Put Down What You're Carrying: A Short Somatic Relaxation

Release the tension you've been holding in your back body, shoulders, and jaw and give your nervous system a genuine rest. This short somatic practice moves through the whole body from your back and shoulders down through your chest, belly, legs, and the soles of your feet. Check in with what you're carrying, let your breath become a sigh of relief, and take a few minutes of real quiet before heading back into your day.

Transcript

So notice your back body. Are you settled into the support that you have? Notice your feet on the floor, If that's where they are. Notice your seat and your whole back body. And as you're noticing the back of your body, Maybe there's a bit more softening that could happen. You can bring your shoulders up on an inhale. Release Soften all those muscles of your upper back as you breathe out. Our body loves these cues. You know, I could let go here, Let my guard down. I could relax. And when we let our body relax and soften, It's such a strong signal that it's okay for us to be here. When we look around and notice. I don't need to jump up right now. We could feel the relief of that in our whole back body. Maybe check in with your shoulders. What are you carrying on your shoulders? A lot of times there's a tightening, We're bracing ourselves. We could release that now. But also there's burdens that we carry that often are emotional. We carry them on our shoulders like that's going to help, But we don't actually need that tension in order to carry our emotional burdens. So could we allow that to slip away, Slip off of our shoulders? And each time we breathe out, We could allow that to settle and soften a bit more. There might be a lot of danger. I need to move out in the world. There's social risk. There's all kinds of things. But I don't need to do anything about any of that right now. We could apply that same reasoning to our emotional burdens, What we're carrying, What we're worrying about, What we're anxious about. Could we release that and give ourselves a little respite? And as we breathe in and breathe out, Let your whole system. Give a sigh of relief. Maybe do some deep breaths. Sigh A sigh of relief feels so much different than a sigh of frustration. What kind of a side do you want to do right now? Let your body get into it. Make some sound. Maybe you have 20 seconds of stillness before things start to come back in, And we could really savor that 20 seconds. And notice your forehead, Eyebrows and eyes. That can buy us a little bit more time without worry if we're softening our forehead. That's your mouth, Your jaw. Loosen up through the hinges of your jaw. Let your tongue soften, Your vocal cords be still. Soften your throat. We don't need to think about verbal responses. We don't need to hold back anything right at the moment. We're in this interlude. And as our throat softens, Our vocal cords become more still. Our mind generally becomes a little quieter as well. And bring your awareness down into your chest. The large muscles of your chest. Down to your lower rib cage, Your stomach area. Notice how your body is moving right now. Notice your breath, Continuity of your breath. Maybe your breath is a little easier now. And if that's not the case, If putting your attention there doesn't help, Then take your attention a bit wider in your whole body. We could come down into our legs. We're not jumping into action. We could soften the muscles of our thighs, Front and back. Down through our lower legs, Our feet. Your little toes, Your big toes, All the toes in between. The soles of your feet and the energy of the soles of your feet. The energy of your palms, Of your hands. Your forehead and eyebrows, Your whole body head to toes. Knowing we can take this out into our day.