Welcome to this evening Unwind Session.
This session is for those moments when maybe you're at the end of a busy work day or just in general a very busy day and you would like to unwind from any lingering stress or tension in the body or in your thoughts or both together.
Quite often it comes both together,
Yes,
Stress and tension in the body and in the mind.
So maybe you're preparing to go to bed or you want to enjoy the rest of your evening,
The rest of your day without your thoughts circling back to conversations,
To-do lists and so on.
And as you're trying to do that,
It seems like your mind hasn't really received the message yet,
That it's time to relax and that it's not really necessary to overthink and analyze at this moment.
And so this practice is here to help you settle into a more restful and present state.
Giving you a few moments to slow down,
To come back into your body and let go of some of that mental activity.
And of course,
You can do this practice in the evening before going to bed,
But you can also do it any time of the day where you need a moment to slow down,
To get out of the head,
Out of overthinking,
And simply giving you a few moments to pause and reconnect with yourself.
What we're doing is,
We'll begin with tapping,
A few minutes of tapping.
Bringing our attention from the mental activity into the senses,
Into the senses of our body,
And from there we'll slowly move into a few rounds of slow,
Gentle,
Light breathing,
Which can support a sense of calm and safety in the body.
And then to close this session we set an intention for the rest of the evening or for the sleep.
So find a comfortable seated position.
And if you're familiar with tapping,
Then you know that usually while we tap on the face and upper body,
We say out certain words or phrases loud.
In this practice today,
We're leaving the words aside.
We're doing a form of silent tapping,
Which is a really nice way to self-regulate.
And it's a nice way to engage our senses and come back into the body.
So let's begin with that.
And before we start tapping for a moment let's say hello to our body and to do this you can just Close your eyes if that feels good for you,
Otherwise leave your eyes open.
And simply rest your awareness on the whole field of your body.
Not any particular place or location in the body.
Just the whole field of your physical body as it is right here and right now so from the top of the head to the toes from the left fingers to the right fingers Same peel off.
Maybe with a sense of curiosity.
And just notice what kind of sensations,
What kind of feelings are there right now?
Any kind of tingling maybe,
Maybe any.
.
.
Kind of.
Tension or tightness.
And so this is not true.
Judge or forcing anything to go away.
It's simply to recognize and acknowledge what's here and alive right now in your body.
And then we slowly begin tapping and we start on the inside of the eyebrows.
So you can tap both sides.
Where the eyebrow starts.
And just gently tap here.
On the first round,
You will still hear me say a few words just to guide you through the practice.
And then we're doing a few more side inwards.
Then you tap on the outside of the eye.
And place your awareness on the sensation of tapping.
Under the eye.
How does this?
Tapping feel on your skin.
I never know a sw- Just feel.
What's there now under your nose?
How does this sensation feel like?
On the chin.
And this silent tapping is also really Nice way to meditate in a way,
To practice mindfulness.
It helps us to come back into our body.
And it's also a nice way to give our minds something to do?
While we meditate,
While we practice mindfulness.
Sort of like we come,
Out of the busyness of our mind being busy with.
.
.
Everyday things like to-do lists,
Work and so on and then we give in our mind something else to focus on.
So we are intentional here.
Giving our mind something to do with intention.
So you tap on the top of the head.
Now you just follow along.
As we tap.
When your mind wanders.
Which it's very likely to do.
You simply place your awareness.
Gently back on the sensation of tapping.
No judgment,
No fixing.
Just catching it back.
From the past or from the future,
Wherever it was.
And as we tap,
Remember to breathe.
And remember to bring your awareness,
Your attention back to the sensation of tapping.
I'm warmed.
The warmth of your finger.
The tapping of your fingers.
Maybe a subtle vibration.
Just feeling.
And follow your fingers.
With your mind across your body.
Gentle tapping.
Observe the sensation.
Again and again,
Bring your mind back.
When it wanders.
I'm only throwing one more round.
Simply tune into the vibration of tapping.
How does this feel on your skin?
And last time on top of the head and we pause tapping here and you can place your hands on your thighs however feels comfortable for you.
And before we move into the breathing exercise.
I invite you to place your attention once more on the whole field of your body.
Noticing what's present and alive in your body right now.
Maybe you notice any shifts,
Any subtle changes.
Could be a desire to yawn.
Maybe you feel your eyes becoming a bit more heavier.
Or maybe you're feeling the same way as in the beginning and that's also okay.
Whatever you observe that's fine.
We just want to acknowledge.
And then from here having your awareness on the whole field of your body.
I invite you to narrow your attention,
Your awareness.
