How To Feel Safe In Challenging Times

This talk and guided meditation review how to cultivate feelings of security during stressful, unstable periods. The talk spends time discussing the vagus ('wandering') nerve is the most significant nerve of the parasympathetic nervous system. It regulates respiration and heart rate; understanding how to tone the vagus nerve brings about the state of ease and calm we seek in spiritual practice and self-soothing.

Transcript

So imagine if you were,

You're lying in bed at home alone,

You're relaxed in a parasympathetic state,

Which means you're breathing slowly,

You're not particularly alert,

You've put away the book you were reading.

And just as you're starting to doze off,

You hear a sudden sound in the house or apartment that you live,

And you don't expect,

Of course,

Anyone to be there in this exercise.

And so within 1 10th of a second,

Our body goes from parasympathetic,

Relaxed,

Moving into the diminished status state of awareness into a sleep state,

We move within 1 10th of a second to a mobilization sympathetic state.

And in that 1 10th of a second,

A lot of things,

A lot of pre-conscious events occur.

Excitatory signals from the thalamus after hearing the sound project to the basal amygdala,

Basal amygdala and amygdala parse the suddenness and activate the sympathetic arousal,

Muscles tense,

Heightened alertness,

Suddenly a jolt of adrenaline wakes us up into the startle state,

Our breath is held,

The vagal tone decreases down the vagal pathways.

So the heart starts to race,

Muscles tense and with action potential readying to fight or flee.

And then we move from this initial mobilization state to defensive orienting,

Which means we start to focus attention on senses,

Vision and hearing.

And we scan the environment to identify the nature of the threat,

What is it?

Where is it?

What's going on?

Why that sudden sound in my apartment or my house?

And very quickly,

The amygdala has signaled the temporal lobe to evaluate any sounds,

Additional sounds for movement or even for intention on the part of whatever's creating the sound.

At this point,

Another region in the brain,

As I recall the PAG,

Which is near the brainstem will help determine whether we are in fight or flight or freeze,

Fight,

Fighting off a possible intruder,

Fleeing,

Which might mean running or hiding in a closet or freeze,

Becoming immobile,

A dorsal dive when suddenly we dissociate and essentially play dead.

And so those are three key decisions that pre-conscious regions of the brain will make for us.

While all of this is going on in this one 10th of a second,

The insulin node shifts in the body state and it begins to organize an emotional response.

In this case,

It might be fear or terror or concern or confusion.

In this state,

The autonomic nervous system,

If we're in mobilization,

Readying to fight or flight,

The autonomic nervous system is fully engaged,

Heart rate is racing,

Arteries are constricting and muscles are tense,

Ready to act.

Now suppose we determine that the sound was outside.

It wasn't actually in our apartment or home,

It was just wind knocking something around outdoors.

And so the realization that we're safe,

The body starts to release tension.

And so the muscles that had begun to clench in mobilizations begin to release especially in the neck,

Shoulders,

And abdomen,

The vagal tone starts to increase which lowers heart rate and releases some of the arterial constriction which made blood flow more effective.

And then the adrenaline starts to subside so that we can return to a more relaxed state.

And hopefully if tension is fully relieved,

The down regulation as well as the safety orienting,

We orient it towards safety,

Then when tension is fully relieved,

Perhaps even we might shudder or shake or tremble for a moment at the suddenness of the sound and then the relief of it,

The vagus nerve will fully be engaged and the autonomic nervous system and the amygdala will stop orienting exclusively to what is that threat,

Where is that threat?

So that's the overall loop.

We have the initial startle event,

Which the flush of adrenaline,

The shift from homeostasis into sympathetic arousal,

Fight,

Flight,

Muscle tension,

Heightened state of alert through all the adrenaline,

Secretion,

And perhaps even cortisol.

We have action potential in the muscles.

We have faster heart rate.

Thinking just becomes limited to just survival oriented thoughts.

What should I do?

What is that?

And then when we get out of it,

When we encounter safety,

The sound wasn't actually in the apartment,

Then what happens is the autonomic nervous system down regulates back to homeostasis.

