One Hour Stress Management Practice

One hour Stress Management practice (sitting or lying down) starting with Centering, Gentle Stretches, Deep Relaxation (Yoga Nidra), Imagery, Breathing Practice and Meditation. If you would like, you may use two pillows and a blanket and if sitting, two sturdy chairs. This practice helps you to relax and turn on your parasympathetic nervous system. Decrease anxiety levels, blood pressure and heart rate. Practice as often as possible for best results.

Transcript

One hour stress management class.

Begin by finding a nice,

Comfortable,

Tall,

Grounded seat either on the floor or in a chair.

Allow everything from the waist down to be nice and heavy,

Grounding your sitting bones and allowing everything from the waist up to have a natural lift,

Opening up the chest,

Relaxing the shoulders and just start to take a few deep breaths in and out through your nose.

And with each breath just allowing yourself to come into this moment as you free yourself from all other moments and becoming fully present right here and right now.

As you breathe,

Start to witness the natural unwinding of tension from your body and your mind.

You can even send your breath to those areas and allow your breath to pass in,

Around and through.

Just relaxing.

And then find contentment in however it is you're feeling today physically,

Mentally,

Emotionally and experiencing that peace and acceptance even if it's just for this moment.

Start to notice your breath as it comes in through the nostrils and notice your breath as it goes out through your nostrils.

Allow yourself to ride your breath like a wave,

Just resting on its rhythmic flows as it flows in and as it flows out,

Hearing the sound of the ocean and linking your breath to the ocean.

As the waves come in and as the waves go out.

Start to observe your mind and just notice if your mind is wandering away from the breath,

Just noticing the tendencies of your mind to drift.

You could be drifting towards the future,

You could be thinking of all the goals,

The planning,

The lists.

Your mind could be lingering in thoughts of the past,

Thinking of should-haves and could-haves,

Reliving any old conversations or thoughts.

Your mind could also be in the present moment thinking about physical body sensations or maybe paying attention to sounds that you might hear.

Wherever you find your mind,

Just gently guiding it back to the breath,

Maybe observing the slight cooling sensation in your nostrils as you inhale and noticing the slight warming sensation in your nostrils as you exhale.

Taking any judgment you have for your practice,

For yourself and accepting it for this moment.

Slowly beginning to deepen your breathing,

Allowing the awareness to return to this space and allowing the breath to reenergize your body and your mind as we transition into our gentle stretches.

Reestablishing that grounding of your feet,

Your sitting bones,

Everything from the waist down again,

Nice and heavy.

Allowing for the beautiful lift,

Opening up the chest and as you inhale,

Elongate the spine and as you exhale,

Slowly bring your right ear towards your right shoulder,

Relaxing both shoulders and breathing,

Noticing the stretch on the left side of your neck.

Slowly moving your chin down towards the chest,

Again your shoulders are relaxed,

The chest is open,

Keep breathing and send your breath to any areas of tension and slowly bringing your left ear towards the left shoulder.

Again,

Shoulders are nice and relaxed as you notice the stretch on the right side of the neck and as you inhale,

Slowly bring your head back to the center and exhale to relax.

Inhale to elongate the spine again,

Exhale bringing the left ear to the left shoulder,

Breathe,

Chin comes down towards the chest and moving the right ear towards the right shoulder and bringing your head back to the center as you exhale and relax.

Moving into our shoulder rolls,

So as you bring your shoulders all the way up,

As you breathe,

Release them back and down.

Try to use the full range of motion as you roll the shoulders,

Again sending breath to any tight areas and then moving into the opposite direction,

We tend to hold a lot of stress in our shoulders,

So helping to ease it and relax it physically helps to ease and relax ourselves mentally.

When you're done,

You can shake your arms out and with your arms next to you,

You can open and close the hands and fingers as wide as you can and then closing them as tight as you can,

Opening and closing,

Opening and closing and with your hands slightly open,

Making circles with our hands and wrists in one direction and in the opposite direction.

Shake your arms out and extending your feet out in front of you,

Just opening and closing the toes as wide as you can and as tight as you can,

Opening and closing,

Opening and closing and then pointing and flexing the feet nice and slow,

Again your spine is still tall,

Chest is open,

Pointing and flexing,

Pointing and flexing and then making circles with your feet and ankles in one direction and then moving it in the opposite direction,

Helping to move the synovial fluid,

Lubricating the joints and helping us to balance.

