Self Awareness & Stress Reduction - Sophrology

This Sophrology exercise involves creating warmth, weight and a calm heartbeat can increase feelings of safety and security. Body warmth is a sign of life and health. We also become aware of a safe place where we are calm and relaxed and feel an awareness of our heart that beats strongly and regularly. All of these experiences are typically experiences that help us to feel safe and secure.

Transcript

Hello and welcome.

I'm Sophie Knolles,

Your Sophrologist,

And today we are going to do an exercise for self-awareness and stress reduction by making the body warm,

Heavy and feeling secure.

And for this exercise,

You can choose whether you stand up or you lie down,

Whatever you feel is comfortable.

And as you find your position,

Just closing the eyes so that I can concentrate better on myself.

I become aware of my body upright between the earth and the sky.

Become aware of my roots,

The shape,

The colour,

The taste,

The smell and the sound of my roots.

I become aware of sounds far away,

Of sounds nearer at hand and of sounds from my own body,

My breathing or my heartbeat.

And I welcome those sounds as being part of life without trying to work out what they are.

And then turning your attention to your head,

Everything that's happening in and around your head,

Just noticing all the physical sensations.

And now noticing the shoulders,

The outer arms and the hands,

All the physical sensations that you can now feel.

And then taking your attention into your chest area,

The underside of the arms and the palms and the internal organs,

Just noticing all the physical sensations.

And now we notice between the sternum and the navel and all the internal organs,

Just feeling all the physical sensations.

And now from the navel down to the toes,

All of the legs,

Just noticing all the physical sensations that are now happening in this part of the body.

And then taking your attention into the navel area for the whole body and awareness of the weight of the body,

The temperature of the body,

The size of the body.

And then breathing out fully,

Emptying the stomach and lungs,

Breathing in fully and just lifting the hands and clenching the fists.

And I want you to tense the whole of the body,

Tensing every bit of the body a little bit more,

A little bit more,

A little bit more and release with the breath,

Releasing all the tensions,

Both mental and physical from the body.

And then bringing down the hands slowly.

And again,

Just noticing everything that's now happening in the body,

All the physical sensations that you can feel in and around the body.

Now we're going to begin breathing in energy into the body.

We're breathing in vital energy into the legs,

Up to the navel,

As you breathe out,

Allowing this energy to diffuse within the system.

Breathing in vital energy between the navel and the sternum,

Making sure you're breathing it into all the internal organs and allowing it to diffuse within the system while breathing out.

Breathing in energy up into the chest area,

The underside of the arms and the palms.

And as you breathe out,

Use this energy within the system.

Breathing in energy up into the neck,

Shoulders,

The outer arms and hands.

And as you breathe out,

Sending this energy to each and every part of the body,

Just letting it permeate the system.

And now breathing in energy up into the head area.

And as you breathe out,

Permeating the energy throughout this area of the body and becoming aware of the energy.

Now we're going to breathe in as if the whole body is breathing,

Breathing in energy into the whole of the body,

Breathing out and allowing this vital energy to diffuse out of each and every part of the body.

And just taking a moment now,

This is called our integration pause,

Where we just notice all the physical sensations that are now happening in the body with no judgement,

Just noticing.

And now we're going to become aware of the skin on the body.

As I breathe in,

I become aware of each and every cell of skin.

All the cells in my skin,

The shape and the presence of the cells.

And as I breathe out,

I just feel gratitude.

I send gratitude to the cells.

Or I can also imagine that the cells are smiling.

I can smile at the cells and they smile back at me as I breathe in.

I become aware of the shape and presence of the cells.

And as I breathe out,

It's just gratitude,

Giving gratitude to each and every part of the cells.

And then I breathe in,

And I go back to a time when the skin was being formed in the embryonic stage.

I become aware of the force of the energy,

The life force energy that's in the skin then.

This energy that created my skin.

I become aware of this energy still within my skin at present day,

Rejuvenating and recreating the skin.

And then I become aware that this energy is still present in the future.

That my skin is full of this creative life force.

I become aware of the vibration of this energy within my skin now.

