Deep Rest When We're Exhausted

Our brain assesses threats and our body responds. Feeling exhausted right now is understandable. This guided deep relaxation practice takes us through the whole body from head to toes and we gently feel into what exhaustion feels like in our physical body, the energy in our body, and in our brain. We look into what exhaustion feels like while we are in dorsal (freeze) or in fight/flight (edgy or restless) and what type of thoughts might accompany that.

Transcript

As we get ourselves settled to do a resting practice, One of the things that happens is that we feel into how tired we are. As we're starting and coming into that, Notice how does your body feel right now. One of the things that we might notice when we're doing resting practices is that we come in with a lot of tension in our body. That's a very common and normal experience. Even when we do the practice and bring our attention into the body, We might find that the tightness is more persistent or it's a little bit more difficult to let it go. Notice if you could adjust your body at all to be more comfortable and more supported in particular, Especially if you're lying down, Then that lying down on the back pose, Shavasana, Shava means corpse, It's the corpse pose. So we really, If we're set up right, Don't need to do anything to hold ourselves there. We could completely let go in our body from head to toes. Take some deeper breaths and notice what that feels like in your body to breathe more deeply. Bring your mind in from other times, Other places so that we can just focus on this time, This place. Notice what it's like to surrender your body into the support that's here. If you bring your attention to the back of your body, That also helps to bring our mind into the moment instead of into the future. So notice the back of your head, Back of your neck and shoulders. And let your arms be at rest. From the back of your head, Back of your neck and shoulders. And let your arms be at rest. From the back of the shoulders, The large muscles of the upper back that operate the arms. And the back of your arms, Your hands. Our arms and hands are very busy a lot of the time. We cook, We clean, We engage with other people. And when our nervous system is alarmed, We might have a lot of readiness in the arms. Back of the neck, The shoulders, The upper arms, The whole of the arms, The hands. Notice what that feels like as you let go into that support that's here. And what it might feel like to let go of needing to be ready for action. When we deeply rest, We could trust that we will go into action if we need to and that we don't need to be ready for action. And notice that in the muscles at the front of your chest, As well as under the rib cage, At the back of your chest, And the shoulders down through the arms, Let your arms rest. And then coming down through the rest of your back body, In the back of the head, The neck, The shoulders, The upper arms, The upper back, Mid and lower back. And then we come to resting the legs. Notice the whole of your legs, Front and back, For a moment. And notice if your legs have surrendered into the support that's here. And as you're exhaling in particular, See if you can let go of any readiness, Any preparedness. As we relax the large muscles in the legs, The front of the thighs and the back of the thighs in particular, It's like we're going off duty. We're not moving about in the world right now. That's usually fine. It might be the preparedness or the vigilance piece that's being driven by the nervous system that feels a little bit uncertain or that holds us back from really deeply relaxing. Notice the whole of your back body and notice your legs in particular right now. Is it okay with your nervous system that you rest? And bring your attention to the whole of your body again. And notice what it feels like, What's your felt sense now of being in your body. We have this two-way communication in the unconscious mind or in the body. We start to relax our body and those large muscles of the back and the legs are a lot of the contraction and tension in our body. So as we soften those, The nervous system gets the message. It's okay to come off duty. It's okay to rest. So a little bit of softening in the legs and in the back can signal that there's a bit more safety here and then the nervous system starts to respond to that and then it lets go a little bit more. And then notice the whole front of your body, Your forehead and eyebrows. Let go of any worry or concern. So it's a sensitive process to work with the thoughts in our mind because we don't want to suppress them. And we also don't want to just follow them down a rabbit hole of fear and catastrophic thinking. Let your forehead soften. Notice the breath, The sensation of the breath in your nose down into your throat. And then notice the energy in your mouth and jaw and in your throat. One of the ways that we protect ourselves is through speech. What we say, What we don't say. It's also a way that we engage with the world and with each other. We hear, We speak. So to have a break or a rest from all of that activity can be very helpful. In particular, Notice your vocal cords and if you're subvocalizing, See if you could soften your throat even more. You don't have any preparedness in your speech, Mouth, Your jaw, Your tongue, Your vocal cords, Your throat. Let yourself rest from that type of engagement. And if you're feeling kind of activated or like you're having a little bit of trouble settling down, You might even open your eyes and just look around. Notice with your eyes that there's no danger in the room. And also notice cues of safety. One of the things that we're resting in these practices is our bodies. We're also resting our mind. So the 30% of the brain that takes in the visual input and assesses it for danger or safety could be at rest as well. And then let your eyes close or have your gaze soft. Now notice the whole of your face. Faculties of thinking, Sight, Hearing, Sound, Speech. And let your face be relaxed and at rest. We're not communicating with each other with the muscles in our forehead and eyes. We're not communicating through speech. We're taking a step back, Letting ourselves rest. And then bring your attention again now into your chest, The large muscles of your chest, The front of your shoulders and into your arms. Notice what's happening with your arms now. Arms, Hands, Fingers, Fingertips. Notice the front of your legs, Your feet, Your toes. Are your legs resting? And then coming into the breath, Notice the movement of your body in your stomach area. And notice the smoothness that might have already been developing. Exhale and inhale are about the same. Where the exhale is longer without any big breaks or pauses in the breath. And as you're breathing out and letting your stomach area soften, That signals again to our nervous system that it's safe enough to rest. We can