Release Tension And Regulate Your Nervous System

In this guided practice, Kristina Bruce leads you through a somatic journey to meet and move through physical and energetic tension. Rather than trying to "fix" or escape uncomfortable sensations like restlessness, chest tightness, or anxiety, you are invited to welcome them with the tenderness of a parent comforting a child. By combining rhythmic breathing with the natural biological process of "shaking off" stored stress, you will learn how to stay present with your body's signals until they naturally begin to dissipate. This practice is designed to help you stop resisting your resistance and instead create a safe internal environment for your nervous system to process and release what it has been holding. This approach is influenced by somatic experiencing and the natural trauma-release movements seen in the animal kingdom.

Transcript

I want to invite you to close your eyes. If you're sitting in a chair, Just place your feet flat on the floor, Bring a little bit of length to your spine, Resting your hands comfortably in your lap. And let's begin by taking three clearing breaths in through the nose and out through the mouth, Starting with a slow, Deep inhale through the nose, A long, Full exhale through the mouth. Doing that again, Slow, Full inhale, Allowing the breath to drop deeper into the abdomen. Long release on the exhale, Letting go. One more time, Inhale, Long exhale. And now breathing in a slow and steady rhythmic breath, In and out through the nose. If you can today, If there's any congestion in the nose, Just breathe through the mouth. You want this breath to be slow and steady, A little bit deeper than a normal breath, But where there's still ease and comfort, It just feels good to you. I want you to begin to notice if you're feeling any tension or contraction in any part of your body. So maybe you're feeling some tension in the stomach, Maybe like a pit in the stomach or just a sense of tightness. Maybe you're feeling it in the chest or the throat, Maybe just a general sense of tension in the back of the head or shoulders. If it feels like a physical tension, Like a tension in the muscles, Just kind of roll your shoulders a little bit, Maybe move your neck. If you're feeling an energetic tension, Just bring your awareness to this tension, And this is often the opposite of what we want to do. So it could also just be a feeling of restlessness, A feeling of overall anxiousness, Of unease, Of like, I gotta go, I gotta leave right now, I can't be here. Well, Keeping that steady breath in and out, I'm going to encourage you right now to stay with whatever sensation you're experiencing. This isn't going to be forever. Even if you can sit here for five seconds and feel it. If that is more than you've done before, That is enough. So I want you to just breathe and stay with that sensation. What if that energy is just looking for your attention? What if you could see that as a small child who is feeling that way, And all they want is for you to be with them right now? Just let them know that it's safe, That they can come to you, And you don't need to fix them. They just feel good in your presence. So whatever visual works for you, Breathe and stay with it. See it as an energy. See if you can welcome that feeling that you don't need to abandon it anymore, But it's safe to feel. Because it is. You are here, Right now, You are safe. You are in the room that you're in, Or whether you're outside, You are safe. All that's happening is an energy in the body, In the nervous system. There might be thoughts, There might be a story about it. And for this moment, I want to invite you to just let go of the story and stay with the sensation as you breathe slowly in and out. Now you are in control of this. You do as much or as little as you want, But if you feel that you have the ability today, That I'm here with you right now, I just invite you to breathe through the sensation. But you don't need to resist it. And even if you do feel resistance, Can you allow the resistance instead of resisting the resistance? Know that this energy is safe. When we've had stored energy in our system that we hadn't been able to process, We need to be able to feel it. We need to be able to feel it in the body and let it do its thing. It's like whenever an animal has wounded itself. If it maybe got hit by a car but was okay, It will lie there for a bit and then it might start shaking. And that's just releasing the energy of the impact from its system. You'll see if two dogs have ever had a encounter with each other and they're barking. Once it's ended, Just watch the dogs. They'll shake. It's like they're shaking off the energy of it. So you might even feel it might feel good to shake right now. And if that does, Do that. You could even stand up right now and just start shaking the body. Maybe you're just moving your body. You could shake out your hands. You know, Shake your feet. Whatever feels good. You can actually physically shake the body if that helps. Keep breathing. And then you might notice that as you've been open to welcoming this sensation, It starts to move. Maybe it's changed locations in the body. Maybe it's just started to dissipate. And that's what happens. Like lifting the lid off of a pot of boiling water, The steam starts to dissipate. And that's what happens when we become present with the sensations. When we stop feeling that we need to escape from them or that they're dangerous or wrong or bad. Be present with the feeling and allow it to move through. Welcome it with love. Not to get rid of it, But to be with it. To meet it. Like meeting the child who is feeling what you're feeling. So allow yourself to keep breathing a couple more deep breaths. And then now we're going to close with taking a couple more clearing breaths in through the nose and out through the mouth. And when you're ready, Gently blinking the eyes open. Coming back to the space around you.