Work Stress SOS
A meditation designed to help you step away from insistent anxiety about your professional life.
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So experiencing lots of unwanted thoughts about work can happen at any time of day or night but I think at night time, especially waking up with them or being woken up by them can be really frustrating and I think they feel especially sort of clear in the quiet of the night. So we're gonna spend the next few minutes just stepping out of some of that thinking. No matter how persistent the thoughts appear, we're not gonna fight against them, we're gonna find a way to sort of step out of their way and it may be something very specific to what's going on at work right now, extra responsibility, pressure, particularly difficult situation or presentation or meeting, whatever it might be. We're not gonna focus on what it is, more on this idea of stepping out of the way of those thoughts or stepping back from those thoughts, getting back into our body and just creating the conditions for restful sleep. So if you've got up for any reason, I suggest that you lie back down again and ideally lying down flat on your back. And just take a moment. Again, don't worry if the thoughts about work continue, just allow them to come and go. But before we do anything, I'd like you just to notice that feeling. Allow the full weight of your body to rest downwards on the mattress beneath you and just take one big deep breath, breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth and as you breathe out through the mouth, just gently closing the eyes. And I'd like you just to take your attention down to your toes, bottom of the bed and we're gonna work towards the mind but we're gonna start with the body, to switching off the body, placing our attention in the body, just starting with the left foot, the small toe. We just move toe by toe and we imagine just switching off the muscles in that part of the body, into the foot, the ankle, the lower half of the leg, just switching it off, the upper half of the leg, just switching it off. So it's as though that entire left side from the waist downwards. Muscles disengaged, switched off, might even be able to feel the heaviness in that side of the body and just allow any thoughts that come and go, just gently placing the attention now in the right foot, starting with the small toe and just moving toe by toe, just switching off the muscles for the night. And into the foot and the ankle and the lower half of the leg and the upper half of the leg, just switching it off, paring down for the night. And allow any thoughts to come and go, not trying to go to sleep, just creating the conditions for rest in the body and rest in the mind. So just bringing the attention now to the lower back, the...
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- More about Andy
A former Buddhist monk, Andy has guided people in meditation and mindfulness for 20 years. In his mission to make these practices accessible to all, he co-created the Headspace app in 2010.
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Eve is a mindfulness teacher, overseeing Headspace’s meditation curriculum. She is passionate about sharing meditation to help others feel less stressed and experience more compassion in their lives.
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As a meditation teacher, Dora encourages others to live, breathe, and be with the fullness of their experiences. She loves meditation’s power to create community and bring clarity to people’s minds.
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Kessonga has been an acupuncturists, therapist, and meditation teacher, working to bring mindfulness to the diverse populations of the world.
- More about Rosie
Rosie Acosta has studied yoga and mindfulness for more than 20 years and taught for over a decade. Rosie’s mission is to help others overcome adversity and experience radical love.
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