The vagal nerve starts to be active again,

Which lowers heart rate and respiration and helps return us to a relaxed parasympathetic state.

And ultimately what happens is our amygdala and midbrain is not now focusing on finding the threat.

We're now back to a place where the preconscious regions of the brain are not fully engaged in looking for a threat that wasn't there.

We're now back in a relaxed state where the amygdala,

Basolateral amygdala,

The right temporal lobe,

Right hemisphere and so forth is not oriented to simply finding a threat anymore.

And so that's ideal,

But suppose this down regulation is interrupted,

Suppose before we fully relax,

We immediately turn our attention to something stressful.

We look at a news,

Scroll news,

And we see something on an iPad or laptop that's disturbing,

Or we remember something that is coming up that we're concerned about,

Or we start to think about unresolved interpersonal issues in our life.

Well then the down regulation that shifts the body out of threat detection is interrupted and key regions of,

Key preconscious regions,

The PAG,

Amygdala,

Parietal,

Temporal,

Are now still engaged primarily looking for threat,

Even though there's no threat present.

We are now stuck for a while in a state of threat detection.

Now,

If ongoing series of negative or difficult events happen,

The action potential in muscles remains tight.

So the body remains clenched,

Cortisol secretion happens,

Which limits glutamate availability in the prefrontal cortex and the hippocampus.

And so what happens is it decreases cognitive functioning.

And then over time,

As glutamate wears out,

Adenosine is released.

And so when people are in any degree of chronic stress,

They experience mental fatigue,

Up levels of cortisol,

Which lead to a whole host of negative physiological states,

Including diminishment of the immune function.

And it stops digestion and it actually negatively affects our ability to mentally process and have cognitive,

High cognitive functioning.

And over time,

Chronic stress is of course,

Directly associated with mental illness.

And sadly,

If we have a prolonged state of negative or threatening stress,

Negative or threatening experiences in life,

We can stay in chronic stress or chronic stress detection for long durations of time,

Which have so many mental and physiological deleterious effects,

And or those that have experienced developmental trauma in childhood can spend entire lives due to the fact that early developmental trauma can affect the amygdala creating hyperactivity in that region and leading to enhanced ongoing threat detection state.

Now,

Over the last 10 months,

We've all had,

I would argue,

An ongoing series of significant environmental distressing events that for many of us have put us in varying degrees of ongoing states of threat detection,

The pandemic,

The massive economic instability,

Which has led to tens of millions of lost jobs in the US,

Extreme political unrest due to specifically one triggering figure issuing statements that have been a rallying cry to people who are intolerant and feel threatened by equality and progress,

A dramatic election,

The invasion of the Capitol.

And then on top of it,

We might have experienced in our own lives,

Perhaps,

Demands of a new domestic tension with partners or roommates.

And so many of us have been deprived of the most vital component of autonomic nervous system regulation,

Which is ongoing connection with soothing individuals.

Social distancing has had a terrible,

Has led to significant diminishment of our ability to self-soothe and restore ourselves to homeostatic states of ease and healing and restoration and resilience.

In low levels of hypervigilance,

This constant neurosepting,

Which means that the unconscious monitoring for threat cues means that states of fight flight activation will be very easy to trigger.

There's a lot of research that shows that when people experience prolonged periods of stress or have had early developmental trauma or have had significant attachment failures,

Certain things occur.

One is known as stimulus generalization,

Which means that it becomes easier to mistake neutral,

Safe stimuli for threats.

So the more we've been over a period of time kept in alert state,

The more we will find or create threats where there are none,

Will turn entirely safe interpersonal events into what feels like threatening encounters or encounters where we feel rejected,

Criticized.

And certainly we see that when people have prolonged periods of insomnia and chronic stress,

There's a tendency to get into more interpersonal conflicts and as well,

There's a tendency to perceive others as rejecting cold and so forth.

Sensitization also happens,

Which means any novel stimuli,

Any novel stimuli at all can lead to elevated reactions.

Internal triggers such as postures,

Shifts in breathing,

Shifts,

Emotional states in sleep can lead to a full fight flight reactive state.