Slowly bring your feet back,

Gently close your eyes and take a few breaths,

Just noticing how you feel,

Just observing if you feel any different from when you started the practice physically,

Mentally and emotionally.

Now we're going to be doing the Cobra Posture,

So you can do this seated on the chair or on the floor on a mat.

If you're doing this on the floor,

You're going to bring your abdomen down to the mat,

Knees very close to the chest,

Fingertips below the shoulders,

Tuck your elbows into the body and if you're on the chair,

Just bringing your hands to the lap,

Grounding down with your feet and then as you inhale,

Slowly start to open up the chest,

Look up towards the ceiling,

Relax the shoulders away from the ears,

Start to bring your shoulder blades towards the mid-spine,

Start to bring your shoulder blades together as you breathe,

Keep breathing and opening up the chest,

Keep looking up towards the ceiling and then exhale,

Release all the way down,

Relax your body and take a couple of breaths here and then we'll do it one more time,

So again,

Hands close to the chest if you're on the floor,

Fingertips below the shoulders,

Elbows into the body and hands on the lap if you're on the chair as you inhale,

Everybody ground down with your legs,

Open up the chest,

Look up towards the ceiling,

Again,

Try to bring your shoulder blades towards the mid-spine as you breathe into your heart center and open up the chest,

Toning the upper back muscles and exhale,

Release and relax the body.

Now we're going to be moving into the half locus pose,

So if you're on the floor,

All you have to do is lift your hips up,

Place your hands right underneath your hips on your thighs,

With the palms facing up,

Keep your chin or cheek rested on the mat and if you're in a chair,

You're going to stand up behind the chair with your feet hip-width distance apart,

Grounding your feet down into the ground if you're standing and as you inhale,

Slowly start to extend the right foot back,

If you're standing,

Imagine somebody grabbing your foot,

Pulling it down and then you're lifting it,

Keep your stance nice and tall and if you're on the floor,

Imagine trying to reach the back wall with your toes and then lift the foot about an inch or two off the ground,

Keep breathing,

Keep lifting,

Keep your hips nice and square,

Exhale,

Release that right leg down,

Relax it completely,

Take a breath and then we'll do the left side,

So as you inhale,

Slowly start to extend the left leg back,

Keep breathing,

Keep that extension from the hip joint all the way to the toe,

Lifting it about an inch or two off the ground as you breathe and then slowly as you exhale,

Release the leg down,

Relax both legs and if you're standing,

Come back to the chair and if you're on the floor,

Slowly and gently rolling over onto your back,

So if you're seated again,

A nice tall grounded seat as you ground your legs and your sitting bones down and on your back,

Slowly start to lift the right knee up towards the chest,

Holding onto the knee from the outside or underneath the knee with a basket grip with your fingers,

Pull the knee towards your chest,

Keep breathing,

Noticing that stretch on the right side of your hip and allowing you to massage your ascending colon,

Slowly and gently release that knee,

Release that leg all the way down and breathe and on the next inhale,

Bring your left knee up towards the chest,

Holding onto that left knee with your hands and pull it down towards your chest as far as it's comfortable and just breathe,

On the left side,

You are massaging your left hip and massaging your descending colon,

As you exhale,

Release the leg all the way down and breathe,

Noticing the stretch on the left side and if you're on the floor,

Gently bending your knees,

Making your way into a seated position or seated forward bend,

So making sure that you have a nice tall spine,

You can sit at an edge of a pillow to straighten your spine and sit down on the floor more comfortably,

If you're on the chair,

Nice tall grounded seat as you bring your palms together over to your heart center and as you inhale,

Lifting the hands up all the way towards the ceiling,

Bend down your legs and exhale,

Slowly start to bring your hands to the lap,

Bending forward with your chest open,

Coming down as it's far down as you can,

Keep breathing,

Keep that chest open,

Releasing tension from the upper back muscles,

Allowing the backs of your legs to stretch and allowing the back of your heart to breathe and extending your entire spine and the seated forward bend as you breathe,

Allow yourself to surrender to this posture,

Ground your legs down using that foundation to slowly lift yourself all the way back up with your chest open,

Arms coming all the way up towards the ceiling and as you exhale,

Bringing the palms down to the heart center and then bringing your hands to the lap and just relaxing your body as you breathe and just notice how you feel from doing the forward bend,

Just observing the sensations.

