Guided Meditation to Lift Your Mood and Feel Good

Welcome to Calming Anxiety. Before we start, a quick word, we are a thank you to all those who donated, supported and become founding members for the Anchored app that will be coming to market soon on iOS and Android. If you are interested in gaining free lifetime access to a beautiful app with all this content and so much more, head over to CalmingAnxiety.org/anchored There is a link in the show notes direct to that page where you can see what the app will be doing or the link for the GoFundMe Thank you. And today, maybe this morning started a little grey.

Maybe you woke up under a cloud that wasn't quite there yesterday. Maybe something sitting heavy on you. Nothing dramatic, just that low, flat feeling, where the colour seems to have gone out of everything slightly. That's ok, you're human, and that's exactly why you're here.

Because in the next 10 minutes, we're going to shift that, not force it, not pretend it away, but gently, steadily lifted. One breath at a time. Welcome to Calming Anxiety. I'm Martin, clinical hypnotherapist and former frontline paramedic.

Every day I give these 10 minute sessions to help you feel calmer, lighter. I'm a little bit more like yourself, so let's begin. Find your quiet place to sit or lie down and let's focus on the breathing. As always, in through the nose, holding at the top to be aware of the moment of silence, then out through the mouth.

Today, we breathe in for three, we hold for two, and we release for five. A technique you can use anywhere without anyone knowing. So with me, my friend, in two, three, pause, two, breathe out, two, three, four, five, again, in two, three, hold two, release, two, three, four, five.

On every outbrem, connect with the sensations in your chest, your ribcage, and be mindful as the fibers relax and wind and loosen. And you let go of the tension and sink deeper into a natural, trans-like state.

Once more, breathe in me. In two, three, hold two, relax, two, three, four, five.

Good. Do you feel that shift even slightly? The outbreath longer than the inbreath, and that matters. It's your body's very own off switch.

Your nerve receiving the signal right now. You are safe. You are calm. There is no threat.

Moved already beginning to shift. Let's keep going. Allow the body to soften now. Let the weight of you sink into wherever you are sitting or lying.

You do not have to hold anything up. And within the beauty of your thoughts, I'd like you to imagine a place where the light is good. Maybe it's outside, an open field, a coastal part, a garden. Maybe it's inside somewhere warm and familiar.

Wherever you are, the light is soft and the air is easy to breathe. You arrive here feeling heavy. That's fine. Bring it with you.

We're not leaving it at the door. We are just going to set it down once we get inside. So find a place to sit, right in the middle of this scene. There's a bench or a patch of grass, a low stone wall.

Somewhere that feels like it was put there just for you. Set it down. And now imagine that heaviness that was in your chest, that flat grey weight. It has a colour.

It doesn't have to make sense. Just let one come. Gray may be or a dull, heavy blue. Now watch what happens as the light in this place falls on it.

Slowly the colour begins to change. Not dramatically, just a subtle gentle shift. The grey may be become silver, the heavy blue becomes something brighter, something lighter.

Feel that physically, a small release across your chest. Your shoulders drop a fraction. Something in your jaw and collection. You don't have to fix anything.

You don't have to understand why you feel the way you feel. You just have to sit here and let the light do its work. Because your mood is not permanent. It is weather and weather always changes.

You have done this before. You have come through difficult mornings, heavy days, weeks that felt like they had never shift, but they did. They always do. And so will let.

You have more strength than you than the grey days let you see. So let's remind you. Let's say it out loud, or as close to out loud as feel right. These with me, slowly.

Mean them as much as you can, even if only a small part of you believes in right now. That small part is enough. I am allowed to feel better than this. My mood is not permanent.

I am already shifting. I have come through hard days before. I know how to do this. There is goodness in today.

I am open to finding it. I choose right now to be gentle with myself.

Rest here, my friend, for just a moment. Let those words settle somewhere deeper. Let the light in your imagined place do a little more of its quiet work. You are safe.

You are cared for. And you are already lifting. And within this moment of calm, within the sanctuary of your consciousness, here are your three caring tips to help lift your mood and keep it here today. One, mood, but five minutes.

In your mood is low. Your body wants to stay still. But movement is one of the fastest, most reliable mood lift as we have. You don't need a gym or a plan.

Just five minutes. Walk to the end of the street. Dance in the kitchen. Stretch on the floor.

Five minutes of movement shifts your neurochemistry in a way that nothing else can match. Just start. The mood follows the motion. Two, the sunlight signal.

If you can, step outside today, even for five minutes, and base the light, natural light.

Even on a grey day, this regulates your circadian rhythm. Nudge's serotonin production entails your brain that the world is livable. The one good thing, room. When the mood is low, it's so hard to see anything clearly.

So give yourself just one job today. Find one good thing, not ten, not a whole gratitude list. Just one small thing that is genuinely okay or better. A decent coffee.

A song you love, someone who is kind, one thing, collected, hold it.

It's the first brick in a better day. Now gently, let's bring your awareness back to yourself. Wiggle your fingers and your toes. Roll your shoulders.

Take one big breath in, then release it. You came in here carrying something. You're leaving a little lighter. That's real.

That's yours. Take it with you. If you'd like more, my anxiety circuit break, it calls, is at calminganxiety.fm. It's five guided hypnotherapy sessions, and it's only $67, and it really is genuinely worth every penny.

You have access to it for life. Thank you for trusting me with your ten minutes today, truly. Have a lovely day. Smile often, positivity when you look at yourself in the mirror, and then my friend, be kind.