Tana's Top Meditation to Overcome Negative Thoughts & Anxiety

Summary

Podcast Summary: Change Your Brain Every Day

Episode: Tana's Top Meditation to Overcome Negative Thoughts & Anxiety
Hosts: Dr. Daniel Amen & Tana Amen
Date: December 5, 2025

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Episode Overview

This episode features Tana Amen's favorite meditation technique for overcoming negative thoughts and anxiety: Loving Kindness Meditation. Designed to help listeners foster positive emotions, decrease negativity, and cultivate emotional resilience, the episode blends practical instruction with motivational science, guiding listeners through each step of the meditation process.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Meditation Myth

• Addressing Misconceptions (00:14–00:38)
  • Many people struggle with meditation because they believe they're supposed to “think about nothing.” The instructor clarifies that meditation is not about emptying the mind, but about refocusing thoughts.

2. Introduction to Loving Kindness Meditation

• Overview and Research-Backed Benefits (00:40–01:20)
  • Loving Kindness Meditation focuses on cultivating goodwill and positive emotions, shown to decrease pain, social prejudice, anger, anxiety, depression, and even PTSD.
  • “Loving kindness meditation focuses on feelings of goodwill and positive emotions while decreasing negative ones.” — Meditation Instructor (00:40)

3. Settling the Body & Mind

• Physical Preparation (01:20–01:32)

  • Listeners are asked to find a comfortable, supported seated position.

• Breathing Deeply (01:23–02:07)

  • Instruction in diaphragmatic breathing: inhaling and exhaling slowly, with attention on the breath’s effect on the belly and heart region.
  • “Do that a couple more times. Let go of any worries or concerns.” — Meditation Guide (02:00)

4. The Loving Kindness Practice

• Step 1: Directing Kindness Inward (02:19–03:39)

  • Participants repeat affirmations toward themselves:
    • “May I be safe and secure.”
    • “May I be healthy and strong.”
    • “May I be happy and purposeful.”
    • “May I be at peace.”
  • Listeners are encouraged to truly feel the intentions as they repeat them.

• Step 2: Directing Kindness Toward a Loved One (04:05–05:23)

  • The same well-wishes are repeated for someone the listener feels gratitude for.
  • “Visualize this person and say, ‘May you be safe and secure...’” — Meditation Guide (04:20)

• Step 3: Directing Kindness Toward a Neutral Person (05:23–06:47)

  • Listeners bring to mind an acquaintance they feel neutral about, sending them the same affirmations.
  • Suggestions include everyday people, like someone at the dry cleaner or a teacher.

• Step 4: Directing Kindness Toward a Difficult Person (07:04–08:54)

  • The most challenging step: Send loving kindness to someone with whom there’s conflict, pain, or resentment.
  • “This is the most important part of the meditation. If it takes you a moment, that's okay.” — Meditation Guide (07:32)

• Step 5: Wishing Well to All Beings (09:06–09:24)

  • The meditation concludes by extending wishes of safety, health, happiness, and peace to all beings:
    • “May all be safe and secure.”
    • “May all be healthy and strong.”
    • “May all be happy and purposeful.”
    • “May all be at peace.”

5. Reflections on Forgiveness & Healing

• Embracing Forgiveness (09:39–10:19)
  • The instructor acknowledges the difficulty of extending kindness to those who’ve hurt us.
  • “Forgiveness is one of the most powerful tools you have to heal yourself. And even though it's hard to forgive other people, if you can't do it for them, consider doing it for yourself.” — Meditation Instructor (09:49)
  • Letting go of anger “is one of the best things you can do for your physical health, your mental health, actually to decrease stress hormones for your heart, for chronic disease, for chronic pain.” — Meditation Instructor (10:07)

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Memorable Quotes

• “Every day you are making your brain better or you are making it worse.”
  — Host (00:02)

• “People think they have to think about nothing...this is a misconception.”
  — Meditation Instructor (00:17)

