Nervous Systems Meditation

Brief meditation tapping into some of the body's nervous systems - the sympathetic, parasympathetic, central, peripheral, autonomic and enteric. The intent is to experience the body more fully and deeply; improve our somatic skills and for increased body wisdom.

Transcript

A wholeness and welcome to this brief meditation entitled Nervous Systems Meditation.

In the description,

Brief meditation to tap into some of the body's nervous systems,

Sympathetic,

Parasympathetic,

Central,

Peripheral,

Maybe even autonomic and enteric,

In order to experience the body more fully and deeply,

To improve our somatic skills and for increased body wisdom.

So basically,

This is going to be okay for no matter what state we find our nervous system in,

Be it completely relaxed or in a state of distress,

Anywhere in between there.

And keep in mind that this is kind of my own experimental thing.

You'll have to forgive my lack of wisdom as far as medical terminology.

If you know the body and the terminology,

Please either forgo my lack of knowledge on this or just integrate it with your own knowledge for corrections.

So find a posture you're comfortable with holding for maybe around 15 or so minutes.

This one can also be a good one lying down either on the right side or in resting pose with the knees in the air.

So arriving in the space you're in,

Taking a few deep breaths,

Closing your eyes if that feels comfortable.

So let's just start with the sympathetic nervous system.

Being sympathetic to our sympathetic nervous system,

This is the one where it's said that it's the flight,

Fight,

Freeze,

Or there's also this term fawning,

Fawn.

So just know that it's there to help us when it's needed.

It can save our lives,

Help us help others too,

But oftentimes as we know,

It can be on marathon mode.

So being sympathetic and honoring how it can help us and at the same time establishing the intention to tune more in overall to developing our parasympathetic nervous system,

The fight or flight antidote or counterpart and the rest and digest version of ease,

Relaxation,

Well-being,

Calm.

But how do we do this?

Well,

We'll be using not what we think about it,

But what we sense into.

So primarily be using our tactile sensations of feeling in with the body,

The sensations,

Lots of sensations that we can feel or maybe lack thereof,

Numbness,

Also invite us to use our inner vision to either imagine what we're seeing or maybe even directly see with the inner sight what's going on.

Okay,

So bringing our attention to the central nervous system,

This is the brain and spine and we'll just be working mostly with the physical part,

The brain organ itself,

Along with the spine.

Before we start,

See if you can feel,

If you need with a hand to feel where the spine actually connects into the cranium,

The skull.

For me,

I've got a bump there just as a reference point to know where the spine meets the brain.

And so let's begin feeling into the brain,

Sensing into the brain,

Maybe even seeing with your inner eye the physical organ,

Noticing what you can about it.

Maybe the sensations might come around your scalp though,

Around the hair follicles.

If there's anything that can be felt around this,

Just allowing it to be however it is right now and we can invite it to relax and deepen our awareness for noticing there.

Brain,

Physical brain,

Observation.

Now with the spine,

The physical spine,

Again the words are just to guide and put language to direct experience,

Not to encourage unnecessary thinking.

Contemplation could be done afterwards.

So sensing into the spine now,

Whatever feels comfortable and I'll just give some suggestions,

Sweeping from the top all the way down at your own pace.

If you feel like a fast pace is better,

Go with that.

If you feel a slow pace is better,

Go with that.

So starting from the top,

All the way down to the tailbone and from the tailbone,

Using the awareness and attention to come back up the spine and this is with our inner sight and what we're feeling.

So the spinal cord itself,

The spine bones themselves,

It happens sometimes where there's a distortion.

So if we're visiting our spine and our inner vision,

Sometimes it might appear or have a proprioception of the spine not being how it actually is.

Could feel off,

Maybe bent in the wrong proportions from one side or another.

This kind of body distortion is not entirely uncommon in meditation.

Just be aware of that and if it gets too weird,

You're welcome to just come back to the breath.

Continue sweeping down and up the spine.

Sensations can be noticed like tingling,

Pulsing,

People can even experience pain.

There can also be very pleasant feelings of rapture,

Uplifting,

Bliss,

Very pleasant feelings,

Warmth,

Tingling.

It may also be one area we're drawn to with our attention that's okay to just go there and stay at that area,

Be it an overly pleasant or overly unpleasant sensation that's crying out for attention.

You may also now be aware of other being connected to the central nervous system,

But if at all possible,

It's to stay for a few more moments,

Sweeping up and down the spine and into the brain,

Into the brain and back down the spine.

