Guided, slowing from the inside out. Music underneath
For when the world is going too fast. You slow yourself down first, then let everything else follow you.
About 12 minutes with Steven Webb's calm voice.
It starts inside. The breath, the muscles, then the thoughts getting further apart. Then you look at whatever is near you, a cup, a table, and let that slow down too, until the whole thing has dropped a gear. I have thoughts but I am not those thoughts. I have feelings but I am not those feelings.
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
Everything is coming at once. The news, the decisions, the list, the noise. Stop the world, I want to get off.
You cannot slow the world down. You can slow yourself down, and then let everything else follow you.
I have been doing this one for a while myself, and lately most days.
What happens in this meditation
It starts inside. The breath, then the muscles, then the thoughts getting further apart, and the gaps between my words starting to feel like something.
Then you look at whatever is near you. A cup, a table, the side. And you let that slow down too, until every atom of it is barely moving.
Then it widens until the whole thing has dropped a gear. Everything will be fine. It just buys you time.
Two lines to keep. I have thoughts but I am not those thoughts. I have feelings but I am not those feelings.
How to get the most from it
Twelve minutes, and it works best in the middle of a day rather than at either end of it.
When you open your eyes the world will feel loud and fast again by comparison. That contrast is useful. It shows you the speed was partly yours.
Then take one thing at your normal pace and deliberately do it slower.
Questions people ask
Is this avoiding what is going on?
No. You are not asked to stop caring or stop looking. You are asked to stop matching its pace, because nothing wise gets decided at that speed.
Does it help with anxiety?
It can, and it is not a treatment. What it does is put a gap between what arrives and what you do about it, which is where most of the trouble lives.
Can I do a short version?
Yes. The first few minutes, the slowing of your own body, work on their own. The rest is the same move made bigger.
Read along
The transcript
It follows the audio. Press any line to jump there.
stress · overthinking · present-moment
Read the transcript
Hello and welcome. And thank you for being here.
So let's just settle down and just become comfortable in whatever position you want to do this meditation.
And this meditation is something I've been doing for a while. When just, when the world's going a bit too
quick for me. And that seems to be every day at the moment. With everything that's going on around us.
It's like, help, stop the world, I want to get off. and then it gives me a bit of a
breather to think and just take a little time out. So just become aware of your breath.
Become aware of this moment. You
don't need to do anything with your breath because I always say your body knows how to breathe and
while you're aware of your breath just give your body permission to relax. Invite
your shoulders to relax and
just like your breath your body knows how to relax. Your
arms know how to relax in your hands and your fingers. Your torso, your bum and your legs. They all
know how to relax you just gotta give them permission. So
just go through your muscles now just ah there you go you can relax.
And even with your head and face you allow your cheeks and your nose and your eyes, the muscles
behind your eyes. Just invite them all to relax in this moment.
Including your ears and your tongue and your neck just allow it all to relax.
And now bringing your awareness back to your breath. Just breathing in calm, breathing out relaxed
We don't need to do anything with this moment. We don't need to do anything with our bodies and
even if a thought comes into our mind that is perfectly fine because that's what the mind is evolved to
do. Just
recognise thought, hello thought of a gentle smile and allow it to carry on. Allow it to just
float on by. If
a thought happens you don't need to do anything with it
the way I do this meditation is just I imagine the world just slowing down
and it's starting from within. I can already feel my body slowing down now. All
the atoms and my breath and my muscles it's just all becoming a little more peaceful.
And
even my thoughts are less frequent now. The
gaps between the thoughts and
even just like the gaps between my words.
There's those little bits of peaceful moments.
And as you're slowing down your body's still slowing down. Just become aware of whatever's around you.
And whether it's a cup or a side or it really doesn't matter. Just become aware of what's around you
and just feel it all slowing right down. And
everything is going so slow that it's barely moving. Every atom and every item is just barely
moving that you can hardly even see it.
Just like within your breath.
Just like the muscles.
Just like even when you have a thought it's going across your mind so slowly.
And then you're extending this out into the whole world and the whole world has just slowed right down.
And don't worry everything
will be just fine
in this moment we can just acknowledge that it gives us a bit more time. Just
time to think about something. Or time to just take that breath and
be okay with what is.
And when everything slows down like this everything seems to get a little quieter. A little more peaceful.
And just imagine yourself in the next few days going through the world a little slower. A little more calm.
A
little more peace.
Where your breathing is just gentle. Where
your movements are just gentle. And
your thoughts are more gentle and your feelings are just, they're
less edgy. They're just more peaceful.
They're more about understanding and compassion and just love and acceptance and
kindness.
Where even your feelings are more about compassion and kindness and understanding.
It just feels like you're more in control.
You're the one that's just able to engage and think a little more clearly.
And just bring your awareness back to your breath and allowing your body to relax. Maybe your shoulders have tensed
up a little.
Remember you don't need to do anything with your breath. And
this is the real and
wise part of doing this meditation. Is you recognise that you don't have to do anything with everything that's coming
up.
Whether it's a thought or emotion, you
don't have to do anything with it.
Just like every breath, you don't have to do anything with a breath Your body's doing all it needs to
do. If
you have a thought about something next week or next year or five months ago, you don't have to engage
with the thought.
You have thoughts, you are not those thoughts. You
have feelings, but you're not those feelings. And you can say these mantras to your mind. I have thoughts,
but I am not those thoughts.
I have feelings, but I am not those feelings
Just the same as you breathe, but you're not breath
is something that happens to you. It's something you experience, but you're not it. And
we experience this world that is just spinning out of control and the noise and all the haste and all
the decisions, everything we need to do and all the news. Well, we're just witnessing. We can take a
step back and let's just slow down a moment.
And just keep imagining everything is slowing down.
So as you're breathing in, calm, breathing out, relax. Let's
just bring our awareness back to this moment.
In a moment, I'm going to count back from five.
So five, four, gently open your eyes. Three, move your arms, wiggle your
fingers and toes, if you choose. And two, look around and one, just take a little
deeper breath. Just be really fully aware and present here. And if you can notice,
everything feels louder and faster from this moment. But when we're in meditation,
everything feels slower and like there's space to make decisions. When
really we can bring that calmness of meditation with us on a daily basis. And we can just, ah,
there's my breath. Ah, there's a thought. And just have that little gap between what's
arising and what we do with it So when you have a thought so ah there's a thought. Interesting.
Thank you for joining me on this meditation. And just a reminder, these meditations are completely free.
And there's no adverts because we don't want to be disturbed by adverts before after meditation.
So they're brought to you free by the kind listeners that donate a coffee occasionally
and the monthly donators. So I just want to say thank you to all them and thank you to you
for being here. You can find out more about what I do and how you can support me in the
links below. Or go to StevenWebb.uk Thank you. Have a wonderfully peaceful day
