Inner Peace Meditations

For anyone who finds the mirror hard. You don't have to love your body tonight, maybe not ever. Just a little peace and acceptance.

About 11 minutes with Steven Webb's calm voice and music underneath.

We soften from the face down and notice your body as it is, not as it was or as it should be. When the critical voice starts up, we hear it the way we hear traffic outside. Then we thank the quiet workers, the heart beating all day without being asked, the lungs, the feet that carried you here. You see yourself through the eyes of someone who loves you, and we finish with three small wishes. I share a bit of my own story too. I'm paralysed from just below the neck, and the body I see in a superstore mirror, in a wheelchair, isn't the one I thought I'd have. But we're in this together.

Treat me to a coffee, keep the podcast free, and get my Weekly Calm every Sunday. It is all on https://stevenwebb.uk

Thank you for sitting with me.

Steven

Free book: 5 Simple Practices for Inner Peace. Yours when you join my Weekly Calm.

• Support Stevens work and links to other podcasts: https://stevenwebb.uk/
• Donate https://paypal.me/stevenwebb or Buy Steven a coffee

For when your mind is full and both hands are already carrying too much. You don't need to empty it. Just find a little more room.

About 12 minutes with Steven Webb's calm voice and music underneath.

We start at your front door with your hands full of bags and boxes, each one something asking for your attention. Out into a crowded, noisy world that feels a bit like your mind, then onto a path into the countryside and a wide clearing. There you put things down one at a time and let the ground carry them for a while. Rest is not laziness. On the way back you only pick up what you need for the next small part of the day. You're not failing at meditation. You may simply be at capacity.

Treat me to a coffee, keep the podcast free, and get my Weekly Calm every Sunday. It is all on https://stevenwebb.uk

Thank you for sitting with me.

Steven

Stevens new course: Finding Peace in Everyday Life (you choose how much to pay)

• Support Stevens work and links to other podcasts: https://stevenwebb.uk/
• Donate https://paypal.me/stevenwebb or Buy Steven a coffee

For the storm you can't stop. Instead of fighting it or bracing against it, sit down in the middle and stay steady.

About 8 minutes with Steven Webb's calm voice and music underneath.

We bring to mind a storm you've known. Someone passing, losing a job, moving house, or the news getting a bit too much. Most of us fight a storm until we're worn out, or brace and wait for it to pass. There's a third way. Picture yourself in a big wise armchair, like the man at the end of the bar who finishes his drink while the fight breaks out around him. You can care and still not engage. We end with three wishes, starting with may I be steady even when I cannot be calm.

Treat me to a coffee, keep the podcast free, and get my Weekly Calm every Sunday. It is all on https://stevenwebb.uk

Thank you for sitting with me.

Steven

Stevens new course: Finding Peace in Everyday Life (you choose how much to pay)

• Support Stevens work and links to other podcasts: https://stevenwebb.uk/
• Donate https://paypal.me/stevenwebb or Buy Steven a coffee

When the news lands heavy and there's nothing you can do. Breathe in what's hard, breathe out a wish for them to be safe.

About 12 minutes with Steven Webb's calm voice and music underneath.

We breathe in what's hard and breathe out a wish for people to be safe. It's a gentle form of Tonglen. First we notice where a headline landed in the body, then we breathe a little of that out for you too. Then we widen it. Somewhere someone is making a neighbour a cup of tea, and a nurse is starting her night shift. The fire gets the pictures, but the people carrying the water are out there too, millions of them. We end with three wishes, and the reminder that you can care and still rest.

Treat me to a coffee, keep the podcast free, and get my Weekly Calm every Sunday. It is all on https://stevenwebb.uk

Thank you for sitting with me.

Steven

Stevens new course: Finding Peace in Everyday Life (you choose how much to pay)

• Support Stevens work and links to other podcasts: https://stevenwebb.uk/
• Donate https://paypal.me/stevenwebb or Buy Steven a coffee

Tired of being told how to breathe? This one barely says a word. Nothing to get right, nothing to get wrong.

About 10 minutes with Steven Webb's calm voice and music underneath. Mostly quiet.

No one tells you where to put your hands. We just sit together and do very little. Your mind will wander off, to the shopping or what's for tea, and that is fine. That is what minds do. We notice we've been away and come back to this moment. That isn't failing at meditation. That is the practice. Near the end, a minute of just listening, doing nothing with what you hear. Meditation doesn't have to be complicated. It can be done just by becoming aware.

