Hello and welcome back to your meditation practice.
My name is Alexa Daniel.
And today you will be guided through a nervous system reset.
A guided body scan that moves your awareness slowly and intentionally through the body.
Helping you locate where tension lives,
Soften what's ready to release,
And return to a felt sense of safety within yourself.
As you drop out of your head and into your body,
Your nervous system begins to settle.
Breath by breath,
Layer by layer.
The beginning of this meditation will be marked by one chime.
The ending by two.
Begin by finding a position that allows your body to feel genuinely supported.
Seated with your back resting against something solid.
Or lying down if that is available to you.
There is no correct arrangement.
Just settle in to what your body is asking for.
Allow your eyes to close.
Or soften your gaze toward the floor.
Mark the beginning of your practice with a few full and generous breaths.
No need to strain or change the breath.
Simply invite a little more air than usual.
And release it completely.
Breathing in.
And breathing out.
Allow the breath to carry something out with it.
Again.
Breathing in.
And breathing out.
Notice how each exhale is an act of softening.
Allow your jaw to become heavy.
Allow your shoulders to descend.
One more.
Breathing in.
And breathing out.
You are here.
Whatever you carry to get here,
The decisions,
The urgency.
The accumulated weight of the day.
Set it at the threshold.
The space is devoted entirely to your inner world.
There is nothing to produce here.
No one to be.
Nowhere to arrive.
Now relax any effort to shape the breath.
And allow it to move in its own rhythm.
Its own intelligence.
Trust that your body knows exactly how to breathe.
We will move through the body slowly,
Traveling upward from the soles of your feet to the crown of your head.
The intention is not to change anything.
Nor to manufacture any particular state.
Simply to arrive in each region of the body with warm,
Unhurried attention.
So begin by bringing your awareness to the soles of your feet.
Sends them.
The temperature of the skin.
The texture of fabric or floor beneath them.
Is there holding here or ease?
Observing with genuine curiosity and allow whatever is present to remain exactly as it is.
Moving your awareness upward to the ankles and shins.
Feel the weight of your lower legs resting into the surface that holds you.
Allow gravity to do its work.
Invite your legs to release any duty entirely.
Shifting towards your knees and your thighs.
Sense into this region.
Is there bracing,
Gripping,
A readiness held in the muscles?
Simply witness it.
Awareness itself is the practice here.
Offer a breath of space to the thighs and feel them grow a little heavier.
Allow your awareness to settle into the hips and pelvis,
Your center of gravity.
Feel the full weight of your lower body pressing gently downward.
You are health.
The ground beneath you is solid and sure.
Sense that contact and allow yourself to receive it.
Slowly moving upward towards your lower back.
And your abdomen.
Notice the quality of your belly.
Is it braced?
Held.
Armored against something.
Is there a sense of readiness,
A perpetual preparation?
In this moment,
Allow the belly to become soft.
To become open.
Alive.
Breathing,
And receiving.
Travel upward through the mid-back and ribcage.
Feeling the slow,
Subtle movement of the breath here.
The ribcage widening on the inhale.
Drawing inward on the exhale.
Allow the undulating rhythm of the breath to lure you into a deeper ease,
The way a tide draws sand smoothly back to the sea.
Moving your awareness up towards the chest and heart center.
If it feels comfortable,
Place a hand here or simply rest your awareness in this region.
This extraordinary organ has been working without pause.
It has carried not only blood,
But memories.
Acknowledge it.
And offer it a moment of genuine tenderness.
Shifting to your shoulders.
Sense where they rest right now.
Are they drawn upward,
Held close to the ears?
If so,
Allow them to descend.
Allow the full weight of them to release downward,
As though something you have been carrying is finally being set down.
Giving yourself this permission to soften.
To surrender.
To reset.
From your shoulders,
Begin to travel down through your upper arms.
Your elbows.
Your forearms.
All the way to your hands.
Allowing your fingers to soften and uncurl.
Feel the air resting against your palms.
For at this moment,
There is nothing your hands need to hold.
Allow each exhale.
To gently take something with it.
Any tension.
Any lingering tightness.
Traveling up.
From the fingers to the wrists,
The forearms,
Elbows,
Upper arms all the way to the neck.
And the base of your skull.
So much is held here.
The vigilance,
The planning.
Be enduring.
Gift yourself this moment.
To allow the full weight of your head.
To be received by whatever surface holds it.
Allow your neck to release its custody of that weight and simply rest.
Notice the muscles that hold your head up.
Gently lengthening.
Softening.
Resting.
Allow the ground to hold you.
As you begin to move to your face.
To your jaw.
Allow the jaw to soften and part ever so slightly.
Shifting your awareness to your eyes.
Allow the muscles around them to release.
Shifting your awareness towards your brows.
Sense the skin there becoming smooth,
Wide,
And at ease.
There is nothing to solve in this moment.
There is just.
.
.
Surrender.
Slowly,
Allow your awareness.
To sense the body as a whole.
Rather than a collection of parts to manage.
Sense one breathing,
Living intelligence.
That is vast.
Present.
And already complete.
Return to the breath and become aware of the movement once more.
And with that awareness alone,
The breath may naturally deepen.
Allow the breath to gently reawaken you from the inside.
Begin to reawaken the physical body with micro-movements of the fingers and toes.
Allowing sensation to return at its own pace,
Unhurried.
When it feels right,
Allow your eyes to open softly.
Take in the room around you with a quiet,
Easy gaze.
As you look to your left.
To your right.
And right in front of you.
Your nervous system is not broken.
It has been responding.
Precisely and intelligently.
To everything you have asked of it.
What it requires above all else is exactly what you offered it today.
Contact.
Presence.
And a few minutes of being rather than performing.
May you carry this quality of attention with you throughout your days.
It belongs to you,
Not only here,
But everywhere.
Take your time as you reintegrate to your routine and your daily life.
Thank you for joining me until we meet again.