Next we'll move on to the half spinal twist,

You can keep both legs firmly planted on the ground or if it's comfortable for you,

You can bring your right leg over the left,

Making sure your spine is nice and tall,

Bring the left hand to the right knee and the right hand behind you as you inhale,

Elongate the spine and as you exhale,

Begin to twist towards the right,

Looking over your right shoulder,

Relaxing the shoulders,

Opening up the chest and with an inhale,

Elongate the spine and with an exhale,

If it's available to you,

Use your left hand against the right knee to help you twist and maybe receive another millimeter or two more,

Keep breathing,

Keep twisting and as you inhale,

Slowly return back to the center,

Exhale,

Relax,

Release the leg and then we'll move in the opposite direction so either planting both legs firmly onto the ground or bringing your left leg over the right,

Right hand on the left knee,

Left hand behind you,

Inhale,

Elongate the spine,

Exhale,

Twist to the left,

Looking over the left shoulder,

Relaxing the shoulders,

Keeping the chest nice and open and breathe as you continuously twist towards the left,

Listening to your body,

Listening to your breath,

Inhale,

Slowly come back to the center,

As you exhale,

Relax,

Transitioning now into shoulder stand,

So you can either do shoulder stand with your feet up on the chair,

With your knees resting on the chair at a 90 degree angle,

Feet up on the chair,

Pillow underneath your hips,

Pillow underneath your head or you can do it against the wall with your legs up on the wall nice and straight,

Hips towards the wall or you can use two chairs,

One chair against the wall where you will sit and the other chair in front of you with a pillow underneath it so you can raise your legs up,

Once you get into the position,

Just start to bring your breathing into a relaxed state,

Start to find stillness in your body and your mind and see if you can start to feel your heart beating and with each breath just beginning to allow yourself to release any external influences in your life as you start to journey towards your heart center,

Starting to connect with your heart as you ask your heart what it needs for healing and asking your heart what it needs to be healthy,

Happy and whole and then just taking a moment to just pause and to listen to what your heart wants to tell you,

What your heart desires and the answers from your heart may come in phrase or words,

Images or feelings and it's very possible that your heart is silent and that's okay,

Just continue to ask and continue to listen to strengthen the bond between yourself and your own inner healer,

Slowly and gently begin to deepen your breathing to allow your awareness to return,

If you're on the floor gently bringing one leg down and the other and just resting on your side for a few breaths and then very slowly and gently making your way back up to a seated position so that you can adjust your pillows for modified fish posture,

Stacking your two pillows on top of each other vertically and allowing your back to rest on the pillows so your whole spine is supported by the pillow allowing your head to drop off of the pillows to open up the throat and open up the chest,

If you're seated in a chair just bringing that pillow that you had under your legs to the back allowing that pillow to push out the front of your body and another pillow to lay and rest your head on so that your throat and chest is nice and open in a seated position,

You can keep your legs up on the chair,

So this is the counter posture to the shoulder stand where shoulder stand everything was contracting inward now with the modified fish posture everything opens up so you should feel the ease of breath coming in and out through your nose and knowing that each breath is healing,

Take those nice big deep breaths into the lungs and allow it to go into the heart and allow the heart to pump it into your blood,

Into your cells and into every organ and just feel this healing life force circulating around your body in and out through the body,

Slowly and gently begin to deepen your breathing bringing that awareness back into the space,

If you're on your knees and you might want to cover up with a blanket,

Your body temperature tends to drop in deep relaxation,

Allowing your back to relax down on the floor or stay seated in the chair with your legs up on the chair,

Any position that makes you feel very comfortable and that you're able to stay still in,

In preparation for deep relaxation we're going to do our practice of squeeze and release,

So what it is is when you inhale you're going to squeeze every single muscle in your body and hold it tight,

Holding your breath and as you exhale you release all the tension at the same time,

We're going to do it two times,

So as you inhale let's slowly start to tighten up every single muscle in your body just holding it tight and then exhale with a sigh,

Release,

Relax the body and take a breath with your relaxed body and on the next inhale again tighten up every single muscle from the toes to the crown of your head holding it tight,

