So hi everyone,
And thank you for joining me.
Before we begin this journey,
If possible settle yourself somewhere where you can listen to my voice and be undisturbed for the next few minutes.
And we'll try and offer this our full presence,
Our willingness to drop beneath the thinking and into the body's deeper knowing.
So I want to start with something that might shift how you've been understanding trust.
Now most of us think trust is a decision we make,
A mental calculation of whether someone or something is safe.
But your body knows differently.
Your body has been assessing safety since before you could speak,
Before you could think,
Before you even knew there was such a thing as trust.
And the organ leading this assessment is not your brain,
It's your heart.
Your heart is in constant conversation with your brain through the vagus nerve.
And here's what's extraordinary,
Your heart sends far more signals up to the brain than your brain sends down to the heart.
Your heart is reading the emotional atmosphere around you,
The quality of presence in a room,
The safety or threat in someone's energy or presence.
And it's communicating all of this to your brain in a language that doesn't use words.
Patterns of rhythm,
Variations in heartbeat and subtle electrical pulses.
Your heart knows whether you're safe before your brain finishes analysing the situation.
Your heart knows whether you're safe before your brain finishes analysing the situation.
But most of us may have learnt to override our heart's wisdom with our head's strategies.
We think ourselves into situations our heart has been trying to warn us about.
We talk ourselves out of trusting our body's knowing because it doesn't make logical sense.
And we've lost the art of letting our heart teach our brain what safety actually feels like.
So today let's try and reclaim that art.
Bring both your hands to your chest now.
Maybe one resting over your heart and the other wherever feels natural.
Maybe your upper chest,
Maybe your belly.
Now you can listen to my words,
Eyes open or eyes closed if that feels safe.
And for the next few breaths,
Do nothing but feel.
Do nothing but feel.
Feel the rise and fall of your breath.
Feel the beating of your heart just beneath your hands.
Don't try to change anything.
Don't try to understand anything.
Just be present to the raw,
Simple fact of your aliveness in this moment.
Notice the quality of your heartbeat right now.
Is it fast or slow?
Steady or irregular?
Strong or subtle?
Whatever you discover,
Just notice without judgment.
This heartbeat is your body's honest response to this moment.
Not to your thoughts about this moment,
But to what your heart is actually sensing.
Your heart doesn't lie.
It doesn't perform.
It simply responds to what is.
Now let's begin to create conditions for your heart to teach your brain about safety.
Start extending your exhale now,
Making it slightly longer than your inhale.
And you can try this.
Breathe in naturally for a count of four.
Breathe out slowly for a count of six.
Don't force it.
Don't strain.
Just let the exhale be a little longer,
A little slower.
And this simple shift activates your vagus nerve,
The pathway between your heart and the brain,
And begins sending a clear message upwards.
We are safe enough to slow down,
To settle,
And to be present rather than defended.
Now just practice this for another round or two.
Breathing in to the count of four.
Breathing out slowly to the count of six.
Now,
As you stay with this breathing pattern,
Notice what begins to shift.
Maybe tension you didn't know you were holding starts to release.
Maybe your shoulders drop away from your ears.
Maybe thoughts that were racing begin to slow.
And this is your heart teaching your brain about safety.
Not through logic or analysis,
But through the language of rhythm and presence.
When your heart sends these steady signals to your brain,
Your brain receives a message it can trust more than any words,
Any book,
Any affirmation.
And the message is,
In this moment,
Right now,
We are safe enough to rest.
In this moment,
Right now,
We are safe enough to rest.
Let's deepen this experience now.
Keeping one hand on your heart,
Begin to scan slowly through your body.
Start at the crown of your head or the top of your head and move down.
Go to your forehead,
To your jaw,
Neck,
Shoulders,
Chest,
Belly,
Hips,
And legs all the way down to your feet.
As you scan,
You're not looking for problems to fix.
You're simply checking in with each area and asking,
How are you?
What are you holding?
What do you need me to know?
Now wherever you encounter tension or tightness,
Pause there.
Place your attention fully on that area and breathe into it.
