A Loving Kindness Meditation for When You're Being Too Hard on Yourself
Calming Anxiety | Guided Meditation, Sleep Hypnosis & Panic Attack Relief
Calming Anxiety
4.7 • 577 Ratings
🗓️ 2 June 2026
⏱️ 10 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Do you find your inner voice is often your harshest critic? When struggling with anxiety, that internal dialogue can become watchful and judgmental, replaying every mistake and pointing out every flaw. Today, we put that right by learning how to be genuinely, quietly kind to ourselves.
Join Martin Hewlett—clinical hypnotherapist and former frontline paramedic—for a 10-minute loving kindness meditation designed to settle your nervous system and bridge the gap between harsh self-judgment and the peace you actually deserve. Using vagus nerve breathing and gentle visualization, we will move past the thinking mind and into a state of wonderful stillness.
In This Episode:
- [0:00] Cold Intro: Finding safety in the present moment.
- [1:00] Vagus Nerve Breathing: Using the 4-2-6 breathing technique to signal your body’s "brake pedal" and end the internal sense of emergency.
- [2:30] Visualization: A journey to a quiet garden where nothing needs to be fixed or achieved.
- [5:00] Affirmations for Self-Peace: Healing words to help you release the need for perfection.
- [8:30] 3 Daily Caring Tips: Practical tools for awareness and self-compassion.
- [9:15] Grounding & Close: Returning to the room with a courageous new perspective.
- I am doing the best I can, and that is enough.
- I am allowed to be a work in progress.
- I release the need to be perfect in order to deserve peace.
- I am worthy of kindness, especially from myself.
- I choose to be gentle with myself today.
- Notice the Inner Voice: Pay attention to how you speak to yourself when things go wrong; awareness is the first step toward change.
- The Self-Compassion Pause: Place a hand on your chest and acknowledge your struggle—this activates a natural calming response.
- Find One Thing You Did Right: Before sleep, identify one thing you handled today; the evidence usually proves you are doing better than anxiety claims.
Be positive to yourself. You are stronger than you feel, and in everything, my friend—be kind.
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Backing Music: Chris Collins
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Ready for More Calm?Thank you for listening to the Calming Anxiety Podcast, featuring guided meditation, mindfulness, and sleep hypnosis sessions with Martin Hewlett. Our mission is to provide you with proven tools for anxiety relief, stress reduction, and a path toward deep relaxation. Use this episode anytime you need to calm your mind and feel more at ease.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Take a deep breath in and then let it go. |
| 0:04.0 | You are here, you are safe, and for the next ten minutes |
| 0:10.0 | we're going to do something that might feel and familiar. |
| 0:14.0 | We're going to be kind to ourselves, genuinely, quietly, kind. |
| 0:20.0 | Thank you for being here. My name is Martin. genuinely, quietly, kind. |
| 0:22.1 | Thank you for being here. |
| 0:23.9 | My name is Martin. |
| 0:25.4 | I'm a clinical hypnotherapist and former frontline paramedic. |
| 0:30.2 | In all my years working in emergency medicine, one thing became clear to me. |
| 0:36.5 | The people who struggled most weren't those in the greatest danger. |
| 0:41.2 | They were the ones who had forgotten how to be gentle with themselves. |
| 0:46.1 | Today, we put that right. |
| 0:49.9 | Before we go anywhere, let's settle the body first. |
| 0:54.7 | We're going to use the breath that I return to again and again. |
| 0:59.2 | In for four, hold for two, and out for six. |
| 1:05.0 | That extended exhale is the direct signal to your vagus nerve, the brake pedal of your entire nervous system. |
| 1:13.6 | Every time you complete that cycle, your body begins to understand. |
| 1:20.6 | There is no emergency here. |
| 1:23.6 | Let's do this together now. |
| 1:26.6 | Ready? In through the nose. In, two, three, four, hold two and out. |
| 1:37.3 | Slow and fall. Three, four, five, six. Feel your shoulders dropping away from your ears and again with me in two |
| 1:54.6 | three four hold to and release two, three, four, five, six. |
... |
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