Welcome to this practice.
My name is Reuben and this is an important practice and so necessary for us in our everyday lives.
Soothing the nervous system.
Having a nervous system reset.
As we go about our days and maybe even before we've got up out of bed,
Our nervous system starts to upregulate.
When the nervous system's upregulated,
We are more in that fight-or-flight territory.
The amygdala,
Which is a part of the brain for the stress response,
For the fight-or-flight response,
Activates and this is on a continuum.
Sometimes we can be just subtly bubbling away at a 3 or a 4 out of 10 with an upregulated nervous system.
Sometimes it's a lot higher.
What do you notice in this moment?
Something's brought you to this very practice.
Is it a sense of overwhelm?
Anxiousness?
An apprehension?
An anxiety?
The nervous system being upregulated?
The good news is that you have the capacity to down-regulate your nervous system by using gentle persistence with our point of connection.
If we can gently come back each time when we notice distraction,
Being with that point of focus,
That meditation anchor,
Helps down-regulate the nervous system.
So let's do this.
First off,
Just appreciating the fact that you've shown up for yourself.
You've shown up to soothe your nervous system.
This is an act of self-care and in nurturing yourself in this way,
It has an amazing capacity for our bodies to heal.
So sending some thoughts of appreciation to the you here now.
When the nervous system is down-regulated,
Our bodies go into restoration and healing.
So let's get into this.
Allow your awareness to go below the level of thought.
Neck down,
Opening up to the sensations of how you are resting in this moment.
How you are gently holding your body.
Maybe noticing the way gravity is gently holding you in this position.
The pull of gravity,
Almost like your body,
Melts when you take attention to it.
When the awareness that you bring to these areas seeps into these parts of your body and as you rest in this moment,
Here you are.
The normal natural flow of your breathing has been continuing its cycle.
Your breath has been with you since the day you were born.
Your breath is an ally,
Your companion for whenever you choose it.
It hasn't just given you life,
It is also there for you as a bridge from an up-regulated nervous system to a down-regulated nervous system.
This is where the magic is.
Appreciating the gentleness of how your body is breathing at its own rate and rhythm.
And if you're overly distracted,
What you might like to do in this moment is to imagine that there's this soft balloon in front of you.
You can make this balloon any color or colors that you wish.
And as you notice this imaginary balloon,
Allow it to gently inflate and deflate,
Getting this inflation and deflation of the balloon perfectly in time with the waves of your breath.
You'll know when you get distracted because the balloon disappears.
When it does,
Just gently coming back to this.
This balloon is a stepping stone to me connecting to the magnificence of my breath,
The softness of my breath.
My breath that helps down-regulate my nervous system as my heart rate drops and my breathing over time automatically gets more and more gentle.
Coming back to the image of the balloon if you're choosing this.
Very helpful if we're overly distracted because it gets our mind to visualize.
Maybe you prefer to be with the direct experience of your breath as you track the movement of your breath in this moment.
The direct experience,
Close up,
Intimate with the softness of your breath.
Maybe noticing the texture,
The feeling of your breath,
How the in-breath feels,
How the out-breath feels.
Thoughts coming and going,
Like cars going by in the street.
When we're hooked by a thought,
That's when we can gently come back again.
Every time you notice that you're distracted is a win,
Not a moment of failure and an opportunity to come back to the breath as you allow thoughts to come and go.
It's okay to have these thoughts whilst you are connected to the breath.
This is the practice.
This is mindfulness of the breath,
Allowing thoughts to do their thing as you connect to the gentleness of your breath.
And if I was to give you a little tip,
See how gentle you can be as you connect to the breath.
Thoughts about the past,
Thoughts about the future,
Maybe even this very practice right now.
Gently allow them to come and go as you rest your awareness with this experience of the breath.
As you notice the gentleness of your breath,
You can continue like this,
Appreciating how your body breathes at its own rate and rhythm.
Or if you like,
We can go a little further.
And what we can do here is to just now focus our attention on the out-breath,
Where it starts,
How it speeds up,
Slows down and comes to a pause.
Just the out-breath,
Becoming more and more intimate with the out-breath.
And here's where we can do something a little different.
Mindfulness of the breath is allowing the breath to do what it will.
What we're going to do now,
If you choose to,
Is to notice the out-breath and apply just a touch of softness to your out-breath.
So by 10 or 20 percent,
No need to get caught up in the numbers,
But I really want to emphasize the gentleness.
This softness is very subtle,
Very soft.
And when we soften the out-breath like this,
It's quite incredible because it's like stroking a cat.
The cat really enjoys getting stroked,
Getting soothed.
And when you soften your out-breath in this way,
It's like you're giving your nervous system an extra soothing stroke.
And your nervous system needs more than just one stroke and that's okay.
You have got this.
The more gentleness you bring,
As you allow your awareness to come back with gentle persistence,
Then this is it.
Thoughts coming and going.
Here I am right now,
Softening the out-breath.
If you find that the softening is a little challenging,
Just go back to allowing your body to breathe at its own rate and rhythm.
Both practices bring on a soothing of the nervous system.
I choose a down-regulated nervous system because I deserve it.
The more I experience the gentleness of my breath,
I choose gentle persistence as I rest my awareness with my breath because this is an act of self-care and I deserve it.
I am restoring.
I am recharging in the softness of this moment.
I am grateful for the fact that I can nurture myself in this way.
I am here for me in this moment.
This gift is for me and from me.
This meditation has come to an end.
