Befriending Your Nervous System

This guided practice invites you to gently befriend your nervous system through consistency, curiosity, and trust. Designed to support your sense of safety and connection, it offers a space to return to whenever you need to realign body and mind.

Transcript

This is nervous system nourishment.

Our goal is never to regulate.

We are here to support,

To tend,

To show ourselves some compassion,

Some grace.

We don't aim for perfection here.

We are here in a practice.

The nervous system is the communication system between our brain and our body.

And it makes everything function.

It makes everything run.

Sometimes we believe it is not working to actually help us,

But it really is hardwired,

Evolutionary hardwired to understand this intelligence and this intricate communication system.

Everyone has it.

And we all have a unique way of communicating between our body and our mind.

It's about consistency.

It's about steady connection to build that understanding of one,

That communication,

And to the trust within your own body to be here and participate in this thing called life.

Brief overview of the nervous system.

It has quite important functions and I like to put them down into three points so that we can synthesize them a little better.

One,

Your body sends information to the brain.

Now this can be information from our external world,

Meaning a sound that you hear or touching something and it's hard.

So outside of your innards,

It also gets information from your inside.

Those are signals like a massive spasm or the feeling of hunger or the noticing your heart rate is beating faster.

Function number one,

Your body sends information to your brain.

That's where the information comes from.

Number two,

The brain makes sense of that information.

And then number three,

Sends a command to your body to do something or not.

To take action or to sit back something as simple as touching a hot surface and moving your hand quickly.

That all happened in milliseconds,

Very very fast information.

Or if you're feeling a sense of hunger,

You notice,

Hey I'm hungry.

I'm gonna go grab a snack.

The thing about the brain is that it likes to predict.

It likes to find patterns.

It likes to categorize.

It helps us suss out our environment outside of us and within us.

And oftentimes those signals can feel very.

.

.

What is really cool about the nervous system is that it perceives our danger whether it is real or not.

That's not to say that you are making up the things in your mind.

That is not true and that can never happen.

It really is saying,

Hey the last time something like this happened,

This was the result.

And so it's like maybe let me prepare for that just in case it happens again.

When we get bombarded non-stop with these real or perceived threats,

Over time this just makes us tired.

Finding a way to confide in our own body,

Confide and understand the communication center's language,

How we want to talk to each other,

And help us decipher and discern the signals so that we know if we are safe or not and what can we do to rely on ourselves.

We want to be able to actually see a threat when it is a real threat and work through it.

Let's get into a comfortable seated position.

You don't have to stay in one position throughout this whole exercise.

If you want to adjust,

You need a sneeze,

You have a you are welcome to tend to your body in whatever way it needs.

If you are laying down,

I would advise to keep your eyes open so that you don't fall asleep.

You are free to find a position that works for your body and feels accessible for you to do.

We'll start off at the top of our head,

Noticing any sensations,

The temperature,

Maybe even the texture if you have a hat or a scarf or a bandana on.

With each inhale,

We will move down to another part of the body.

So with your next inhale,

Move your attention now over your face,

Taking note of your eyebrows,

Your eyes,

Maybe breathing into this face a little bit more and allowing them a little bit more rest,

Your nose and your jaw,

Even taking note of the sensations on the back of your head as you move down to your neck.

Breathing into that space,

Stem of your brain,

Which is at the top of your neck,

Bottom of your skull,

Right?

Breathing into that space and recognizing that that is a very powerful space in our body.

That's essentially where all of these systems connect.

Breathing in once again,

Following your exhale and moving your attention from your neck now to your shoulders,

Maybe noticing if they're high up by your ears or maybe if you have one shoulder that's higher than the other.

And all of this is without judgment.

We don't need to judge what our body is doing,

What it looks like,

What it's capable of.

We're just noticing.

Following your next inhale,

Moving your attention now down to your chest,

Feeling your breath expand throughout your body,

Maybe down your arms,

The front and the back,

Biceps,

Triceps,

Elbows,

Forearms,

Wrists,

Top of the hand,

Palm of the hand,

The space in between your fingers,

Even the space underneath your nails.

Breathing into all of these spaces in your body.

With your next inhale,

Bring your attention back to your core,

To your center,

Really your torso at large,

Giving a little bit of oxygen to the organs that keep you alive,

That keep you safe,

That keep you here,

That really work to keep you well.

With your next inhale,

You can move your attention now to your hips,

Now noticing the bottom of your spine,

Another major connection in how you move throughout this world.

Breathing in once again,

If you've lost track of your breath,

That's okay,

And if I am moving at a different speed than your breath,

That's also okay.

Really work with the way that your body is asking for that breath,

Moving our attention down from our hips,

Over our thighs,

Hamstrings,

Quads,

Our inner thighs,

Colliding over our glutes,

Breathing into this space and really offering it a space of compassion,

Of tender attention.

It does not have to be detrimental or questioning,

It's just simply being like,

Hey,

I see you and you're part of this system that I am also a part of,

And that's pretty amazing.

We're going to breathe together.

