Restful Awareness Guided Relaxation Exercise
March 18, 2010 in stress and anxiety relief 
One of the challenges in relaxing the mind is that it's practically impossible to think of nothing. Our thoughts come and go constantly, when we're feeling anxious and we try to relax and meditate our mind sometimes tunes in to our anxious thoughts. We can feel even worse as the distractions we use to keep unwanted thoughts at bay fade away and we're left facing our fears without diversion.
Fortunately, there's a middle road between trying to think of nothing and feeling uncomfortable and using things like the TV and internet, or rushing around and keeping busy to try and distract your self from anxious thoughts. This middle road is called Restful Awareness. It's a mindful breathing exercise that draws your mind in to specific points of focus that keep your mind distracted and help it come away from anxious thoughts and settle into a state of relaxation.
In this podcast Ananga talks you through a simple restful awareness experience that you can enjoy for yourself:
For maximum benefit from Restful Awareness, we invite you to download our guided mp3 complete with relaxing music from the Anxiety Slayer Store
Image and words by FLICKR artist alicepopkorn
I am here - here I am
am I here? yes I am
"a wordplay came into my mind - I saw it in the London underground years ago....and I never forgot it"