And then what inevitably follows are protective behaviors,

Specifically avoidance coping.

The more we're under prolonged stress,

The more likely we are to start avoiding situations that are novel and perhaps even positive.

We will seek more and more,

We will gravitate more and more to addictive substances that quickly downregulate our nervous system,

Alcohol,

Drugs,

TV,

Numbing behaviors,

Like all the way from TV watching to shopping and so forth,

Anything to release dopamine and to shift us out momentarily out of this anxious state of threat detection.

And then finally,

One of the negative outcomes associated with prolonged periods of stress is what's called mood congruence.

Mood congruence is the tendency of thoughts to mimic,

Mirror or reflect underlying affect states.

So if we're anxious for a prolonged period of stress,

A prolonged period of time,

Inevitably our thoughts will shift from positive framing of events or soothing thoughts towards catastrophizing,

Which means visualizing,

Constructing concerns of the worst possible outcome.

And of course,

We're all familiar with that when we undergo stressful periods at work or in relationships or just from the news,

Then it becomes easier and easier and easier to fall into what if scenarios that then retrigger the right amygdala and relaunch the entire stress alert state,

So it can turn into a feedback loop.

So the rest of the talk is gonna be on strategies to relieve chronic states of threat detection.

And I will note that a lot of these strategies involve directly addressing the autonomic nervous system itself through both cognitive and noncognitive somatic means.

If we simply try to do thought-oriented techniques,

Unfortunately it'll come up short because so many of the processes of the brain that are involved with ongoing prolonged state of hypervigilance and chronic stress are preconscious.

They're not based on thinking,

They're based on regions of the midbrain that really don't understand sophisticated thought.

So the first practice to downregulate after we've been in a prolonged state of stress is to become mindfully aware of the physical symptoms associated with hypervigilance,

The tight areas of areas in the body that are not in use.

So for instance,

If we find ourself working at the computer,

But then we become aware of our shoulders are stuck in this clenched state,

Our abdomen is very,

Very tight,

Or there's an increased heart rate,

Even though we're seated,

It means that something has activated threat detection state.

And so perhaps it means that we are feeling or it means that we are looking through a news,

Scrolling through the news,

Or perhaps we're on social media,

Or perhaps we are looking up something on the internet that is causing this unconscious activation of stress or threat detection.

And so the first thing we wanted to do is note what we're engaged in and pull our attention away from it if potentially it is activating the stress response.

And then we wanna pay attention to the body and we want to practice the quickest way to downregulate,

Which is of course,

Deep inhalations,

Which not only deliver more oxygen to the brain,

Which allows the frontal cortex to inhibit the bottom up fear responses,

But long exhalations actually engage the vagus nerve,

Which lowers heart rate and switches us back into parasympathetic,

Which then begins to reduce the action potential to muscles so we can start to relax.

The second process after using breathing,

Long,

Deep in-breaths,

They can be fast,

But deep.

So they fill up the belly or the chest and then long exhalations.

That's a very good technique.

Another way,

By the way,

To downregulate is the old Aum practice that's used in yoga and other Hindu traditions,

Because the deep tone actually stimulates the vagus nerve,

Which then instigates the return to parasympathetic relaxed state.

So humming of some sort,

Singing,

As well as long exhalations,

Excellent practice.

Another technique also,

I don't do this myself,

But I know this from all the research I've read is that dunking one's head in cold water actually engages the parasympathetic.

For me,

It does the opposite,

But it feels like it does the opposite,

But apparently it engages the parasympathetic as well.

So the second thing,

The second part of this practice of returning us to homeostasis away from chronic hypervigilance and threat detection and states of unease is to acknowledge our underlying emotions.

Terrific psychologist whose book Social is very wonderful read.

Matthew Lieberman's research shows that labeling feelings weakens the amygdala and the fight flight response.

Now labeling doesn't need to be accurate.

We don't have to accurately name whatever emotional state we're in.

