Toning Down The Nervous System

For relaxing we can use the breath and focus on the tensions in the nervous system. This guided practice will focus on releasing these tensions, allowing for deep relaxation and release. It is easy to follow - there is time, space, and silence to let everything soak in. Enjoy and feel free to leave a note of your experience to inform me.

Transcript

Welcome.

We are going to focus on toning down the nervous system.

This is a practice that is suitable for people who are comfortable with feeling into their bodies.

We're going to work with sending the breath into different areas of the body.

Maybe you know what that is,

Maybe you don't know what that is,

And that's okay.

Remember in my first years of being a dancer,

That the remark of sending the breath into the movement to make the quality of movement better was somewhat elusive for me.

I couldn't really work with it.

It was years later that I started to understand that the physical body receives the breath or the air into the lungs and experientially we can send the breath into different areas of the body.

My practice of Tai Chi helped this skill,

Let's say,

Because there is the principle,

Chi follows the breath.

And for a Westerner this can be an elusive concept.

However,

When you start to feel comfortable with sending the breath and feeling the Chi,

It starts to feel natural as an ability that a human body is capable of.

And so for you,

I would ask you to be open for possibilities and see what you can do with those remarks of sending the breath into different areas of the body.

Maybe you have experience with it or maybe you don't,

But if you just try with an open mind and not be very skeptical,

Let's say,

Then you might be surprised how effective it is.

So what we will approach in this audio is toning down the nervous system by sending breath into different parts.

And just follow my lead and see what it brings you.

So let's get started.

I'd like you to find a place where you can either lie down or sit very comfortably.

It's okay to sit in the lotus position or in another upright position in a chair.

And it's very okay to lie down on your back.

It's important that you feel comfortable.

Maybe you need some time to let the body adjust to a comfortable position.

It's important that you feel that you can land,

Arrive.

And then you feel the body arriving,

A landing,

Not moving anymore or making its final adjustments,

Then sink into that.

Allow for the comfort of the position to envelope you.

And of course,

Comfort is something you experience as pleasurable.

So try to feel easy and comfortable.

So let's feel the body as a whole very comfortable and take pleasure in that.

And then let's be aware of the eyes,

These orbs inside your skull.

You can feel them directly or aim your awareness around the area of the skull where the eyes are located.

The eyes are muscular and we can feel that.

It's okay if you don't feel it so clearly.

Just rest your awareness in that area.

And then relax the eyes.

Relax them in a way that you might feel as if you were staring or maybe relax them in a way that you feel very sleepy,

That the eyelids are heavy and the eyes are unfocused.

Maybe you notice that something changes when you do that.

And while that relaxation is happening,

Feel the body breathing.

The body is expanding because the air is coming in and it's deflating because the air is coming out.

So there's no need to actively suck in the breath and push it out.

You can feel the breath is coming in and with that coming in,

It's expanding the belly.

And when the breath is coming out,

It's deflating the belly.

So there's something like a space,

Internal space opening up because it's being filled and the space is being reduced because the air is coming out.

Meanwhile the eyes,

You can still be aware of them and they are relaxed,

Very soft.

And then,

Maybe it's already happening.

The breath and the expansion of the body is synchronizing with the eyes.

Maybe you need to send the breath into the eyes or join the breath into the eyes and feel that there is an expansion when the air is coming in and that it's reducing,

Softening when the air is coming out.

The expansion in the eyes is not necessarily physical.

It does feel a little bit like that but there is also something happening,

Let's say energetical on a more etheric level.

That the space in which the eyes are expands softly because the air is coming in and then softly softening when the air is coming out.

Try not to push or exert too much your will.

It's more an intention that is very clear and you act on that intention without wanting a definite result.

It will happen.

It will happen.

Maybe if you let go of wanting to reach something,

You can notice that organically the eyes are changing,

Softening in the process of breathing.

Maybe you can feel that the quality of the eyes is changing.

Myself I feel it like there is more water,

There is less tension.

It feels like water,

Very quiet and fluid,

Like bubbles.

Maybe you feel it in a different way,

Everybody has their own ways of translating it so that they can understand it.

I like the image and the quality,

The essence of water and I can feel it that way.

Maybe you try or maybe you are comfortable with something else.

See what works for you and makes you feel that the eyes are softening,

Relaxing and that the tension is draining out of it,

Leaving a very quiet place.

The more your eye is more open.

It can be seen.

Sense as me?

Trying.

Okay.

Show me.

And then we shift our attention.

The eyes remain very soft.

We shift the attention to the center of the head.

An area between the ears and at the back of the eyes.

And it's an area.

Not with a hard limit,

It's a soft limit.

It's the size of a golf ball.

But the border of that golf ball is diffuse.

It's more energetical than it is physical.

Once you can feel that or kind of feel that or imagine you feel that,

Send your breath there.

Same thing as with the eyes.

The area expands softly when the air is coming in.

And it deflates softly when the air is coming out.

And again,

Don't try to feel that.

And again,

Don't try to achieve anything.

The intention is clear.

If you can work clearly with the principles inside the body,

Things will happen.

We can watch the process of clarifying,

Softening,

Opening up and enjoy that.

Yes.

And then see if you can join the eyes with the area of the center of the head.

Same process.

We send the breath.

The rhythm of the breath,

Opening,

Deflation,

Softening,

Makes this specific area in the head relax.

Breath come in naturally,

Get out naturally.

No need to suck the breath in and push the breath out.

