Episode 39

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Published on:

19th Oct 2023

A Meditation for When Relaxation Seems Impossible

I recorded this because I did not want to meditate and had been putting it off. So we do it together and I keep it short.

About 10 minutes with Steven Webb's calm voice.

Nothing much is asked of you. Not even relaxing. You make a game of it instead. What can I be aware of right now? A sound, the heat on your skin, a bit of tension that lets go the second you notice it. Meditation does not have to be a big thing every time. Sometimes it is just sitting down and noticing.

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

Stevens new course: Finding Peace in Everyday Life (you choose how much to pay)

Transcript
Steven Webb:

Welcome to this guided meditation. This is the meditation for when you don't want to meditate, basically. And I'm

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recording this now because I don't want to meditate. And I've been resisting it for a while. And I thought,

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what better way of meditating than recording a guided meditation and doing it along with you. And there's a

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lot of the time we procrastinate and we resist and We just don't want to sit down and do nothing

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for 10 minutes or five minutes or whatever. So I won't push it. Let's do a few minutes meditation. Just

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trying to settle the body when it doesn't want to settle.

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So the way I do this is bring

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my focus to my breath.

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I'm breathing in and I'm breathing out.

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I don't do anything with my breath. I just allow my breath to do that.

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And after a few breaths, I just allow the body to relax. Allow

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the shoulders.

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The arms,

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hands and the fingers and the legs and the toes.

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Anything that just comes to mind that you can relax. And

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you do this just by allowing it to relax, that's all.

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You don't have to do anything to your body to relax, you just allow it.

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And sometimes it helps to breathe in calm and

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breathe out relax

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And you can say it in your mind.

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And with each breath you can relax that a little bit more. By just allowing the body to relax.

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By finding parts of the body that could relax a little more.

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Maybe your eyes and your cheeks.

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Even your nose and your tongue and your ears.

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And you may notice that everything just becomes that little bit quieter.

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Even the atoms in your body that may seem quite agitated just become a little slower.

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And you recognise that you don't have to do anything with this moment. You don't even have to relax. You

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don't even have to change your breath you Just allow this moment to be what it is and just watch

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it with awareness.

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I'm aware I'm breathing.

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I'm aware my body's relaxing.

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I'm aware my mind's quieter.

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I'm aware the world's a little quieter.

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And if a thought does come up, you don't have to do anything with it. Just be aware, oh there's

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a thought.

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And if you find the thought really quite intrusive or it just won't disappear.

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Just thank the thought. Thank you.

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But we've just been awareness now.

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You can even do it as a little game.

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What can we be aware of?

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We can be aware of the feelings that arise,

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the sounds that are coming in,

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the heat on our skin.

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We can be aware of any pockets of tension in the body that once

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you become aware of them they just automatically relax.

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And notice with every breath you can still allow the body to relax a little bit more.

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There's almost always another level of relaxation.

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Another level of quietness

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new level of stillness.

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And we're just going to spend a couple of minutes just being aware of the breath.

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I'll keep an eye on the time. You don't have to.

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Your only job is to be aware.

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Welcome back.

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How was that?

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See, we don't have to make a big thing out of meditation every single time. Sometimes we can just sit

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down and be aware.

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I'm going to count back from five.

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Five. Four. Gently open your eyes. Three. Shake out your arms. Two.

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One. Just look around the room and even if you didn't close your eyes and even if you didn't really

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relax into this meditation, it really doesn't matter. Sometimes meditation isn't about a deep profound awareness or

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a deep relaxation. Sometimes meditation has just simply been aware of what's going on in the body right now

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and what's going on in the mind right now and Just stepping back and just becoming aware of it.

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Sometimes that's all we need to do.

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I'm Steven Webb and thank you for doing this meditation and thank you for doing this with me. I needed

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it. I needed this little bit of calmness. Boy, I've been struggling today and just

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doing this for you and doing this with you, that makes a big difference. These podcasts are, they don't

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have any sponsorship. They totally rely on the donation by you guys. So if you can

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and if you're able to, just drop me a coffee in the link below. If not, it doesn't matter. Enjoy

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them. A bit of inner peace in your world. Take care. Bye.

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About the Podcast

Inner Peace Meditations
Short guided meditations for people who cannot meditate. No jargon, no complicated breathing, no promises. Around fourteen minutes. Always free.
Short guided meditations for people who cannot meditate.

That is not a joke, it is the actual brief. If you have ever tried one of these and spent the whole time thinking about whether you were doing it right, then went back to scrolling, these are for you.

I am Steven Webb. I have ADHD and dyslexia, and my mind has never once gone quiet. I stopped trying to make it. That turned out to be the whole thing.

You do not have to empty your head. You never did. The thoughts are not the problem, your relationship with them is.

Most of these run around fourteen minutes. Morning ones to start the day a bit lighter. Evening ones to let the day settle. Some for anxiety, some for anger, some for the nights when sleep is not happening.

No complicated breathing. No visualisations you cannot hold. No promises about who you will be in thirty days.

Free, and staying free.

Steven Webb has been paralysed from the chest down since 1991. He teaches from the mess, not from the mountaintop.
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