Hello,
I'm Rachel Boucher,
And we're going to talk about how holding your thumb can help calm your body.
And it's something that babies have done for a really long time,
So we're going to practice this two different ways.
And feel free to pause if you need more time as we're practicing together,
Or come back to this later and try something different.
So the first one is connected to acupressure,
And it helps with soothing worry and overthinking,
Supporting emotional regulation,
And bringing a sense of steadiness.
So the first one is holding your thumb with your other hand,
And it doesn't matter which one you do.
It might be that you notice your non-dominant hand holding your dominant hand works better,
But it would be something that you would experiment with and see what works for you.
Or you can try just shifting one or the other to see.
So you're going to hold it,
And I'm holding it up,
But that's not what you would necessarily want to do.
So it would be usually something you put in your lap,
Something more hidden.
So if you're at a meeting,
Or at the dinner table,
Or someplace else,
People don't notice that you're trying to calm yourself down a little bit more.
So I'm just holding it up,
But again,
You would have that down more towards your lap.
But if you're trying to fall asleep,
You may take your hands down in front of your stomach and have them lay on your stomach.
And that actually helps to calm your nervous system down a little bit more and fall asleep more easily,
Or at least rest,
Depending upon where you're at.
So holding your thumb,
And just noticing any shifts in your body.
And it might be subtle,
Or you might notice it more.
Whatever happens is okay.
You're just holding it for at least a minute or two,
Maybe longer,
Especially if you're in the middle of a stressful situation and you have it kind of hidden in your lap.
So that's the first one that's more acupressure-based,
And something that you would definitely want to experiment with.
Babies sucking their thumb for that.
And the other one is based off of yoga mudras.
So this one is a mudra called the Adi Mudra.
And you take your thumbs and you tuck them in gently,
And then cover up your fingers like that.
And you don't have to hold them up.
I'm just holding them up to show.
This would be,
Again,
Another thing you could do when you're feeling stressed,
But you want it to be hidden.
So you maybe put it in your lap or underneath a table or a desk.
Or if you're trying to fall asleep,
You can try that option,
And putting your hands on your stomach and see if you notice a difference.
And then,
When you feel ready,
You can just kind of gently relax your fingers,
Take a deep breath,
And notice how your body feels right now.
So this is a practice that you can do whenever you need to,
And it's one that's definitely an option to be more hidden as you're dealing with whatever the life stresses are.
The first one we talked about was holding one thumb with your other hand,
And then the other one was the Adi Mudra,
Tucking in both thumbs gently underneath your fingers.
And you can have both of them in your lap,
And you can try one one day and one the other,
Or maybe both in the same time if you want to experiment.
And then just see what works for you,
Because one day one might work better than another,
And then you can play around with it as much as you need to.
And if you would like,
You can return to this video as a reminder as well.
Thank you so much for joining.
Best wishes.