To the area underneath your nostrils.
This area here.
And just notice how you breathe in and out through the nose.
So here we want to breathe in and out through the nose,
So your mouth.
Is softly closed.
You're taking a few normal breaths.
In and out.
Gentle nasal breathing.
Notice how your breath feels underneath your nostrils.
Do you notice the air flowing in and out through your nostrils?
No need to change anything yet.
And so as you're taking normal breath now,
I invite you to gently.
.
.
Slow your breathing a little bit.
Make it a little more lighter.
Lighter means you're breathing.
A little bit more softly.
And you tune into this more soft breathing in your own pace.
Tschüss!
Making it softer and lighter,
It means that you notice less of the air flowing in and out through your nostrils.
And this could be 2,
3,
5% less,
Just a little bit.
So you're taking a soft breath in And at the top of the inhale.
Relax your body and just simply allow your breath to flow out of your nose.
So no need to push the air out of your body.
Simply you breathe in.
Lightly and softly.
And then you relax and you let go We don't need to force our body to push out the air.
Our body is doing this work by itself.
We simply need to allow it to do it.
So breathe in and allow your breath to flow out.
So we just need to put a little less effort into our breathing.
And let it become very light.
And soft.
And in this practice,
It's completely normal to feel a little bit of pain.
Hunger for more air?
That's fine.
But we don't want to push and force anything.
So if at any time you feel,
Okay,
This hunger for air becomes too strong and uncomfortable,
Then you return to normal breathing for a while.
And you can come back to light and soft breathing.
When you're feeling okay again,
Yeah?
So this is all about slowing.
Down,
Making it more soft,
And not only our breath,
Also how we treat ourselves.
We don't need to push and force ourselves through anything.
It's just about lightness and softness and slowness.
Breathing in through your nose.
And out.
And by now,
You would have reduced the volume of air you're breathing in.
By a few percents,
And that's okay.
That's exactly what we want to do.
Breathing a little less than what we normally do to make our breathing more light,
More slow.
So we're breathing in.
And let go of the breath.
Allowing it to leave the body.
And at the top of the inhale,
Relax in your body.
I just let go of the breath.
So often our day-to-day life,
Especially when we're stressed,
We're breathing a lot,
We're breathing a lot more.
And we're putting a lot of effort into our breath,
Unconsciously often,
Because it happens when we're stressed,
When we're busy.
And all this effort is not necessary.
Breathing can be and should be so light and gentle that we are hardly putting any effort.
And that's what we're practicing here.
Slowing down.
And you don't need to count your breaths right now.
Just see for yourself naturally what feels low.
What is lower than usually,
What is lighter for you.
So just breathing in and out through the nose.
Softly and slowly.
And most likely your mind will wander again.
That's completely normal.
Our mind likes to be busy and doing things,
Analyzing.
So when you notice your mind went somewhere else Congratulations,
You noticed it.
That's a moment of mindfulness.
And all you need to do now is.
.
.
Simply place your mind,
Your attention back here.
To your breath.
Underneath your nostrils.
Just a small area.
That's all you need to observe right now.
Breathing in through your nose and at the top of the inhale,
Let go of the breath.
Just allow it to leave your body.
Okay,
And so here I invite you to return to normal breathing again.
In your own time and in your own pace.
Maybe you notice any.
.
.
Shifts in your body.
It could be your mouth being a bit more watery,
Maybe it's Again this feeling,
This desire to yawn,
Maybe you notice your hands are a bit more warm.
Just notice any kind of shifts.
That may be there or may not be there yet.
Then here I would like to invite you to set an intention,
A very soft intention,
For the rest of the day,
The evening,
Or the night ahead.
And for this,
You can place your attention again on the whole field of your body.
Notice your mind as well,
Your thoughts.
And amidst all of this.
.
.
Just see if there's any kind of intention arising for you.
And an intention,
This could be anything.
It could be a whole phrase,
Like,
I want to have a restful sleep.
It could be just a word like peace or joy.
It could be also a color or it could be a feeling or just a very subtle sensation.
So whatever it is,
Just notice it.
I give you a few moments to tune into it.
So whenever you have this intention,
Imagine it's like a little seed.
And you take this little seed and place it into the space of your heart.
Your heart space.
And you leave it there.
Just planting it carefully and you know you don't have to take care of it,
You don't have to think about it,
You don't have to analyze it,
Just leave it there.
And trust.
It's growing for you.
Okay and that's what I wanted to do with you today.
Thank you for joining and I wish you a restful moment and see you soon.
Bye bye.
