Hello,
Heather here,
And today I'm just going to demonstrate some relaxation exercises.
These exercises are particularly good for helping you to breathe,
Helping you to stay in the moment,
Helping you to come back to yourself.
So if you're having these stressful thoughts or anxious experiences,
These breathing exercises and relaxation exercises will help you to come back to the moment and to feel a bit more peace.
But sometimes when we're anxious or we're feeling a bit stressed or we find ourselves caught up in thoughts and problems and anxieties,
Our breathing gets all shallow.
We start to breathe quite high in the body and we find ourselves breathing up into our chests and we can't speak properly and it's exhausting,
Absolutely exhausting.
Now the thing is you can always reset.
It doesn't feel like you can sometimes if you're caught up in anxiety or panic,
But you can.
And exhaling is often the way to do it,
Especially if we're feeling a little bit anxious.
We don't trust that the breath's going to come back again,
But it will,
It will.
If you were asleep,
You would be breathing perfectly normally.
It's not a competition.
Eventually you will calm down into your breath.
It just may take a little bit longer than you want it to,
But if you trust that your body knows how to breathe,
That's a great comfort.
I'd like you to just visualize the sea.
So just visualize a lovely blue sky and a nice clear ocean.
And the horizon is there and you can see waves coming in towards the shore.
And those waves are just rolling naturally in their own rhythm and they break and they slide towards the shore.
And then when they get to the shore,
They just slide up the beach as far as they're going to go.
And then naturally they just slip back into the ocean again.
And another wave comes along and it builds and it builds and it builds and it breaks and it slides up to the shore and then just slips up to the sand all the way until it gets as far as it's going to go.
It stretches and then it slips back into the ocean again.
So if you can have that in mind,
Just imagine that you're seeing those waves.
You may be seeing those waves.
You may be sitting somewhere where you can see the ocean and just taking a lovely deep breath.
And then as you exhale,
Controlled exhale,
Imagine that wave building,
Building,
Building and breaking and sliding up the beach as far as it's going to go.
And then relax,
Let more breath in.
So the breath comes into the body and the wave goes back into the ocean and we're ready with another wave to exhale.
And we're ready with another wave to exhale.
As far as you can,
Then another breath in.
Imagine the wave coming along,
Building and building and building,
Breaking,
Sliding up the beach.
So in your own pace,
Don't worry about my rhythm,
Just imagine your own waves.
Okay,
So you get the breath into the body,
Filling those lungs,
Those beautiful,
Beautiful lungs with all their capacity.
And then a lovely long steady exhale,
Imagining the wave coming along,
Sliding up the beach.
And then in again.
And out,
Lovely long out breath.
As you do this,
Just imagine that any tension in your shoulders and your neck is just melting away,
Melting away in the water,
Dissolving any tension.
So keep breathing in your own rhythm,
Breath in again when you're ready.
As you exhale,
Any tension in the body dissolves in the neck,
In the chin,
Dissolves in the neck,
In the chin,
In the throat,
In the shoulders,
In the spine,
In the hips,
Anywhere in your body,
Just imagine all the tension dissolving.
And then breathe in again.
And out.
Just do a few more of these.
So you're imagining the wave building into a breaking surf wave.
Exhaling as the wave goes up,
Sliding off the beach,
Washing away any tension in your body.
Breath in again.
And exhale,
Washing away any tension in the body.
Bring yourself back to these waves,
Just imagine them in your mind's eye.
Breath in again.
And out.
So just stay there for a few moments.
Just imagine that beautiful washing away of tension in your body,
Nice and relaxed.
Nice and relaxed.
Good,
You can come back to this any time,
Come back to this thought,
Come back to these images,
Come back to these breathing exercises.
Reset,
Resetting your body,
Resetting your mind,
Bring it back to the ocean.
Good,
And when you're ready,
Just a lovely sigh and a lovely stretch.
So your body is nice and calm,
Your mind hopefully is focusing on the sea and the relaxation and the melting away of any tension in your body.
So you can always do these exercises,
The neck exercises are particularly useful,
The shoulder exercises are particularly useful for freeing up any tension that we might hold.
And I hope this makes you feel a little bit better.
I hope it helps to wash away any stress you may have,
Coming back to the moment,
Coming back to your body and coming back to your breath.
