Calming an Anxious Mind

Hello, it's Eve here. Welcome to this course on calming an anxious mind. If you're feeling anxious right now, I'm sorry. I've struggled with an anxious mind a lot over the years. It's actually what brought me to meditation in the first place, so I know how difficult it can feel. My intention with this course is to provide you with some tools and techniques that you can use every day to help your mind and body feel more at ease. Whether you are new to meditation or have done it before, this course is for everyone. Try not to put too much pressure on yourself. The most important thing is to go at your own pace. You are not failing if you miss a day or two or three, just come back when you feel ready. As we go through this course, I'll introduce you to five mindfulness techniques that have been shown to ease the mind and calm the nervous system. I want to highlight that feeling anxious is not bad. We often feel anxious because we care about something or someone, it's a normal emotion to experience. It's this sense of worry, anticipation, of fear that something might go wrong. But sometimes a little anxiety can actually keep us on our toes and help motivate us, but it becomes problematic when it starts to impact our overall wellbeing and our ability to function in our daily lives. Today we are going to practice a technique called focused attention. Often when we feel anxious, the mind is racing, so we're going to give it a place to focus and settle. It's normal to experience a lot of thinking in meditation, so don't worry if you get distracted by your busy mind, it will happen. We are not trying to clear or empty the mind, instead, we are giving the mind a place to focus by connecting to our senses so that the mind can naturally settle. So let's transition into our practice. You can sit in a chair or on the couch or you can lie down, whatever is most comfortable. If you are sitting down, bringing a little length to the spine, relaxing the shoulders, softening the jaw, and resting both feet on the floor. If you are lying down, perhaps placing a pillow under the knees and head, and then closing your eyes or lowering your gaze downwards. And let's start by taking a slower, deeper breath, breathing in through the nose and then out through the mouth. Doing that a couple more times, feeling the body expand on the inhale. And on the exhale, seeing if you can let go of any tension or tightness. And breathing at your own rhythm and rate, feeling the body supported by the surface that you are on. For the next few minutes there is nothing else to do, this time is for you. So staying with the feeling or sensation of the body being supported, what do you...