It doesn't really matter if you decide you're angry or frustrated,

Confused,

Lost,

Sad,

Disappointed,

Lonely,

Bored,

Uninspired,

It doesn't matter.

Simply using the left hemisphere to come up with a name that feels like it could represent your underlying affect state,

Engages the left dorsolateral,

Left temporal,

Left regions,

And the left hemisphere inhibits the withdrawal,

Fight flight,

Organized behavior,

The right hemisphere.

So simply by engaging the categorizing capabilities of the left hemisphere can actually be down-regulating,

Just naming whatever state we're in.

That also helps us realize that the connection between our underlying affect state and the thinking,

The catastrophizing,

If we have an ongoing state of anxiety.

The third practice is very important and this is if we're actually in a stressful situation,

Learning to orient towards safety cues.

Now in prolonged periods of stress or heavy periods where we're working or we have interrupted sleep or any ongoing state of hypervigilance,

The right hemisphere will start orienting our default attention,

Which means when we're just allowing our attention to go wherever it wants,

Inevitably towards threats.

Neutral stimuli will be over-generalized to be threats as well.

So a key practice in down-regulating the nervous system is learning to take control,

Which means your left hemisphere,

Actually the left hemisphere uses the left singulate,

Which is what focuses attention to reorient us away from threatening stimuli towards security stimuli or things that make us relax.

So what are things that trigger a threat and what are external events that trigger safety?

Well,

Inscrutable facial expressions,

People whose facial expressions do not immediately denote warmth or welcome are threat cues.

Closed areas,

Crowds,

Loud sounds,

All instigate threat detection and are threat cues.

There's a whole list in the work of Steven Porges,

The great neurologist whose work on the polyvagal talks about threat and safety cues.

What objects,

Sorry,

Situations that create feelings of safety,

Looking actively towards people with warm expressions,

Smiles,

Gravitating away from man-made objects towards natural objects,

Looking away from crowded spaces to open areas,

Doorways,

As opposed to looking at walls or looking at windows as well,

As opposed to looking at walls.

Also,

Again,

Doors,

Windows,

Open spaces,

Nature,

Friendly expressions,

All of these are classic safety cues.

The problem is,

Is that the brain,

Especially during prolonged states of stress,

But even in normal settings,

The brain due to the right amygdala's predilection to finding threat will give in a whole bunch of stimuli,

Almost invariably want to orient us towards unfriendly expressions.

When I used to teach in large classes,

It was uncanny.

There could be in the room 50 people and 49 of them might have friendly,

Welcoming expressions.

But the one person looking at me impassively with their arms crossed,

With this look of sheer and comprehension,

Probably well-earned,

But anyway,

Sheer and comprehension,

I will inevitably find my right hemisphere,

Which guides default attention,

Zeroing in on that person.

And unless I remember to reorient attention away from inscrutable expressions or negative expressions or body language that's closed off as opposed to people that are sitting with open,

Welcoming posture and so forth,

I'll gravitate again and again to trying to get this one person out of 50 to shift their affect state.

And that's generally,

All that does is add stress to any talk in public.

Other safety cues are objects that we bring along with us that are associated with safety.

These used to be called talismans.

Some people would carry on,

Carry in them engraved objects that or heirlooms or stuff that they associate with safety.

And just touching those talismans can induce a relaxing of the sympathetic arousal mobilization state.

Carrying with us any objects can work.

I once worked with several years ago,

Somebody who had to give a very scary talk for her and to a large group.

And we were discussing objects that she had that didn't actually work.

And one that I had that denoted or evoked feelings of security.

And one was a fabric that had been passed down to her from her grandmother.

So we decided that she would bring this fabric with her and during the talk,

Put it on her lap and then place her hands on her lap,

Touching the fabric.

Actually,

Whenever she started to feel herself moving into anxious states,

She would feel the fabric and just relax her hands into it and it would soften the threat response.

So orienting towards safety cues.

And then finally,

The last group of deactivating strategies is what's called security priming.

So unlike orienting to safety cues,

Which is something you do in an actual situation where you feel a sense of stress,

Anxiety or a prolonged period where you feel worn down or on edge.

