Welcome to this practice,
Soothing with the Soften.
My name's Reuben and first off,
Just appreciating the fact that you have chosen this moment.
You have chosen to nurture yourself and that in nurturing yourself,
There's an amazing capacity for healing.
So sending some thoughts of appreciation to yourself for taking part in this and by the end of this,
It's my hope that having gone through this structure and choosing something from this that you can connect to,
It will bring you into a state of being more present,
Grounded,
Connected,
Rational with a nervous system that is down regulated.
When the nervous system is down regulated,
Our bodies go into rest,
Restoration and healing.
So just noticing how you are resting in this moment,
Allowing your awareness to go below the level of thought and opening up to sensations of how you are resting,
How you are gently holding your body in this moment.
The breath is a bridge from an up-regulated nervous system to a down-regulated nervous system.
When we're up-regulated,
We feel guarded,
Maybe apprehensive and if the levels go up,
We feel much more anxious and in a state of fear.
With a down-regulated nervous system,
We feel grounded,
Content and our bodies go into a place of healing and restoration.
So whilst you're connecting to the breath and seeing how gentle you can be,
Your body is actually gently down regulating the softness of your breath,
Giving yourself that dose of soothing with each breath that you notice.
Thoughts about the past,
Thoughts about the future,
Maybe even thoughts about this practice,
Whatever they are,
However they present themselves,
Gently notice when you've become distracted because every time you notice,
It's a win and an opportunity to just gently come back again.
And so there's a choice here.
As you notice the softness 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.
If you feel that you're in a place where you feel quite calm,
What you might like to do is to focus just on the out-breath.
And as you focus on this out-breath,
Where it starts,
How it speeds up,
Slows down and comes to a pause,
What you might like to do is just to soften your out-breath by a touch.
So by 10 or 20 percent.
No need to get caught up in the numbers,
But just very gently softening the out-breath.
So it's effortless.
It's easy to do.
You're softening this out-breath.
When we soften our out-breath like this,
It's quite incredible because it's like stroking a cat a cat that really enjoys getting stroked,
Getting soothed.
When you soften your out-breath in this way,
Your nervous system is getting an extra soothing stroke from you by doing this soften.
If softening the out-breath becomes more challenging than just focusing on the gentleness of your breath as your body breathes at its own rate and rhythm,
Then go with the simplicity of noticing your body breathing at its own rate and rhythm.
And if you still find that you're overly distracted,
You can use numbers and count in any way that you wish.
Just like at the start,
As I said,
You can visualize these numbers or hear them in your mind.
But if you're finding that this softening is becoming more and more natural,
This is your own indicator that your nervous system is being soothed.
Beautiful down regulation.
And as a result of this,
Your body is in a state of rest,
Which means restoration and healing are taking place.
It all happens as you gently rest your awareness in this moment.
And now you might like to gently form a little half smile,
Just like the Mona Lisa.
This has been a gift to you and from you.
Thank you for taking part in this practice.
