maybe in your hands, maybe your eyes. Whatever it is, just gently  focus on that and allow that tension and tightness to slowly melt away.

Take just a few moments to enjoy this process. And as you are becoming so aware of your breath  and body right here in the present moment, turn your attention to your thought process. And as you are here throughout this session,  keep your attention on your thoughts.

Any thought that may come into  your mind whether large or small. And when you observe them, instead of trying  to push them away, just simply let them be. They are like clouds passing through the sky.

Then if you like, on the next breath, you can let these thoughts go just  like they're floating down a river. This process will just allow  your mind to remain present. And you will feel your body begin  to relax more and more deeply.

And as you continue to enjoy this process, I invite you to envision  that calm and peaceful river. Notice that flowing of the water beneath you. Feel as if you were floating along that river, becoming connected with that  continuous movement of the water.

Think about the sounds you might  hear, the colors you can see. Everything just perfect and calming and tranquil. As you envision yourself here in that beautiful space, you can feel yourself  letting go of any resistance.

Anything within you that wants to  pull away from the present moment. And you find a state of full  and complete acceptance. Enjoy this for just a few moments.

Great. Feeling so present, calm, relaxed, recognizing  whenever those intrusive thoughts try to come into your mind, and helping to reduce your  anxiety and stress by just being present. No judgment about our thoughts, just observing,  and then letting them float away down that river.

And now I will invite you to repeat  just a few affirmations after me. As always you can choose to repeat these  either out loud or just in your head. And so again, just envision that  calming flow of water in front of you, the beautiful nature surrounding you,  and those pillowy clouds in the sky.

We will begin our affirmations now: "I am calm and centered in this present moment. " "I release tension with each breath. " "I will allow my body and mind  to guide me toward peace.

" "I let go of worries and fears. " "I let go of the past. " "I let go of the future.

" "I remain present and feel at ease. " "Feeling love and joy right now. " And that ends our affirmation statements.

Feel free to come back to them  anytime you need that reminder. And now as we near the end of this session, remember that you can always  come back to this flowing river. Through your mind, you can always let go of those worries about the past  those fears about the future.

Allow that flowing water to guide you and  remind you to stay true to the present moment. Remember that deep relaxation and inner peace  and comfort are always available to you. And so if you like take a few  more nice deep breaths - in and out savoring that feeling of  deep relaxation and inner peace.

If you like, you can continue to listen  to the ambient music for several more minutes enjoying these wonderful feelings. And whenever you're ready just feel free to gently  open your eyes if you had them closed, regain awareness of your space, and prepare yourself to  go into whatever is next in your day or night. Thank you so much for spending  this session with me and please come back anytime you need that reminder.

The spoken portion of this session ends now.