Wee Hours Rescue -- Go Back to Sleep

When we wake up in the middle of the night, our thoughts and emotions can start running wild and keep us from falling back to sleep. Perhaps we've awakened from a dream that has left us feeling vulnerable or full of anxiety or sadness. We find ourselves worrying about things and our half dreaming mind can imagine all kinds of worst case scenarios. Our daytime logic seems to escape us. Our defenses are down and our emotions are more intense. Like a child whose awakened from a bad dream, all we may need is reassurance that the dream wasn't, after real, and everything is OK.

Our Wee Hours Rescue meditation has helped many people who use it on our iSleep Easy app, so we're sharing it with our podcast listeners in hopes that it will bring more peace to your nights and help you get more sleep. Just 4 minutes of voice guidance can help you reset and slip back into sleep. This guided meditation has music in the background which continues for 14 minutes after the meditation stops.

We hope you'll find this useful and would love to hear from you. Happy ZZZZZs!

Whole Body Relaxation

Relaxation is not something you can do. It is a letting go of doing, a letting go of effort. The body and mind know how to relax, we just need to give them a chance to do what's natural.

Ideally a muscle contracts to perform an action and then when the action is finished, goes back into its relaxed state. That's the natural cycle -- relaxed - tensed - relaxed. Our dog can be lying completely relaxed on the sofa and then, with a sudden loud noise, she snaps to attention. Looking around and seeing that nothing is threatening or amiss, she's immediately back to relaxation mode. We humans, however,  are often chronically "at attention". Whether it's trying to keep up with the frenzied pace of modern life, or remaining in "flight or fight" mode after a major stress, we can find it difficult to get back into the relaxation mode.

Our Whole Body Relaxation meditation gently guides you into a relaxed state through a process of noticing tension and letting it go. Remember, your body knows how to relax. Given the chance it will happen on its own. Using this meditation repeatedly creates a new habit so that you can relax more easily anytime.

Let us know how it works for you, and feel free to ask questions!

(This meditation is a gift to you from our Relax & Rest app.)

SOS Meditation for Anxiety

Do your thoughts start to run wild after a stressful situation has triggered fear and anxiety? Do you feel like you're on a runaway train, thoughts running in all directions making you more and more anxious? What can you do to apply the brakes to this "anxiety-worry spiral"? 

The key ingredients to dealing with anxiety are allowing it to be present, letting go of the worry thoughts that fuel it, and re-directing your attention. All of these elements play a part in this latest podcast meditation, SOS Meditation for Anxiety. It gently encourages you to let go of the thoughts that are fanning the flames of anxiety, and use the breath to guide the mind and body to a relaxed, calm place.

Allowing -- What we resist persists, when it comes to anxiety or any other emotion. You can think of emotions as a movement of energy, or even a chain of chemical reactions, in the body. Trying to push anxiety out or run away from it is like putting a dam in a river. It stops the flow. The water can't go anywhere. By allowing the anxiety to be there, it is allowed to run its course. 

Letting go of worry thoughts -- Fear is a signal that there is danger. When we feel anxious, even when there isn't a true threat present, the mind gets busy trying to understand what is happening and what to do. Without any obvious basis for the fear, the mind can go wild with worry thoughts and these thoughts make the fear even stronger. Letting go of these thoughts is essential to allowing the anxiety to pass.

Re-directing attention -- At the same time that anxiety is allowed to be present, we can direct our attention elsewhere. This is a subtle point: we are not resisting anxiety but rather "favoring" something else. In the case of this meditation, that something else is the breath. The meditation encourages you to pay attention to the breath. The pleasant, soothing rhythm of the breath and awareness of how the body feels as you breathe provides a calming focus for the mind.

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Although this meditation can be used anytime you are anxious, it was especially designed for our new Meditation Rx Relief for Patients & Families app. Although the app has guided meditations specifically for use with medical situations and settings, most of the meditations can be used in other situations as well. 

Equinox Guided Meditation

As a lover of light and warmth, I had always felt a bit of sadness with the coming of the Autumn Equinox. It seemed to signal the descent into winter -- short days, long nights, colder weather. More recently, thanks to meditation and perhaps also aging, which has brought me through so many seasonal cycles and ups and downs of life, my perspective has broadened. I have at long last given up the illusion that I can find a "sweet spot" in life and stay there forever. Perhaps more important is the recognition that you can't have sweet without sour, and whatever my current situation may be, "good" or "bad", it will change.

I am grateful to meditation for helping me to experience that which doesn't change and find a place of balance to carry me through the good times and the bad. As I sat with my guided meditation group, these recognitions and musings lead to this new podcast episode -- Equinox Guided Meditation.

These days when I create a meditation for the podcast, I know there are people on the other side of the world who will listen. Whether you are in the northern hemisphere transitioning from summer to autumn as we are, or in the southern hemisphere going from winter to spring, this equinox meditation will speak to you. We are all experiencing a turning point in the seasons. Actually, we are experiencing a turning point in every moment. I invite you to explore the nature of this change with us in this meditation, and would love to hear what you discover.

Guided Meditation for Birthdays and Everyday Renewal

This latest podcast meditation Guided Meditation for Birthdays and Everyday Renewal was recorded with my meditation group. It was inspired by the birthday of the woman who had inspired me to start the group many years ago. As I was ending the meditation, I found myself saying, 

"We’ve experienced the sense of aliveness. We’ve been reminded of renewal. We’ve given thanks and taken into our hearts the many gifts life has given us and we’ve planted a seed for the time to come. And we can carry that aliveness and sense of life and miracle of life with us now."

Although this meditation can have special meaning on your birthday, it's something that you can use on any day to renew your sense of gratitude and wonder. I hope you enjoy this meditation as much as the group did and would love to hear your experiences with it.