Your next inhale,

Moving over your knees,

Calves,

Your shins,

Taking note of your ankles,

Top of your feet,

The bottom of your feet,

Spacing between your toes,

Simply breathing here,

Just noticing.

Taking note of the sensations of your body.

Now we'll be asking our nervous system some questions.

So the idea is that we have relaxed in our body,

And this is again something that you can do outside of this session.

Give yourself a quick body scan,

See what's going up,

Get the weather report of what's going on with your day by asking these next couple questions.

If you like these questions,

I really encourage you to write them down,

But you can come back to it at any time.

One thing to mention,

We're going to be asking our nervous system some questions,

Get curious about the answers.

There's no wrong answer,

You will be doing general questions as well as yes or no questions,

And I want you to know that a no is just as valuable as a yes,

Especially in this circumstance.

Any sort of feedback that you get is data,

Is information,

Is that communication and action that you can then explore at any time.

Breathing in and out through our nose,

Out through our mouth,

If that's what feels more comfortable for you today.

We are going to recall a moment,

Whatever the first thing that pops into your mind,

Where you felt truly safe,

Where you really felt deep joy.

Allow this memory to come to mind and drop the image.

As soon as it comes to your mind,

Immediately drop the image and notice what that feels like in your body.

Now,

If when you drop the image,

The body response quickly disappeared,

That's okay.

Hold on to the image a little bit and work your way to eventually getting rid of that image so you can see what part in your body is feeling warmth,

For example,

Or feeling openness,

What part of your body is feeling so relaxed right now.

Did you notice that maybe your breath changed or there were some parts of your body that softened a little deeper before you had noticed any changes once you brought up that memory?

Whatever this response is,

More likely than not,

Is a yes.

My nervous system does like this.

My body does like this because when I do something like this or when something like this happens with or around me,

I feel warmth in this part of my body.

We're going to let go of that image now,

That body memory.

We're just going to breathe in through our nose and exhale out through our mouth with a sigh.

We're going to do this three times.

We're breathing together in through our nose and exhale out through our mouth.

We're breathing together again in through our nose and exhale out through our mouth.

One more together.

Inhale through our nose and exhale out through.

If you want to shake it off a little bit,

You can do that as well.

We'll then get into another way of deciphering what a no is like in our body.

Remembering a happy,

Joyful,

Safe memory,

Always really fun and exciting.

But now we're going to ask our body,

What moment makes us feel uncomfortable,

Makes us feel really unease?

What moment,

Knowing that you're in a safe moment space right now,

Felt unsafe or overwhelming or just mildly uncomfortable?

Taking note of what feels overwhelming,

What feels tight?

Is there any sort of constriction in your body,

Any restlessness?

Did you feel your energy move around?

Did your breath get shallow?

Did your heart rate change?

These are signs of a no.

Again,

You may want to,

If you haven't already,

Drop the image of what this unsafety or this uncertainty feels like.

If that happens to stick around,

Sometimes that happens.

Sometimes when we're feeling uncomfortable,

These sort of memories or bodily reactions can feel quite grand,

Quite large,

And with reason we're trying to stay safe.

But we'll do another of those three inhales and three exhales,

Releasing out through our mouth.

This will help shake up our body.

Inhale through our nose and exhale out through the mouth.

We'll do it together.

Inhale and exhale out through our mouth.

Releasing loud noise,

If that feels good.

Adding some shakes as well,

Some wiggles.

Breathing in one more time in through our nose and exhaling out through our mouth.

So let's get back acquainted with our breathing.

Returning back to that inhalation and exhalation in and out through our nose.

Now this is,

Again,

Something that you can do throughout your day.

You can pause to make any type of decision just by checking in,

Big or small.

Hey,

Speaking to my nervous system,

What's up?

How are you feeling?

What's going on?

Some questions that you can ask are,

Does this feel like a yes or no to my nervous system?

And sometimes the answers will feel very clear,

And sometimes they're not.

Sometimes they're a little wishy-washy,

And that's okay.

That's a part of the process.

With time this gets easier as we continuously ask our nervous system,

Do I like this?

How are you feeling?

You can even be a little bit more direct and say,

Do you,

To the nervous system.

Do you like it when I do this?

Answer yes or no.

Do you feel safe and cared for when this type of things happen,

Or when I talk to this person,

Or when I do this activity?

Do you,

The nervous system,

Feel safe?

Over time this will get more comfortable.

It will be better understood.

You may not have to rely on it so much,

But again,

You just might.

These answers to the questions that you ask throughout your day help build trust in your body and mind,

That nervous system connection.

You build trust that you can actually be reliable for yourself,

That you can actually take care of yourself,

And that's not an activity that just happens for you alone.

Being reliable for yourself,

Being reliable for your community,

For your support system,

For the people who protect you,

And love you,

And care for you.

It doesn't have to only be for me.

It can be for all of us.

We are going to wrap up this breathing in and out your nose.

Continue doing that for the next few moments,

And we'll begin to invite in some movement back into the body.

Whether that is swaying side to side,

Rolling our head up and down,

Back to front,

Swaying as we hug ourselves,

Rolling out our wrists,

Fingers,

Toes,

Our ankles.