Treat me to a coffee, keep the podcast free, and get my Weekly Calm every Sunday. It is all on https://stevenwebb.uk

Thank you for sitting with me.

Steven

Stevens new course: Finding Peace in Everyday Life (you choose how much to pay)

• Support Stevens work and links to other podcasts: https://stevenwebb.uk/
• Donate https://paypal.me/stevenwebb or Buy Steven a coffee

Built a wall to keep the world out, and now it feels like a prison? A meditation for boundaries with a gate.

About 11 minutes with Steven Webb's calm voice and music underneath.

Imagine a wall around you, all the way round, to keep out everything that stings. At first it feels wonderful. Then the strange thing: inside the wall our own strength goes soft, like a leg in plaster. And one day we need people again, and the world never reads our rules. So we try a garden with a gate instead, and tend what grows inside it. A little wisdom, a little strength, a little kindness. Then three gentle wishes with a hand on your heart. May I be safe with my gate open. May I be loved just as I am. May I be strong enough to let the world in. A boundary was never meant to be a prison. It is a garden edge, and you hold the key.

The companion talk episode: Gates, Not Thorns: Are Your Boundaries a Prison?

Treat me to a coffee, keep the podcast free, and get my Weekly Calm every Sunday. It is all on https://stevenwebb.uk

Thank you for sitting with me.

Steven

Stevens new course: Finding Peace in Everyday Life (you choose how much to pay)

• Support Stevens work and links to other podcasts: https://stevenwebb.uk/
• Donate https://paypal.me/stevenwebb or Buy Steven a coffee

Waiting to hear back, and the mind keeps playing out how it might go? A meditation for the fear of not knowing what comes next.

About 11 minutes with Steven Webb's calm voice and music underneath.

The mind hates a gap, so it fills it. One version, then another, then another. Not because it is broken, because it cares. But you can't steady the tide by grabbing hold of it. So we sit on a quiet beach and let the days come and go like the weather. A worry arrives like a wave. You don't judge it and you don't grab a surfboard. You watch it go back out. Then one quiet question: who is doing the watching? The thoughts come and go, and the watcher stays. It has seen every day of your life arrive and pass. Three wishes to finish: may I trust myself with whatever comes, may the not knowing within find a little calm, may I know I am held, even here in uncertainty.

Treat me to a coffee, keep the podcast free, and get my Weekly Calm every Sunday. It is all on https://stevenwebb.uk

Thank you for sitting with me.

Steven

Stevens new course: Finding Peace in Everyday Life (you choose how much to pay)

• Support Stevens work and links to other podcasts: https://stevenwebb.uk/
• Donate https://paypal.me/stevenwebb or Buy Steven a coffee

Woke up replaying something you said or did? A gentle morning meditation for the voice inside that says it was your fault.

About 10 minutes with Steven Webb's calm voice and music underneath.

We don't argue with the voice. It thinks it is helping, like a guard who shouts to keep you safe. Terrible manners, but a good heart. So we thank it, find where the blame sits in the body, usually the chest or low in the belly, and let that place soften a little on each out breath. Nothing to fix. Then three wishes, said slowly: may I be kind to myself today, may I put down what I cannot change, may I know I am enough, even on the days I get it wrong. You are allowed to begin the day forgiven. I'm human. It's what we do.

Treat me to a coffee, keep the podcast free, and get my Weekly Calm every Sunday. It is all on https://stevenwebb.uk

Thank you for sitting with me.

Steven

Stevens new course: Finding Peace in Everyday Life (you choose how much to pay)

• Support Stevens work and links to other podcasts: https://stevenwebb.uk/
• Donate https://paypal.me/stevenwebb or Buy Steven a coffee

Some mornings the worry gets there before your feet hit the floor. This one gives it company instead of an argument.

About 12 minutes with Steven Webb's calm voice. Perfect for the morning.

Picture the worry as a child tugging your sleeve. It does not want an answer, it wants the adult in the room to notice. So you turn towards it and ask what it wants you to understand, then listen without correcting it. Nothing gets fixed, because nothing needed fixing. You thank it for doing its job.

Treat me to a coffee, keep the podcast free, and get my Weekly Calm every Sunday. It is all on https://stevenwebb.uk

Thank you for sitting with me.

