Calm Nervous System

Namaste and welcome to this practice that's really designed to be a gentle way to support your nervous system and it's something that can be done every single day. I'm going to do the practice from the chair but it can also be done standing so do what feels most appropriate to your energy in your body today. Okay so now as you're ready I want to invite you to get a little bit more comfortable and settled into whatever space you're starting from so if you're standing take your feet a little wider and lock your knees and if you're sitting kind of leaning back and notice any part of you that's being supported. Yeah and then sensing whatever is underneath through your feet maybe the chair holding up the legs or the back. I want to invite you into an idea of non-judgment and compassion just as we see where we're starting from right not where we've been not where we think we need to go with this practice or with our lives but just right now in our bodies. So start to bring more awareness to the top of the head and just notice any sensations as you go down through the shoulders through the arms and the fingers that you may notice. Through the collarbones, down through the torso so you might be noticing something that's tight to open. I feel spacious or in knots tingling pulsing stuck and keep going through the legs down through the knees. Is there a sense of weight to the body? Heavy light all the way down through your ankles and toes and you might notice as you're tracking these sensations that some of them feel really comfortable and sweet and some of them are incredibly uncomfortable or possibly even numb and would it be okay if we just invited our compassion non-judgment curiosity into this witnessing of ourselves. We don't have to be any different than what we are. See if you can just bring it into witness. And now in that same no big deal kind of a way that kind of curious way bring your mind's awareness to your mind. Notice how fast the mind seems to be running. If it were a car how what speed would it be driving? Does it feel murky or clear? Is it looping around in thoughts or is it jumping from one to the next to the next or is it really just kind of without thoughts for a moment? And again no judgment just with curiosity being aware that you can witness the mind. Now there's a piece of you that's actually witnessing that's not in the mix of the sensations that's not in the mix of the thoughts and notice that piece of you that seer that can watch with a little perspective and from that vantage point shift into the heart center. Yeah and just notice what's there for you right now in this moment. The heart might feel really content or calm. It might feel broken, anxious, angry, peaceful, confused, kind, whatever it may be. Maybe it's a mixture of all of those. Again just wrapping the idea of curiosity and compassion around whatever is. And as we invite all of ourselves to this practice today, to this life today, not repressing or suppressing any piece even if it's not cute, even if it's not perfect, but or trying to ignore or cling to any piece. Just really inviting all of ourselves in non-judgmentally and compassionately. I want you to ask your heart if there is anything in particular that it needs at this moment. And take a moment to listen. I might say it needs more courage. I might say it needs more calm or a remembrance of your wisdom. Whatever it is, let's invite that in to help guide us as we move into the body more. Now let's begin by taking a deep breath in, holding it for a moment and just opening the mouth and making a little sigh. I'll do that one more time. Health, nourishment, well-being, and letting out stress, fatigue, and metabolic waste. So if you're leaned back into the chair, shift forward a little bit more so you're upright on your sitting bones, have the feet generally underneath your knees, and hip width apart is usually good for stability. We'll just begin by squeezing up a little bit and doing a little progressive muscle relaxation. So squeeze everything in. Squeeze your legs in, your belly in, your arms in, and now if you know that your shoulders and your neck are kind of tender, don't squeeze that so hard. So we'll squeeze for five, four, three, two, and one. Release. Whoo! Life. There you go. Let's do it one more time. So hug everything in. You might press the feet into the earth. You might activate the navel back to your spine. Keep breathing though. Five, four, three, keep breathing too. Open the mouth. One. That's it. And just give it a little bit of shake. Mm-hmm.

