Hi friends,
Welcome to today's practice.
Today we're going to be moving through two somatic exercises that are very helpful to calm down the body whenever you feel anxiety,
Fear,
Or restlessness.
You will leave today's practice feeling a newfound sense of peace and calm and really feeling present and embodied in your physical form.
You can perform these exercises at any time throughout your day whenever you want to come back home to yourself and soothe any anxiety or fear.
We're going to start today's practice by finding a nice and easy comfortable seat.
Find your still posture and close down the eyes.
Take a deep inhale in through the nose,
Filling up the belly and the chest with air,
And breathe out your mouth.
Breathe in through the nose,
Feel the belly lift,
The chest lift,
And the breath moving up into the throat and the head,
And exhale out the mouth.
One more time,
Really arrive into your physical body with this breath.
Inhale through the nose,
Deepest breath ever,
And hold it at the top.
Exhale out the mouth.
Maybe you let out a sigh.
From here,
Come back to your natural pattern of breathing.
Breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth,
Or in through the nose and out through the nose,
Based on how you're feeling today and how your body is responding to your breath.
Wherever you are,
Start to just notice and observe the breath,
Noticing its natural rise and fall,
And noticing the inhales and the exhales.
We're going to move into an exercise which I call three-part somatic experiencing.
So we're going to tune in to three different sensations in your body all at the same time.
The first one is going to be really noticing the breath moving in and out through the nostrils.
So when you breathe in and when you breathe out,
Try to really feel the sensation of air moving in through the nostrils and out through the nostrils.
Move your awareness,
Move your presence onto the sensation for the next few breaths.
And now,
As you sit on the ground,
Become aware of the points of your body that are touching the ground.
Maybe that's your feet,
Your sitz bones,
Maybe that's your hands.
Depending on where your body's positioned,
Just become aware of these points.
And as you become aware of these points,
Start to really feel how the ground feels under your body,
Noticing the sensation of your physical body and the ground connecting.
And start to add this sensation into your point of focus.
So you're feeling in the air in your nostrils and the ground under you at the same time.
Breathe into this for a few breaths.
Beautiful.
Now,
Focus on how you feel your clothes resting on your body.
And also focus on any jewelry that you might have that's resting on your body by noticing the sensations where these physical objects meet the physical body.
Noticing how your clothes,
How your jewelry feels on your skin.
Keeping the eyes closed and really moving your awareness into these things that rest on your physical body.
Try to keep your awareness on these sensations.
So now you're focusing on the air in your nostril,
The ground under your body,
And the clothes and accessories over your body,
All at the same time.
Try to keep your focus on these three things and breathe.
Keep breathing.
The idea with this somatic exercise is that whenever we can focus on three physical sensations,
Our mind becomes so present and so aware that it cannot wander.
So any anxiety,
Any fear,
Any fluctuation of the mind starts to fade away as we hold this focus.
Beautiful.
Now you can release your focus on the three sensations.
And we're going to take five hums.
So the humming sound is a really good tool to turn on the parasympathetic nervous system and to remind the body of its own sound.
So we're going to do that five times all together.
To begin,
Take a big inhale through the nose and with your exhale we hum.
Keep humming.
Press the tongue on the roof of the mouth.
Turn your eyes in and up to the brow and really feel the vibration in your body.
Four more times.
Breathe in.
Feel your sound.
Feel your hum relaxing you from the inside out.
Inhale.
One last hum.
Breathe in through the nose.
Beautiful.
Take a deep breath in through the nose and exhale out the mouth.
Place one hand on your belly,
One hand on your heart and take a moment to put all of your energy in your hands into your physical body.
Taking a moment to give yourself a moment of loving touch and embrace.
And notice the calmness and peace that you've cultivated in your body throughout this practice.
Breathe into that sensation as you keep one hand in the heart,
One hand into the belly and exhale.
And slowly come back to your natural pattern of breath and blink your eyes open in a calmer,
Safer and more relaxed reality.
Namaste.
