Nervous System Reset: Full Body Shake and Bees Breath

In this session, I guide you through two simple practices designed to reset your nervous system anytime, anywhere. The first practice involves shaking your hands and body to release excess energy and stress. The second practice, called Bee's Breath, focuses on humming during exhalation to activate the vagus nerve and promote relaxation. I encourage you to incorporate these tools into your daily routine and notice how they shift your state of being. Please note: as this practice promotes deep relaxation, please do not listen while driving or operating heavy machinery.

Transcript

Hello and welcome to your daily practice. Today's daily practice is a nervous system reset practice. We're going to do two short tools that you can use anytime, Anywhere to calm and regulate your nervous system. Um, They look a little strange and sound a little bit strange, But I promise they work and I encourage you to, Uh, Incorporate them and practice them and figure out when and where you can add these into your daily life. Once the people around you know what you're doing, Maybe they're not so strange. Maybe they'll actually be really glad that you're doing these but definitely might take a little bit of explanation at first. Okay, So the first practice we're going to start with is just simple hand shaking. So we're just going to shake our hands like this. Just like you're drip drying your hands after washing them, Getting water off of them. We can take some deep breaths in. I like to do a big sigh out of the mouth while I do this, But just big inhalations. And full releasing exhalations. You can shake the arms big, Get the shoulders involved. You can shake the legs. You can stand up. You can sit down. And just shake maybe for a minute or so, Maybe longer if you feel like you need it, But just shake, Shake, Shake. And while we continue shaking, I'll explain a little bit about what's going on here. So we're shifting the state that our nervous system is in. So when we're in anxiety, When we're in worry, When we're overthinking, When we're stressed, Our nervous system is activated, Right? Our sympathetic nervous system, Our stress response is activated. That's the same thing as our fight or flight response. And our body feels that tightness, That tension, That racing heart, All the different physical sensations that come with the stress response. So what we're doing here now is a simple thing that we do or that our body inherently knows how to do to shake out of that state. And if we think about dogs at a dog park, Let's say there's two dogs, Friendly dogs, Not aggressive dogs, But dogs that are just playing and maybe they get in a little bit of a scuffle over a toy or something like that, Right? And they get separated by their owners. And what's the first thing that they do? They shake, Right? They shake it off, And then they go back to running around the dog park, And they probably even play with each other again. They might play with that same, Chase that same ball together, And they're not afraid of each other. Their nervous system has recognized, Whoa, That was a tight spot we were in, But we're actually okay. We're safe. Nobody's trying to hurt anybody else, And they just go about their business. They don't make it mean anything. They don't decide the other dog doesn't want to be their friend. It doesn't hurt their feelings, Right? They're not like humans. They just shake it off and literally move on, And that's kind of what we're doing here with our physical body. Let's take another deep breath. Deep breath in. And relax. Good. Just let it go. And now while we're here, I like to let my arms kind of rest up or down by my sides and just really notice, Like, What do you feel through your body right now? Maybe close the eyes. And just notice, What do you feel? Maybe there's some warmth, There's some tingling. Maybe your heart rate feels a little elevated. There's nothing right or wrong to feel here. Sometimes people say they feel really calm after this. It's just a matter of noticing that something has shifted, That you feel different than you did before you shook. And then open your eyes. And that can be a really powerful practice to kind of release off excess energy, We'll call it. So let's say you're furious with somebody. And before you go to talk to them, Maybe shake things off a little bit. It's almost like a tea kettle that's about to whistle, Right? If we let off some of that steam, It won't whistle quite so loud. It's still hot. It's still, It's still steaming, But it's not whistling and loud and reactive, Right? So our emotions aren't necessarily going to change. Our circumstances certainly aren't going to change just because we shook our hands a little bit. But our response to that situation has the opportunity to change when we've discharged some of that excess adrenaline and those stress responses that we have when we feel threatened, Just like those dogs at the dog park, Right? They're not really in any danger. Let's, Again, We're assuming they're friendly dogs for the most