And now we're going to take another integration pause,

Just noticing everything that you feel in the body,

All the physical sensations.

And the next exercise we are going to do is adapted from Dr.

Schulz training.

And it's modified auto genetic training.

And for that,

I become aware of a place where I feel very calm and relaxed.

It could be by the ocean,

The river,

It might be a walk in nature,

It might even be a place in your home where you feel very calm and relaxed.

And now when I'm in this place,

I actually say in my head,

I feel very calm.

I'm completely calm and relaxed.

I feel very calm.

I'm completely calm and relaxed.

And just repeat these words a little bit like a mantra in my head as I enjoy being in this calm and relaxing place.

And now I'm going to experience the weight,

The weight of my body.

And for that,

I focus on my right arm.

I become very aware that my right arm is becoming heavier and heavier as if it's pulled by the centre of the earth.

My arm is becoming heavier and heavier,

Heavier and heavier.

My right arm feels like it's being pulled by the centre of the earth.

It's heavier and heavier until it's just like a nice heavy weight.

And then I notice my left arm.

And I notice that my left arm is becoming heavier and heavier.

My left arm becomes heavier and heavier as if being pulled by the centre of the earth.

Both arms are now very,

Very heavy,

Heavier and heavier as if they're pulled by the centre of the earth.

Now I become aware of my right leg.

I become aware that my right leg is becoming heavier and heavier and heavier as if being pulled by the centre of the earth,

Heavier and heavier still.

And then my left leg is becoming heavier and heavier.

Both legs are heavy as if being pulled by the centre of the earth heavier and heavier.

My arms and my legs are heavy.

Now I create an image,

Associate my experience of the weight with an image.

Allow an image to appear that represents the weight that I now feel in my arms and my legs.

Now I focus on my arm,

My right arm.

Everything becomes warmer as if being warmed by the rays of the sun.

I feel the sun shining on my right arm,

Permeating the skin,

The cells of the right arm becoming warmer and warmer,

Beautiful sun's rays warming my right arm.

I become aware of my left arm,

My left arm,

The sun is now shining on the left arm too.

The left arm is becoming warmer and warmer.

Both arms are warm,

Sun is shining on both my arms,

Becoming very warm.

And then my right leg.

I become very aware that my right leg,

The sun is now shining on my right leg.

My right leg is becoming warmer and warmer as if being warmed by the rays of the sun.

My right leg and my left leg are becoming very warm as if being warmed by the rays of the sun.

My right leg and my left leg,

My arms and legs are warm,

Warm as if warmed by the rays of the sun.

And now I allow for an image to appear that represents this warmth in my body,

Associate the experience of the warmth with an image.

And then I focus on my heart,

Now my heart beating,

I sense my heart beating.

And as my heart is beating I think to myself,

My heart beats calmly,

Fully,

Totally,

Regularly and strongly.

My heart is beating calmly,

Fully,

Totally,

Regularly and strongly.

My heart is beating regularly,

Fully,

Totally,

Strongly.

My body and my heart beat in the same rhythm.

My body and my heart are beating in the same rhythm,

Calmly,

Fully,

Totally.

I become my heart.

I live in my heart.

I become my heart.

My heart and myself are one and the same thing.

I am the beating of my heart.

I associate this rhythm,

My heart and the body beat and I associate this with an image.

I'm aware of an image that represents the beating of my heart.

And an integration pause.

I become aware of everything that's now happening in the body,

All the physical sensations.

And then I activate three of my capacities.

As I breathe in I activate my capacity to have confidence in myself and trust myself.

As I breathe in I activate my capacity to harmonize my mind,

My body and my spirit.

As I breathe in I activate my capacity to create a positive future full of wellbeing.

And now still keeping the feelings of wellbeing discovered during the exercise,

I begin to move my body and stretch my body in a way that my body feels like moving and stretching.

And I take all the time that I need and when I'm ready and only when I'm ready I open my eyes and I write up my experience in my journal or just on a piece of paper.

As you write the physical feelings,

The physical sensations down on a paper that you felt during the session,

You become more integrated between the mind and the body.

Thank you for joining me today.

Reviews

Very uplifting experience! Thanks!