keep an anchor in our body and in our breath as we do a resting practice. And then become aware more of the energy field or the sense of energy in your body. What is your internal experience, Your felt sense right now, Your level of exhaustion? I'm exhausted. And notice your response to that. Our response can be physical in our body. What does exhaustion feel like in your body right now? And how would you know the difference between feeling really exhausted or feeling a little tired or feeling kind of neutral? What would be your indicators of your level of exhaustion? Just notice which of those are present, How intense they are, How do you define that or how do you know? Yes, That's true, I feel exhausted. And specifically in the body right now. The physical body, The energy body. And continue to be aware of your breath. If any parts of your body are tightening up, You could work with them on a few exhales, Let them soften. Notice your mind, What does your thought stream have to say about this? And what does the energy of your brain have to say about this? You can be mentally tired, Mentally exhausted. Some of that is from the hypervigilance in the nervous system. When we feel less safe than usual, We are looking around for danger more. And it takes a lot of energy, Physical and mental. And tune into what's going on with your brain. It could show up as a fogginess or a disinterest. What's happening in your brain? And if you were to say, My brain is tired, Would that feel true? And sometimes there's a fatigue in the brain and sometimes there's an edgy energy that feels exhausted as well. There might be a numbness, There might be a lack of interest, There might be an agitation, More of a sympathetic arousal. Fight-flight thoughts like that. So notice that. What is the content of your thought right now? And right now meaning in this moment and also generally lately. Have you had a lot of worry thoughts, Catastrophic thinking? Have you been quite engaged with the hypervigilance? Or maybe you're more in a dorsal state, A freeze of, I'm just exhausted, I can't even be bothered to think about all the things that could go wrong. I just, I've given up. What's that experience like for you right now? And as you're doing that, Notice your body, Your breath, Let your body settle and really be supported. Especially if you're supported through the whole of your back. And sometimes what happens is we find ourselves holding ourselves, We're just kind of stiff, Like we can't quite release. And that can show up in our physical body. It can show up in our mind. Notice the dorsal, The freeze energy in the mind. What does that feel like? And notice the sympathetic fight or flight energy in the mind and what kind of thoughts go along with that? It's a different energy. And one of the things we might work with is letting go into accepting that reality is as it is right now. There are a lot of things about our present reality that we hate, That we're afraid of, That we're resisting, That are making our life a lot harder. We have these big issues that cross all the lines, Like the global pandemic. And we have our personal lives as well. What's happening at our job, In our relationships? Are we really isolated? Are we in a family or home where we're with people that are really in a fight or flight and then we can't engage with them in a way? So let's take a few minutes just to kind of sit with what's my personal life and experience like right now and how does this relate to this feeling of I'm really tired? I'm exhausted. Keep an eye on your breath. Let yourself notice that you're breathing. If you've started holding your breath, Let it release. And as you're exhaling and inhaling, Continue to let your body release. Release any tension, Any fatigue. We could move away for a moment from watching the mind and come back into the body and the energy. And as you're exhaling, Let your whole body relax. You might imagine waves of relaxation from the top of your head through your whole body down through your chest and back, Your arms and legs. Releasing any remaining vigilance or tension or fatigue. We're not trying to get rid of any of the thoughts or the experience. So if you're in that dorsal vagal kind of overwhelmed or it doesn't matter what I do, It's not going to get better. We can allow ourselves to have that experience and to bring ourselves up a bit into the more energy, The energetic feeling of the sympathetic arousal, The fight and flight. So without getting into a big fight response or flight response, We could just notice there is some activation that could happen. And when we're in ventral vagal, When we're in that state of connection, It could be as simple as really taking some deep in-breaths and noticing the energy that comes into the body. Focusing for a moment on what it is that you're really still enjoying about life. The walks that you have or an animal or a person, The food that you've learned to cook during the pandemic or there's something maybe that you've been enjoying and that you're still enjoying. We could bring that in as well. Being able to get together with friends, Even if it's online instead of in person. That feeling of connection that we might have with ourselves, With others. And just the relief of, I'm really tapped out, I'm feeling exhausted. And allowing ourselves to have that experience. And to also have the experience of, And it's not always going to feel this way. Notice your whole body again from head to toes, Toes to head. And if there's any parts of your body that are still kind of holding on or not as soft as they could be, Let them soften on the out-breath. Let yourself really be centered in the ventral vagal energy of trust and connect and possibilities. Let yourself feel the energy as it returns to your body, As your body softens. And as we release tension, There's more room for the in-breath. Oxygen moves through our body more easily. We have a little bit more spark. It might not be a lot. There might still be a lot of exhaustion here. And that's okay too. We can hold that as well. Feel this in your body from head to toes. Notice the changes. What's changed, What stayed the same. Notice how you feel after resting. And then when you're ready, Open your eyes. Take your time to come out of the practice.

Reviews

Excellent! That was very helpful for someone who experiences chronic fatigue. Thank you.

So helpful to hear the acknowledgment of what the exhausted body/mind feels in combination with relaxation cues. It’s a beautiful experience. Thank you 🤍

Thank you for this incredible practice! I found it very healing and supportive. I appreciate how you normalize what's happening in the nervous system and create a loving environment to relax and soften 💛

Thank you! Incredibly powerful. Enables me to rest deeply in a calm, neutral state, and sometimes fall asleep when needed.

Lovely and supportive - this felt so good I didn't want it to end!