When the attention reaches the tailbone,

Perhaps inviting it to unravel.

And if there's no feeling,

We're not trying to make anything felt,

Or if there's no inner vision,

There's no need to force anything.

You can just notice the absence of any sensing and continue just moving one's awareness,

Moving the awareness up and down the spine for a few more moments.

Okay,

Now expanding it to the muscles around the spine.

Sometimes these muscles around the spine are the last ones to relax and release.

My guess would be there's kind of a gripping or tightness in order to protect the spine,

The spinal column.

So again,

Sweeping up and down the spine,

But including the muscles around the spine in the awareness,

Inviting them to relax.

Another part of the nervous system in general are the eyeballs,

At least for some,

Maybe it seems for me,

My eyeballs are twitching a little in their sockets,

Noticing that,

Feeling what that's like.

So relaxing the muscles around the spine from where the spinal column starts from the top of the head,

Where it connects to the skull,

Down through the neck,

To the top of the shoulders and upper back,

Between the shoulder blades,

To the middle of the back,

To the lower part of the back of the back and lumbar,

Melting into around the waist and tailbone.

Okay,

Now,

Welcome to stay with that,

Or expand the perception into the peripheral nervous system.

This is the one where actually more sensing comes in,

If I'm getting this right,

Where the nerve endings at other parts of the body connect into and communicate with the central nervous system.

So one good way is to notice the hands,

Bring the awareness to the hands,

The sensations there,

Be it tingling,

A warmth,

A pulsing,

Pressure,

An aliveness of sensations.

Just kind of explore through the physical body what we can see and feel,

See with our inner eye,

Feel with our body and sensing the sensations,

Pleasant,

Unpleasant,

And neither of those can sweep through the body systematically.

We can just let the attention be more open and drawn to whatever the attention is drawn to.

And now inviting us to expand the perception beyond the physical body,

Or maybe for some,

A notion of a physical body with the eyes closed has become kind of vague or not really sure where,

What part of the body is where,

Other than the contact points of on the cushion or floor where the hands or arms are resting on the other parts of the body.

And then see what can be sensed into the immediate area around the body.

Now I invite you to open your eyes ever so slightly and continue paying attention to the peripheral nervous system in the area around the body and noticing how it might be different from with the eyes closed,

With the sensations and visual data or lack thereof or more so.

Now closing the eyes again,

Noticing any inner visuals and inner sensations of the physical body and surrounding areas.

If that's possible,

If nothing's happening,

That's totally okay too.

Now again,

Withdrawing the attention to the central nervous system,

The spine and the brain briefly before onto the automatic nervous system,

The one that operates on its own without our involvement.

What we can do though is feel what it's like to give our internal organs a massage.

Then we'll briefly touch into the three optional parts of the body,

Where it does it automatically and under seemingly some kind of control we have.

First,

Feel the internal organs with the breath if possible.

A little internal massage.

Maybe the kidneys,

Liver,

Stomach,

Heart,

Lungs,

Pancreas,

Gallbladder,

All those lovely guts we have.

Okay,

One we're already doing now is the breath.

So just briefly hold the breath to know that there's some kind of seeming control over that.

Continue breathing normally.

I invite you to blink,

Open the eyes ever so slightly,

Close them again.

Most of the time we're blinking on autopilot.

And then we can swallow too.

So if that's available to you,

You might want to experiment with just swallowing.

Okay,

Now it's a new one for me.

The endemic nervous system has to do with the gut.

So just simply tuning in to the stomach to start off with,

Maybe feeling the breath in and out of the stomach in that area.

And then we can expand awareness from the gut and stomach to the large intestines,

The small intestines,

And the exit area for waste,

As well as the food tube,

Esophagus,

And all the stuff in our mouths and throat.

Recalling that the body just knows how to chew each bite of food and digest it.

We don't need to tell our body to chew each bite of food and digest.

Also notice the content of the stomach and intestines,

If that's available or just the intent.

Let's do this for a few moments,

Being aware of the endemic nervous system,

Either with the inner sight and or combined with feeling sensations.

Back to the central nervous system for a few moments before we wrap this up.

Feeling the spine and brain,

Seeing the spine and brain with her internal vision,

If possible.

Now allowing the integration,

The combination of all these nervous systems into our state of being and wellness and wholeness to whatever degree is possible now.

So breathing is a good way to do that,

Being aware and setting the intention to combine the systematic surveys of the nervous systems and thanking ourselves,

Our body,

Our awareness for giving them the attention that we gave them.