Deep Unwind: Drop Your Worries 🧺

Drop Your Worries

What happens when you care deeply about the people in your life, but find yourself carrying their struggles as though they were your own?

Inspired by a listener's question, this Deep Unwind is for anyone who feels responsible for fixing, managing, mediating, or holding everything together. Parents, partners, caregivers, helpers, and highly sensitive souls often carry more than they were ever meant to carry.

Together, we'll explore a gentler way of relating to the people we love, our responsibilities, the uncertainties of life, and the concerns that can quietly accumulate in our minds and bodies.

You don't have to stop loving.

You don't have to stop caring.

But you are allowed to loosen your grip... 

This Deep Unwind contains: nervous system regulation, guided imagery, gentle hypnosis, codependency healing, support for caregivers and highly sensitive people, stress reduction, strengthening boundaries and restoring emotional 

If you drift off during this Deep Unwind, that's perfectly okay. You may simply allow yourself to rest, relax, and receive whatever feels supportive for you today.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Hi everyone, I'm Jessica Porter, and welcome to Unwind, a podcast where we come home to ourselves and explore the depths of relaxation. So we can gently ask the question: what do we find when we unwind? It's kind of a great question, I gotta say. Thank you for being here on this new adventure with me. I want very much to stay in touch, so please let me know what you think of Unwind or send any suggestions you may have for an episode. You can find me at Patreon or at my website or on Instagram. I love hearing from you guys, your comments, ideas, reviews, and if you would like bonus content every month, please consider subscribing, either on the podcast platform you're listening to or at Patreon, where we're creating a little community behind the scenes. Okay. Tonight, taking a break from your worries. I got a message from a listener many moons ago named Laura. Hi Laura. Sorry it took me so long. But this is what she said. I'm looking for a podcast topic on taking care of myself when, as the primary mother figure, everyone brings their problems to me. I need perspective on listening but not bearing their burdens. I need to avoid becoming a referee and giving myself a break from fixing family situations. I love this. I love this. I think many, many mothers feel this way, but I don't think you have to be a mother to take on the problems and issues of others, of loved ones, or of the world. But how do we care without draining ourselves over time? Is it okay to let go? Is it okay to take a time out? I have to remember that I'm not God. That everyone I care about also has their own inner being, intuition, an instinct for survival, and is coded to grow. It's like a farmer is responsible for his crop, yes. But he couldn't do it without water, the sun, and the nourishment in the soil. So Laura, bless you as a mom. And it sounds like you care a lot, which is great. And this one's for you. So you can just drop some of this every once in a while. We all need to be able to drop our problems here and there. So this is for all of us who need to take a break from worry. So get cozy and comfy and let's unwind. Just let your eyes close softly and gently as you feel yourself settle into your inner world. And you bring your awareness to your breath. A lovely natural wave of your breath. Hanging out with the wave of your breath is reconnecting you with rhythms inside your body. And at the same time, hanging out with a rhythm, the wave of your breath. You're connecting with all sorts of rhythms in the natural world. Good. As you begin to unwind. Let them rest. And as your eyelids are resting, all the muscles around your eyes are softening and relaxing. And as you relax your eyes, your eyelids are feeling very heavy. Like they cannot open. Of course, logic tells you that you can open your eyelids, but we're letting your imagination keep them shut. So I'd like you to play a little game to demonstrate to yourself that you're trying to open your eyes by twitching your eyebrows, wiggling your eyebrows while your eyes stay closed. Because you are aligning with your imagination. As you imagine, that your eyes are so heavy they cannot open. And this dumb little game is taking you deeper and even deeper. Good. And now I'd like you to imagine that inside your skull, where your brain is, is a big ball of yarn. And one end of that ball of yarn is coming out a little hole in your forehead. Now imagine that you are gently pulling on the yarn. And as you're pulling on the yarn, it's unwinding and unwinding. It feels good to let it unwind. And now the ball of yarn is becoming smaller and smaller. And now it's unwinding completely as the other end of the ball of yarn is coming out that hole. And your mind is nice and clear. Relaxed. Peaceful. And you feel a lovely sense of peace. A lovely wave of peace moving down over your shoulders. Down over your arms. And the peace feels so comforting. Like a weighted blanket. Moving down over your arms, your arms feeling so heavy. As the piece moves down now into your hands, to your fingers. Unwinding. Good. As you bring your awareness now to any sounds you may be hearing. Life is always happening around us. And as the sounds of life come toward you, they're taking you deeper and deeper. Even sounds that may have wound you up are now unwinding you. And this is a decision you are making. And it feels so nice as the sounds take you deeper and deeper. And the sound of my voice is taking you deeper and deeper. As you unwind. Who knew you could bring peace inside your own body just by imagining it? As you allow that lovely soft wave of peace inside. As that wave of peace is gently, gently washing over your heart. Your heart is feeling softened, soothed, and any tension or anxiety it may have been holding has dissolved. As a wave of peace moves down deeper now into your body, deeper into your belly, a lovely soft wave of peace moving down into your belly, taking over every single cell. And as the wave of peace is moving down, your lower back is softening, your buttocks relaxing, and your pelvis is sinking further into the bed or the couch. Feels again like a weighted blanket comforting you, holding you as the piece moves down into your feet and your toes. As you unwind. But the basket is heavy. You've carried this basket for a very long time, so its weight feels familiar. Inside the basket are your feelings about everything in your life. The people you love, their problems and conflicts. Feelings about your work and responsibilities. Feelings about your plans for your future and decisions you need to make. Feelings you have about money and your health and your dreams. The feelings you're carrying about the dramas of the world. All of your feelings are gathered in this basket. You walk along the path carrying the basket. As you wind through a lovely landscape, you see wild grasses bending in the breeze. The trees are alive with bird song. You watch the sunlight filter through the leaves overhead, making shifting patterns on the path. And as you continue walking, you glance down into the basket. It's feeling heavier and heavier. The path continues forward through a grove of old trees. And ahead of you, you notice a low stone wall with a wooden gate in it. You approach the gate. You look over it and see a beautiful garden. You open the gate and walk through. You close the gate behind you and follow the path deeper inside the garden. You notice at its far corner stands a magnificent oak tree. As you get closer, you notice its trunk is broad and strong. Its branches are spreading wide in every direction. It's creating a lovely apron of shade. Cool and inviting. Year after year. You walk toward the tree with your basket. You pause for a moment beneath the shade and feel the cool air against your skin. You hear the whisper of the leaves overhead, and you set your basket down on the grass. And the basket is fine. The earth is receiving its weight completely. The contents of the basket are the same. All your feelings about the people you love, their issues, your work, your plans, the news. Everything remains in the basket, but now the earth is holding it as it settles on the grass. The grass looks cool and soft. So you lie down in the shade and stretch out beneath the branches as your head becomes very, very heavy on the grass, and your arms are relaxing nice and heavy, and the earth is supporting you fully. Next day and the next day for the rest of their lives just as it is supporting you as you look up through the leaves and notice the patches of blue sky appearing between the branches as you unwind, you watch a bird jump from one twig to another. Your head feels heavy. Supporting your whole body under your back, your hips, your legs, your arms. Continue to grow life continues. Connecting to the plants, to the trees, expanding down into the earth, and expanding right through the basket. A new relationship to the basket.