Rolling Your Hands To Restore Your Nervous System

This gentle, soothing exercise is designed to calm your nervous system when you feel anxious, stressed, or tense. You'll feel physically relaxed, mentally calmer, and you'll breathe more easily. You can also use it to help you fall asleep at night or when you wake up in the middle of the night. You can lie on your bed or on a padded floor.

Please make sure you have a warm layer nearby in case you get cold.

Transcript

Please lie on your back.

Lie with your legs extended long and your arms alongside you.

You can bend your knees and stand your feet shoulders-width apart if that's more comfortable for you.

In this soothing exercise,

You'll use slow,

Gentle movements of your hands and eyes to help you relax,

Feel calm,

And breathe more easily.

You can do this exercise while lying on your bed or on the floor.

Some people find that it helps them fall asleep at night or if they wake up in the middle of the night.

So just take a moment to sense and feel your contact with the floor.

Notice how some parts of your back are touching the floor and some parts are lifted.

Observe the contact of your lower back with the floor.

Notice your shoulder blades,

Your right shoulder compared to the left one.

Notice your breathing.

Notice how as you inhale,

Your lower abdomen expands a little bit.

And as you exhale,

Both your chest and abdomen get flatter.

And now very slowly,

Lie your hands where they can lie comfortably on the lower part of your chest or your rib cage.

Have your fingers face one another,

Your elbows are comfortably lying on the floor.

And with your hands lying on the lower part of your chest like this,

Begin to make a very small movement with your right hand of rotating or turning your hand so that the palm of your right hand turns towards your face.

So you're rolling over your pinky finger in the outside edge of your hand and that part of your hand stays in contact with your chest.

And then you slowly bring your hand back to lie flat on the front of yourself and you pause.

And then again,

You turn your hand slowly and easily in the same direction,

Rolling over the pinky edge of your hand just to the degree that it's easy.

And then you come back,

You rest your hand on the front of yourself and you pause.

And you continue to do this slow,

Gentle movement just to the degree that it's comfortable.

And just notice if your fingers are straightening or stretching.

See if you could allow your hand to remain very soft.

Your fingers gently curl a little bit towards your palm,

Almost as if your hand is making a soft cupping movement.

And then you turn your hand again towards the neutral and you just rest your hand on your chest for a moment before doing it again.

And each movement of your hand is fresh.

It's as if you are doing it for the very first time.

And as you continue doing this gentle,

Slow movement,

Bring your attention to the sensation of yourself and just feel where you can relax.

Where can you use less effort?

Maybe in your right arm as you do the movement or in your right shoulder,

Maybe in your jaw.

Can you relax your tongue?

Move your hand very,

Very slowly and very smoothly.

You just make this small,

Gentle movement of turning your hand so your palm is facing towards your face and your hand rolls over that pinky edge of your hand.

And then you bring it back to rest on the front of yourself.

You go very,

Very slowly and you just move your attention to different parts of yourself and notice where you can do less.

Maybe your jaw,

Can you separate your teeth a little bit?

Or are you using your wrist a lot?

Can you soften your wrist and only move to the degree that it's easy?

And now,

Notice when you turn your hand so that your palm is facing your face like this,

Do your eyes move down a little bit as if they were looking at your palm?

Okay,

And now please rest.

Lengthen your arms alongside you and just observe if the sensation of your right hand and your right arm and the right side of your face is different from your left hand or your left arm or the left side of your face.

And now rest your hands on the front of yourself again,

Just as you've been doing.

And very slowly begin to turn your right hand in the opposite direction.

So you roll your right hand so that your palm faces downward towards your feet.

So this time,

Your hand is rolling over the thumb side of your hand and your thumb stays in contact with your chest.

And then you bring your hand back and you rest it on the front of yourself and pause for a moment before you do the movement again.

Make the movement very small.

Go very,

Very slowly.

And now exhale as you make that slow,

Gentle movement of your right hand.

See where you can reduce any effort.

Maybe you notice efforting in your right shoulder or the right side of your upper back or your hand or your jaw,

Or maybe you're holding your breath.

And if so,

See if you can make the movement of rolling your hand even slower and even smaller.

And now a few times,

As you slowly turn your palm towards your feet,

Look upwards with your eyes as if you wanted to see something on the wall behind your head.

So your eyes can be open or closed and the movement of your eyes can be very small.

And you just slowly turn your right palm towards your feet and your thumb stays in contact with your chest and your fingers curl very softly and you look upwards with your eyes.

Do this so that it feels very easy and just feel where you can reduce any effort or any forcing.

Make the movement as small as you need to for the entire range of the movement to feel very smooth and effortless.

Good,

And now slowly alternate.

So you turn your right hand so that your palm faces your head.

And then you slowly go through the middle and your hand is flat.

And then you turn your palm so that it's facing your right foot.

And as you do this,

Coordinate the movement of your eyes so that you look towards your palm when your palm is facing your head and you look upwards with your eyes when your palm is facing your right foot.

See if you can make only the size of movement that feels very,

Very easy.

And now move very,

Very slowly and make the movement of your eyes opposite to what you were just doing.

So as your palm turns towards your face,

Look upwards with your eyes.

And then as your palm turns towards your right foot,

Look downwards with your eyes.

As your palm turns towards your face,

You look upwards.