Security priming is something we do before we move into a situation that has been triggering.

And what is priming?

Well,

Priming is the well-established characteristic that exposure to previous stimuli unconsciously influences how we orient to and perceive subsequent stimuli.

So for example,

Classic example is you give someone a word test where they have to find words and all of the words are things like Florida,

Retirement,

Gray hair and stuff like that.

And then after they do this word test,

You time them walking away from the room where they did this test and they'll walk at half the pace as people who did a word test that are associated with youthful terms,

Zing and uplift and so simply words that were primed can change literally affect states.

And then of course,

Other examples would be,

You have someone in an office before they meet with a clinical psychologist and in the office,

There's placed within view an image of a cat or a dog,

And then you show them a puzzle where they have to find animals.

And the first thing they'll find is whatever animal was placed,

The image was placed in the room because they've been primed to look for it.

So priming essentially affects our affect state and priming can be done in a number of ways.

Security priming before stressful or triggering experiences,

For example,

Can activate feelings of attachment security via mental representations of safe,

Soothing,

Appreciative figures.

This is what the Buddha called Kaga Nusa-ti and Deva Nusa-ti,

Daily recollections he recommended of bringing to mind soothing figures associated with safety.

So we're priming ourselves before we go into a stressful interactive experience,

Meeting,

Event,

Or even a day,

If tomorrow evokes some sense of stress,

The inauguration,

What will happen,

Then before we even check in with news or anything like that,

We might practice priming ourselves with positive visualizations.

Amri Giliath of the University of Texas has shown in over 20 studies how effective visualizing security figures are in priming us towards states of ease and security.

Savoring,

Savoring is when we focus attention on the feelings that priming evokes.

So it's not so much when we visualize a safe figure in our life that we're focusing so much on the image,

What we're doing is just visualizing someone that in some point of our life,

We had a positive interaction with or a place,

That's what the Buddha called santini-sati,

Evoking a place where we felt secure and safe,

And then maybe a beach or a place in nature,

A cabin or whatever,

You visualize the person or place and then focus attention on the affect that's being activated by this mental representation and then sink into this somatic state and try to extend it through the body.

So if you notice that when you bring to mind a favorite place or a person that's associated with safety,

There might be,

And we might place a hand on our vagal nerve to stimulate that,

If we start to feel a sense of ease,

Then what we would do is use the breath to spread the ease through the body and that's savoring.

So in summary,

Key techniques for down-regulating us out of prolonged states of hypervigilance and threat detection is one,

Becoming aware of when our body is in a sympathetic arousal state,

Which will be denoted by fast breathing,

Heart racing or muscles that shouldn't be tight or clenched are in a very tight,

Clenched action potential ready state.

Maybe our legs are suddenly tight or our arms are tight.

And then noticing what activity am I engaged in?

Very often this will lead us to recognize,

As I certainly have,

That it's only appropriate to look at news at certain times of the day and then directly afterwards prime ourselves with ease evoking images.

So that's one,

Become aware of what our underlying physiological state is and then down-regulate it through breathing,

Deep in-breaths,

Long exhalations.

Two,

Acknowledge whatever emotional state we're in.

It doesn't matter how accurate the label is,

Just labeling I'm angry,

Sad,

Lonely,

Frightened,

Bored,

Whatever.

Third,

Always,

As much as possible,

Orient towards safety cues wherever we feel overwhelmed,

Which means,

Again,

Orienting towards friendly expressions or open spaces or any signs of nature or doorways or openness and orienting away from inscrutable facial expressions,

From crowds,

Closed off spaces and so forth.

And if we have any objects associated with safety,

Holding them,

And then finally security priming,

Which is before we go into stressful days,

Experiences,

Situations,

Interpersonal encounters,

Reflecting on secure attachment figures or places that we associate with ease and security.

One might ask,

Well,

Why do we want to cultivate states of ease and security when we might very well be in for,

For example,

A day of unrest,

Or we might be facing something that might be very challenging.

Why would we want to go into it with feelings of security?

And that would be a very good question.

