Meditation for Anxiety Related to the State of the World

Welcome friends.

Gently close your eyes or lower your gaze, and let your body settle and arrive to this meditation. Take an expansive inhale, feeling your chest rise towards the sky as your lungs spread with air, and as you exhale, feel the pull of gravity drawing you down into your seat. Aware of the ground beneath you. Inhale again through your nose, slowing down your breath, and exhale, through pursed lips, feeling the ribcage move downwards as you allow the breath to release. Letting go of any tightness in the body. Breathe in again through the nose and breathe out through pursed lips, expelling any thoughts or stories that you’ve been attached to today. Continue to breath in and out like this.

We are collectively living through extremely turbulent times and while life has historically always been complex and full of both joy and suffering, we have never had more access to witnessing all of it as we have today, as a result of our phones and social media and how unprecedented this constant input of information is.

As we bare witness to poly-crisis: climate change, cyclical violence, systemic injustice, whether it be through reading or watching the news, or directly experiencing the impact, we may wonder what meditation could possibly offer us? How do we take a moment to pause when we feel so deeply unsafe?

This is very much what a mindfulness practice is here to teach us: how to find ground within the groundlessness of this human condition. How to stay present within a world where things are unstable, and rather than chase certainty, as that’s something that none of us can ever guarantee long-term, meditation can help us accept this inherent insecurity, and build inner resilience through befriending the profound uncertainty of this moment, and the next one, and so on.

From that space, each of us is better prepared to access our wise mind and answer the call of our lives as to how we can do our part to create a more life-affirming world.

Hearing all of this, what sensations are you noticing in your body? In your shoulders? Across your chest? In your jaw? Deep in your stomach? Scanning the body, and silently naming any sensations that are emerging.

Continuing with a curious mind, which feelings do you notice are coming up in exploring the themes of this meditation? Is there sadness? Disillusionment? Relief? Overwhelm? Try your best not to condemn or praise any feeling, simply noticing what is coming into presence as you explore the multiplicity of feelings within.

Welcoming in all feelings.

Now choose one of these feelings to track and focus on, and notice where in your body the feeling is located. For the next few minutes, try to keep the body very still as you practice. Bring hyper-focus to this area and begin to watch it, while also noticing each inhale and exhale.

If the mind has wandered, gently guide it back to the area of focus. And if the mind feels very distracted, take a sharp breath through your nose, and sigh it out, resetting and coming back to witnessing the sensations within your body.

Are you noticing that the nature of these sensations is that they do not stay the same?

Continue to search and witness any changing of the sensations. Perhaps they intensify or pulsate or spread out in a certain area?

Relax your body and bring full awareness back to your nostrils.

Aware of the breath going in, aware of the breath going out.

These little body scans give us small windows into the impermanence of the experience happening within our body at any moment. Just as the world around us is everchanging, so is the universe within us.

We can find a refuge for our anxiety in impermanence, knowing that even our fear is an impermanent experience, subject to change.

Now bring all awareness into your heart area.

And imagine there is a forest green vapor in front of you and that every time you inhale, the vapor is moving into the heart, and every time you exhale, its moving out of the heart. Begin to connect to this vapor over the next few breath cycles.

Bring to mind a place in nature where you feel deeply connected. Noticing the colors around you. The textures and the quality of light. And inhale the memory of this place into your heart and exhale, sending this place all the love and gratitude in your heart for the peace and beauty it has shown you. Inhale this memory into the vapor, which enters your heart again, and exhale, sending out love and gratitude to the earth. Inhale again, pulling the memory of this place into your heart, and exhale.

Next, bring to mind any people you know or are aware of who you see as making positive changes in the world. And inhale this vision of this person or group of people into your heart, and exhale, sending them compassion and gratitude. Do this again two more times at your own pace.

Lastly, call to mind people you see as perpetuating harm on the planet. And to the best of your ability, cultivating compassion and a wish for their own awakening, pull this vapor into your heart, and exhale, understanding we are all deeply interconnected. Inhaling again and exhaling, try this one more time.

Thank you for taking this time today to join me in this practice. There are unfortunately no easy answers here, but we can all take refuge in the now at any moment, trusting that if we take the time to ensure our thoughts, actions, and words are benevolent, it’s our best chance for creating a future that is also so.

And we can find comfort in the fact that people all over the world are meditating right now, with this benevolent wish in their heart as well.

May we all be happy, peaceful, and free. This meditation is now complete.