And we'll begin just by gently turning our heads from side to side,
Just noticing any movement and the mobility here.
So slowly,
Just a few times,
Looking over from side to side.
And now bringing your head back to a neutral position and gaze forward,
And then interlacing your hands behind your head so that your palms are gently cradling the back of your skull and your elbows are pointed away from your ears,
Out in opposite directions.
And now without turning your head,
Just shift your gaze all the way over to the right side.
We'll hold here for about 30 seconds or so,
Breathing deeply as you do this.
You want to wait until you feel a yawn or a sigh or a swallow.
Breathing here just a few more seconds,
Keeping that head in neutral but gazing all the way off to the right,
Breathing deeply as you do this,
And then turning your gaze back to neutral.
And we'll repeat this on the other side.
So bringing your gaze all the way over to the left side without turning your head,
Just looking over all the way to the left with eyes only,
Breathing deeply as you do this down into the belly,
Just holding here,
Waiting for a yawn or a sigh or maybe a swallow.
Good.
Now bring your gaze back to neutral,
Back to the center,
Drop your arms to your sides or maybe letting them rest on your legs,
Whatever feels good.
And close the eyes if you'd like.
You may already notice a little bit of that calming or soothing effect now that we've activated and tapped into the vagus nerve.
Now begin to focus on your breath.
Allow the breath to be low and slow as you send it down deep into your belly.
Slow,
Smooth,
Effortless breaths,
Nice and deep in your belly,
Almost like you're trying to breathe down into your pelvis.
And as you breathe,
Soften the space between your eyebrows,
Just letting the eyes get soft and heavy as they sink back into their sockets.
And then release the jaw.
Let that bottom half of the jaw just become heavy and release away from the top half.
Then feel the tongue fall away from the roof of the mouth and allow the throat to open and soften here.
Maybe notice how the breath is flowing after you've opened up the throat and really softened the muscles of the face.
And now roll your shoulders up,
Back,
And down a few times,
Releasing tension from your shoulders and your trapezius muscles.
And now reverse direction,
So rolling the shoulders up,
Forward,
And down.
And now let those shoulders just become still and melt down your back.
And once the shoulders have settled,
Gently cross your arms and place your hands on opposite upper arms and gently rub your hands up and down your arms softly a few times.
You can start with just the upper arm and then maybe rubbing your hands up and down the full arm just a couple of times here,
Maybe noticing what effect this has on your body,
On your nervous system,
On how you're feeling.
And allow yourself just to settle into complete stillness here.
And as you become still,
Take three deep cleansing breaths,
Inhaling through the nose and open mouth exhale,
Letting it go.
And as you breathe out through the mouth,
Don't be afraid to make noise,
Really let it go.
Repeating this two more times,
One final time,
And then letting the breath become slow and low,
Completely fluid here,
Just letting that breath move in and out of the body.
We'll be breathing deeply for about one minute.
As you do so,
If the mind wanders,
That's okay.
Just recognize that the mind has wandered and then gently bring it back.
Breathing and imagining that on every exhale,
Your nervous system just gets turned down just one more notch.
Every exhale,
Your nervous system,
It calms down just even 1% more.
Just continuing to breathe here deeply for about 30 more seconds.
Every exhale,
Softening a little bit more,
Releasing,
And just feeling that nervous system just become 1% softer and more tranquil,
Peaceful.
And we'll take a big deep breath in,
Reaching our hands overhead up towards the sky,
Interlacing the fingers,
Turning the palms up towards the sky,
Stretching and lengthening just for a moment.
On your next exhale,
Just release it,
Let the arms float back down to your sides,
Blinking the eyes open,
And completing your meditation here.
Thank you so much for joining me,
And well done taking just a few minutes to reset your nervous system.
I hope you're feeling good now.
