Inner Peace MeditationsGuided meditations with Steven Webb Join Weekly Calm

Meditation 77 · 14 June 2025 · 5:33

Afternoon Stillness for a Busy Mind

Recorded late in my own afternoon with too much still on the list. Five minutes to settle before the evening.

Subject: Busy Minds & Overthinking

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Inner Peace Meditations · Meditation 77

Length5:33
SubjectBusy Minds & Overthinking
Best timeLate afternoon, before the evening starts
PositionHowever you are already sitting
StyleGuided, five minutes, no imagery. Music underneath

Recorded late in my own afternoon with too much still on the list. Five minutes to settle before the evening.

About 5 minutes with Steven Webb's calm voice.

Shoulders, eyes, forehead, breath. Nothing else in it. There is one idea here I keep coming back to. It is far easier to bring your calm to the world than to calm the world down first. We nearly always try it the hard way round.

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

The end of the working part of the day, with too much still on the list and an evening about to begin.

I recorded this in exactly that state, so it is not a technique I am teaching you so much as the thing I actually do, done out loud.

What happens in this meditation

Shoulders, then the eyes softening, then the forehead and the face. Then the breath, without changing anything about it.

Thoughts will arrive, and you thank them and let them carry on. Same with any feeling that turns up.

Then a few minutes of noticing that underneath the noise there is a quiet which was already there and needs nothing done to it.

Then one idea to carry out with you, which is the whole reason this one exists.

How to get the most from it

Five minutes, and it belongs at the hinge of the day rather than at either end of it.

There is nothing to picture, so you can do it at a desk without anybody noticing.

The line to keep is this. It is far easier to bring your calm to the world than to calm the world down first. We nearly always try it the hard way round.

Questions people ask

Five minutes seems too short to matter.

It is a reset rather than a sit. The short ones are the ones that actually get used, which makes them worth more than the long one you keep meaning to do.

What if I genuinely have a lot left to do?

You will do it better from five minutes of quiet than from carrying the afternoon straight into the evening. Nothing on the list is going anywhere.

Can I use it at other times of day?

Yes. It is named for the afternoon because that is when I needed it. Bookmark it for whenever the middle of something has got too loud.

Read along

The transcript

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

overthinking · stress · breath

Read the transcript

So welcome to the afternoon reset.

Now, right now I've got loads of stuff going on in my mind and I'm thinking it's getting near the

end of the day and I've got a few things more to do. I just want to reset and settle

in before the evening.

So this is what I do. First thing is I just allow the body to sit.

Allow the shoulders to relax.

Allow my eyes to soften. Allow

my forehead and my face to soften and

Allow my breath to be what it is.

Breathing in calm. Breathing out relax

And you don't have to do anything with this moment. You don't even have to do anything with your breath.

Your

body knows how to breathe. Your

body knows how to relax.

And just as perhaps an object on your side like the cup or something else around, it knows how to

just be present and just be there.

And that's all we're doing we're just being here.

You don't have to do anything.

Breathing in calm. Breathing out relax

And you may notice your breath raising your chest. Your

belly going in and out.

That's okay.

You may notice a few thoughts popping in. And that's okay, just thank you for the thought

and Allow it to carry on.

You don't have to do anything with the thoughts.

Just the same as if a feeling or emotion arises. You don't have to do anything with that.

So as we just quiet and down in this moment,

we can just feel peaceful.

And we can feel there's no pull.

And there's no push.

It's almost like the universe is completely in balance with us.

It's in balance with every breath.

And again you can allow your shoulders to relax.

Allow your body to relax even more.

And your eyes to soften.

And just recognise this moment for what it is.

It's just peacefulness. Underneath all the noise.

Underneath all the thoughts and the feelings.

There's a quiet. Ah.

There's that place we don't have to do anything with. That's always there.

That place of quiet pause.

Breathing in calm.

Breathing out relax

And just before we return. I just want to show you the difference between bringing this calmness

to the world instead of trying to bring the world to this calmness. It's much easier the first way around,

but we try to do it the second way. We try to calm the world rather than bring the

calmness and the peace to the world. That

peace was always there underneath the thoughts, the feelings. The wants, the desires, the

fears. All the other feelings that's coming up.

So for the rest of the day, just recognise that you don't have to do anything with any thoughts or

feelings that arise.

So five, four, just gently move your arms. Three, gently open your eyes.

Look around the room and just... Ah, and thank yourself and thank this moment for the peacefulness it really

was and the peacefulness it always has been and enabling you to just rest there. And don't forget to

bookmark this meditation for whenever you want to come back and just reset in the afternoon or the evening.

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