A Present Moment Nervous System Reset Practice

In this practice, I guide you through a short nervous system reset aimed at helping you transition from a stress response to a relaxation response. We start with the breath. I then introduce a present moment awareness practice, and finally, I invite you to engage your five senses to ground yourself in the present moment. I encourage you to practice these techniques anytime to help manage anxiety and promote relaxation. Please note that this practice is for supportive purposes and does not replace professional care.

Transcript

Hi there, Welcome back to your daily practice. Today's practice is a short nervous system reset. We'll actually introduce a couple of different tools that we can use to help reset the nervous system to bring the body out of the stress response into the relaxation response. We're going to start with the most basic, Our first and our best tool for regulating the nervous system, And that is our breath. So we're just going to start with deep diaphragmatic breathing. So we start just by breathing. First, Just notice the breath without even making any changes. You can close your eyes for this practice if you'd like to. Just starting to notice your breath. Noticing if you're breathing in through the nose or the mouth. Noticing if you're breathing out through the nose or the mouth. And then if you're not already. Begin to both inhale and exhale out of the nose. Breathing through the nose sends a message to our nervous system that everything's okay. Kind of automatically. Switching into the relaxation response. That's our first layer. And the next layer we can add is just to lengthen each breath, Breathing in for a little bit longer. And breathing out a little bit longer to match it. I love this idea of being patient with the breath. Breathing in until there's just not any more room, But without forcing anything, Without competing in any way. Exhaling until the air is all gone. Without feeling out of breath, Just feeling empty. Inhaling. Exhaling. Continuing to breathe like this. And just allowing space and time with each breath to extend the inhale. Maybe a touch more each time. Exhaling long and slow to match. And then continuing these deep and full breaths, I invite you to bring one hand to the heart and one hand to the belly, Right around the belly button. And as you continue these deep diaphragmatic breaths, Noticing if the hands are moving, Maybe the hand at the heart if the chest is moving. But also feeling the hand at the belly rising with each inhale. And falling with each exhale. Feeling the air fill up the entire torso with each inhale. And emptying everything out completely. Let's take one more breath like that. And then relax the hands down and let the breath just be natural here. Still deep and full breaths, But a little less attention on the breath for now. And the next thing that we're going to do is what we call a present moment awareness practice. And it's really simple, But it brings our brain out of wherever it might have been into the moment it's in right now, This present moment here and now. And why does that matter? Being present. Present moment awareness. These are concepts in yoga that you may have heard of before, But why does it matter? Well, Let me tell you. Because. . . If we are recognizing what's happening in this present moment here and now. This exact instant right here and right now. You're watching this video and I'm making this video this instant right here right now. Everything is okay. Roof over our head. I've had some food and some drinks today. I'm hydrated. I'm not too hot, Not too cold. I'm safe. Nothing bad is happening to me in this moment right now. And if I can recognize that in this exact moment right now, Nothing's wrong. That gives my nervous system an opportunity to rest, To get back into that relaxation state, That parasympathetic nervous system response. Now I can sit here very safely in my office and start to worry and start to think about something I said yesterday that was embarrassing or wonder what somebody thought about me or what's going to happen tomorrow. And I can very, Very quickly spiral into a cycle of overthinking, Rumination, Anxiety. Those are all not happening right here, Right now. Those are happening in the future, In the past. They're not happening right here, Right now. So in order to pull my mind, Which is very set in that cycle of thinking, Thank you. In order to pull my mind out of that. Mind place, That thinking cycle, And into this present moment here, I can use my physical body to do that. And so this is a very simple practice that just helps us to do that in the moment. You can do it lots of different ways. We're going to do it with our toes, But you can do it with lots of anything that just brings you back into this moment here and now. We also do that using our five senses. So we're going to do a practice in just a moment incorporating the five senses. That is another way that we can just bring ourselves out of our heads and into the present moment, Which automatically switches us from. Stressed state to everything is okay, Relaxed state. All right, So here's this practice. I just call it a big toe focus practice. We're going to think about our toes. We're going to