Melt Away the Stress: The Best Meditation Videos for Anxiety

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Gemma Clarke

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meditation videos

If you’ve ever wanted to get rid of the anxiety in your life, meditation practice is one of the best ways to approach bringing a soothing calm that can make your life easier and melt away your nagging stress.

It’s the art of calming you mind, steadying your nerves, relaxing your muscles, and finding ease in your breathing. It’s a surefire way of bring some peace into your daily life.

In fact, there are so many different videos available online to help you with your meditation practice. It can sure be easy to lose yourself in all those different approaches and styles of finding relief. Which is the right video to use? Can you really find anxiety relief with online meditation?

Come with us as we look into using videos to help you in meditation practice. Which are the real deal to reduce anxiety, and which sounds like they’re too good to be true.

Anxiety and Depression Association

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Why is it so important to focus on what meditation can do? Well, because the alternative isn’t something we would hope for anybody. Anxiety and Depression are recognized as mental health issues that could cause serious complications in a person’s wellbeing.

Constantly worrying and thinking about what could go wrong leads a person to develop very negative thoughts throughout life. This constant negativity doesn’t just make a person difficult to deal with socially. Negative living can also leads to physical detriments, such as chronic pain, or high blood pressure. All that pent-up stress ties up a person in knots, leading them to have a very poor approach to their general health.

Constantly worrying and stressing also leads to another serious mental health issue, the scourge of depression. When a person isn’t taking care of themselves and affecting their social life in a negative way, it leads the person to believe that they aren’t doing very well, and that it might be their fault.

Hence, why they feel pretty bad about themselves, leading to depression. In a worst-case scenario, these terrible conditions feed each other: depressed people build greater anxiety about their depression, and anxious people keep feeling more and more depressed.

Let’s make it clear that nobody deserves to feel this way, and every person living life today has a right to feel positive and good about themselves. And while anxiety disorders could be treated professionally with therapy, a little self love through meditation couldn’t hurt either.

Meditation is an effective tool to use against anxiety because it is readily available, fits into your schedule, and can be user friendly enough to fit your preferences. It’s not a miraculous magic wand that will cure all your problems, but though careful techniques such as breathing exercises and controlled relaxation, it will help to calm your frazzled nerves after a hectic day.

A great first step in building your confidence to manage stress and eliminate anxiety is to take control of your mental health, and not allow it to control you. Through active meditation, you’re the one deciding to make your life happier and better.

Guided Meditation Improves Sleep

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One of the side effects of anxiety is the constant suffering resulting in a buildup of adrenaline, always assuming that something horrible is around every corner. pushing all this energy through your body can keep you awake, preventing you from getting the sleep you need.

Thankfully, when a person meditates, they learn to control the buildup of adrenaline by breathing deeply, calming the mind, and slowing down the mood of the day. In this way, a person can fall asleep easier, thanks to the benefits of calming the body and dealing with stress.

This might lead a person to consider sleep meditation. Sleep meditations are when a person listens to meditative audio played into their ears during night-time rest. The idea is that the soothing music and words feed into your mind subconsciously, and you absorb them while resting over the evening.

And if this works for you, then great. But make sure you know that there are problems with this approach. Part of the benefit of guided meditation is to be aware of the calming nature of what you are hearing. If you are interpreting meditation subconsciously, it’s hard to say you’re receiving it in a way you understand. You may as well be hearing loud music or white noise.

If your mind is more accustomed to a silent rest, then hearing meditation sounds during the night could lead to a restless night. In fact, one of the reasons why meditation traditionally encourages the meditating pose – sitting upright and cross-legged on the floor – is precisely because it’s comfortable, but doesn’t allow you to fall asleep. You’re supposed to focus on the benefits of guided meditation.

Helps Relax the Busy Mind

So, what are some of the benefits of guided meditations? Well, for starters, they slow down daily life, and bring a sense of calm to the day, helping to wipe away stress. Notice how, even if you are on your lunch break, you might still be stuck thinking about what you need to be doing throughout the rest of your day. This doesn’t make it all that soothing, constantly readying your body to jump through more hoops throughout the day.

So what kind of videos bring a sense of calm? Typically, the kind of videos that offer the simple and straightforward simplicity of life, without the stress of your daily events. To that end, there are a plethora of videos online themed around getting back to nature. They might feature the sounds of gentle rain, or other calming nature sounds. They might provide romantic nature visuals, like sunsets, or gentle animals.

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The way videos like these are helpful is how they offer a feeling of relief and soothing calm. They offer a certain amount of relaxation, which lowers stress and can counteract against anxiety.

That said, it is not strictly guided meditation, as there is no guide, and the mind is not encouraged into a state of mindfulness practice, or being in the present moment. Rather, it is simply enjoying the prettiness and diversion from everyday life.

A useful form of anxiety relief, but the same can be achieved through listening to your favorite song, or looking at some nice paintings.

Guided meditations add something deeper to the experience, in leading the mind onto a journey of self discovery. And for that, you need more than just distraction from stress. You need calm focus.

Best for Beginners in Meditation Practice : Headspace

If you’re interested in meditation apps, one place to start your search is with a popular one called Headspace.

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Headspace is a meditation app started by Andy Puddicombe in England in 2010, with the express goal of making guided meditations easily accessible to anybody on their own smartphone, and thus, bringing guided meditation to the masses. As a specialist and practitioner in guided meditations, Puddicombe uses his experience and his bedside manner to provide life advice, followed by a relaxed feeling of peace through his meditations.