It would even cause more tension to do it actively,

Just let it happen.

The body wants to be.

The only thing we're doing is that we are using that natural process and sending the breath as it were to the eyes and the area of the center of the head.

And then allow that area to grow and include the top of the head,

That whole dome as it were,

From your forehead to the back of the head to your ears.

The whole area where you would wear a cap as it were.

And we are sending the breath into that area,

Location of the brain.

Be sure to include also the skin layer of the head and everything is receiving your breath.

Kind of like opening up when the breath is coming in and relaxing,

Diffusing when you are exhaling.

Again,

See if you can let it happen.

No need to push it.

It will deepen when you are clear about what you want with the breath and how you feel that.

So it's the process that is felt and organically the tension will drain out of the area and follow that draining,

Follow that softening.

And because the tension is seeping out,

The feeling of that area can be interpreted as water,

Can be felt as water,

If you want.

Or something else that is fluid and quietly resting.

Maybe you can use that image.

Maybe you can connect with a different image for the same deepening of the experience.

And it's not so much as sending the image into that area,

It's more receiving the feeling and getting the image out of that,

Because you want to know how it feels.

And then let's join the spine from the center of the head,

That area,

Until the base of the neck.

So don't go into the shoulders yet.

Try to feel the spine.

Maybe you can feel it directly.

Or maybe you need to project into,

Well,

The back of the neck and in the middle and somewhere there where the spine is and start breathing also there.

The idea is still not to focus on the physical anatomy so much as we Westerners understand it.

It's more about feeling that place,

That area,

And sending the air there.

Just let the body do its work in opening up and clarifying and softening.

And we are listening to it.

Keep on going.

We are working quite detailed,

So relax the eyes.

Could be that they get a little tension because of the details,

But we're still in the general area of the eyes,

The center of the head,

And the dome of the head.

And we have connected that with the spine up until the base of the neck.

It's one big area and everything is relaxed and soft and quiet like water that is resting.

And then let it grow in the spine till the bottom of the ribcage,

Let's say,

In the middle back.

So the tube,

As it were,

Becomes a little longer.

And because we are clear with what we want,

We feel that area integrating with the softness that we already worked on in the different areas.

It's dissolving quality.

Could be that the shoulders are relaxing and the ribcage is widening.

That's all good.

That's nice.

Just let it happen.

And we keep on working with that image of sending the breath into the head and into the spine.

We make the tube longer so we work with the spine up to the level of the belly button around that area.

No need to be very specific,

But kind of there.

Just a little bit more like that.

So that foot in the我有 here in that pin And with this kind of work,

It's always good to check a little if everything is still joining the intention.

So the eyes and the center of the head,

The brain is a general area,

The neck,

The chest,

And the spine up until the belly button.

And be sure also not to check or not to check too much.

As long as that intention is clear towards the body and the locations in the body,

The body will do its work.

Give it time and ease.

And then sink into the spine further towards the tailbone.

So let's say the whole of the spine.

The spine becoming one big tube or string of pearls as they say in Taiji,

Very loose snake-like quality that can transform the spine coming from a maybe rigid or stiff collection of joints to something that can move like water,

Very fluid and articulate.

So so we feel the last vertebra relaxing sacrum and the tailbone or the area where those things are.

Just send the breath there and let it soften.

We watch the process.

So then you join the bottom of the pelvis.

So so give it some time to integrate.

It's the place where the pyreneum is,

But we are not working so anatomically,

But okay on that level it's there,

But there's also a softer level,

An energetical level,

Where the breath can be sent.

Where the breath can be sent and where we feel that we can relax,

Let go and feel the tension drain out of that location because of the work that we're doing.

So so while this is going on,

Feel the whole body in the position it's in,

Whether you're lying or sitting,

Check if you're comfortable,

And we keep on sending the breath.

So and then the final step we join the belly as a big area inside the pelvis and above the pelvis that fills with air and that is physically also expanding.

Besides the energetical,

We do the same.

So keep on having the spine and the head present in the breathing.

The belly is joined.

And we feel that and we feel that everything is quieting down into a stillness like a resting water.

So and we go on to envelope the rest of the torso,

The rib cage,

The shoulders into a big area into which we are breathing.

So we're slowly letting go of the specifics.

Everything starts to integrate into that one big balloon feeling,

Very soft balloon,

Diffuse balloon.

So and that diffuse balloon is expanding when the breath is coming in and then deflating when the breath is coming out.

You can join the throat and the rest of the head.

Maybe you start feeling that the arms they want to join,

The legs they want to join.

And so we're breathing in this big bubble.

You could even feel it outside of the body because we're working with the energy here,

The awareness of the space around you.

And even if you're not feeling it directly,

Just try.

Have an open mind and open intention.

The body is very diffuse at this point.

We can deepen that quality by integrating the space around us.

So and then while your presence remains very clear,

See if there's any effort that you can reduce.

And it's like we experienced that the process is happening on its own.

We have the intention and there it is.

It's happening.

And this is another step,

Reducing the effort and letting the intention happen.

And see how much you can work with that.

It's okay if it's not so obvious.

And then you can see how much you can work with that.

And see how much you can work with that.

It's okay if it's not so obvious the first time,

But when you try these things more,

You start to notice that,

Ah yeah,

I can let go even more and remain present and effortlessly.

So So take all the time you want to remain here,

Enjoy it,

And thank you for joining.

Reviews

Thank you. A gentle journey which will become my the way of being. Your narrative is so comforting thank you so much.