Okay,
Hello everyone.
Welcome to Relating Mindfully's 90 Second Pet Stop.
So this is going to hopefully come in handy throughout your day as you're dealing with the challenges of being a human being.
The boss,
The girlfriend,
The boyfriend,
The traffic.
Anything that activates that stress response,
That sympathetic nervous system that gets activated.
The fight or flight response.
When the muscles tense up,
The heart rate increases,
Maybe the jaw tightens.
We move into the story of what's wrong.
We get into defensive mode where we're defending this thought of right versus wrong,
Me versus you,
Us versus them.
So use this 90 seconds to recenter,
Activate the parasympathetic response,
The rest and digest.
And the way we're going to do that is the first 30 seconds,
Come into your breath,
Let your awareness descend into your breath and exaggerate your exhales.
So nice,
Long,
Lengthy inhales,
But even longer exhales,
You're really extending the exhale,
Really exaggerating that exhale for at least 30 seconds.
Nice,
Long,
Exaggerated exhales,
Letting the body know that everything's okay.
Because the body doesn't breathe like this when things are not okay.
So you're sending a message to the mind,
To the body,
That you know what,
Everything's okay.
And that will begin to activate the parasympathetic,
The rest and digest,
And deactivate the amygdala,
Which is sending those fight or flight signals to your body.
So take 30 seconds and really come into your body,
Into your breath,
And let those exhales be nice and long.
The next 30 seconds,
Come into your body in terms of where the stress is residing.
What do you notice?
Is there tension around your eyes?
Is your jaw tight?
Is there anywhere you can soften?
Maybe it's your shoulders and your neck.
So let your awareness kind of flow throughout your body and notice where there's tension and see if there's an option or a possibility to soften.
Let that tension go a little bit.
Maybe let your shoulders drop back and down.
Maybe let that jaw kind of soften.
Let the abdomen kind of release a little bit.
Feel the weight on your chair or on the floor.
Feel gravity doing what gravity does.
Take this next 30 seconds to just be embodied.
Instead of doing,
Be a human being.
Get centered.
And then the last 30 seconds,
What's going on right now?
Engage in a little self-talk that might entail some compassion for you or for the person that you're dealing with or for the situation that is challenging.
And ask yourself,
Am I reacting according to my habitual condition kind of defensive way of reacting to things that actually isn't proving to be that healthy and beneficial?
Can I maybe shift towards responding in a skillful,
Wise,
Compassionate way?
Can I send some compassion to myself for doing the best that I can?
Can I send some compassion to this person who's probably doing the best he or she can given their skill set or this traffic?
Everybody's just trying to get to where they need to go.
Or some other self-talk that might seem more appropriate or more,
Maybe it resonates more with you.
You know,
I love you.
Keep going.
I'm doing my best.
Keep going.
Or may I be at ease in my body and mind for the next little bit until my next pit stop?
May I keep some of my awareness in my body?
May I set the intention to be more about we,
Maybe less about me?
So let me know how this goes.
This is a 90 second pit stop meant to kind of recenter you,
Get you out of your mind and into your body and set an intention for how you want to go about the rest of your day.
How can you go about the rest of your day making decisions that are more in alignment with your values,
The things that are really important to you and less about reacting in that defensive,
Defended manner that we're so used to?
Let me know how this goes.
I hope it works out for you.
