This is a meditation meant to give you some space to work with the dorsal side of your nervous system.
The dorsal side is a part of the parasympathetic branch of your nervous system.
Sometimes when we're doing nervous system work we'll call this the pathway of last resort.
A lot of times when we are in this state our body has a feeling of being shut down or numb.
We might have feelings of despair,
Hopelessness,
Abandonment.
We may also feel too tired to act and our awareness might have this sense that the world feels empty,
Dead,
Dark.
We may also have this sense that I'm lost and no one's gonna find me.
And so in working with this side of the nervous system,
Sometimes an imagery that I like to encourage for clients is the experience of working with a frozen lake.
And maybe you can just take a moment here to connect with that image,
That possibility in your nervous system.
You might even take a moment to visualize that lake,
Experience that lake.
Maybe there's snow along the edges,
Maybe the ice is firm or maybe it's beginning to melt.
But see if you can connect with this image that exists in nature that might feel similar to what we consider the dorsal state to feel like.
And as you connect with that image,
Rather than resisting it,
Can you allow it?
Can you connect with the ice,
That feeling of deadness,
The firmness,
The lack of energy?
I say allow it because for many people when they are in a dorsal state,
They're gonna talk about the experience as one of sinking and feeling that if they sink into that state,
They are never gonna get out of that hole.
For many,
When this feeling is there,
They're gonna fight it.
They're gonna push through it.
But this branch of our nervous system is called the pathway of last resort for many reasons.
And it serves as a branch that is there to protect us.
So can we allow this branch to be present for us?
Can you be with the frozen lake,
Taking in that top sheet of ice,
Feeling the stillness of your breath or the parts of your body that are completely lacking of energy?
And as you take in that experience,
Maybe you can also begin to feel beneath that space of stillness.
Maybe in this frozen imagery,
There might be the experience of an emotion,
Thought,
Memory,
That comes bubbling to the surface.
Maybe just like that lake,
There might be life beneath those cold waters.
And just seeing if your body can notice that.
If that's there,
It might not be.
A lot of times in the dorsal state,
We'll encourage not just the acceptance of it,
But we'll also begin to discover that there's an energy beneath that pathway of last resort.
And as we do that,
And if we discover that,
We want to begin to offer our body space to explore that.
Maybe that's slowly extending our spine a little bit or allowing ourselves to take a slightly deeper breath in.
But see if you can really titrate that experience,
Moving through it slowly,
Going back and forth from stillness to movement.
A lot of times,
Clients will talk about that as they're exploring this titrated feeling,
That begins to feel this experience of blood moving through their body at a more rapid pace.
That they begin to notice the world a little bit more acutely or feel themselves a little bit more deeply.
Maybe this is your experience,
Maybe not.
But seeing if you can stay with what's there,
Titrating that,
Enabling the body,
Meeting it at its energy level.
And if you are experiencing that sense of renewed life,
That might be coming through your limbs or feeling in your voice,
Or just even how your mind and awareness is working.
Continue to allow that.
Continue to be with that.
And maybe even as you are with that,
If you are experiencing that energy,
That energy begins to get a little bit stronger.
For some clients that I work with where they start this exercise in the complete child's position,
Child's pose position,
They might find themselves all of a sudden standing up,
Having started from a child's pose position.
And as they do that,
They begin to feel not just themselves standing,
But an embodied experience of them standing.
And again,
This pace or speed might not be yours,
And that's okay.
This is simply an opportunity to explore what is alive in your dorsal state,
What is present in your dorsal state,
And seeing where your biology goes with this.
For some,
We also like to just kind of offer like a slight swaying motion,
Feeling the bones and the joints and the ligaments as they feel that vibration.
And if you're beginning to feel more energy or you feel just welcome to this,
You might offer yourself a voo breath that is in alignment with stimulating your vagus nerve.
And I'm going to do it with you.
It's just going to be like this,
Breathing in nice and deep,
And just making this voo sound,
And finding the tone and pace and speed that feels right for you,
Seeing if that last voo did anything in your central nervous system,
And just welcoming that.
Thanks for taking the time to explore with me today.
And if you want to do another exercise that is oriented around your central nervous system,
Feel free to check out my other meditation that is on the voo breath.
Thanks for practicing with me today.
