Hello my friend,
Welcome to your daily nervous system reset.
This practice is one that you can come back to again and again,
Anytime you need to reset your system and come back to a place of calm.
Today we'll be practicing four different simple practices together,
Which you can practice before bed,
You can practice at your desk,
You could practice in your car while driving to or from work,
Pretty much anywhere you need that calming reset to come back to a place of grounded calm where you can respond rather than react.
Let's begin in a comfortable seated position,
Allowing your shoulders to soften down away from your ears.
Relax your jaw.
When you're ready,
Close the eyes.
Begin by bringing awareness to your breathing.
Just taking a few natural breaths and noticing what's present for you today.
Notice how the breath feels in your body,
Whether it feels like it's moving freely or it feels a bit constricted today.
Notice whether your breaths are deep or shallow,
Long or short.
There's no right or wrong,
If they're fast or if they're slow.
Right now we're just practicing awareness around the breath.
As you breathe,
Allow your body to soften around the breath.
Soften the shoulders,
Soften the ribcage,
Soften the abdomen and the hips,
And then the arms and the legs.
The neck and the jaw and the rest of your face.
Moving into a state of relaxation.
Now that we've built some awareness around the breath,
We're going to move into a practice called Samavrti,
Or equal parts breath.
All this means is that we're trying to make the inhale and exhale equal in length.
So when you're ready,
Begin inhaling for a count of four,
And then exhaling for a count of four.
Inhale for four,
And exhale for four.
Continue to breathe at your own pace.
If you need to adjust the count slightly to three or five,
Whatever you need,
Go ahead and do so.
Trying to make the inhale equal in length to the exhale.
Continue this equal breathing.
We're going to make one small adjustment by slightly and gently constricting the back of your throat,
Creating a soft ocean sound.
Almost as if you're trying to fog up a piece of glass or mirror in front of you.
As you inhale and exhale through your nose,
Creating this soft ocean sound,
Allow the sound of your breath to ground you and center you.
Often during breath work and meditation,
Our mind wants to wander away or busy itself with all the thinking.
Sometimes having this sound to focus on can be grounding and centering for our thoughts.
As you inhale,
Imagine an ocean wave rolling in,
And as you exhale,
Imagine the wave receding back.
Inhale and exhale.
Now,
Let's start to lengthen the exhale a little bit.
Your inhale will be the same,
But now try to draw out the exhale to make it a little longer than the inhale.
If you were moving through your breath with a count of four,
Maybe extend the exhale to a count of six or seven.
If you want to keep that ocean ujjayi breath,
Feel free.
If it's more comfortable for you to return to a normal breath,
You can do that too.
Whatever serves you best today.
Allow your breath to bring you back to yourself,
To bring you back to the present moment.
To the now.
Be where your feet are,
Right here as you breathe.
When you're ready,
You can let go of the breathing practice and return to your natural breath.
Take a moment to just notice how your body feels,
How your mind feels.
Notice how your chest,
If anything is different,
If anything has shifted for you.
And remember that your breath is always with you.
Your breath is the most accessible tool you have for physical and emotional regulation and calm.
Take one more breath in through the nose,
And out.
And when you're ready,
Begin to blink the eyes open.
Thank you so much for sharing this daily reset with me.
I look forward to practicing it again with you soon.
Namaste.