And I would answer it by saying that actually there has already been studies that show that people who catastrophize or anxiously prepare for,

Or are constantly engaged in threat detection actually do not do better in difficult or catastrophic experiences.

Actually people who are relaxed,

Who walk into those experiences often completely unprepared actually outperform because they haven't been using up all the vital resources in their brain that allows them to quickly adapt,

Such as not only adrenaline and dopamine and glutamate and so forth.

So there's not actually any benefit to constantly visualizing what can go wrong.

Actually it's not only physiologically detrimental,

But it's also doesn't actually in the unlikely event of difficult situations,

It doesn't even help us.

It actually means that we'll perform not as well as we would like.

So thank you for listening.

Now we're gonna do a meditation,

Of course,

Where we put these tools into practice.

And so find a really comfortable position.

And as always,

If you have interest and it's feasible for you to support the work of a Buddhist pastor in Brooklyn,

The Venmo is Dharma Punks with an X NYC or the PayPal buttons on the dharmapunkswithanxnyc.

Com site.

So thanks for considering that.

And now it's your turn to find a really comfortable seated position.

And what we wanna do is bring ourselves into a posture that's associated with vagal toning,

Which means a posture where the shoulders are relaxed,

The stomach is soft,

The body is balanced,

Neither forward or back.

The more out of balance we are,

The more it reduces feelings of homeostasis,

States of homeostasis.

So we wanna be in a really comfortable posture.

If you're leaning back against a couch or a chair on a bed,

That's fine.

Just totally sink into all of the supports,

Trying to feel all of your body making contact with the support.

If you're sitting upright,

That's great.

Really sink into the chair and just rest both feet on the ground.

And then trying to balance the head over the shoulders in a direct line with the sit bones.

Again,

The more balance,

The less we clench muscles,

The less we clench muscles,

The more the insula reads the body is relaxed and therefore assumes that we're safe.

So just a good posture can help establish a state of ease.

And then what we're gonna do is just note if there's any muscle groups that are needlessly clenched associated with chronic activation,

Mobilization,

Mobilization,

Sympathetic arousal.

And so be cognizant of the muscles in the back of the neck,

The shoulders.

See if they're relaxed,

Not clenched.

See if the muscles in the throat are soft.

The eyebrows are relaxed and the belly.

The abdomen should be soft and pliant.

The sit bones should be released,

Buttocks released so that we're sinking into the chair.

Nice.

And if you noticed any of those groups,

You found areas where there was an ongoing state of tightness or tension to see if you can breathe into that area with a long exhalation and just imagine you could,

With the simplest words,

Just encourage that area of the body to release,

Let go.

And now for a while,

We're going to practice the type of breathing associated with parasympathetic states.

And that means a nice deep in-breath that doesn't have to be long,

But just full.

So it fills up the chest or it feels like the belly extends outwards and then the long release.

And if you're at home,

If you want to engage the vagal nerve by humming as you breathe out,

So.

So.

Ah.

Just stimulating the vagal nerve.

You'll note after you do that,

That it can be very soothing.

So we're going to sit here in silence.

I'm not going to do guiding for a little while and just practice this kind of soothing breath.

If you don't feel inclined to use the breath as your anchor,

That's fine.

Just allow your senses to orient towards safe sounds in your environment.

So that could be just ambient sounds or sounds that are soothing wind or heat pipe in the pipes or something in your environment.

And just allow yourself to connect with that ongoing flow of sensations without doing anything other than just allowing them to pass through awareness.

Okay.

Okay.

Okay.

Okay.

Okay.

Okay.

Okay.

Okay.

Okay.

Okay.

Okay.

Okay.

So at this time we're going to practice a exercise of associated with regulating our nervous system down from threat detection and vigilance to greater states of ease.

So first what I'd like you to do is bring to mind a very simple task.

And this would be to visualize what it would be like for you to,

If you were going to pick up groceries from the supermarket or a store and return home.

So just a visualization of imagining yourself leaving home,

Walking or driving to a,

Or riding a bike to a specific location and then being indoors where there are people and perhaps you could visualize a normal amount of people and then visualize yourself checking out of the store and then whatever your journey would be like returning home with the groceries.