The amount of time needed to meditate is set by the user, allowing you to take extra time for greater energy healing, but also gives you the option to meditate for only a few minutes a day if you’ve got limited time. The app is designed to be user friendly, with an easy-to-navigate screen and friendly-faced cartoon characters providing helpful advice. It’s a popular and easy way to get into the idea of guided meditation, because it is effective in putting you in a relaxed mood, while bringing you relief in your day to day life.

The major downside of this meditation app is that there is little available on the free version, at least compared to the premium version, behind a paywall. If you have the means, or have access to an occupation or social club which provides this guided meditation, then no problem.

But many people are already stressed and anxious in their daily lives, and can’t compound that with added costs to their budget. Hence, why some people prefer to turn to the myriad of free videos available on YouTube.

But which ones to choose for you mental exercise?

Practicing meditation is easy peasy (sorta)

When trying to find guided meditation videos online, the easiest way to do so is to go onto a video streaming service, such as Youtube, and type in “meditation” “meditate” or even “meditation classes” into the search engine, and see what comes up. You might even want to type in additional words like “anxiety”, to see if you can find videos to target specific mental concerns.

What you’ll quickly find is that you will not be at a loss for options. With results numbering in the thousands, even millions, you could find any kind of video for meditation you need.

Part of the reason why there are so many available videos is the universality of meditative self-help. The ability to exercise your soul through breathing and meditations is intended to be accessible to anybody willing to learn it, which leads to many people feeling they can share their experiences online as well.

In the grand scheme of things, this is not so bad. It provides you with a lot of options for finding what works best for you. However, it could also lead to people not knowing if the person who is leading their exercise is effectively skilled in calming their anxiety.

Ultimately, a Youtube video capable of calming a person’s breath work and leaving them feeling less anxious is a successful one, and we’re not going to decry a video which brings comfort to anybody. However, there are honest guys in the world who have spent a lifetime practicing techniques and building trust in order to be recognized as the go-to source for meditation.

Consider these leaders in meditation who can best help alleviate your suffering and anxiety.

The 9 Best Free Guided Meditation Channels

Eckhart Tolle

A spiritual teacher born in Germany but now practicing in California, Eckhart Tolle has written many books about living your best life in the present moment. His simple videos provide a welcoming and easy source to learn more about meditations on mindfulness.

The Mindful Movement

Founded by Sara and Les Raymond, The Mindful Movement Youtube Chanel provides many videos on how to live to the fullest, geared towards providing a different atmospheric experience in each video, to better aesthetically appeal to your interests.

Tara Brach

A trained US psychologist and meditation teacher, her videos provide meditations which help deepen people’s understanding of mindfulness. Her major appeal is in how many of her videos are geared toward beginners into the world of meditation.

Wisdom 2.0

Wisdom 2.0 doesn’t espouse a single Chanel creator, but rather emphasizes that it is made from a community of global practitioners in meditation. Their videos feature guest speakers from various parts of the world leading meditations.

Sam Harris

A neuroscientist, philosopher, and author based out of Los Angeles, Sam Harris created a YouTube Chanel to share certain episodes of his podcast, Making Sense, about discussing the nature of guided meditation and living in mindfulness with the world around you. Some of the subject matter he discusses on his Chanel might rub some people the wrong way, so watch out with this one!

Michael Sealey

A professional hypnotist by trade, Michael Sealey has created a collection of online videos designed to bring a sense of relaxation to the body. Through his experience, these videos watched during meditations are intended to bring a sense of calm to the mind, reducing stress and encouraging meditation while making the body feel calm and willing to absorb positivity subconsciously.

Mooji

A Jamaican born spiritual teacher currently based out of the United Kingdom, his intuitive videos encourage the viewer to finding inner enlightenment through mindfulness and a better understanding of yourself and your obstacles.

Rebekah Borucki

A profesional meditation and yoga teacher, Borucki’s videos aim to create a welcoming environment of no judgement, where meditations intended to reduce anxiety are available to all, and everyone of any background or skill level can find a place to start meditation.

Sadhguru

With one of the larger collections of Youtube subscribers, Indian yogi Sadhguru provides meditation guidance, but also provides advice and discussions on a wide array of subjects, including health, humanity, and socioeconomic development.

How do we break this vicious cycle of stress and anxiety? Guided Meditations!

Guided meditations are readily available all over the internet, some led by honest guys, and others, possibly less so. There are a myriad of professionals who can lead people through specific meditations, helping to alleviate anxiety, depression, or panic attacks. But no matter what form of guided meditation you try, it always starts with loving kindness.

When people want to stop overthinking and work on taking care of themselves, they open themselves to the possibilities that can come from taking a deep breath, slowing down, and thinking deeply within themselves through mindfulness meditation, to find a way to calm their hectic lives and alleviate anxiety.

The best meditation video for anxiety is ultimately the one that speaks to you the most. And no matter which guided meditation videos you trust, as long as you start to relax your soul and open up, then any meditation will reveal to you what you can really accomplish.

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About Gemma Clarke

Gemma Clarke is a certified and experienced yoga & meditation instructor. She has been practicing meditation since 2014 and teaching since 2018. Gemma specializes in yoga and mindfulness for emotional wellbeing, and she has taught in Thailand, Cambodia, and the UK. Gemma is passionate about sharing her expertise and experience with meditation to inspire others to live more mindfully, becoming happier, healthier, and calmer. Follow me: Instagram | LinkedIn

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