The

The Welcome back to Anxiety Slayer.

In our last episode, we shared practices to help you feel more calm and relaxed during uncertain times, including a practice called

candle gazing. Candle gazing is a supportive way to calm your nervous system and bring the

light into darker mornings. We hope you enjoy this meditation.

Candle gazing meditation.

During our waking hours, our minds are constantly exposed to incoming information

and filled with our own busy thoughts, worries, hopes, and fears.

Since our minds are sensitive and easily disturbed,

it's easy for us to start feeling overwhelmed, stressed, and anxious.

If we don't know how to calm and study our thoughts,

we can feel increasingly anxious and may find that we struggle to focus or concentrate.

This simple candle-gazing meditation has its roots in the practice of yoga

and will help you focus and calm your mind.

It can help your mind become peaceful by bringing you into the present moment with a gentle, relaxed

awareness. If practiced regularly, this exercise will help you balance your thoughts and keep your

mind clear, relaxed, and free from feeling overburdened.

To begin, choose a place where you won't be disturbed for the next few minutes,

and place a lit candle in front of you.

Sit yourself comfortably, either on the floor or on a chair, wherever you feel the most comfortable to keep your body supported and still for the duration of this guided meditation.

Take a deep breath in, drop your shoulders, and relax your jaw and your neck. And as you breathe in again, stretch

and lengthen your spine so you are sitting straight but still relaxed. Place your hands in your lap with your fingers loosely apart and your palms facing

...