And as you visualize this,

Just note as many cues,

Cues are simply mental images that you think might activate your nervous system either towards safety or threat.

And we're not going to guide our attention.

We're just going to visualize the journey.

So imagine we're not going to do the entire journey obviously,

But just visualize yourself leaving your home,

Walking outside,

And then what would you see outdoors?

What comes to mind,

Just noting that and then visualizing,

Journeying to a store for food.

And then what comes to mind is you imagine being at this location.

You're moving through the store looking for vegetables and supplies.

What would you expect to see?

And then the line to check out.

And then just imagine what stimuli you might encounter on the way back.

It might be streets filled with people or empty locations.

It might be cars,

Traffic,

Or a still landscape.

You just notice what images come to mind.

So if we've been in prolonged states of any degree of hypervigilance,

The chances are the vast bulk of the images that were conjured by our,

Generally the right temporal and other regions of the brain will be largely challenging images,

Crowds,

Unfriendly people,

Difficulties in finding what we need at the store or so forth.

Perhaps a unfriendly experience if we wait to check out and so forth.

So what I'd like you to do is even if you didn't encounter many stressful images,

Just for the practice of safety orienting,

Orienting towards safety cues is just visualize this journey once again.

But this time what we're gonna do is imagine orienting towards stimuli that's associated with safety like friendly faces,

Streets,

Or avenues that are less crowded.

Imagine our body being relaxed.

So softening the body as we visualize this and visualize objects at the store that we associate with positive emotions,

Could be types of food that we really relish or could be anything at the supermarket that we associate with ease.

And just practice keeping the mind inclined towards safety cues,

Open spaces,

Nature,

Friendly expressions,

Welcoming body language,

And so forth.

Now having completed this visualization exercise,

I'd like you to take a moment and label what we're doing and label whatever affect state you sense you're in.

And again,

Don't try to be accurate,

Just name whatever.

If somebody asks you right now,

What are you feeling or what,

If you had to just name a emotional state of being,

Just allow any label to come up,

Tired,

Hungry,

Could be even,

You know,

Hungry is not really what we call an emotion,

But,

Nor is tired,

But those will do.

Exhausted,

Anxious,

Lonely,

Bored,

Worn down,

Excited,

Relieved,

Checked out,

Just give your experience a label.

You'll notice in doing it that labeling your experience will help detach from any thoughts generated by the underlying mood.

And lastly,

What I'd like you to do is for our exercise of safety,

Which is the mind-set,

What I'd like you to do is for our exercise of safety priming,

Whether or not you view or you're concerned about how tomorrow might play out or the following days,

I'd like you to bring to mind first a spoon called Kaga Nusa Tea,

Bring to mind individuals that we associate with kindness,

Generosity,

Care,

Just any individual.

It could be someone we know or someone we've known or someone that just denotes those qualities.

And just see if you can hold their image in your mind.

And if their image doesn't evoke,

If you find it difficult to visualize people,

Then just say their name,

Put your hand on your heart center,

Activating the,

Toning the vagal nerve,

Which again,

Relaxes.

Just visualize,

Secure attachment figure,

And really try to savor any feelings in the body this evokes,

So it could be a soft belly or warmth,

Just really savor the experience.

Someone looking at us with a friendly,

Welcoming demeanor,

Could be anyone,

Just savoring that.

And if you'd like,

Then change the mental representation to a place where you feel really safe,

A spot where you feel least exposed or vulnerable,

A place where you feel you can truly relax,

Release all the tension in your body.

So I'm going to now ring the bowl to signal the end of the meditation,

And just take your time and try to bring any states of ease and security you've cultivated with you the rest of the evening.

So just keep the long exhalations and being aware of the body,

Making sure that we release ongoing clenched muscles.

Thank you for joining us.

Reviews

Very interesting and useful tips and explanation! So grateful, thank you! 🙏

So informative and gentle.

Very helpful scientific and spiritual guidance. I feel much more comfortable and peaceful.