think about our big toes. We're going to think about our pinky toes. It's okay if you have shoes on here. You can be seated. You can be standing. You can be lying down. Whatever you want to be doing for this practice, Just kind of start to wiggle your toes around and notice that they're there. Okay? Now, Let the toes just rest and be still. You can close your eyes. In fact, I think it's nice to close your eyes. It helps us to really bring that focus inward. So when we close our eyes, It just brings us into what's happening in what we're experiencing in our own body and not what's happening outside of ourselves. Breathing in and breathing out here. Just calm, Steady, Even breaths. Now I want you to send all of your attention, All of your focus to your big toe on your right foot. Maybe even picturing that toe in your mind. Maybe you've memorized it over the years. Maybe the toenails painted. Maybe you can imagine it sitting inside a sock, Sitting inside a shoe, Sitting on the floor. Or maybe it's bare right now. Imagining your toe exactly as it is right now. Noticing if you can feel or sense anything in the big toe, Maybe the texture of the sock or the floor that it's resting on. Maybe not, But just see if you can. And now without moving anything else in your body. See if you can lift your big toe just by itself. Without pushing down on the other toes, Without moving the foot. Again, The goal here, Not necessarily to be successful. Just to attempt it, To try it. To give it your best. See if you can move that toe, Maybe lifting it, Maybe out to the side. I'm just noticing how much attention. Now let your big toe rest. And move your attention now to your pinky toe on your right foot. The last toe, The little toe. And again, Picturing that pinky toe. Picturing the toenail. The size of it, How it compares to the others. Maybe feeling it, Maybe noticing if there's any more or less sensation in the pinky toe than there was in the big toe. Just being curious, Noticing every single thing you can about your pinky toe. And now, Without moving anything else, See if you can lift up that pinky toe. Moving it in any way, Lift it, Move it out to the side, Wiggle it, Anything. Again, Just attempting it here. Give me everything you have. And relax, Let it go. Opening the eyes coming back here into this moment now, Letting our attention move from our toe just to kind of any observations, Any curiosities about that practice. What else were you thinking about while you were trying to move your toes? Often nothing. Usually the only thing we're focusing on is moving our toes or focusing on our toes or trying to feel what our toes are feeling. And what we've done basically in that practice is we've taken a mind that can get very, Very good at thinking the same thoughts over and over and over again and over analyzing and problem solving. It's so good at that. Our brains have gotten, Especially if we're a warrior or somebody who's had anxiety for a long time, Our brain has gotten very good at thinking about every single thing that could go wrong or every single thing that needs to go right. We've given that beautiful, Brilliant mind a different job to do. And the job was just to notice everything it could about our big toe and our pinky toe and the sensations that are there and how to move it. We communicate, We move our bodies by our brain telling the muscles in our body to move around. That happens through our nervous system. And so the more where our brain is connected to what our body's doing, Again, The more it puts us in this present moment that we're in, Takes us out of danger. We recognize our nervous system recognizes that we're not in any danger. If we were in danger, We would not be worrying about moving our pinky toe, Right? And so because we're focusing on something as silly as that, Our brain recognizes we must be safe. The nervous system drops into that parasympathetic state. And we teach it. More often that it's safe than it's dangerous. Now, The moment we go into anxiety and worry, Our nervous system shoots into that sympathetic response and it says something is terribly wrong. If we can recognize that that's happening, Bring it back into this moment here and now where our biggest concern is moving our pinky toe, Our nervous system can dip back down into that relaxation response. The more often we teach it to come out of stress and into relaxation, The better it gets at doing that, And the more quickly it happens, And the less we actually get up into those heightened states, Unless there's actually something important that we need to not just worry about, But actually take care of. There's a big difference between worry and a problem. A problem is something we can do something with, Do something about. Worry is just all the what ifs, And that's where anxiety lives. Get out of anxiety and into our body. And then if there is a problem to solve, We actually have more brain capacity to do it. So that's a practice that I enjoy. Another one we're going to finish off with is, And again, So I want to reiterate that you can do a practice like that anytime, Anywhere, Just by connecting to what's happening right now. Maybe it's wiggling your toes, Maybe it's rubbing your fingertips together and feeling the texture of your skin and