Soothing Through Stillness

A gentle, spacious practice to help your system settle into stillness: the kind of stillness your body sighs into. Slow breathing, gentle body awareness and soft unwinding stimulate the vagus nerve and help you drop out of tension, allowing you to rest and return to yourself.

Transcript

This practice is about stillness. Not for silence. Not rigid stillness. But the kind that feels like a soft blanket. The kind that your nervous system sighs into. And so beginning by finding a position that allows you to rest. Either sitting with your back supported. Or coming to lie down. Letting your hands settle on your abdomen. Your heart. Or simply resting by your sides. Whichever feels best to you. And then gently closing your eyes if that feels okay. Are softening your gaze downwards. Letting your breath be easy for now. No effort. No agenda. Just feeling the body. Noticing how stillness feels. Maybe there's fidgeting. Maybe some energy wants to move. So just knowing that that's okay too. Just noticing. And you're not trying to hold yourself still. You're simply allowing the stillness to me. Starting to allow your breath to slow down a little more. Inhaling slowly through the nose. Exhaling softly through the mouth. And again in through the nose, Slow and steady. And exhaling even slower still. With each breath letting your body drop. Dropping a little further into stillness. Letting gravity take more of the weight. And noticing the quiet space between movements. Between parts. Between breaths. These are the doorways to stillness. The body knows how to rest. The breath knows how to slow. You are just allowing it. If it feels helpful. You can repeat silently within yourself. I don't have to hold it off. Forget to let go. And with each exhale. Letting go a little more. Letting your body soften. Into its support. You're not doing stillness. You becoming stillness. And now placing your awareness on the space inside your torso. Feeling it moving with each breath. And noticing how even that movement. Begins to feel quieter. Slower. Deeper. And with each breath. Also letting your mind soften. Just breathing. Just being right here. Few more breaths like this. With each exhale. Releasing. Softening. Letting go a little more. And then just resting right here. Expanding that pause. Deepening into that stillness. Coming home to yourself more and more. And taking as much time here. As you want or need. But when you do, Feel them move. Starting with some gentle movements. Wiggling your fingers and your toes. Stretching if you like maintaining a sense. Of this stillness. Even as you open your eyes.