Soothe The Nervous System

Face the parts of your body encumbered with overwhelm, by down-regulating the nervous system in this guided meditation. If you are consistently feeling edgy, irritated, anxious, and out of rhythm with life, my hope is that this exercise will help you dissolve the energy around overthinking, overwhelm, and fear.

Tap into your breath, release stagnant energy, and find calm, here and now.

*Music in background is from the artist El Buho.

Transcript

Welcome to this short meditation on soothing the nervous system.

In our time together,

We're going to learn how to downregulate the nervous system,

Releasing any tension,

Irritability,

Fear,

And overwhelm.

The first thing we're going to do is get into a comfortable position.

You can lie down or you can be sitting up.

Your eyes can be closed or you can have a low gaze,

Whatever feels the most natural for you.

As you're sitting,

I want you to begin to take in a deep breath through the nose,

Extending the belly as you're blowing air into your belly on that breath.

On the exhale,

You're bringing the belly back towards the spine.

You might even give an audible exhale,

Really releasing any stagnant energy.

Let's repeat that a couple more times.

Inhale through the nose.

Exhale through the mouth.

Again.

Let's try this again.

On the inhale,

We're going to hold that for about four seconds.

Breathe in through the nose.

Hold one,

Two,

Three,

Four.

Exhale.

One more time.

Inhale through the nose.

Just begin to feel your body relaxed.

Hopefully a little less tense.

Right now,

I want to invite you to think about any part of you that feels a sense of overwhelm.

Wherever you may be feeling overwhelmed in your life,

Allow this to express itself to you without judgment.

This could be an area around your finances,

Your career,

Your health and healing,

The dynamics of relationships in your life,

Your spiritual fulfillment.

It could be any area in which you feel overwhelmed.

It could be a sense of chronic overwhelm,

Or it could be a situational,

More acute sense of overwhelm.

Either way,

The feeling in the body is the same.

The feeling in the mind is the same.

I want you to just think about any area that really is getting your attention right now.

What feels like it needs you the most?

Once you've identified that part of yourself that feels overwhelmed,

I want you to ask it.

We're going to face it head on.

I want you to ask it,

Express yourself to me.

What are you showing me?

What are you showing me?

I want you to be patient in hearing this part of your body speak to you without judgment.

Think about listening to your closest friend share their deepest thoughts or secrets with you.

Maybe you invite your friend over for tea and you're just an ear.

They need you to be there for them.

Would you be rushing around and busy texting on your phone,

Or would you be quiet,

Mindful in a space of receptivity?

I want you to treat yourself,

Your body,

All of your parts in this same manner.

Be there for yourself fully.

So thinking of this part of you that feels so overwhelmed,

Ask it,

What are you showing me?

And to take this up a notch,

I would actually prefer that you ask this out loud.

If you're by yourself,

You can ask this out loud.

If you're around other people,

You can ask this in your mind,

And then you can later repeat the process when you can be alone.

So ask it,

What are you showing me?

And just sit with that for a few seconds and get quiet.

What are you showing me?

What are you trying to express and tell me?

How is this thing showing up for you in your life?

Is it showing up in a way that impacts your personal world?

Is it showing up in a way that impacts your career or your business?

How is it showing up for you?

However it is showing up for you is also how it's impacting your life,

Both past and present,

If it's something that's chronic.

So as we begin this process of unburdening and dissolving the overwhelm,

The first question again is,

What are you showing me?

What are you trying to tell me?

If for example,

You have an issue of overwhelm around your finances,

The question might be,

Or the answer might be,

It may be showing you that there's fear,

That there's a sense of lack.

And how might this be impacting your life?

It might be showing up in your bank account.

Maybe if you have a business,

You're not bringing in the revenue that you would like.

Maybe if you have a job,

You're making good money,

But you can never seem to have any money left over.

Maybe you always feel like as soon as you get ahead,

You take 10 steps back.

Something always comes up.

So what is this showing you?

And I really want you to sit in the feelings that come up as you are facing this head on,

Because this is how we dissolve it.

Now I want you to ask it next,

Why are you trying to protect me?

Why are you trying to protect me?

And perhaps using the same example of money,

Maybe it feels that you aren't ready.

Maybe it feels that you don't know enough.

And if you notice some of these answers are some of the very same limiting beliefs that we carry with us,

Stemming from childhood most of the time,

From traumatic experiences,

Things that we've experienced physically,

Energetically,

Things that we've witnessed,

Things that we've heard,

Things that have been imprinted on our psyche.

Why are you trying to protect me?

And I want you to really think of this thing,

This sense of overwhelm.

I want you to think of this as a child or as someone who needs to be taken care of,

A dependent,

Someone who relies on someone else to care for them,

To nurture them.

And I want you to go back to when you were a child.

Think of the coming of age years,

Those teenage years.

Think of how you began to need your parental figure less and less and less and less in some ways.

