I Can Feel My Heart Pounding - A Guided Meditation for Heart Palpatations and a Racing Heartbeat.

You get that feeling right there under your hand too fast, too hard, too loud for a room this quiet yet nothing is happening. You're sitting down, you haven't run anywhere, you haven't climbed anything and still your heart is going like you've just sprinted up a flight of stairs and here's the thing now. The beating isn't the worst part. The worst part is the question that arrives behind it.

What if this isn't anxiety? So tonight we're going to answer that question, not with reassurance, not with someone telling you you're fine, but with your own body. Tonight is about a racing heart. Not anxiety, heart palpitations and a pounding heartbeat that will not slow down.

This is calming anxiety. I'm your host Martin, I'm a clinical hypnotherapist and a long time before that a paramedic and I want to mention this here because tonight of all nights it's the relevant one. Inside anchored, there are proper breathing tools. Not a page of instructions to read what your chest is hammering, but an actual pacer, a shape that grows while you breathe in and shrinks while you breathe out.

So in the dark you don't have to count, you don't have to remember, you don't have to get it right, you just follow me with your ears and your eyes. Right, let's slow this down. Place one hand flat on your chest, not to check it, not to take a pulse, just so your heart has something warm resting over it. And let your eyes close, if that feels okay.

Today the breathing is longer, will breathe in for five, no pause, but out for ten, always out through the mouth soft like you're steaming up a window, ready, round one, breathe in, two, three, four, five, and out, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, and don't stress if you change your eight, just try what's comfy for you, round two. Breathe in, two, three, four, five, and out all the way to empty, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. Allow the shoulders to drop down just slightly away from the ears, round three, breathe in, two, three, four, five, release, relax, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten.

Now just let it go back to its own rhythm. And hold on to the count and notice quietly, without checking, without measuring, that something under your hand is changed, maybe only a little, but a little is all we need.

Feel the weight, the surface beneath you, you are safe, you are being held. Now picture, a warm amber light sitting just under your hand, maybe the color of a lamp left on in a hallway and with every out breath it spreads a little wider across your chest.

Stay with that and then say these words with me, silently or out loud whichever the room allows, but feel them, see them. I am safe, I am here, there is nothing to fear right now.

This is anxiety in my body and anxiety always passes.

I can feel my heartbeat and I do not have to be frightened of it.

Every out breath slows me down.

The alarm has been heard, it can stop ringing now.

And still deeper into this natural trance like state you allow yourself to settle.

To regain your strength, your composure and move past these moments of stress of turmoil because simply put you are strong and you are worthy. And then once more, within the beauty of your mind's eye, imagine and repeat.

I am safe, I am here, there is nothing to fear right now.

This is anxiety in my body and anxiety always passes.

I can feel my heartbeat and I do not have to be frightened of it.

Every out breath slows me down.

The alarm has been heard, it can stop ringing now.

And relax again, the pounding, the fear, the what if. They are simply like clouds passing across a horizon. They move, they are loud and they are far and they are absolutely convincing yet they pass. They always, always pass.

Within this moment of calm, take on board today's three daily caring tips. One, when you notice your heart racing, put one hand flat on your chest and breathe out for twice as long as you breathed in. Three rounds is usually enough to feel the breaking gauge. Two, cut your caffeine out eight hours before bed because caffeine alone can produce a pounding heartbeat that feels exactly like anxiety.

And three, if a racing heart is new for you and comes with any chest pain, feinting or breathlessness, do book in with your doctor, get it checked properly, take care of you.

Now slowly bring your thoughts back into the space around you. Circle your fingers and toes. Take a breath in, hold and then as you exhale, stretch out the muscles in your arms and legs and then open your eyes. And that's our ten minutes together my friend.

Your heart carried you here through everything today, without ever once being asked, it's on your side, it always was. If this session helped, please do come and find anchored. The breathing pace is right there on the explore page. You can set your own.

It's rather wonderful. It's on iOS right now and I do promise, pinky promise, it's coming to Android in September.

Please if you have 30 seconds, leave a review, either on Apple, Spotify or for anchored if you've downloaded it. And if you want all this content, advert free, for less than a price of a large mocha, which is what five minutes of enjoyment, you get a months worth of all of this, ad free, download for offline usage. Thank you. Have a wonderful day, truly.

Smile often, positive thoughts when you can and then in everything. Be kind.