Welcome my friends.
Find your way into your comfortable seated position.
It's best not to use headphones for this practice.
Close your eyes feeling your body planted in your chair.
Become aware of any tension in your body and simply by noticing you give your body permission to release.
Deepen your breath as you soften your face,
Shoulders,
Chest,
And belly.
Exhale,
Tug belly to spine.
Inhale deeply,
Pausing at the top.
Allowing that exhale to be longer than your inhalation.
As you're ready inhaling,
Pause.
Exhale long and slow from either your mouth or your nose,
Your choice.
Continue with this breath as I explain our practice.
We will be doing a variation on a highly effective exercise I previously shared called the Triple Warmer Smoothie from Donna Eden and her work Energy Medicine.
This practice calms the body's fight-flight-freeze response by tracing part of the triple warmer meridian backwards.
This stimulates the vagus nerve along this energy pathway.
We'll begin by taking both hands with the fingers up behind the ears with a firm pressure pulled down along the backs of the ears and down the neck.
We'll do this several times,
Taking the fingers up behind the ears and just pulling down all the way down to the neck.
We're just opening this energy channel one last time.
Now take both of your hands and place the fingers over your eyes with the fingers facing inward at the bridge of the nose.
The palms will be out toward the temples.
Just a gentle,
Gentle pressure here.
Take a deep,
Full breath in,
Pausing,
And exhale slowly.
And do that one more time,
Inhaling deeply,
Pause,
And exhale slowly.
Good.
Now take your fingers outward toward the temples.
Dragging across the temples over the tops of the ears and trace that pathway behind the ears down the neck.
Let it be leisurely.
And come down all the way over the collarbones and find your way into the center of the chest,
Crossing one hand over the other.
Slowly circling there,
Relaxing shoulders.
Let the hands rest.
And we'll do that again,
Taking the fingers gently over the eyes with the fingertips right at the bridge of the nose.
Taking that full,
Deep inhale and exhale slowly.
Nice.
Now pull the fingers outward over the temples,
The tops of the ears,
Slowly down the backs of the ears,
Along the neck,
And to the chest.
Just let the hands rest here,
One on top of the other at the chest,
Noticing the heat between the hands and the chest.
One last time.
Fingers up over the eyes with fingertips meeting at the bridge of the nose.
Gently pulling outward over the temples,
Tops of the ears,
And just slowly,
As slowly as you can go,
Pull down behind the ears and down the neck.
You may even notice yourself swallowing more.
As you get to the neck,
Come over the collarbones at the chest and rest the hands.
Relax your shoulders.
Drop one hand down to your belly.
Good.
And just check in again.
Check in with yourself.
Notice if you feel that saliva in your mouth.
Maybe you even feel like yawning,
Or perhaps your body feels less tense.
All of these are signals that your nervous system has moved from stress into rest.
Wishing you deep peace,
My friends.