Open up your system. You got to shake in almost every practice these days, at least at my home practice. And then return to center. You might want to have your hands rested on the lap. Staying upright. Go ahead and allow the head to come forward. Uh-huh. And then passing through the center, you know, look up. And if at any time there's pinching, don't go that far. And one more time. Down through the center, through the middle, and up. Great. Return your gaze back to the center, generally with the chin parallel to the earth. And then looking over your left shoulder. Keep your torso as still as it can be. Back to the center. Uh-huh. That's it. One more time. If on the second pass through you'd like to try closing your eyes, be my guest. These exercises also help with the vestibular system of the inner ears. Just nice in helping it to tone and balance. Right? So dropping the left ear towards the shoulder. Come on back up to the center. We'll do the other side. And again, if you want to close the eyes on the second pass, try that. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Come back up to the center and we'll do some gentle neck circles now. Right? You get to decide how fast and how intense, how big or how small, these movements are. And if at any time any of this doesn't feel okay, you also get to stop. Take the circles in the opposite direction. You might notice how your breathing is here. You might notice if there's anything in particular that's gripping or clinging that doesn't need to. Right. And return to the center. Uh-huh. We'll go next to the shoulders. Shoulders forward, up, back, and down. About four or five circles. And again, you're determining how big, how small. Mm-hmm. And if it goes too big, what are you aware of? Does it stop your breath? Does it feel uncomfortable? Can those be cues you listen to in terms of adjusting your level of comfort or safety? Mm-hmm. Last one. Mm-hmm. Nice. Then we're gonna lift the hands. Uh-huh. And press the hands out almost like they're pushing against clouds. Right? So there's a little resistance, but it's kind of fluffy. And you're still upright. Nice. The left ear will drop towards the left. Yeah. But instead of the whole body collapsing, see if you can keep a sense of uprightness in the torso as you push the arms away and let the ear drop. Now these micro-movements of turning head and neck, yeah, will give you different sensory experiences. If you feel something really kind of good and yummy, hang out with it for a moment. Allow yourself to breathe with it. And then we'll go to the next side. We're spending some time opening up the shoulders and the head and the neck because this area of the body definitely clings to tension, tends to brace in the joints. But also because it's the home of our ventral vagal system or our social engagement system that allows us to be more connected, engaged, and detect safety, growth, and well-being. Come on back to the center. Yeah. And just pause for a second. See what that's like if that shifted anything. More space, less space, more pressure, less pressure. Uh-huh. Now we'll lift the hands and lower the hands. Just doing this on the breath for about five cycles. So as you breathe in, the hands lift up. And as you breathe out, the hands lower down. Now your breath might be faster or shorter than mine. You do you. Don't worry about me or anybody else that might be practicing with you. You just move with your system. Sensing the texture of the air against your skin as you pass through. Yeah. Maybe smoothing out some of the jagged spaces. One more.

Good. We're gonna lift the arms up now all the way to shoulder height. Notice if when you lifted you collapsed. If so, return to your sense of agency and uprightness. That's it. And just bring the hands in towards fists. We'll roll some circles. Mm-hmm. In order to stay upright here, you need to employ your legs to activate your center. Good. And then let the wrists roll in the opposite direction. Great. Then go ahead and touch. Thumb to forefinger. Middle finger. Ring finger. Little finger. One more time. Thumb to middle. Ring and pinky. Good. Open and close. Open and close. Open and close. Yeah. Shake that out. And we'll drop down towards the right side. So allow the right side of your body to be heavy almost like there's warm sand dropping it down. And then the opposite side gets a lift up. Come back through center and go to the other. The left side gets heavy and the right arm gets to reach. Mm-hmm. One more time. Side opening up the space between the side ribs. And opening up the connective tissue. Back to the middle. Mm-hmm. And we're gonna reach the hands up one more time to the center and lift your thumbs up. If you sense that your shoulders are off your back, bring the arm bones into the socket. Draw the shoulder blades onto the back and maybe bring your belly button ever so slightly closer to your navel. Nothing where it's constricted just so it's alive. Mm-hmm. And I want you to gaze at your right thumb as we lift the thumb up to about the 12 o'clock position. Nice. Now nothing's moving really in my body or in my head. It's just the eyes and bring it back down to center. Then go ahead keep watching the thumb as it goes out to the right and back to center. And down to about the six o'clock position. Again trying not to move the head and the neck and back. Beautiful. Open. Stretch the hands down. Pull the fingers back and again down. Shake them out. So this is an exercise in Drishti or focus to help calm the mind but also again to help rebalance the inner eye system that gives information about where we are in space, right? So looking at the left hand now as it lifts up to about the 12 o'clock and come on down. Watch the thumb as it goes to the whatever position this is. I think it's the three o'clock and back down. And then watch the thumb as it goes down to six o'clock. I'm back. Yeah. Good. And let that release. One more here. Press into the floor with the feet and the sitting bones and we'll take your left arm up and all the way over. Center and down. Up with the right and over. Center and down. And one more pass through left to right again. You may explore doing this one with the eyes closed if it feels comfortable. Just remember that's always a choice to have eyes open or closed depending on how it allows you to feel settled or at ease. Back to the middle. Hands onto the thighs or the knees. Let's lift the chest area and on the exhale hollow the belly and round the back. So getting more into upper back. One more. Mm-hmm. Hollow the belly and round the back. Last time. Return to your middle. You might notice what muscles are really working and what muscles are allowed to just settle and release. Taking the feet a bit wider apart, more about shoulder distance if not wider. You can keep the toes straight forward. Bring the forearms to the thigh and allow the hips to recline back.

