Nervous System Nourishment With Somatic Practices

Lie down for a sacred pause to restore and nourish your nervous system and your spirit. Receive guidance in breathing, tapping, making sounds, and a body scan to bring greater coherence to your heart field and replenish your energy.

With Ayurvedic Practitioner, Yoga Teacher, and Somatic Guide Lily Russo.

Transcript

Welcome to this sacred pause.

I invite you to get comfortable.

I suggest you lie down on your back and make sure you're warm and feel supported.

Maybe you want a pillow under your knees,

A blanket.

Settle in for this restorative practice.

Feel the edges of your body touching the ground beneath you and let those edges and the ground merge.

You've been taught to be tough,

But your strength lies in your softness.

Yield.

Sink back a little more.

Your armor is not needed here.

Within the contours of your body flow thousands of channels.

These channels carry wisdom.

You've been taught to trust what you've been told.

Now you're learning to trust the messages of your body.

Deepen your breath and feel as the breath comes in and moves inside,

Filling belly,

Heart.

Feel the exhale softening you down as you release anything that you don't need to hold on to right now.

Let one hand open and take the fingers of your other hand to softly draw little circles in the palm,

Caressing this point at the center of your palm which is connected to your heart.

Feel the sensation of your own hand caressing your skin,

Bringing a sense of love and kindness to your own body temple.

Notice as you start to do some of these somatic practices when things start to shift.

You might notice a yawn happen or some tension dissolve.

Take a swallow in the back of your throat.

Squeeze all the muscles of your face together,

Scrunching,

And then release and open.

Even open your eyes and your mouth and stick out your tongue.

Take a deep breath and then make a sigh on the way out.

Bring your hands into your heart space.

I'm going to be guiding you now in various somatic practices of touching your body and listening and feeling and making some sounds.

These are all meant to help relax your nervous system,

Connect to your own body's wisdom,

And restore your inner intelligence.

So take the fingertips now of both hands and start to tap at your heart space,

All around the center of your chest,

Circling around the sternum.

Let your breath come in full and deep and out fully,

Releasing.

As you tap your chest,

I invite you to start to make some more sounds,

Some sighs or something more,

Some moans.

Any sound that helps you to release some stored attention,

Emotional or physical.

Letting your hands move in as big of circles you'd like around your chest,

Even towards your shoulders and continue tapping and making sound.

Opening your jaw at times,

Releasing your tongue,

Making some roaring sounds,

Some moans.

These are all known to be restoring to your body and to your nervous system by releasing things that have created some tension,

Some constriction.

Opening up with your sound,

Opening your throat.

Continue as you bring your fingers up to tap at your throat.

Continue making these sounds of freedom as your hands come up to your jaws,

Rolling your jaw around as you tap into those tender places in the muscles of the jaws.

Bring your hands up to your cheekbones,

To your temples,

To your forehead,

Circling around the forehead,

Breathing and sighing or moaning.

As you tap the center of your forehead now,

This is your third eye,

Your Agnya Chakra,

Center of wisdom and intuition.

As you tap,

You're awakening these powers of wisdom and intuition.

You can even say out loud or inside,

Awaken,

Awaken,

Awaken my powers of intuition,

Awaken my inner wisdom,

Awaken.

Now take your hands to the very top of your head and tap here to open this portal to the cosmic energy,

To divine wisdom.

Awaken here.

Now release your hands down back to your heart space with both palms there,

One over the other,

Thumbs crossing,

Holding yourself,

Feeling the channels of energy alive in your body and draw soft circles with your hands over your heart space.

The main point here of the connection to your consciousness,

According to Ayurveda,

The heart is the seat of consciousness.

Now let your hands cross your body so one hand is holding the opposite shoulder and the other hand is holding the opposite side waist.

Give yourself a squeeze.

Give yourself a message of love that you're here to nurture yourself.

And here's another practice to help settle your nervous system,

To reduce feelings of anxiousness and beating heart when it's too fast.

Just begin to tap now alternately,

Left,

Right,

Left,

Right.

Taking some deep breaths as you do this,

Patting with your whole hand and hold yourself again.

Give your shoulder and your side a big squeeze,

Feel the pressure,

The solidness,

Your hands touching bone and muscle,

Skin,

All these places of strength and protection.

Now let your hands soften down to either rest on your belly or your groins or maybe at the sides of your body,

Whatever's feeling most comfortable.

And feel into the bottoms of your feet.

Imagine that you were breathing in through the soles of the feet.

Imagine breathing in through the soles of the feet,

Up the legs,

Into the belly and into the heart.

And the exhale is just this release out and down.

Continuing this way,

A few more breaths,

Breathing in through the feet.

Let that energy of the breath,

Of your awareness flow up through your legs,

Into your belly,

Into your chest,

Into your shoulders.

And the exhale,

Release anything that's holding you back from freedom.

Now as I guide you through a body scan,

You'll bring your attention to each part that I name and just be with that part for a moment.

Notice what's there and if you notice some tension,

Invite it to release.

Bring your awareness down to your toes and into the soles of your feet,

To the tops of your feet and the heels.

Bring your awareness into your ankles and up your shins,

To your knees,

Circling awareness around your knees.

Bringing your awareness up your thighs,

The tops,

The insides,

The backs of your thighs.

And now circling awareness around your hips and across your low belly and inside your low abdomen and all the organs there.

Bringing awareness back into your sacrum and circling awareness there,

Into your lower back,

Into your mid-back and across your ribs up to your sternum.

And into your upper chest,

Circling awareness around your chest and into your upper back,

Shoulder blades,

Top of your shoulders.

And through the upper arms into your elbows,

Circling awareness around each elbow.

And into your forearms,

Your wrists,

Your thumbs,

The palms of each hand,

Circling awareness there.

And into each of your fingers,

Sliding awareness around and inside each of your fingers.

Bringing awareness now up into your throat,

The hollow of your throat,

The sides of your throat,

The back of your neck and up towards the base of your skull.

Into the back of your head,

The top of your head,

The sides of your head and your ears.

Letting awareness flow in between the ears and circling around each ear.

Letting awareness flow into your temples,

Across your forehead,

Into your eyebrows,

Your eyelids and inside to your eyeballs.

Into your cheeks,

Your nose and feeling inside the nostrils,

Into the throat,

The back of the throat where the air touches as you breathe in.

And into your tongue,

Feeling into your lower jaw,

Upper jaw and across the contours of your lips.

Letting awareness spread now across your face and into all of your head and into all of your torso.

And now feeling the whole of your upper body from your waist up to your head and through your arms.

And now letting your awareness move from your hips down your legs and circling around your lower body.

Now feeling into the left side of your body,

The whole left side and relax the left side.

Feel into the right whole side of your body and relax the whole right side.

Feel across the whole front side of your body,

Relaxing the whole front side,

Feeling into the entire back side and relaxing.

Feel your entire body,

Your entire body relaxing.

Feel right into your heart space and notice how it feels right now.

Send your breath and awareness across your chest and right into that sacred point in the center.

Let your breathing deepen and fill you up.

May you be nourished.

May you be held.

May you be protected.

May you be loved.

May you know your worth.

May you be guided by your heart.

Thank you so much for practicing with me today.

Reviews

This is an outstanding #nervoussystemreset, #nervoussystemrenewal. Some of these meditations feel so good, they ought to be illegal. 🤣. This is one of them.

Loved this! I did it before bed and I slept through the night for the first time in days! My nervous system needed it!