• “Loving kindness meditation actually decreases symptoms of pain, social prejudice, anger, anxiety, and even depression and PTSD.”
  — Meditation Instructor (00:48)

• “Forgiveness is one of the most powerful tools you have to heal yourself. And even though it's hard to forgive other people, if you can't do it for them, consider doing it for yourself.”
  — Meditation Instructor (09:49)

• “To let go of anger is one of the most challenging things, but one of the best things you can do for your physical health, your mental health.”
  — Meditation Instructor (10:07)

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Notable Segments & Timestamps

• Dispelling Meditation Myths: 00:14–00:38
• Benefits of Loving Kindness Meditation: 00:40–01:20
• Guided Diaphragmatic Breathing: 01:23–02:07
• Self-Directed Loving Kindness: 02:19–03:39
• Extending Kindness to Loved Ones: 04:05–05:23
• Including Neutral People: 05:23–06:47
• Kindness Toward Difficult People: 07:04–08:54
• Universal Wishes: 09:06–09:24
• Forgiveness as Healing: 09:39–10:19

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Tone & Style Commentary

The meditative guidance is gentle, reassuring, and invitational—giving listeners full permission to go at their own pace and revisit challenging segments. Tana Amen’s voice is compassionate and pragmatic, making the session approachable for both meditation newcomers and those seeking specific tools for anxiety relief.

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Summary

This episode is a practical, science-informed invitation to rediscover emotional wellbeing through Loving Kindness Meditation. With careful instructions, scientific insights, and honest acknowledgment of emotional challenges, Dr. Daniel and Tana Amen provide listeners with a concrete tool for combating anxiety, negative thoughts, and stress—building not only inner resilience, but also deeper connections with others and the world at large.

Transcript

[Host]

Every day you are making your brain better or you are making it worse. Stay with us to learn how you can change your brain for the better every day.

[Meditation Instructor]

It seems one of the major challenges our community has is in learning how to meditate. It's one of the major questions I get is, can you help me learn to meditate? A lot of people get tripped up here because they can't think about nothing. And for some reason, this is a misconception, people think they have to think about nothing. So for the next few weeks, I'm going to help you meditate. I'm just going to meditate with you.

[Participant 1]

If you follow along, I'm going to.

[Meditation Instructor]

Teach you several different meditation techniques. Today, I'm going to start with a meditation called Loving kindness meditation. Loving kindness meditation focuses on feelings of goodwill and positive emotions while decreasing negative ones. Research has shown that doing loving kindness meditation actually decreases symptoms of pain, social prejudice, anger, anxiety, and even depression and ptsd. So before we get started, make sure you're sitting in a comfortable position. Sit upright. Make sure your hands, feet, legs back, everything's comfortable. If you need to put a cushion behind you, go ahead and do that.

[Meditation Guide]

Close your eyes.

Take two or three deep breaths.

Breathe in.

[Meditation Instructor]

And what I want you to do is feel your belly moving out as.

[Meditation Guide]

Your breath goes in. This is called diaphragmatic breathing.

[Meditation Instructor]

And as you breathe in, I want you to think about how long it takes you.

[Meditation Guide]

If you breathe in for a count.

[Meditation Instructor]

Of two, I want you to exhale.

[Meditation Guide]

For a count of four. So breathing in slowly.

Do that a couple more times. Let go of any worries or concerns.

Feel your breath moving through the area around your heart.

Picture a warm light encircling your heart.

Loving kindness meditation.

Is first practiced towards ourselves.

Because so many of us have difficulty loving ourselves.

So as you sit quietly, repeat the following.

May I be safe and secure.

[Participant 1]

May I be healthy and strong.

[Participant 2]

May I be happy and purposeful.

[Participant 3]

May I be at peace.

[Meditation Guide]

May I be safe and secure.

[Participant 1]

May I be healthy and strong.

[Participant 2]

May I be happy and purposeful.