And as your palm turns towards your feet,

You look downwards.

And see if you can feel that these movements with your eyes are a little constricting in your right hand turning.

Something feels less congruent about this eye and hand combination.

Good,

And now go ahead and return to looking down towards your palm as your palm turns towards your face.

And when your palm turns towards your feet,

Look up at the wall above your head with your eyes and see if something feels just a little easier or a little lighter.

And now please stop,

Lengthen your arms alongside you and rest and observe your right hand compared to your left hand.

Does one hand feel as if it's larger or more relaxed than the other?

Do the fingers of one hand feel larger or softer?

All right,

And now we'll do these movements with your left hand.

So place your hands on your chest or your upper rib,

Lower ribs again.

Your elbows are resting on the floor.

And very slowly,

Just doing what's easy without any force,

Turn your left hand so that your palm is facing towards your face and then let your hand come back to rest on the front of yourself.

And you pause and then you continue that movement very slowly.

So now that you know what we're doing,

There might be a tendency to move more quickly,

But the change that you felt between your right hand and your left hand was because of how you were moving your hand.

It wasn't the movement of the hand that made the change in your muscular tone.

It was the quality of the attention and the soft,

Slow,

Gentle quality in which you were doing the movement of your right hand.

So move slowly,

Make the movements very,

Very small and pause between each movement so that each movement of your hand is fresh.

It's as if you were doing each movement for the very first time.

And now begin to look down towards your palm as your palm turns towards your face.

And then when you take your hand back to lying on your lower ribs,

You just rest for a moment before you do it again.

See,

And see if it's easier if you exhale as you initiate each movement of rolling your palms so it faces your face and looking down towards your palm.

Good.

And now,

As you did earlier with your right hand,

Bring your eyes in the opposite direction.

So as you turn your palm towards your face,

Look up towards the wall behind your head and do that a few times.

And just notice if something changes in your sensation or the quality in which you're doing this movement with your left hand.

So the connection between our eyes and our hand is primitive.

It's hardwired into your nervous system.

And you can feel it because when you look down at your palm as it comes towards your face,

Something feels lighter or easier about the movement.

And now please rest for a moment,

Lengthen your arms alongside you.

And already you can sense something about your left hand is different than a few minutes ago.

Place your hands on your abdomen or your lower ribs.

And now slowly turn your left hand so that you're turning your left hand over your thumb.

So your thumb is staying in contact with your ribs or your chest and your palm is facing downwards.

And then you let your palm rest on the front of yourself and you pause before you do that again.

Notice where you can reduce any effort.

Maybe in your face or your jaw.

Can you let your belly be soft?

Your fingers are soft.

Your fingers are not stretching.

And you only use that small bit of effort necessary to make the movement very,

Very small of rolling your hand.

And now very slowly as you do this movement of rolling over that thumb side of your left hand so that your palm faces downwards,

Look upwards with your eyes.

And just observe that,

Just in coordinating that movement of your eyes,

Of looking up as your palm faces towards your feet.

The movement becomes a tiny bit lighter.

And now begin to alternate.

So with your left hand turning so that your palm is facing upwards towards your face.

And then you go through the middle and then you turn your hand so that your palm faces your feet.

And then you continue like that,

Alternating.

You move very,

Very slowly.

So there's no benefit to making the movement fast or doing many movements.

Your brain is attracted to movements that feel comfortable and the change in your musculature happens just from doing soft,

Gentle movements.

And now rest a moment.

Just observe if the sensation of your right hand and left hand are a little more similar.

And now do the same movement,

But with both hands.

So with both hands,

You slowly turn the palms towards your face.

And then you go through the middle where both hands are resting on your chest.

And then you turn your palms towards your feet.

And you continue like that,

Very slowly.

Pay attention to doing less.

See if you can make only the movement that's completely comfortable.

Reduce any muscular effort in your shoulders,

In your wrists or fingers,

In your belly.

Notice where you might be holding tension,

In your tongue.

And just see if there's something pleasurable or soothing about this movement.

And now begin to coordinate the movement of your eyes with the movement of your hands.

So look down as your palms turn towards your face.

And then as your palms turn towards your feet,

You move your eyes upwards.

And you can do this with your eyes open or closed.

Allow your breathing to be easy and free.

And keep looking for any place throughout your whole self where you could let go of effort.

Separate your teeth a little bit.

Relax your tongue in the lower palate of your mouth.

Good.

And now please stop and rest.

Bring your arms alongside you.

Lengthen your legs.

And just observe the sensation of your hands.

And notice if something feels different about your contact with the floor compared to when we started.

The contact behind your pelvis,

Behind your lower back,

Your shoulder blades.

Does something feel flatter or wider in your contact with the floor?

Maybe you feel a little more spread out.

Or maybe the difference is internal.

Maybe you feel calmer,

More at ease.

And observe your breathing now compared to earlier.

Feel free to lie here for as long as you like.

And thank you for practicing.

Reviews

Thanks Susan. This one was very regulating.
I'll now be aiming to do one practice each day, rotating across several of the tracks. 🙏🙏🙏

Hello beautiful 🍎🌹🍎🌹🍎Thank you so much for the wonderfully practice 🌞🌞🌞my sun is sweet 🌞calming and will shine forever 🗺️have a blessed day 🕉️ Namaste