Meditation and relaxation resources

Taking care of yourself
Not all practices are suitable for everyone. If any of the practices make you feel worse in any way – either more anxious, or dizzy, or upset, then please stop. It may not be the right practice for you, or just not the right time to be doing it. If you find yourself feeling worse, then the guidance is to firstly ground yourself in whatever way helps – perhaps connecting to the physical sensations of where your body meets the seat/bed/floor or to notice some objects around you, perhaps listing them in your head. All of these practices can be listened to online from this web page, or downloaded to your device. Do get in touch if you have any questions or feedback: Contact us

Breath and calming practices
For many people, the quickest route to calming down is to slow and deepen the breath. Most of us breathe at a relatively fast rate, and it’s often quite shallow in the body as well. This can add to our stress or anxiety without us even realising it. Breath control techniques allow us to take control of the breath, slow and deepen it, which can help dial down the body’s stress response. It’s a good idea to practice this when you’re not anxious so that it’s more available for you when you need it. If any of the breathing practices make you feel dizzy, then you may need to work up to them. Some very shallow breathers find it can make them feel a bit dizzy or anxious to change the breath in this way, but don’t be disheartened. It might be that you need to just take it slowly, trying a few breaths first of all, and building up to more when you’re ready. However, if you find the breath just doesn’t work for you as a calming technique, or you already know that you don’t like to focus on the breath, don’t worry as there are plenty of alternatives. The check-in, feet, seat, hands, FOCBOC, and senses/grounding practices are good places to start. You can listen to the recordings on this webpage, or download them and listen to them offload on your device. Contact us with any feedback, questions or suggestions of other practices you’d like to see here.

Short calming and grounding practices

Yoga nidra

A yoga nidra is a deep relaxation practice. I think it’s like a greatest hits of meditation/relaxation. We do a body scan, focuses on the breath for a bit, and there’s some visualisation as well.  While the aim is to stay awake, this is a state of consciousness in between waking and sleeping. It’s sometimes known as yogic sleep (though we are awake) and can help with stress and anxiety, and deep relaxation. It’s a good practice to do when you need to relax, or even when you can’t sleep, as it’s restful for both the mind and body. We have two versions available. A 20 minute, and a longer 30 minute version. There’s also an introduction which is worth listening to before you do either practice for the first time.

Visualisations

Lots of people find that visualisations are a great way to calm down. We can go to a relaxing place in our mind, allowing us to let go and relax. We’ve included three visualisations from our Building a Healthy Future course here, and the mountain meditation.

Before bed

It can be hard to sleep if the body is tense and the mind is very busy. We have a couple of pre-bed practices here, as well as a middle of the night rescue practice for when you wake in the night and find it hard to sleep. Belly breathing can also be good to do before you settle into sleep.