Tight,

Tight and then exhale with a sigh and release,

Completely relax the body,

Now with your eyes gently closed,

Starting to gaze into the mind space located between your eyebrows,

So bringing your attention to the space between your eyebrows as you start to scan your life and lifestyle,

And whenever each one of us does this each and every one of us can come up with an aspect of our lives that we can improve upon,

So once we find that aspect that we'd like to improve upon we're going to create a short positive phrase or affirmation as if we've already achieved that,

As if it's already been manifested in the present tense,

So for instance if you're trying to get better sleep at night you can use the phrase or affirmation I sleep deeply and soundly every single night,

Other affirmations can be I am grounded,

I am peaceful,

I am healthy,

Any positive phrase that you'd like to create for yourself as a sankalpa,

Seed of desire,

Create it and then say it silently to yourself three times,

Now we're going to be rotating the consciousness over the body and all you have to do is see if you can keep your body very still,

I'm going to be calling out parts of the body,

So see if you can bring the awareness to those parts with just your mind,

See if you can feel those areas with your mind by keeping your body still and understanding that there is no wrong way to do this practice,

Whatever you experience is exactly what you need,

So start to bring the awareness over to the right side of your body,

To the right thumb,

Index finger,

Middle finger,

Ring finger,

Pinky finger,

Back of the right hand,

Center of the palm,

Wrist,

All the way up to the right shoulder,

Right side of your waist,

Hip all the way down to the ankle,

Heel,

Sole of the foot,

Top of the foot,

Right big toe,

Second toe,

Third toe,

Fourth toe,

Fifth toe,

Shifting the awareness over to the left side of your body to the left thumb,

Index finger,

Middle finger,

Ring finger,

Pinky finger,

Back of the left hand,

Center of the palm,

Wrist all the way up towards the shoulder,

The left side of your body,

Hip all the way down to the ankle,

Heel,

Sole of the foot,

Top of the foot,

Left big toe,

Second toe,

Third toe,

Fourth toe,

Fifth toe,

Bringing the awareness to your entire spine,

From your tailbone to the base of your neck,

Back of your neck,

Back of your head,

Top of your head,

Forehead,

Eyebrows,

Eyes,

Nose,

Ears,

Mouth,

Nose,

Mouth,

Throat,

Chest,

Abdomen,

Pelvis,

And then bringing awareness to the entire right side of your body,

The entire left side of your body,

And then bringing awareness to your entire body,

And just feeling your entire body resting.

Now that we've relaxed the body,

We're going to relax the mind,

Start to bring your awareness to your breath at the base of your nostrils.

Notice the breath coming in,

And notice the breath going out.

Try not to control the breath,

Just witness it,

Observe it.

We're going to be counting the breath backwards from 27 to 1.

If you lose your count,

Start back up at 27.

If you make it to 1 before I speak again,

Start back up at 27.

Mentally repeat,

27 inhale,

27 exhale,

26 inhale,

26 exhale,

And then just count on your own backwards using your own breath pattern.

Scott� Allow yourself to release the counting and using the creative imagination of your mind,

Start to imagine your body becoming very heavy.

Imagine your body being made of lead.

You're sinking down.

With each breath,

Imagine your body becoming heavier and heavier and heavier.

Now begin to imagine your body becoming very light.

Light as a feather,

Your body starts to float all the way up towards the ceiling.

Feel that buoyancy and weightlessness surrounding your entire body.

As you breathe,

Imagine your body becoming lighter and lighter and lighter.

Now start to imagine a healing light and energy just sitting at the crown of your head.

Imagine the light to be any color,

Shape or form and imagine the energy to have a warming sensation and understanding that each and every one of us has the ability to heal ourselves.

Allow this healing light and energy to enter through the crown of your head.

Allow it to send positive healing and positive thoughts into your mind.

Allow the healing light and energy to travel down your spine and as it travels down your spine,

Allow it to heal every organ inside of your body.

Feel that warmth around each and every organ as your healing light and energy heals.

Sending the healing light and energy down to the soles of your feet and slowly into your heart center,

Allowing it to heal the heart,

Both the physical and the emotional.

Feel that warmth right in your heart center.

Allow the healing light and energy to expand from your heart center to the outside of your body as it wraps your entire body up in the cocoon of healing.

Allow it to heal you from the inside out and the outside in.

Allow it to heal every cell,

Every muscle and every fiber of your being.