Mm-hmm. There you go. So this forward fold can stay here or you can let the head release. Now some of you want to go a little bit deeper in which case you can bring your hands down to the floor and let the whole body hang over. Just make sure there's not too much pressure on your low back. We'll be here for about four more cycles of breath. As the head is in this downward position, consider resting your gaze lightly on something on the floor or inward or closing them to just still the information going into the mind. What if anything would you be allowed to let go of here if you could? And then last one. Bring the hands onto the thighs, rise all the way up sitting and walk the feet back a little closer together. Make sure you're towards the edge of the chair if you're seated. We'll bring the right knee in. Give it a hug. Lower it down. Left knee in. Mm-hmm. Give it a hug. Lower it down. One more time. Right knee. We'll pause. Try coming more upright and just noticing that space, that little compression between your right thigh and the lower belly. You might notice the breath there. Okay. We're going to slide the hands under the thigh and extend your right leg out. Point the foot. Flex the foot. Point the foot. Flex the foot. Roll the ankle. Get some of the creaks and cracks out. Roll the ankle in the opposite direction. Uh-huh. Now if holding it here is too much weight for your arms, lower the foot down. Right? You can even place it onto the floor or you might challenge yourself by grounding into your standing leg, grounding into your sitting bones, elongating your spine and holding open for five, four, three, two, one. Release the foot all the way down, hinging at your hips as the torso comes forward. Mm-hmm. One little tip. Just make sure you're unlocking your knee as you do this so there's not too much pressure behind the knee joint. Keep the breath going if it's possible. Rise back up. Hmm. Yeah. I'm just observing. How's your right side? How's your left side? When you're ready for it, let's move to the left side. Bring the knee in and we'll hold it for a moment, finding a little compression. Mm-hmm. Now if there's pinching, bring the leg wider to the left. You might allow the breath to go down into your lower body and then we'll interlace the fingers under the left thigh and extend it out. Point the toes. Flex the toes. Point. Flex. Rotate the ankle. There is a tendency to lean back here. Try to avoid that by engaging the center and lifting the shoulders over the hips. There you go. And then we'll hold here for five, four, three, two, lower down one. Mm-hmm. Same thing. Hinging at the hips. Extend. Hands can be on the thighs. They might reach the floor or blocks if you have them.

Another breath keeping the back of the knee ever so slightly soft. Rising back up. Mm-hmm. Just check out and see if that feels more balanced. And now let's take whatever sense of groundedness or energy that you've found so far and allow it to move us a little bit. So push down into earth and then we're going to reach the arms. We'll lower the hands back to the thighs or the knees. Let the shoulders roll back in the chest lift. Hollow the belly around the back. Into center on the inhale. Releasing. So consider adding breath with this if you haven't already. Might be a full in breath as you lift. Lowering down on the exhale. Drawing the shoulders back. Letting the chest move through. Releasing the breath as you round. Return to your middle and energy extending out of the fingers as you release. Last time. Lifting up. Mm-hmm. Your chest might even lift towards ceiling. Lowering down. Rolling the shoulders back. Creating some space. Hollowing the belly. Rounding the back. Finding the center. And releasing down. Just staying in the mountain now. Active whether it's seated mounted or standing mountain. Mm-hmm. Sense of center. Middle. And then we'll turn. Last part of it. I'm going to turn over towards our right and shift your hip to the edge of the chair. Extend your left foot back. Yeah. Extend the left leg back. We'll bend the knee though so it's more at about a 90 degree angle. And start to lift the front of the hip bone up towards the face. Uh-huh. For most of us we'll be able to feel some sensation here. Getting into the quadricep, the front of the hip flexor. Yeah. Uh-huh. You might even lean a little bit towards the back of the chair as you do this. And check out how the quality of your breath as you get into the thighs. Yeah. The jaw may tighten up or the tongue may tighten up. So leaving possibility for those to be soft. And then we're going to rise back up to the center. Come to the mill. Hmm.

Then go to the opposite direction. Shift your hip to the very edge of the chair. Slide the right leg back. Almost so the knees about at a 90 degree angle. Mm-hmm. And then notice if your hip bones are about on the same line of existence. Try to try to adjust the right hip up or down so it meet or matches with the left. Lift your right hip bone up towards the face as you drop the tailbone down. And just notice your body's or mind's reaction as you get into sensation. As intensity comes on, what's your reaction? Is it to go deeper and push? Is it to really collapse and say, oh, I'm feeling something. This could be dangerous. What would it be like if you could use that witnessing mind from the beginning of your practice to just see how this is? See if you can breathe. And then you'll come back to the center. Mm-hmm. And if you're standing, this might be a great time to sit down. If you're seated, settle back in the chair. Bring the hands wherever they feel most comfortable. Maybe resting on your lap. Maybe interlacing the fingers or hands on heart or belly. Mm-hmm. Yeah. And if it feels comfortable to close the eyes, go ahead. Otherwise, lightly rest your gaze on one point that won't move. Mm-hmm. Notice the breath moving in and out. No pressure. And you might recall the intention that your heart asked you to remember at the beginning. Just repeat that to yourself three times. It might be peace, peace, peace, or whatever it is for you. Mm-hmm. And feel free to stay in this quiet, in this rest, for as long as you need today. Thank you so much for practicing. Namaste.