Inner Peace MeditationsGuided meditations with Steven Webb Join Weekly Calm

Meditation 39 · 19 October 2023 · 10:06

A Meditation for When Relaxation Seems Impossible

I recorded this because I did not want to meditate and had been putting it off. So we do it together and I keep it short.

Subject: Busy Minds & Overthinking, Anxiety & Stress

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Inner Peace Meditations · Meditation 39

Length10:06
SubjectBusy Minds & Overthinking
Best timeWhen you do not want to meditate
PositionWherever you already are
StyleGuided, short, almost nothing asked of you. Music underneath

I recorded this because I did not want to meditate and had been putting it off. So we do it together and I keep it short.

About 10 minutes with Steven Webb's calm voice.

Nothing much is asked of you. Not even relaxing. You make a game of it instead. What can I be aware of right now? A sound, the heat on your skin, a bit of tension that lets go the second you notice it. Meditation does not have to be a big thing every time. Sometimes it is just sitting down and noticing.

Treat me to a coffee, keep the podcast free, and get my Weekly Calm every Sunday. It is all on stevenwebb.uk

Thank you for sitting with me.

Steven

Who this is for

You have been putting it off.

I recorded this because I did not want to meditate either and had been resisting it for a while. So we do it together and I keep it short.

What happens in this meditation

The breath, and nothing done to it.

Then the body relaxes on invitation. Shoulders, arms, hands, legs, toes. Whatever comes to mind. Then the smaller ones people forget. Eyes, cheeks, nose, tongue, ears.

Then the thing that makes this one different. You do not even have to relax. Not required. You just watch. I am aware I am breathing. I am aware the room is quieter.

If a thought turns up, you notice it. If it will not leave, you thank it.

Then it becomes a game. What can I be aware of right now? A sound. The heat on your skin. A pocket of tension that lets go the second you notice it.

Then a couple of minutes where I watch the clock and you do nothing at all.

How to get the most from it

Ten minutes, and it is the one to reach for on the day you would otherwise skip it entirely.

Do not aim for anything. Not calm, not depth. If you did not relax and did not close your eyes, it still counts.

Meditation does not have to be a big thing every time. Sometimes it is just sitting down and noticing.

Questions people ask

What if I get nothing out of it?

Then you sat down for ten minutes, which is more than not sitting down. Some days that is the entire win and it is worth having.

Is it alright to keep my eyes open?

Yes. Nothing here needs them shut and you will use this in places where shutting them is not practical.

You did not want to do it either?

No, and I said so at the start. I was struggling that day and recording it with you was the only way I was going to get it done.

Read along

The transcript

It follows the audio. Press any line to jump there.

stress · mindfulness · breath

Read the transcript

Welcome to this guided meditation. This is the meditation for when you don't want to meditate, basically. And I'm

recording this now because I don't want to meditate. And I've been resisting it for a while. And I thought,

what better way of meditating than recording a guided meditation and doing it along with you. And there's a

lot of the time we procrastinate and we resist and We just don't want to sit down and do nothing

for 10 minutes or five minutes or whatever. So I won't push it. Let's do a few minutes meditation. Just

trying to settle the body when it doesn't want to settle.

So the way I do this is bring

my focus to my breath.

I'm breathing in and I'm breathing out.

I don't do anything with my breath. I just allow my breath to do that.

And after a few breaths, I just allow the body to relax. Allow

the shoulders.

The arms,

hands and the fingers and the legs and the toes.

Anything that just comes to mind that you can relax. And

you do this just by allowing it to relax, that's all.

You don't have to do anything to your body to relax, you just allow it.

And sometimes it helps to breathe in calm and

breathe out relax

And you can say it in your mind.

And with each breath you can relax that a little bit more. By just allowing the body to relax.

By finding parts of the body that could relax a little more.

Maybe your eyes and your cheeks.

Even your nose and your tongue and your ears.

And you may notice that everything just becomes that little bit quieter.

Even the atoms in your body that may seem quite agitated just become a little slower.

And you recognise that you don't have to do anything with this moment. You don't even have to relax. You

don't even have to change your breath you Just allow this moment to be what it is and just watch

it with awareness.

I'm aware I'm breathing.

I'm aware my body's relaxing.

I'm aware my mind's quieter.

I'm aware the world's a little quieter.

And if a thought does come up, you don't have to do anything with it. Just be aware, oh there's

a thought.

And if you find the thought really quite intrusive or it just won't disappear.

Just thank the thought. Thank you.

But we've just been awareness now.

You can even do it as a little game.

What can we be aware of?

We can be aware of the feelings that arise,

the sounds that are coming in,

the heat on our skin.

We can be aware of any pockets of tension in the body that once

you become aware of them they just automatically relax.

And notice with every breath you can still allow the body to relax a little bit more.

There's almost always another level of relaxation.

Another level of quietness

new level of stillness.

And we're just going to spend a couple of minutes just being aware of the breath.

I'll keep an eye on the time. You don't have to.

Your only job is to be aware.

Welcome back.

How was that?

See, we don't have to make a big thing out of meditation every single time. Sometimes we can just sit

down and be aware.

I'm going to count back from five.

Five. Four. Gently open your eyes. Three. Shake out your arms. Two.

One. Just look around the room and even if you didn't close your eyes and even if you didn't really

relax into this meditation, it really doesn't matter. Sometimes meditation isn't about a deep profound awareness or

a deep relaxation. Sometimes meditation has just simply been aware of what's going on in the body right now

and what's going on in the mind right now and Just stepping back and just becoming aware of it.

Sometimes that's all we need to do.

I'm Steven Webb and thank you for doing this meditation and thank you for doing this with me. I needed

it. I needed this little bit of calmness. Boy, I've been struggling today and just

doing this for you and doing this with you, that makes a big difference. These podcasts are, they don't

have any sponsorship. They totally rely on the donation by you guys. So if you can

and if you're able to, just drop me a coffee in the link below. If not, it doesn't matter. Enjoy

them. A bit of inner peace in your world. Take care. Bye.

Weekly Calm

One calm email.
Every Sunday.

A little space to pause, a practical thought to take into the week, and a reminder that you’re not doing this alone.

Join and I will send you my book, 5 Simple Practices for Inner Peace. Free, and yours to keep.