I keep being too hard on myself - 10 Minutes of Guided Meditation

If you found this session, chances are you've been setting the bar impossibly high. For yourself, for your day, but who you think you should be right now. And when you fall short of that bar, even slightly, the voice inside turns sharp, critical, unkind. Today, we're going to quieten that voice.

But by silencing it with force, but by gently replacing it with something warmer, something truer. This is calming anxiety. I'm Martin, clinical hypnotherapist, former frontline paramedic, and today we give ourselves a little grace. Welcome back my friend, or if you're new, welcome.

This is a 10 minute guided session designed to help you exhale the weight that you've been carrying and return yourself with a little more kindness. So find your comfortable place to sit or lie down, let the room settle around you. And when you're ready, if you can, if it's safe, close your eye. Let your hands now, breath gently, palms open.

We're going to breathe together now. And today's breath has one very specific focus, the out breath, the exhale, that moment of relief. Because here's what most of us forget. The out breath is where the nervous system shift.

It's where the body signals safety. It's where we let go. So let's begin. Breathe in gently through your nose, filling the lungs slowly.

And now breathe out through your mouth. Long steady. And let's something go with it. Again, breathe in.

And then breathe out longer this time, like you're sighing away the weight of the day, the weight of the wheel, the weight of the standard you've been holding yourself in. Feel your lungs expand and rise. And out. Let go.

Feel all those small muscle fibers in and around your rib cage as they loosen, they lengthen.

You breathe out the stress and tension of the day. With every out breath, I'd like you to imagine that you're releasing a color, the color of tension, of self-criticism, of not enough. Watch it leave your body on that rib. In, then out.

The color drips away from you. The air around you is clearer now. In, inflate your lung and out. You don't have to fix anything right now.

You don't have to be better right now. All you have to do is breathe and you're doing it beautifully. Keep this rhythm going. Your own pace now.

Just notice the out breath. Just notice all of it. Notice how it feels to let something go. Every exhale is your body saying, "I am safe.

I am here. I am enough. Stay with this for a moment. Just the breath.

Just the release. Now, as your body softens and as your breathing binds its own natural rhythm, I want to offer you five affirmations. Allow each one to land. Don't just hear the words.

Feel where they live within your body. Repeat them after me in your thoughts or quietly on your lips. I am doing the best I can with what I have today and that is genuinely enough.

I release the need to be perfect. I choose instead to be present.

I speak to myself with the same kindness I would offer someone I love.

Falling short does not make me less. It makes me human and being human is the whole point.

Today, I begin again, not from failure but from experience.

Let these words settle now. There is no rushing. There is just the breath and let them be true. I am doing the best I can with what I have today and that is genuinely enough.

I release the need to be perfect. I choose instead to be present.

I speak to myself with the same kindness I would offer someone I love.

Falling short does not make me less. It makes me human and being human is the whole point.

Today, I begin again, not from failure, from experience.

And to carry this with you, through not only today, but the days, the weeks and the months that have been said, here are your three daily caring tips before we return to carry self-compassion. One, catch the critic. The next time that inner voice turns harsh, pause and ask, would I say this to a friend? If the answer is no, rewrite it.

Literally rephrase it in your mind with the tone you use for someone you care about. Two, lower the bar, just for today. Choose one thing on your list that you've been carrying as a burden and consciously decide it can wait, to be done differently or be dropped entirely. Permission to be imperfect is not failure.

It's wisdom. Number three, name one thing you actually did. Not what you didn't do, what you did. Even small, you got up, you brailed, you showed up, you listened, you made a cup of tea for someone.

These things count. Start counting them. Now gently, start to bring your awareness back into the room and the world around you. Wiggle your fingers and your toes.

Take one deep breath in and then as you exhale, stretch out the arms overhead and when you're ready, open your eye. Well done my friend, truly. We can't all have fantastic days, learning to cope with the darker moments makes us stronger. If today's session helped you breathe a little easier, please share it with one person who might need to hear it.

You could be the reason, but someone gives themselves a break today. And if you're ready to go deeper into understanding your anxiety, not just managing it, the anxiety circuit breaker course is waiting for you at calminganxiety.fm. There are five clinical sessions built around the same techniques that I've used with thousands of patients. Thank you.

Until tomorrow, smile often, smile genuinely in the mirror at your reflection and then in everything. Be kind.