Steven

Stevens new course: Finding Peace in Everyday Life (you choose how much to pay)

• Support Stevens work and links to other podcasts: https://stevenwebb.uk/
• Donate https://paypal.me/stevenwebb or Buy Steven a coffee

I have never met an angry person who did not care deeply about something. Even if it is only a parking space.

About 10 minutes with Steven Webb's calm voice.

There is what happens, then a gap, then what you do. Reacting skips the gap. Responding uses it. You go back to a time you snapped and notice there was no gap at all, then run it again with one in there. Three lines to leave with, and you are not asked to remember them. The body will.

Treat me to a coffee, keep the podcast free, and get my Weekly Calm every Sunday. It is all on https://stevenwebb.uk

Thank you for sitting with me.

Steven

Stevens new course: Finding Peace in Everyday Life (you choose how much to pay)

• Support Stevens work and links to other podcasts: https://stevenwebb.uk/
• Donate https://paypal.me/stevenwebb or Buy Steven a coffee

Life fires the first arrow. We fire the next thirty. And unlike life, we never miss.

About 10 minutes with Steven Webb's calm voice.

You bring up something recent that hurt, find where it sits, and watch how fast it climbs into your head and turns into a story. That is arrow two. By the time you have told four people, the body has lived it four more times. The point is not getting rid of them. It is catching yourself drawing the bow, and having a laugh about it.

Treat me to a coffee, keep the podcast free, and get my Weekly Calm every Sunday. It is all on https://stevenwebb.uk

Thank you for sitting with me.

Steven

Stevens new course: Finding Peace in Everyday Life (you choose how much to pay)

• Support Stevens work and links to other podcasts: https://stevenwebb.uk/
• Donate https://paypal.me/stevenwebb or Buy Steven a coffee

We wake up already braced. This is ten minutes before any of it starts, when there is genuinely nothing to carry yet.

About 10 minutes with Steven Webb's calm voice. Perfect for the morning.

Something is already holding your weight. The shoulders come down, the jaw lets go, and the night goes wherever nights go. The trick is not picking up the whole day at once, because the whole day never turns up together. It comes a piece at a time. Three small wishes to take with you, and one is only to notice one good thing.

Treat me to a coffee, keep the podcast free, and get my Weekly Calm every Sunday. It is all on https://stevenwebb.uk

Thank you for sitting with me.

Steven

Stevens new course: Finding Peace in Everyday Life (you choose how much to pay)

• Support Stevens work and links to other podcasts: https://stevenwebb.uk/
• Donate https://paypal.me/stevenwebb or Buy Steven a coffee

A quiet railway station and a bench with room for two. The trains are your thoughts, and we are not getting on.

About 7 minutes with Steven Webb's calm voice.

One pulls in that is only something you have to do later. Then a louder one, a worry, and you can feel the tug to climb aboard. We stay put. We are not here to empty the station, because the mind thinks the way the heart beats. We are learning to stay on the bench.

Treat me to a coffee, keep the podcast free, and get my Weekly Calm every Sunday. It is all on https://stevenwebb.uk

Thank you for sitting with me.

Steven

Stevens new course: Finding Peace in Everyday Life (you choose how much to pay)

• Support Stevens work and links to other podcasts: https://stevenwebb.uk/
• Donate https://paypal.me/stevenwebb or Buy Steven a coffee

Imagine a small shed with the door shut. Every thought in there feels loud and urgent, because there is nowhere for it to go.

About 14 minutes, a short talk then a meditation.

Then you open the door and step out into a field, and the same thought arrives in all that space. Nothing about the thought changed. The room did. Without space every feeling seems urgent and every thought seems true. Not everything that turns up needs dealing with straight away.

Treat me to a coffee, keep the podcast free, and get my Weekly Calm every Sunday. It is all on https://stevenwebb.uk

Thank you for sitting with me.

Steven

Stevens new course: Finding Peace in Everyday Life (you choose how much to pay)

• Support Stevens work and links to other podcasts: https://stevenwebb.uk/
• Donate https://paypal.me/stevenwebb or Buy Steven a coffee

For the carer, the parent, the one everyone rings late at night. Eleven minutes where you are not holding anybody.

About 11 minutes with Steven Webb's calm voice.

There is a difference between loving someone and being the one who holds them every day. The grief, the guilt and the bit of resentment are not failures. They are what turns up when the holding has gone on too long without a break. Three lines, said for you first. May I be held. May I be soft. May I rest.

Treat me to a coffee, keep the podcast free, and get my Weekly Calm every Sunday. It is all on https://stevenwebb.uk

Thank you for sitting with me.