Think of how you began to blossom and grow.

Think of how you began to form your own ideals,

Your own values,

Your own way of thinking.

Think of how you began to beautifully branch off from your parental figures into your own person,

Into your own sense of individuality.

This thing is very similar to that.

Whatever sense of overwhelm this is,

It feels that it needs you to nurture it.

It feels that it needs to be protected.

So ask it,

Why are you trying to protect me?

And just listen in for whatever comes up.

What does it fear would happen if it wasn't here?

Perhaps it's a fear of growth,

A fear of success,

Simply because maybe you haven't reached the other side and you don't know what that would feel like and what would be so bad about that.

Whatever it fears that would happen,

What would be so bad about that?

And using the same example,

If it's money or finances,

What is the sense of lack?

What is it fear that would happen?

Maybe it fears that you would become more knowledgeable and that you would do better and you would no longer need to have this limiting belief around it.

So what we're going to do is let's start to release this sense of need around this feeling of overwhelm.

This part of you that feels this sense of overwhelm,

Let's begin to release it.

And you can use a very simple clearing statement.

I release the need for you to protect me anymore.

I release the need for you to impact my life in this way.

I am okay without you.

I am safe without you protecting me at this level.

I no longer need for you to protect me at this level.

I am safe.

And remind this part of you that it can let go and embrace your growth.

It can let go and embrace your maturation.

It can let go and embrace your deepest desires.

Just like as we were growing up,

Coming through those growing years,

Those coming of age years,

We began to show our parents that they can let go just a little.

I'm growing.

I'm maturing.

I no longer need you to parent me or protect me in this exact way.

So I release the need for you to impact my life in a way that may be hindering my growth.

Just take a deep breath.

And now let's express gratitude for this part of us that feels overwhelmed.

I am grateful for your protection.

I am so grateful for the fact that you feel like you need to protect me.

I'm so thankful that you have been looking out for me thus far,

But I no longer need for you to protect me in this way.

I am growing.

I am wiser.

I am smarter.

I am more mature and I am capable.

I'm capable of growth.

I'm capable of excelling.

And whatever part of you is feeling overwhelmed,

Whatever the area is in your life,

I want you to think about what you do want.

What is that desired outcome?

Because wherever there's overwhelm,

There is a polar opposite to that.

There is a result or a solution that would prevent the overwhelm from happening in the first place.

So now I'd like for you to take your attention to that part of you,

That part of you that actually is sitting with that desired outcome right now.

And just sit in that energy for a moment.

How good and juicy and lovely does that feel to sit in that space?

And just take a moment to think about that.

And as you begin to embody and embrace the energy of what it is that you do want,

The energy of the space that you do want to be in,

This naturally counteracts this feeling and sense of overwhelm.

You are safe.

You are safe in this moment.

You are safe.

Take another deep breath in.

And for the rest of the day,

I want you to be more mindful in every encounter.

You might notice this part of you wanting to come in and protect you again.

It might even bring up feelings of anxiety or just feeling a little nervousness.

That's natural.

There's always a detoxification process happening,

Whether it's on a mental,

Energetic or physical or even spiritual level.

There's always a process of letting go that's going to have some of those fragmental effects where we've got to just let it flow.

We've got to let it release.

And we don't necessarily have to be in charge of how that is released.

We just have to know that we're riding this wave.

There's an ebb and there's a flow,

And we need to allow that to be released in the way that your mind,

Your body can most naturally do that in the safest manner.

So if you do feel any kind of anxiousness throughout the day,

Remind that part of your overwhelm that you're okay and you're still here.

It doesn't mean you are completely disconnecting from this part of you that wants to protect you,

But you are disconnecting from the energy and spirit of overwhelm.

You are hereby dissolving that spirit and that energy around the sense of overwhelm because that is like a noose.

And so we're dissolving that so that you can be free to reach that desired outcome,

To sit in the energy space of what it is that you do want.

Whether it's something you want to do,

Something you want to be,

Something you want to have,

Maybe a combination of all three,

Remind yourself to continually sit in that energy space.

Be in that space of receptivity,

Sitting still and coming face to face with any part of you that is expressing itself as overwhelmed.

Just take another deep breath.

And feel free to revisit this meditation for soothing the nervous system as often as you need to.

Anytime you feel the need to downregulate your body so that your nervous system is not sitting in fight or flight,

Feeling agitated,

Feeling on edge,

You can always come back to this.

You can always come back to this process of soothing and downregulating your body through the breath,

Through inviting it to come face to face with you,

And then through the process of dissolving or unburdening this part of you that feels overwhelmed.

And you can use this process for any sense of quote unquote negative emotion that comes up for you or any consistent energy that does not feel like it's in resonance with the things that you want.

You can use this process to help balance out the emotions and to dissolve any of those things that are not serving who you are or where you want to be.

I hope that you enjoyed this meditation on soothing the nervous system.

And I will see you in the next one.