Please bring yourself into a comfortable and supported seated position.
If you feel safe to do so you can close down your eyes.
And so this practice is designed for when you're experiencing a dysregulation within your nervous system.
So if that's what you're experiencing right now just know that you're going to be okay.
I know it can be challenging to tune into your physical body or relax your physical body.
So if you feel you need to take some movement or simply shaking out your hands or your arms or taking some movement through your shoulders and your head please feel free to do that.
Letting it be an invitation to come into your body.
And so it's this idea that you're moving towards stillness.
As soon as you are able to find stillness let yourself arrive.
There's a way of connecting to the breath.
Let's take three deep inhales and three audible sighing exhales.
So when you're ready please take a deep and full inhale.
The deepest you can manage at the moment.
It doesn't need to be the deepest inhale you've ever taken.
A little pause at the top and then an audible sighing out breath.
And you can go ahead and take two more in tune with your own breathing.
Let your exhales be this release,
This sense of letting go,
Settling into the stillness.
Go ahead and connect to your Ujjayi breath.
Inhaling and exhaling through your nose and gently drawing the breath over your throat.
Now see if you can make your Ujjayi breath even softer and even gentler than you normally would.
So you get this sense that your breath is this whisper almost like you are whispering to yourself.
We'll come into a resonant breathing medley.
So starting with an inhale for four seconds and an exhale for four seconds.
Within this count you can encourage a little more depth now to your inhale.
Feeling the lowest part of your lungs and letting the inhale gently move in an upwards direction.
And your out breath is moving in the opposite direction.
And so these resonant breathing patterns are specific patterns where you're averaging around around seven breaths per minute.
And in doing so you invite your nervous system to this place of balance where there's not a dominance of a sympathetic response or even a parasympathetic response.
You're just at this beautiful place of balance.
Ideally strengthening the nervous system so that you can oscillate between these two responses with agility.
But for now inhaling for four seconds and exhaling for four seconds.
Attuning your awareness to the vibration of your breath moving through your body.
Take a few more cycles exactly like this inhaling for four seconds and exhaling for four seconds.
And so we'll stay with our resonant breathing pattern.
Let's very gently extend both inhale and exhale by one extra beat.
So coming into an inhale for five seconds and an exhale for five seconds.
Perhaps noticing there's just a little more expansion being asked of you here.
Remembering to direct your conscious awareness to the very bottom of your lungs and let the inhale start from that space gently moving upwards.
And this is energy moving upwards and your out breath moving in the opposite direction.
Letting your awareness be very gently guided here by the breath.
So there might be a lot of thinking,
A lot of mental activity and that's okay.
See if you can acknowledge what is present for you and gently guide awareness to your breath.
And so we'll add on here so extending both inhale and exhale.
Coming into an inhalation for six seconds and an exhalation for six seconds.
Resonant breathing pattern using your Ujjayi breaths,
Encouraging this vagal tone.
Using the texture of your Ujjayi breath to feel your navel,
Your ribs,
Your heart,
The back of your body and your out breath.
Letting it be a push so that you're emptying your lungs to the very,
Very end.
A few more rounds here just as you're doing.
And so you can let the counting of your breath and even the Ujjayi breath,
Let it drift away and come into stillness and a quiet observation.
And so what is present for you now?
Maybe there's a way to relax your body a little more.
We'll come into a variation of our four seven a breath,
Introducing a Brahmari exhale.
A Brahmari breath is also known as the humming bee breath or the wasp breath and named aptly after the sound that you make on your exhale.
So your out breath will be this audible hum and buzz.
You can think of it like an internal arm.
It sounds a little like this.
So I'll be counting you through and the seven second count will be the Brahmari breath.
So using your Ujjayi breath,
Inhale here for four,
Three,
Two,
One,
Pause,
Seven,
Six,
Five,
Four,
Three,
Two,
One,
Brahmari exhale seven,
Six,
Five,
Four,
Three,
Two,
One,
Inhale deeply for three,
Two,
One,
Pause,
Seven,
Six,
Five,
Four,
Three,
Two,
One,
Brahmari exhale seven,
Six,
Five,
Four,
Three,
Two,
One,
Inhale deeply for three,
Two,
One,
Pause,
Seven,
Six,
Five,
Four,
Three,
Two,
One,
Brahmari exhale seven,
Six,
Five,
Four,
Three,
Two,
One,
Final round,
Inhale deeply for three,
Two,
One,
Pause,
Seven,
Six,
Five,
Four,
Three,
Two,
One,
Brahmari exhale,
This time empty your lungs completely to the very end,
Extending the out breath.
Upon exhaling,
You can release your Ujjayi breath,
Release your active breath and come into this quiet observation,
Letting your breath return to something a little more effortless.
Get this sense of your energy moving in a downwards direction.
So quite often in nervous system dysregulation,
It's usually associated with a lot of thinking or overthinking.
So see if you can move that energy downwards.
So out of these fragile areas of the head and the throat,
Just move it downwards,
Down past the heart,
Down and into your hips,
Into your legs,
These more solid,
Robust areas designed for the heavy lifting.
Just see if you can feel everything moving,
That energy moving downwards now.
And close here with a poem by Susan Coolidge.
It's called New Every Morning.
Every day is a fresh beginning.
Listen my soul to the glad refrain.
And spite of old sorrows and old sinning,
Troubles forecasted and possible pain,
Take heart with the day and begin again.