Steven

Stevens new course: Finding Peace in Everyday Life (you choose how much to pay)

• Support Stevens work and links to other podcasts: https://stevenwebb.uk/
• Donate https://paypal.me/stevenwebb or Buy Steven a coffee

The day is still in your jaw and your shoulders. Six minutes to put it down by the door instead of carrying it up to bed.

About 6 minutes with Steven Webb's calm voice. Perfect for the evening.

The working self is a costume. The one who answered the messages, the one who held it all together. You take it off, and you do not even fold it. Three lines to finish on. May what I did today rest. May what came to me today rest. May what is still unfinished rest.

Treat me to a coffee, keep the podcast free, and get my Weekly Calm every Sunday. It is all on https://stevenwebb.uk

Thank you for sitting with me.

Steven

Stevens new course: Finding Peace in Everyday Life (you choose how much to pay)

• Support Stevens work and links to other podcasts: https://stevenwebb.uk/
• Donate https://paypal.me/stevenwebb or Buy Steven a coffee

Stay lying down for this one. We go through the body asking each part the same question: what do you need today?

About 8 minutes with Steven Webb's calm voice. Perfect for the morning.

Feet first, then upwards. If something hurts you notice that it hurts, and you do not fix it or argue with it or build a story round it. The body does not answer in words, and sometimes it does not answer at all. Asking is the practice. The body that woke up today is the one you have, and it has carried you this far.

The companion talk episode: Waking Up to Body Betrayal: How to Find Peace in the Pain

Treat me to a coffee, keep the podcast free, and get my Weekly Calm every Sunday. It is all on https://stevenwebb.uk

Thank you for sitting with me.

Steven

Stevens new course: Finding Peace in Everyday Life (you choose how much to pay)

• Support Stevens work and links to other podcasts: https://stevenwebb.uk/
• Donate https://paypal.me/stevenwebb or Buy Steven a coffee

You pressed play because it is already here. So we are not getting rid of it. We are answering the door.

About 7 minutes. Short enough for a bus or a car park.

You say hello to it, out loud or not. Then you ask why it came, the way you would ask a friend who turned up looking pale. It might answer in a sentence, a feeling, a memory, or not at all. You are not the anxiety. You are the one who opened the door.

The companion talk episode: "I'm Fine": When It's Armour, When It's Honest, and How to Tell

Treat me to a coffee, keep the podcast free, and get my Weekly Calm every Sunday. It is all on https://stevenwebb.uk

Thank you for sitting with me.

Steven

Stevens new course: Finding Peace in Everyday Life (you choose how much to pay)

• Support Stevens work and links to other podcasts: https://stevenwebb.uk/
• Donate https://paypal.me/stevenwebb or Buy Steven a coffee

A walled garden that only grows at night, and only while somebody is resting in it. Tonight that is you.

About 16 minutes, tense and release first. Only listen where it is safe to sleep.

Tense and release through the whole body to begin with, because falling asleep is a skill and that is the part that works. Then you sit on an old bench and the garden grows around you at the speed of your breathing. A leaf unfurls on the way out, a seed settles on the way in. It does not need you to watch it. Your resting is the gardening.

Treat me to a coffee, keep the podcast free, and get my Weekly Calm every Sunday. It is all on https://stevenwebb.uk

Thank you for sitting with me.

Steven

Stevens new course: Finding Peace in Everyday Life (you choose how much to pay)

• Support Stevens work and links to other podcasts: https://stevenwebb.uk/
• Donate https://paypal.me/stevenwebb or Buy Steven a coffee

Six minutes, and it works in a waiting room. You have not failed because a thought turned up. You were never meant to stop them.

About 6 minutes with Steven Webb's calm voice.

Notice the breath, notice the thought, do nothing with either. You have thoughts, but you are not those thoughts. The awareness behind all the noise is where the peace already is. If your mind wandered and you noticed, that was the practice. That is all it ever is.

The companion talk episode: Demystifying Meditation: What You Need to Know

Treat me to a coffee, keep the podcast free, and get my Weekly Calm every Sunday. It is all on https://stevenwebb.uk

Thank you for sitting with me.

Steven

Stevens new course: Finding Peace in Everyday Life (you choose how much to pay)

• Support Stevens work and links to other podcasts: https://stevenwebb.uk/
• Donate https://paypal.me/stevenwebb or Buy Steven a coffee