part. They're probably not going to, You know, Try to hurt each other, But they still feel like they have to protect themselves in that moment. And we get that same way emotionally, Day to day in day to day life, In response to somebody being upset with us, An email, Somebody not treating us well. There's all sorts of reasons. Why we go into that nervous system response. A simple handshake can be a great way to, Again, Shift that energy, Release some of that excess stress energy in our own body so that we can respond to the circumstance in an appropriate way that feels good and authentic and aligned with our values. So that's a great practice. It can also be great if you're feeling kind of just stuck, If you're overthinking, You know, Just kind of need a brain break in the middle of the day, Standing up at your desk, Shaking your hands a little bit, And then getting back to business can be a great way to sort of reset the brain and come back into balance. The second practice we're going to do is a breath practice, And it's called bee's breath. And in this practice, We're simply vibrating the back of the throat. We're humming as we exhale. So we're going to take deep, Full diaphragmatic breaths, Inhaling completely, Exhaling fully through the nose. But while we're exhaling, We'll hum, Just a gentle hum, Nice and slow. In the back of the throat. This vibrates the throat. It activates and tones the vagus nerve. The vagus nerve is the main nerve that goes from our brain, Innervates through all of the systems in our body. And it's the main nerve that communicates whether we're safe or whether we're not. And if we are safe, What happens in the systems in the body when we are safe and what happens when we should be in that protective stress response. So it's really important and a really simple way to switch from an activated nervous system state into a parasympathetic or relaxed nervous system state. So let's do it a few times. We'll just start with a few deep, Full, Complete breaths on their own. Breathing in and breathing out, You're welcome to have your eyes opened or closed for this practice. Nice, Long, Full inhales, Completely filling up the lungs. Nice, Long, Patient exhales, Emptying out completely. Inhaling fully. And on the exhale, Just start to hum gently. Keep humming the full length of the exhale until you're out of air. Inhaling through the nose. Exhaling. Inhaling fully. Exhaling hum. Two more breaths just like that. Hmm. And then just breathe naturally. Notice what you're feeling here and what you're feeling in your body. You're feeling in your mind. And then gently opening our eyes and knowing that that's a practice too that we can come back to anytime. I encourage you to breathe these breaths for at least about five rounds of breath probably to really feel an effect. You can go longer. You can go several minutes if you'd like to. I encourage you also to try different variations. You can hum quieter or louder. You'll feel it differently depending on the volume of the humming. I also encourage you to play with humming a little bit higher and lower. So louder and quieter, Higher and lower, And that kind of in the middle and see if they feel different. If any of them feel better for you than others, Maybe one is super calming and relaxing and makes you want to go to sleep and you don't want quite that much relaxation. And so a higher tone might just kind of be better for you. Still feel calm, But also not feel quite so sleepy, Perhaps. This can be a great practice when you are trying to fall asleep. If your mind is racing and you just can't seem to fall asleep, Just a gentle, Quiet hum in the back of the throat can be helpful here. I also encourage you to try this with your eyes closed and with your ears closed. When we have our eyes open and we're listening to what's going on around us, We're taking in sensory information, Whether we realize it or not. Our eyes are bringing in information. Our ears are bringing in information. And when we close our eyes and our ears, We really just go inside ourselves. And we hear only our own, That hum, And feel that vibration really deeply. Try it with me just for a second. Closing your eyes and ears. Hmm. And so you can notice that that's kind of like a sensory deprivation a little bit. In yoga, We call this withdrawal of the senses is called Pratyahara. It's one of the eight limbs of yoga. And it's where we essentially can kind of shut out the world outside of ourselves and go within. And so this is a physical practice where we can actually do that by humming with our eyes and our ears closed. So particularly if you really need just to escape a little bit, You can do it. So those are our two practices for today. Give them a try, Comment below what you think about them, What your experience are, If you love them, If you don't love them. If you don't love them, I encourage you to keep trying them. Sometimes these practices take a little bit of getting used to, And then we might fall in love with them. So thank you for joining me, And I hope you have a wonderful day. Bye-bye.