Hey, welcome to this meditation.

We're going to explore here

how to calm ourselves down

when we're feeling overwhelmed.

And if you're listening to

this, maybe there's a chance you

are feeling a bit overwhelmed,

stressed, or angry in this moment.

If you are, I understand.

I've been there as well.

Let's try some practices that

I think will help you out.

If you haven't already, you can

find a comfortable seated position.

Maybe sitting cross-legged on the floor

or sitting in a chair, something that

helps you feel relaxed and peaceful.

If you'd like, you can close your eyes.

And let's take one deep breath together.

In through the nose.

Slowly out through the mouth.

You can let your jaw and face relax.

A lot of times when we're angry,

upset, our face scrunches up.

So if you're noticing that, just see if

you can relax the muscles in the face.

Relaxing the eyes, the forehead,

the cheeks, and the mouth.

Even relaxing the tongue try that one out.

Relaxing your shoulders.

And your belly.

And notice if your hands are tense.

And this is a really common

one when we're angry.

We tend to bunch our

hands into little fists.

So see if you can let the hands

just relax, letting go, maybe

placing them gently on your lap.

In this meditation, I'm going to teach you

two strategies to help calm yourself down.

The first is called box breathing.

And what this involves is breathing

in for four seconds, holding

your breath for four seconds.

Exhaling for four seconds, and then

holding the breath again for four seconds.

So I'll guide you through this.

Start by breathing in for 1, 2, 3, 4.

Now hold your breath for 4, 3, 2, 1.

Exhale for 1, 2, 3, 4.

And hold for 4, 3, 2, 1.

That's box breathing and it

can be really helpful to slow

our breathing down in this way.

Let's try it two more times.

Breathing in for four seconds.

1, 2, 3, 4.

Hold the breath for 4, 3, 2, 1.

Exhale for 1, 2, 3, 4.

Hold the breath for 4, 3, 2, 1.

One more.

Breathing in 1, 2, 3, 4.

Hold the breath for 4, 3, 2, 1.

Exhale for 1, 2, 3, 4 hold for 4, 3, 2, 1.

Great job.Now you can use box

breathing anytime throughout the day.

I'm going to share one other technique

with you that I think you'll like.

This one's my favorite.

It's called take five.

So we're going to do this together

and it involves using your hands.

So if you'd like to open your

eyes for a moment, you can.

And I just want you to hold your hand out

in front of you as if you were holding

a pizza, or you were holding a plate.

And now take your right pointer

finger and place it in your hand

right where the hand meets the wrist.

What we're going to do here is slide

our pointer finger up and down each

finger in our left hand, while taking

a deep breath in and a deep breath out.

So let's do it together.

Start with the pointer finger

in the base of the hand.

Now, slide it up the thumb

while you're taking an inhale.

Sliding up, breathing in.

Slide the finger back

down, taking an exhale.

Good.

Let's slide it up the point

of finger on the left-hand.

Breathing in.

Slide back down, exhale through the mouth.

Slide up the middle finger.

Back down.

Sliding up the ring finger.

Back down.

And then sliding the pinky finger.

Back down.

Nice.

And it can almost feel like you're

tickling each finger with the

pointer finger in your right hand.

I always find that when I do this,

there's something really soothing

about it, especially when I touch

each finger while I'm breathng.

So let's try this one

more time before we go.

Remember we're just tracing

each finger on our left hand,

sliding up and sliding down.

Ready?

Starting with the first one.

Sliding up the thumb,

breathing into the nose.

Sliding back down,

exhale through the mouth.

Slide up the pointer finger.

Back down.

Middle finger.

Down.

Ring.

Back down.

And pinky.

Back down.

There you go.

So these are two techniques

that you can use when you're

feeling stressed and overwhelmed.

Box breathing and then a simple

exercise called take five.

Try these out.

Hope this helps you feel

a little bit better.

Thanks for meditating with me.

And I'll talk to you soon.

Take care.