Letting Go of Stress

Welcome to Headspace on stress. So stress means something different to everybody, but essentially we can say it's wanting things to be different from how they are right now. It might be that the mind is busier than we'd like it to be. It might be that we're experiencing some kind of emotion that feels very negative or overwhelming. It might be feeling of impatience, frustration, sadness, anything at all. So it doesn't matter too much which of these it is. This is a technique that works well for all of these, in sort of broad spectrum if you like, and it's a visualization technique. It builds on all of the essential ingredients you learned in the foundation exercise, but it takes it on a little bit further and adds as I say this visualization element. Don't worry if you've not done any visualization before, I'll lead you through the exercise, and each day we'll continue to develop that just a little bit more. Now, the nice thing about this exercise is on the one hand it engages the mind. It occupies the mind. And yet at the same time it sets up a framework in which the mind can sort of let go and unwind, so we move towards a place of calm. But to begin with, if you just like to take a moment, get comfortable, make sure you're sat in a place where you're gonna be undisturbed, where the posture is upright and yet at the same time there's a sense of softness in their body relaxation through the shoulders. And when you're ready, just starting in the usual way with the eyes open a nice soft gaze, aware of the space around you. And just taking some nice big deep breaths breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth. And with the next out breath just gently closing the eyes now. Just starting to feel the weight of the body, starting to notice the points of contact of the feet on the floor and the hands and the arms resting on the leg. Maybe noticing the sounds, so just bringing the mind into the physical senses, assessing back into the space around you. Just bringing the attention a little bit more towards the body as you scan down from head to toe noticing any areas that feel particularly comfortable or uncomfortable, just building up a picture of how the body feels, and just noticing if there's any particular mood that might be around at the moment. And before shifting the attention to the breath, just being clear in your mind, your motivation for doing this exercise today. Create sentence in your own mind, and then just gently shifting the focus, the rise and the fall of the breath, wherever you feel it strongest in the body right now. And as you're just become increasingly comfortable and following the natural rhythm of the breath, just like you to imagine now a steady flow from above...