Welcome to this travel companion.
The perfect way to find peace no matter what your destination.
Today's session is all about making sure that the stress of travel doesn't stick to us.
You know the way the smell of travel kind of sticks to your clothing and you need to shower straight afterwards?
Kind of like that.
Now I can't do anything about that smell but I can do something about this stress and that's what we'll be doing together.
Before we get started make sure you're in a nice comfortable position.
You can be laying down or seated for this one.
Bring the eyes to close and just start breathing in and out through the nostrils in a delicate but deliberate fashion.
Enjoy this nice calm breathing as I just explained to you this session.
Now I don't need to tell you travel can be super stressful and even if we don't realize it that stress can sometimes follow us around and disrupt us on the subsequent days.
Not ideal for a holiday or a business trip.
I want us to recognize what the stress looks like and show you how you can get rid of it so it doesn't get the better of you.
I want you to start just by getting rid of tension in the body.
Physical stress as we may call it.
Here's how we're going to do it.
Wherever you are on your breath cycle I want you to give a nice deep inhale right now.
As you do so give your body a quick scan noticing any tension and then as you exhale just relax into whatever position you find yourself.
Great job.
Once again inhale scan the whole body as you do like that inhale is finding any tension and then as you exhale see if you can soften the body even more.
Good work.
Third time's a charm.
Inhale like a detective finding any tension in any part of the body and exhale relax our body to its full extent.
Good work.
That was level one.
Now tension can be a sneaky bugger so sometimes we have to coax it out before we can release it.
So on the next inhale I want you to tense the feet like you're making fists with your feet.
Squeeze them,
Activate them,
Tense every muscle in your foot and then exhale let both feet relax.
Good job.
Now let's do the same for your legs.
Inhale tense your legs,
Calves,
Your thighs,
Your hamstrings,
Everything you can.
Press the feet into the ground if you need to.
Make the muscles nice and big and plump and then as you exhale relax your legs completely.
All right next inhale take a deep breath in and now tense your six-pack.
Whether you can see it or not I want you to feel it.
Make all six of those muscles really work.
Hold it,
Hold it,
Hold it a little bit tighter and then exhale relax that stomach.
All right moving on now to the arms,
The fists,
The forearms.
Inhale tense all of those things as if you're the incredible hulk.
Tense them like you're really really mad.
Pull the shoulders to your ears,
Squeeze them so you get a bit of that too and then exhale relax.
Let it all just calm down.
Good job.
So at this point you should feel the difference between tensed and relaxed and I want you to be on the lookout for any cues that the body is tensed and use that exhale just as you have now to relax it.
Often this physical tension is a result of mental narratives though so we're going to turn our attention now to letting go of the tension in our thoughts.
The great Stoic Seneca said that we suffer more in imagination than in reality and I think he really nailed it with that.
So with that being said,
With that nice relaxed body you've just curated and cultivated,
Let's focus on what reality is telling us as opposed to what imagination is making us stress about.
So from this relaxed state I want you to focus on these facts.
You are alive.
You are breathing.
You are hearing.
You are feeling.
Whatever disruption you face while traveling these things will not change and sure things may take longer but that's about it.
We may not be able to avoid travel disruptions or disruptions or irritations but we can avoid letting them stress us out.
Let's do a breathing exercise together to release that tension of the mind as we did with the body.
I'm going to breathe in for four,
Hold for four,
Breathe out for four and hold for four.
Wherever you are in your breath cycle now exhale out fully and then inhale with me for two,
Three,
Four,
Hold two,
Three,
Four,
Exhale two,
Three,
Three,
Four,
Hold two,
Three,
Four,
Inhale two,
Three,
Four,
Hold two,
Three,
Four,
Exhale two,
Three,
Four,
Hold two,
Three,
Four,
Inhale two,
Three,
Four,
Hold two,
Three,
Four,
Exhale two,
Three,
Four,
Hold two,
Three,
Four.
Carry that rhythm on on your own now.
Just enjoying what it's like to breathe and having time to just enjoy it and embrace it.
Any thoughts about anything other than your breathing and your experience right now?
Just simply exhale out.
It's like this four-count breathing is a force field stopping anything from the outside world getting into you,
Allowing you to create an environment that you're happy with,
An environment that is stress-free.
All right,
Nicely done.
Feel free to do either one of these exercises whenever you feel like the disruptions or stress of traveling get a bit too much.
Safe travels or as we say in Africa,
Hambagathle.
See you soon.
