Welcome to this meditation on melting away tension from the body and the mind.
My name is Anais and I will be your guide today on a relaxing journey into your nervous system.
When your nervous system is dysregulated,
You might feel on edge,
Nervous,
Anxious.
Your mind might be jumping off to worst case scenarios.
And over time,
This leads to burnout and exhaustion.
The cycle repeats,
We feel tired,
More prone to stress and our body doesn't feel safe enough to truly come down into a state of safety.
We keep on running in this stress response.
We create inflammation in the body and so forth.
So today we will be focusing on coming back down into a state of safety.
This is known as ventral vagal.
Ventral vagal refers to the front of your body and it refers to the vagus nerve which is the longest nerve in your body.
The vagus nerve connects your mind with your body.
It is your mind-body connection.
In order to stimulate,
To activate this vagus nerve,
We can do many different practices or tools.
Today we will be exploring stimulating the vagus nerve through touch.
I will guide you through some very powerful and efficient self-massage techniques that will stimulate the relaxation response in your body.
You can do this practice before bed or even in the morning or any time during your day when you notice that you are slightly shifting into a state of stress,
Anxiety or maybe even numbness,
Depression.
This will help you to regulate the nervous system and balance your whole being.
So let's begin.
Get into a comfortable position.
I recommend sitting but your spine doesn't need to be straight as long as you are comfortable.
Once you've found your position,
Take a long deep breath in and release.
Take two more long slow deep breaths,
Filling up your lower belly as you inhale and releasing out from your mouth or nose as you exhale.
One last time.
Give your body and your mind position to take a break.
Allow your body to melt down into the surface that's below you.
Feel a sense of relaxation ripple down through every cell in your body as if a waterfall of peace is running down from the top of your head all the way down through your body down up until your toes.
Release through your exhales any concerns,
Worries,
Anxiety that you wish to release.
Now place both your index fingers in your ears.
Feel your ear canal.
Make sure you can still hear my voice.
Now start to make circles with your index fingers,
Gently massaging the back of the ear canal.
Find which pressure,
Which pace and which rhythm works for you.
Maintain your presence within your own body,
Noticing your breath.
Notice how your body feels.
The vagus nerve has a branch reaching up until our ears.
So it's incredibly potent to use our ears to activate the safety and relaxation response in our bodies.
Now start massaging your ear,
Placing two fingers at each side of your ear.
Your index finger and middle finger below your ear and your ring finger and pinky finger above your ear.
Start to touch and massage the tragus,
The front part.
And with your lower fingers,
Notice how you are gently moving towards your jaw.
Take a deep breath.
Bring your fingers slightly down and start massaging and feeling the area around your jaw.
When we shift into a stress response,
One of the things our body does is clench your jaw.
Start to massage out any tension there.
Notice which pressure you need right now,
Which speed feels good for you.
Bring your fingers down over your throat.
Start to explore the area from your jaw until your throat,
Massaging up and down in a pace that feels great for you.
This is a time to truly feel and land back in your body.
Keep your presence within your body.
Take a deep breath.
If you have closed your eyes,
You can gently open them.
Notice what effect this has had on you.
You can also activate the vagus nerve through the throat by singing,
Humming or even gargling water.
Personally,
I love to do this in the evening after I brush my teeth and scrape my tongue.
If you're not doing this yet,
I highly recommend trying it out.
And then gargling some water.
It instantly relieves me from any tension or any stress that my nervous system has picked up on.
While you're doing this,
Please remember to be gentle with yourself and that your nervous system is your friend,
Your protector,
Your security system.
And all of these functions are necessary for us to live.
But sometimes we can give ourselves permission to relax and we can give our body a hand with that.
Sometimes our nervous system doesn't recognize that it's okay to be safe.
So it's up to us to regulate it again.
And especially when you've been in long states of stress,
Chronic stress or high peaks of trauma or anxiety,
Your nervous system might be hypervigilant and sensitive.
And especially then,
These practices are incredibly healing and beneficial for you.
I'd love to hear how this went for you and I'm sending you all my love.
See you soon.
