Somatic Practice For Inner Calm & Safety

Self Compassion Through Self Hold | Somatic Practice for Inner Calm & Safety | Nervous System Reset

Experience the power of self-holding, a gentle somatic practice designed to activate your body's natural capacity for self-soothing, compassion, and regulation. This practice helps you cultivate a felt sense of safety by engaging your body's innate wisdom through compassionate touch and presence.

Transcript

Hi,

Welcome to the Embodiment Lab.

My name is Alba Porras and today I'll share with you a simple but powerful somatic practice.

It's called the self hold and was originally developed by Dr.

Peter Levine.

I will be sharing with you a slight variation to it.

This overall this practice is designed to support emotional regulation,

To help you create a felt sense of safety and to help you gently reconnect with yourself,

Especially if you're feeling overwhelmed,

Stressed,

And a lot of self-judgment.

This practice is a beautiful way of offering yourself kindness,

Compassion,

Support,

And overall your own presence.

It will activate the natural capacity that you have to self-soothe and come into that state of balance,

Presence,

And ease.

It's also a great way of calming your nervous system.

And just as a reminder,

There's no need to fix anything.

It's all about just being with what's there,

With kindness and curiosity.

And as always,

As you are in presence and awareness,

If at any point some of the practice become overwhelming or stressful,

Just remind yourself to take care of you,

To attend to your needs.

Maybe that might look like opening your eyes and just tuning into the outside environment.

We're stopping the practice altogether.

It's always very important to stay within that window of safety and tolerance and that this practice feels safe to do.

So let's begin.

I'm going to invite you to find a very comfortable seated position.

Allow your posture to be soft,

Your spine to be long but soft.

And take a moment to check in with your body.

Perhaps notice the quality of the sensations of the back side of your body,

The quality of the sensations of the front side of your body.

Notice the areas of tensions and even notice the areas of your body that are calling your attention.

Notice the temperature.

Notice even if you can feel,

Aside from sensations,

An emotion that is present in your body.

Without trying to change anything,

Just become aware of where you are at this very moment.

Now I'm going to invite you to lower your gaze or close your eyes if that feels right for you.

And when you feel ready,

Bring one hand to your chest and one hand to your belly.

Begin noticing the temperature of your hands,

The light pressure of your hands against your belly and your chest.

Maybe even begin noticing the gentle rise and fall of your chest and your belly with each breath cycle.

Tune in to the quality of the sensations of these two parts of your body,

Your belly and your chest.

Perhaps you might begin to notice as well your heart beating.

And now bring your awareness to how these two parts of your body are breathing.

Finding the gentle connection between your heart center and your gut center.

Allowing these two parts of your body to breathe together.

And if your mind is wandering,

That's okay.

You might even gently whisper mentally,

I'm breathing in as you breathe in.

I'm breathing out as you breathe out.

Allowing your mind to stay with your breath in a gentle awareness of your belly and chest breathing.

Noticing the quality of the sensations that come with the awareness of your breath.

Take a breath in through your nose and on the next exhalation I invite you to move the hand that is on your belly,

Move it towards your forehead.

So now one hand is on your forehead and the other one is gently resting in your heart center.

Notice these two parts of your body connecting.

Your mind and your heart.

Perhaps notice the gentle and light touch of your hands against your forehead and your chest.

Perhaps you might notice the temperature of your hands.

Allow your mind to continue to be aware of your breath and maybe even visualize that you are creating a container for your thoughts with that hand that is on your forehead.

Allowing your thoughts to safely be placed on a container.

Staying present with what comes up and just continue to stay present with these two parts of your body.

Noticing what you notice.

Take a breath in through your nose and on the next exhalation I invite you to move the hand that is on your forehead,

Move it to the back of your head.

Resting right at the base of your skull.

You're connecting that part of the brain that is in charge of the survival responses with your heart,

With your heart center.

Maybe even allow your head to just rest gently on your hand and once again just visualize these two parts of your body connecting as they breathe,

As they tune in through the breath.

Noticing the next in-breath and the next out-breath.

Noticing whatever comes up,

The quality of the sensations of your body,

Your breath,

The thoughts that arise and just observe them.

Noticing them and then going back to the awareness of these two parts of your body and your breath.

Now take a breath in through your nose and on the next exhalation move that hand that is on the back side of your head and now place it on your cheek.

Allow your head to rest on that hand that is on your cheek.

Feel the gentle warmth of your hand against your face.

Notice your whole head resting in your hand and once again find a connection between your face and your heart.

They say that we carry our hearts in our face.

Just take a moment to notice the muscles around your face,

The resting of your head against your hand in your heart center.

Noticing your chest breathing and the relaxation of the muscles of your face,

The softening of your body as you hold yourself.

Staying in awareness of the present moment and the quality of your breath.

Take a breath in through your nose and as you exhale I'm going to invite you to move that hand to your chest so both of your hands are resting on your chest.

You might even hug yourself crossing over your arms so your hands are resting on the opposite shoulders and take a moment to once again stay with the quality of the sensations of this part of your body.

Perhaps noticing your heart beating,

The gentle expansion of your torso with each breath cycle and allowing your shoulders to soften with each exhalation.

Noticing the temperature of your torso,

The gentle touch and pressure of your hands or your arms against your torso and just noticing what you notice.

Allowing yourself to be with you and as you are in this full presence and awareness of your beautiful body,

If it resonates with you I'm going to invite you to mentally whisper to yourself three things that you're grateful for.

Perhaps three things that you're grateful for your body or in your life.

Take a moment to find gratitude and connect to the feeling of feeling grateful.

Return to the awareness of your breath,

Noticing the inhalation and the exhalation and gently expand your awareness and notice your whole body breathing.

Notice the quality of the sensations of the back side of your body and now the quality of the sensations of the front side of your body.

Notice what shift after this practice.

Perhaps you can feel a difference in your breathing,

In the quality of the sensations of your body or even in how you're feeling at this very moment.

Without judging anything,

Just being present with you and how you are after experiencing this practice.

Take a breath in through your nose and open your mouth and exhale through the mouth.

Let's do one more breath together.

Take a breath in through your nose and exhale through the mouth and very slowly,

When you feel ready,

Begin bringing a sense of movement to your head,

To your fingers and your toes.

Perhaps even roll your shoulders or a stretch as if you have just woken up.

Bring any movement that your body is craving and when you feel ready,

Open your eyes and just look around where you are and notice the colors,

Notice the shapes and take one last breath together.

Take a breath in through your nose and sigh it out.

Thank you so much for allowing me to be part of your practice today.

I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day.

Reviews

This was great for feeling less tense and stressed. Thank you for a peaceful start to my morning :) I will be trying more somatic practices.