Hi,
This is Paige.
Today's embodied meditation,
Another in the seven-minute reset series,
Is an efficient recipe for getting calm and collected before the big meeting,
The big speech,
The big day,
Or whatever has your nervous system on high alert.
Let's stay standing for this practice.
Feel your feet on the ground.
Feel your shoulders relax away from your ears.
And feel your energy begin to gather in.
It can be helpful to know that all the physical symptoms of nervousness,
Racing heart,
Sweaty palms,
Dry mouth,
Or the worry that you'll forget what you're supposed to say,
Are classic fight,
Flight,
Or freeze responses that were wired into us eons ago.
Your nervous system doesn't know the difference between being chased by a saber-toothed tiger or having to give a presentation.
Understanding that,
And with your feet planted here safely,
Acknowledging that you're not in imminent danger,
Can help disempower the symptoms so you don't have the added stress of being nervous about being nervous.
As you stand here,
Feet on the ground,
Begin to breathe in and out through your nose only,
If that's comfortable,
With your lips closed.
Just breathing in and out through your nose.
Mouth breathing can be a little agitating to the system.
It's what we do if we need to run.
So simply by breathing in and out through the nose,
The breath naturally slows down and deepens and calms down.
Let's help the system move from scattered and racing to a little bit more anchored in the body with some side bends.
When you're ready to inhale,
You can stretch both arms up overhead.
If it's comfortable on your shoulders,
You could link your thumbs up there.
When you feel ready to exhale,
Let your body stretch up and over to the left.
As you do that,
Really consciously plant your right foot on the ground.
And then inhale,
Bring yourself back through center.
Exhale up and over to the right.
Really let yourself ground that left foot so you feel that anchoring.
One more time each side,
Up through center on an inhale,
Up and over to the left as you exhale,
Grounding the right foot.
Inhale back through center,
Up and over to the right.
The left foot plugs into the grounding quality of the earth.
And then inhale all the way back through center.
Release the link of the thumbs if you have that.
And let both arms simply float down to your sides.
Let's move into a physical release of tension in the body.
When you're ready to inhale,
Squeeze your shoulders right up to your ears.
And as you do that,
You might gently clench the whole body just a little bit.
And then as you exhale,
Let the exhale releases a ha sound as the shoulders drop down and the whole body releases.
Do that again as you inhale,
Shoulders really shrug up toward the ears.
Whole body can clench a little bit.
And as you exhale,
A ha sound relax the shoulders,
Release any tension in the body.
Once more,
Inhale,
Shoulders way up to the ears.
Whole body can engage,
Maybe even clench.
Ha sound as you exhale and the shoulders drop and the body releases.
From here,
Just notice how your breath is moving again in and out through your nose if that's still comfortable.
And we'll begin to very gently lengthen the exhaling half of the breath.
So as you inhale,
Let the inhale be perfectly natural.
And as you exhale,
Just some gentle attention to drawing out the length of the exhale,
Maybe even pausing at the very bottom of that exhale.
And again,
When you're ready to inhale,
A normal easy inhale.
And as you exhale,
Nothing forced,
Just an allowing of some length to the exhale,
Maybe a gentle pause.
Inhale natural,
Easy breath,
Exhale allowing a bit of length.
Just continuing that a couple more times on your own.
It's like Morse code to the nervous system,
That lengthening of the exhale,
Drawing everything back to homeostasis.
Once more,
As you prepare to head into what's next,
Feel your feet on the ground,
Feel your energy anchored in your body and feel your slowed down breath letting your nervous system know everything is actually okay.
Good luck and I'll be with you again soon.