[Participant 3]

May I be at peace.

[Meditation Guide]

May I be safe and secure.

[Participant 1]

May I be healthy and strong.

[Participant 2]

May I be happy and purposeful.

[Meditation Guide]

May I be be at peace.

While you repeat the phrases.

Just sit for a minute and allow yourself to really feel the intentions.

As you say the words.

Focus on connecting to the positive intentions.

Allow these feelings to grow deeper.

Now direct the phrase towards someone you feel thankful for, someone who has helped you, someone you love.

Visualize this person and say.

[Participant 3]

May you.

[Meditation Guide]

Be safe and secure.

[Participant 1]

May you Be healthy and strong.

[Participant 2]

May you be happy and purposeful.

[Participant 3]

May you be at peace.

[Meditation Guide]

May you be safe and secure.

[Participant 1]

May you be healthy and strong.

[Participant 2]

May you be happy and purposeful.

[Participant 3]

May you be at peace.

[Meditation Guide]

May you be safe and secure.

[Participant 1]

May you be healthy and strong.

[Participant 2]

May you be happy and purposeful.

[Participant 3]

May you be at peace.

[Meditation Guide]

Now, maintaining that feeling of peace.

With.

[Meditation Instructor]

That warm light surrounding your heart.

[Meditation Guide]

Visualize someone you feel neutral about.

Someone you don't like or dislike.

Could be someone at the dry cleaner.

Maybe a teacher in your children's school.

And say the same words. May you be safe and secure.

[Participant 1]

May you be healthy and strong.

[Participant 2]

May you be happy and purposeful.

[Participant 3]

May you be at peace.

[Meditation Guide]

May you be safe and secure.

[Participant 1]

May you be healthy and strong.

[Participant 2]

May you be happy and purposeful.

[Participant 3]

May you be at peace.

[Meditation Guide]

May you be safe and secure.

[Participant 1]

May you be healthy and strong.

[Participant 2]

May you be happy and purposeful.

[Participant 3]

May you be at peace.

[Participant 2]

Now.

[Meditation Guide]

Maintaining that peaceful feeling.

Visualize someone.

[Participant 1]

That you may have had a problem.

[Meditation Guide]

With, someone that you don't like.

Someone who may have teased you or bullied you.

Maybe even someone you've had a hard time forgiving.

This can be more challenging.

But this is the most important part of the meditation.

If it takes you a moment, that's okay.

Take a couple deep breaths.

Thinking about this person.

May you be safe and secure.

[Participant 1]

May you be healthy and strong.

[Participant 2]

May you be happy and purposeful.

[Participant 3]

May you be at peace.

[Meditation Guide]

May you be safe and secure.

[Participant 1]

May you be healthy and strong.

[Participant 2]

May you be happy and purposeful.

[Participant 3]

May you be at peace.

[Meditation Guide]

May you be safe and secure.

[Participant 1]

May you be healthy and strong.

[Participant 2]

May you be happy and purposeful.

[Participant 3]

May you be at peace.

[Meditation Guide]

If you feel you need to say that a few more times.

For someone you struggle with, take your time.

Finally thinking about the world in general.

Say, may all be safe and secure.

[Participant 1]

May all be healthy and strong.

[Participant 2]

May all be happy and purposeful.

[Meditation Guide]

And may all be at peace.

When you're ready.

Open your eyes.

[Meditation Instructor]

I know how difficult that can be when you're talking about someone that's not been kind.

[Meditation Guide]

But forgiveness is one of the most.

[Meditation Instructor]

Powerful tools you have to heal yourself. And even though it's hard to forgive other people, if you can't do it for them, consider doing it for yourself.

For healing yourself.

[Meditation Guide]

To let go of anger is one of the most challenging things, but one.

[Meditation Instructor]

Of the best things you can do for your physical health, your mental health, actually to decrease stress hormones for your heart, for chronic disease, for chronic pain.

[Meditation Guide]

For just about everything sat.