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Stop the World... I Want to Get Off
A meditation for when everything feels like it's moving too fast and you need the world to pause for a moment. This practice uses a simple visualisation of everything around you slowing down — your breath, your body, your thoughts, even the atoms in the room — until stillness arrives and you can think clearly again.
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DETAILS
Level: All levels Practice type: Breath awareness, Visualisation Duration: 12:22
WHO IS THIS FOR?
BENEFITS
ABOUT STEVEN WEBB
Steven Webb is a meditation teacher, podcaster, politician, and the host of Inner Peace Meditations. A former mayor of Truro in the county of Cornwall, Steven continues to split his time between politics and the contemplative work he is best known for. After a life-changing accident left him paralysed from the chest down, he found his way to inner peace through mindfulness, Zen philosophy, and the teachings of Alan Watts and Shunryu Suzuki. He now helps others find calm and resilience — especially those who find meditation difficult. Steven lives in Cornwall, England and shares his work at stevenwebb.com. You can also find his podcast on politics and public life, Stillness in the Storms, at https://stillnessinthestorms.com/
KEYWORDS
guided meditation, inner peace, overwhelm, slowing down, stress relief, busy mind, breath awareness, finding calm
Hello and welcome and thank you for being here. So let's just settle down and just become comfortable in whatever position you want to do this meditation. And this meditation is something I've been doing for a while when just when the world's going a bit too quick for me and that seems to be every day at the moment with everything that's going on around us. It's like help stop the world I want to get off and then it gives me a bit of a breather to think and just take a little time out. So just become aware of your breath. Become aware of this moment. You don't need to do anything with your breath because I always say your body knows how to breathe and while you're aware of your breath just give your body permission to relax. Invite your shoulders to relax and just like your breath your body knows how to relax. Your arms know how to relax in your hands and your fingers. Your torso, your bum and your legs. They all know how to relax. You've just got to give them permission. So just go through your muscles now just ah there you go you can relax. And even with your head and face you can allow your cheeks and your nose and your eyes, the muscles behind your eyes. Just invite them all to relax in this moment. Including your ears and your tongue and your neck just allow it all to relax. And now bringing your awareness back to your breath. Just breathing in calm, breathing out relax. We don't need to do anything with this moment. We don't need to do anything with our bodies and even if a thought comes into our mind that is perfectly fine because that's what the mind is evolved to do. Just recognize thought, hello thought, with a gentle smile and allow it to carry on. Allow it to just float on by. If a thought happens you don't need to do anything with it. And the way I do this meditation is just I imagine the world just slowing down and it's starting from within. I can already feel my body slowing down now. All the atoms and my breath and my muscles it's just all becoming a little more peaceful. And even my thoughts are less frequent now. The gaps between the thoughts and even just like the gaps between my words. There's those little bits of peaceful moments. And as you're slowing down your body is still slowing down. Just become aware of whatever's around you. And whether it's a cup or a side or it really doesn't matter. Just become aware of what's around you and just feel it all slowing right down. And everything is going so slow that it's barely moving. Every atom and every item is just barely moving that you can hardly even see it. Just like within in your breath. Just like the muscles. Just like even when you have a thought it's going across your mind so slowly. And then you're extending this out into the whole world and the whole world has just slowed right down. And don't worry everything will be just fine. And in this moment we can just acknowledge that it gives us a bit more time. Just time to think about something. Or time to just take that breath and be okay with what is. And when everything slows down like this everything seems to get a little quieter. A little more peaceful. And just imagine yourself in the next few days going through the world a little slower. A little more calm. A little more peace. Where your breathing is just gentle. Where your movements are just gentle. And your thoughts are more gentle and your feelings are just, they're less edgy. They're just more peaceful. They're more about understanding and compassion and just love and acceptance and kindness. Where even your feelings are more about compassion and kindness and understanding. It just feels like you're more in control. You're the one that's just able to engage and think a little more clearly. And just bring your awareness back to your breath and allowing your body to relax. Maybe your shoulders will tense up a little. Remember you don't need to do anything with your breath. And this is the real and wise part of doing this meditation. Is you recognize that you don't have to do anything with everything that's coming up. Whether it's a thought or emotion, you don't have to do anything with it. Just like every breath, you don't have to do anything with the breath. Your body's doing all it needs to do. If you have a thought about something next week or next year or five months ago, you don't have to engage with the thought. You have thoughts, you are not those thoughts. You have feelings, but you're not those feelings. And you can say these mantras to your mind. I have thoughts, but I am not those thoughts. I have feelings, but I am not those feelings. And I have feelings, but I am not those feelings. Just the same as you breathe, but you're not breath. It's something that happens to you. It's something you experience, but you're not it. And we experience this world that is just spinning out of control and the noise and all the haste and all the decisions, everything we need to do and all the news. Well, we're just witnessing. We can take a step back and let's just slow down a moment. And just keep imagining everything is slowing down. So as you're breathing in, calm, breathing out, relax. Let's just bring our awareness back to this moment. In a moment, I'm going to count back from five. So five, four, gently open your eyes. Three, move your arms, wiggle your fingers and toes, if you choose. And two, look around and one, just take a little deeper breath. Just be really fully aware I'm present here. And if you can notice, everything feels louder and faster from this moment. But when we're in meditation, everything feels slower and like this space to make decisions. When really we can bring that calmness of meditation with us on a daily basis. And we can just, ah, there's my breath. Ah, there's a thought. And just have that little gap between what's arising and what we do with that. So when you have a thought, say, ah, there's a thought. Interesting. Thank you for joining me on this meditation. And just a reminder, these meditations are completely free. And there's no adverts because we don't want to be disturbed by adverts before after meditation. So they're brought to you free by the kind listeners that donate a coffee occasionally and the monthly donators. So I just want to say thank you to all them and thank you to you for being here. You can find out more about what I do and how you can support me in the links below. Or go to stevenwebb.com. Thank you. Have a wonderfully peaceful day in a slightly slower pace.