the sensation that comes with that. Maybe it's using our five senses. And so that's what this next practice will do. You may be familiar with a practice where you look for five things that you can see and four things that you can hear and three things that you can touch. I think two that you can smell, One that you can taste. I never remember the order of those things, But this is a similar practice and it just helps us to use our senses. We sense things, The external world around us. In the moment that it's happening right now. We don't feel in the future or in the past. We don't taste in the future or in the past. We don't see in the future or in the past. If we're seeing it, Smelling it, Hearing it, Tasting it, It's happening right here and right now. That brings us into the present moment. So I'm going to invite you. Pause if you need to, To find something to taste. Maybe it's a candy, Maybe it's a cough drop, Maybe it's a beverage, Something you can drink, Something you can taste, Maybe that's not water. Just something that will have any taste to it whatsoever. And then we're going to use that for the practice. Also, Look around the space that you're in and find some different textures. It doesn't have to be very many. Just find some different textures. Maybe it's fabric. Maybe it's the clothes that you're wearing. Maybe your shirt and your pants are different textures. Maybe there's a sofa or a blanket that you're near. Something that has touch and texture to it. We'll find things that we can hear and see. And let's see, What else do we need? Find something that you can smell. Just turned my shredder on. Find something that you can smell. I'm a big fan of essential oils, And so maybe it's some essential oils. Maybe it's some soap. Maybe it's a lotion. Maybe it's a piece of fruit. Something that you can smell. And then just have those things near you, And we're going to use these in our little meditation practice. This is a meditation in that it's a single-pointed focus, But our eyes are going to be open for this one, At least in some cases. I'll have you go ahead and start. And again, This is a practice you can do anywhere by simply using the things that are around you. And if you don't have all of the five senses, Just use the ones that you can find. So let's go ahead and get started again with the breath. That's always our first stop is to Notice the breath, To focus on the breath. Each breath is happening right here and right now. Each breath is happening in the present moment. So breathing in. And breathing out. And not being in any hurry. And then if your eyes are not already open, Go ahead and open them softly. And I want you to look around. Continuing the deep and full breaths. And just notice what you see in the space around you. And as you're looking at things around you, Try not to even give a label to them. I'm sitting at my desk and so if I see scissors instead of. Giving a label of scissors, I want to just notice that object as something. Sometimes it can be helpful just to have a phrase like. That's interesting. Look at that. As you just look around and let your eyes rest on something. Pause for a beat. Move to something else. Move to something else. Move to something else. Making up no stories, No judgments, Not even labels about what we're seeing. But just recognizing that every single thing that our eyes are resting on. Is here and now. And then come back. And then I want you to. . . See how many different things you can touch and feel and notice. Again, Without judgment, Without. . . Deciding if it's good or bad or hot or cold or soft or rough, But just noticing. So maybe we start again with the clothes that we're wearing. Maybe there's temperature. Maybe there's texture. So let yourself just touch things. And just like with the sight. Take a moment. Move on. I'm Anne Campbell. And now I'm going to have you close your eyes. Deep and even breath. And let your ears find every single thing they can hear. Without labels, Without judgment. Sounds close to you. Inside the room. Outside the room, Maybe even outside. Recognizing all of these sounds are happening right here and right now. And then coming back. And now finding something to smell. Maybe you have several things to smell. You just washed your hands. Maybe it's the smell of the soap still there. Maybe it's your fabric. Softener. Maybe it's something else. But smell each smell for a deep breath in. And a deep breath out. And don't be in any hurry. And then come back. And then lastly, Finding something to taste. Noticing again, Not really labeling, But noticing. Whatever the taste is. And notice if your mind wants to give it a label, Sweet or sour. Hot, Cold. And if it does, Just. Notice that. And then come back. And notice what you're feeling, How you're feeling. Where is your mind? What are you thinking of? And maybe your mind wandered a little bit. Maybe it got worried about having the right things around to feel or taste or touch or smell. But the more we do this practice, The more we just let it be what it is. There's nothing right or wrong to experience in the present moment. Just noticing what's happening here and now, That is the key and that is the benefit in these practices. I hope you enjoyed that and I will see you next time.