Allow it to bring your awareness back into the mind space located between the eyebrows.

Recall your affirmation,

Sankalpa,

That you created and then repeat it again silently to yourself three times to help further plant that seed.

Slowly and gently begin to deepen your breathing to allow your awareness to return.

Allowing the breath to inspire movement in your fingers and toes,

Your wrists,

Your ankles.

Extending your arms up over your head and extending your legs in the opposite direction,

Gently stretch the right side of your body,

Gently stretch the left side of your body and gently stretch both sides of your body.

And then bring your hands down and the palms together,

Rubbing the palms together,

Creating healing energy between your own two hands and then cupping your eyes with those hands,

Allowing that energy to flow in and flow through.

And then use the tips of your fingers to give yourself a nice massage all around your forehead,

Your temples,

Your cheeks,

Cheekbones,

Your scalp,

Anywhere that it feels good.

And if you're on the floor,

Just gently bending your knees and resting on your side for a few breaths.

And then slowly and gently making your way back up to a seated position,

Either on the floor or in a chair,

Anywhere you can find a nice tall grounded seat,

Allowing everything again from the waist down to be heavy,

Allowing for the beautiful lift of the spine.

Chest is open and the shoulders are relaxed as we move into three-part breathing,

Bringing one hand to the abdomen,

The other over to the chest.

And as you inhale,

Slowly start to expand the abdomen,

The ribs and the chest.

And as you exhale,

Contracting the chest,

The ribs and the abdomen and squeezing all the stale air out of your lungs.

And then moving on your own for a few breaths with the inhale expanding the front body and with the exhale contracting the front body.

Maybe challenging yourself to take slightly deeper breaths,

Maybe holding your breath between breaths for two to three seconds,

But always managing and controlling your breath.

Three-part breathing will bring you seven times more oxygen than your regular breath.

Helps to bring anxiety down,

Heart rate and blood pressure comes down.

And it is always with you so you can use it anytime you need.

As you exhale,

Release the hands onto the lap.

And then we'll move into our meditation practice.

So reestablishing that grounding,

Finding that lift,

Opening up the chest,

Relaxing the shoulders and just taking a few breaths in and out through the nose to calm yourself.

Start to find the focus,

Whether you're focused on a specific word that uplifts you like peace,

Love,

Joy,

Om or amen.

Whether you have a phrase or a prayer that you'd like to use,

Your affirmation.

You can focus on a certain image in the mind,

Maybe the ocean or the mountains.

Just any focus that you enjoy focusing on.

Or you can simply focus on the breath that comes in and that goes out.

And just finding stillness in your body,

Stillness in your mind,

Relaxing the facial muscles.

And each time you notice that a thought comes in,

Just acknowledging the thought and releasing it.

Even if your mind is extra busy and you have a lot of thoughts coming in,

Just accepting those thoughts,

Releasing the thoughts and going back to your focus each time.

And knowing that no matter how busy your mind seems,

You're still getting the benefits of this practice.

So just be patient and kind to yourself.

As we do a few minutes of silent meditation,

I will ring the bell to start and ring the bell to end.

Slowly and gently begin to deepen your breathing.

Start to bring your awareness back into this space.

Allowing the breath to reenergize your body and your mind.

And then reaching behind your back to hold on to your right wrists or fingertips.

As you inhale,

Elongate the spine.

And as you exhale,

Just gently bend forward to seal our practice with this final forward bend.

Slowly rising back up,

Releasing the hands and bringing the palms together to the heart center and then lifting the heart to meet your thumbs.

Relaxing the shoulders as we move into our practice of gratitude to end our session.

So silently thinking to yourself of all the things that you feel grateful for in your life.

Start to breathe in that feeling of appreciation and allow it to fill the spaces of your heart and your mind.

Allow yourself to thank yourself for all that you do every single day.

Thanking the body and especially the heart for all of the hard work it does 24 hours a day,

7 days a week.

And allowing yourself to send peace,

Love,

Kindness and especially patience into your own heart so that you're able to send peace,

Love,

Kindness and patience out to the world to all beings.

Thank you very much for allowing me to guide you in your session today.

I hope you have a wonderful day.

Namaste.

Reviews

Wonderful meditation session! Left me feeling rested and rejuvenated. Will put in regular rotation. Mahalo!🙏🏻☯️🌺💚