Hello,
Welcome to this guided meditation for resetting your nervous system from stress.
The nervous system is responsible for regulating your responses,
How we respond to the things in our lives.
And the nervous system is broken up into two parts.
We have the flight and flight system,
The high alert for danger response,
And then there's its counterpart,
The parasympathetic nervous system,
Also known as rest and reset,
Which tells the body and mind it can relax.
The rest and reset system is controlled by the vagus nerve,
Which is a nerve that runs down the side of your body and it goes all the way down to your thighs.
You will be using breathwork to activate the vagus nerve,
So your mind and body can go into rest and reset states.
This is very helpful if you have found that your stress levels have been very high and been prolonged.
You have been in high stress mode for so long that is the state that you go into whenever any stress arises.
You may find yourself going into auto drive,
Such as overreacting,
Taking things way too personally or blowing things out emotionally.
If you want to reset your response to stress,
Then this kind of meditation can help you activate the vagus nerve.
The vagus nerve puts your body into rest and reset mode,
Thus helping you stay calm when stress arises.
Taking long,
Full,
Slow,
Deep breaths from our abdomen will stimulate the vagus nerve.
This guided meditation will teach you 4 different types of breathwork.
We will practice them together and then you will be given space afterwards to explore on your own.
Before we start,
Let's make sure we are breathing from our bellies and not our chest.
Place your hand,
It can be one or both of your hands,
On the belly and focus the breath where the hands are.
This will ensure your breathing from the belly.
The first breath we're going to do is called the infinity breath.
It's a continuous breath,
Inhale and exhale.
You inhale as much as you can,
Fill up until you're absolutely full.
And then once you're full,
Slowly release.
Release everything inside and then repeat.
There's no count for this one,
It's all by feel.
You fill up with as much air as you can and then exhale everything out.
We will do the first one together.
Let's go.
Inhale,
Fill up into the belly,
Feel yourself expanding as you're filling up with the breath.
And when you're full,
Slowly,
Slowly release and feel that breath moving through you.
Do two more counts of this at your own pace and then I'll come back.
Now we will do the one,
Two breath where your exhales are double your inhales.
We're going to start with a count of three.
Inhale for three and exhale for six.
Ready?
Inhale one,
Two,
Three,
Exhale one,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Five,
Six.
Again,
Inhale one,
Two,
Three,
Exhale one,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Five,
Six.
One more time.
Inhale one,
Two,
Three,
Exhale one,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Five,
Six.
And now we're going to go for a count of four.
Inhale for four,
Exhale for eight.
Now one,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Exhale one,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Five,
Six,
Seven,
Eight.
Again,
One,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Exhale one,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Five,
Six,
Seven,
Eight.
And now we're going to do a count of five.
Inhale for five,
Exhale for ten.
And this one I'm going to allow you to do at your own pace.
Practice a couple of sets on your own and then I'll bring you back for the third breath.
Go ahead.
The third breath is the six,
Three,
Nine breath,
Sometimes called the relaxing breath.
And there's three parts.
You inhale for six,
Hold for three,
And then exhale for nine.
So let's start.
Inhale for six,
One,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Five,
Six,
Hold,
One,
Two,
Three,
Exhale,
One,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Five,
Six,
Seven,
Eight,
Nine.
Again,
At your own pace,
Inhale for six,
Hold for three,
Exhale for nine,
Six,
Three,
Nine.
Go ahead.
The third breath is the six,
Three,
Nine breath,
Sometimes called the relaxing breath.
And then the last breath is the even breath.
Same count for inhales and exhales.
We'll start with the count of three and then we will go to four and five.
So let's start with three.
Inhale,
One,
Two,
Three,
Exhale,
One,
Two,
Three.
You will repeat two more times on your own for the count of three.
Go ahead.
Now let's go to a count of four.
Inhale for four,
Exhale for four.
Ready?
Inhale,
One,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Exhale,
One,
Two,
Three,
Four.
And now you go on your own for two counts for four.
Go ahead.
Next is five,
Inhale for five,
Exhale for five.
We'll do the first one together.
Inhale,
One,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Five.
Exhale,
One,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Five.
And now you practice two counts on your own.
Go ahead.
And there you have it.
You have four different types of breath work.
Infinity where you inhale and exhale until you're completely full and completely empty.
The one,
Two breath where the exhales are double the inhale.
Or the six,
Three,
Nine,
Relaxing breath where you hold before you exhale.
And then finally the even breath where it's the same count for your inhales and your exhales.
Now you will have some time to explore which breath work works best for you.
Use this time to get familiar with the breath work and pay attention to which one relaxes you best and helps you get the most amount of air into your body.
The key to stimulating the vagus nerve is long,
Slow,
Deep breaths.
You start with counted breaths and eventually you will be able to hold the stillness without counting.
Ultimately it's about discovering and finding out which breath work technique works best for you.
And depending on the day and where your stress levels are and where your energies are at,
It will change what you need.
You may need to use all four.
Other days you can just go to your favorite.
I find it works best to repeat each one three to four times and then move on to another breath work.
Use this space to explore and find out what works best for you.
And now bring your breath back to a normal pace.
Breathe naturally.
And just take note of how you feel right now.
And remember this feeling.
You can capture this feeling on your own with breath work now that you understand how to activate your parasympathetic system.
So I invite you to repeat this meditation.
Always remember to breathe from the belly and anytime you ever want to check where you're breathing from,
You can put one hand on the chest and one hand on the belly and just breathe.
And the hand that moves will tell you where you're breathing from.
And if you ever are unsure,
If you're breathing from the belly,
You can just simply put your hands there and focus the breath.
The breath is powerful.
We don't give it enough credit for what it can do.
Practice this breath work and you will find your response to stress will change in time.
Namaste.
