A Meditation To Support Your Nervous System

In this 14-minute meditation we will journey through several ways to support your nervous system. This is a perfect meditation for stressful times to bring about more balance and regulate your nervous system. We'll breathe, be still and silent, rock our physical bodies, do a scan of our being promoting relaxation, and chant.

Transcript

Hello,

Welcome to this meditation to support your nervous system.

This is a wonderful meditation for those moments where you need help balancing and regulating your nervous system.

This will help you better handle whatever stressful situation you're currently going through.

When you're ready to begin,

Find a comfortable position that works best for you.

It could be seated,

It could be lying down,

It could be outside,

Inside,

Your choice.

And then once you feel settled in,

Close your eyes and just breathe deeply.

And sometimes when our nervous system is a little on edge,

It's hard to breathe deeply.

So put your mind to just taking a real big inhale as best as you can and then slowly exhaling it.

And yes,

It may be hard,

Especially at first,

But these breaths do really help us.

Nice deep inhale and a slow,

Long exhale.

Continue to just breathe.

How can you support your nervous system right now?

Breathing is one way.

There's several ways,

Breath,

Work,

Nutrition,

Sleep,

Rest,

Movement,

Meditation.

Yes,

But what you are doing right now,

All these things may help you manage stress.

And sometimes it's a little trial and error,

Finding what works best for you as an individual,

Because we're all different.

And we all know that stress can wreak havoc on our bodies.

That's why it's important to do meditations like this to support yourself.

Let's continue to just breathe deeply,

But this time we're going to exhale through the mouth.

So as you take a long,

Deep,

Slow inhale through the nose,

I want you,

When we exhale,

To exhale through the mouth,

Make a sound if you need to,

Yell if you need to,

Whatever's going to support you best in this moment.

Exhale it,

Exhale it through the mouth.

So let's do that five times.

We're going to inhale through the nose,

A long,

Deep,

Slow inhale,

Fill up with oxygen.

Get that oxygen moving in your body to help you.

And then you exhale through your mouth as best as going to support you.

Yell,

Scream,

Sigh,

Whisper.

It could be a little hum,

Whatever works for you.

Exhale.

All right,

We're going to do that four more times.

Inhale.

Exhale in whatever audible way works for you in this moment.

And it doesn't have to be the same each time we do this.

We've got three more times.

Let's inhale through the nose and then exhale.

Take a nice,

Long,

Slow,

Deep inhale through the nose.

Inhale,

Inhale,

Inhale.

And exhale whatever you need to let go of.

Exhale it out.

One more time.

Inhale.

And then exhale.

Let go,

Let go,

Let go,

Get it out.

Now just returning to your natural breath,

Yet a deep breath if possible.

Now I personally believe in today's world,

Our nervous system can be overloaded from technology and this constant noise.

So in continuing with our support of our nervous system in this meditation,

I'm going to provide you with two minutes of complete silence.

So notice if you get antsy,

Your mind starts to wander,

It feels uncomfortable,

It's okay.

Don't judge yourself.

I know it's easier said than done sometimes,

Right?

But just practice staying present and quiet and stay with your breath.

Focus on your breath.

There's a beautiful stillness in the silence and it can really help us quiet or at least soothe our nervous system.

So starting now,

Two minutes of silence.

Give it a try.

I'll be back.

How did that go for you?

No matter how it went,

We are supporting our nervous system through that practice of just silence and presence.

Now another thing that supports our nervous systems is rocking.

That's why people rock babies.

It soothes their nervous system.

So in this next part of our meditation,

I'm going to invite you keeping your eyes closed and while maintaining your meditative position as best as you can through this,

Just gently rock yourself side to side.

Just rock side to side.

And just keep that up.

Pretend you're rocking a baby,

But you're rocking yourself.

And be aware of if that starts to help soothe you,

That rocking motion side to side.

And now,

If you can keep up that rocking motion as we do a little body scan,

And we're going to invite each part of our body to relax.

So if there's a part of your body is feeling tense as I move through this body scan,

Take a long,

Deep,

Slow inhale into that area and send it a signal to relax.

Sometimes we need to give a little permission to certain areas of the body that are holding tension and that supports our nervous system.

So as you rock,

Bring awareness first to the top of your head,

Then over your scalp and down your face.

Notice if there's any stress or tension you're holding in those areas.

If so,

Breathe into them,

Give them permission to relax.

And then scan downward through your neck,

Your shoulders,

Your back.

Noticing any sensations without judgment.

Giving any areas of tension that may arise that permission to relax.

And then long,

Slow,

Deep breath.

Continue to rock if that feels good to you.

Now we're going to move down through the belly,

The arms down to the fingertips.

And notice how all that feels.

If you're clenching your hands into fists,

Relax them.

If you feel like your belly's clenched due to stress and tension,

Invite it to relax.

You might even take a deep belly breath to help it.

And then moving through the hips and the legs,

All the way down to the toes.

And notice if you are clenching your feet,

Your ankles or your toes,

We do that too sometimes when we're stressed.

Invite some relaxation,

Unclench those toes.

And now we're going to pause the rocking.

And notice how you feel before we head into one last piece of this meditation.

Do you feel any more soothed from when we started?

So one more piece of this meditation that really helps support our nervous system is chanting.

And you can chant any word that resonates with you.

I personally like the word peace,

Or shanti,

Which means peace in Sanskrit.

So you might go with peace or shanti,

You might have a word of your own.

Some people like the word love,

Or faith,

Or compassion,

Or relax.

It might even be a short affirmation.

Whatever it is,

Use that to give a positive focus to your mind.

And that repetition of the word helps to soothe the nervous system.

So let's just repeat to ourselves whatever word you choose.

And we'll do that for one minute.

I'm going to stay quiet so that I'm not chanting a word that you didn't choose.

So for one minute,

I invite you just to chant over and over again,

Whatever resonates for you in this moment,

And it might change every time you do this meditation.

So whatever you need,

Chant that word right now.

And see how you feel.

One minute,

Chant away.

Now just take a moment to notice how you feel after practicing all these techniques to support the nervous system in this particular meditation.

Did one of the techniques resonate more with you than another?

That does happen sometimes.

Did they all work together for you?

Feeling gratitude for this space,

For your physical and mental being.

Saying thank you,

Thank you,

Thank you.

When you're ready to resume your day,

I hope feeling less stressed.

Slowly bring yourself back to your present time and space.

Linking your eyes open very,

Very slowly.

Noticing your surroundings.

And then when you're ready to close,

Go about your day.

And again,

I really hope that you're feeling better after this meditation.

Thank you so very much for joining me.