Imagine your breath carrying a message from your heart.
You don't have to hold so tightly anymore.
I'm here.
I'm listening.
It's safe to let go a little.
Notice if this area responds.
Sometimes it softens immediately.
Sometimes it needs more time.
Sometimes it has something to communicate before it can move.
Just pause,
Allow,
Listen.
Now this is how your heart teaches your brain to trust.
Not by demanding that your body stops being anxious or tense,
But by creating enough safety that your body can afford to soften on its own.
Your body is so intelligent and so wise.
It knows exactly how much defense it needs in any given moment.
And when you create the conditions of safety through breath,
Through presence and through listening,
Your body naturally releases what it no longer needs to hold.
Let's explore the difference between your mind's assessment of safety and your heart's direct knowing.
Think about something that worries you.
Maybe a future concern,
Maybe a relationship issue,
Maybe a situation you're trying to control.
Notice what your heart is telling you.
Notice what happens when you think about this worry.
Feel how your heart responds.
Is it speeding up?
Does your chest tighten?
Does your breathing become shallow?
Your heart is responding not to actual present danger,
But to your mind's story about possible danger.
Feel that.
And now let that thought go completely.
Drop your awareness out of your head.
Go back to the heart.
Place your full attention on the sensation of your heartbeat,
On your breath,
And on your body being held by whatever is supporting you.
Ask your heart a very simple question.
Right here,
Right now,
In this actual moment,
Not in my worries about the future or my memories of the past,
But right here,
Right now,
Am I safe?
And wait for your heart's response.
Not a thought,
But a feeling.
Not an analysis,
But a body-level knowing.
Your heart has the capacity to distinguish between actual present threat and imagined threat.
Between danger that's happening now and the danger that you're anticipating.
And when you learn to check in with your heart's direct experience of this moment,
Rather than your mind's projections about future moments,
You discover a groundedness that thinking alone cannot provide.
This is physiological safety.
A state your body knows independent of whether your mind feels confident or anxious.
Let's practice one more layer of this now.
Imagine you're facing,
Standing at a crossroads.
You're standing at a crossroads and you're facing a decision that you need to make.
Don't pick your most difficult or complex decision.
Choose something relatively simple that you've been pondering.
And instead of thinking about this decision,
Feel into it.
Take one option and hold it in your awareness for a moment.
I'm going to do this.
And then notice what your heart does.
Does it open or contract?
Does your body lean forward with interest or pulls back?
Does your breathing deepen or become shallow?
Now try the other option.
And once again,
Notice your heart's response,
Your body's subtle movements and the quality of your breath.
Your heart is giving you information about alignment and about what serves your nervous system's needs for alignment and safety.
This doesn't mean always choosing comfort.
Sometimes your heart will lean towards something that feels vulnerable but safe,
That makes you nervous but also excited.
But it will pull back from things that truly don't serve you,
That activate defense without offering any genuine growth.
As we begin to close this practice,
You can place both your hands on your heart and feel the wisdom that's been housed there all along.
Your heart has never stopped trying to teach your brain about safety,
Trust and truth.
It's been sending signals your whole life Sometimes you've listened,
Sometimes you've overridden them with logic or fear or obligation.
But your heart has been patient,
Faithful and constant.
I just want you now to thank your heart for its faithfulness.
Thank your heart for its faithfulness Thank your body for holding this intelligence,
This capacity to know safety at a level deeper than thought.
And make a commitment to yourself today that you'll begin listening more carefully to what your heart is telling you,
Not blindly following every feeling but honoring your body's wisdom as valuable information alongside your mind's analysis.
Your heart and your brain work best when they're in conversation,
When they're teaching each other and when they're collaborating rather than competing.
Take one more deep breath now and as you exhale,
Feel how your heart has settled,
How your nervous system has found a quality of presence that wasn't available when we started.
This is the gift of listening to your heart.
It knows how to guide you home to yourself,
How to distinguish between real and imagined threat and how to find safety in the middle of an uncertain world.
Your heart has been teaching your brain to trust all along.
You're simply learning finally to listen.
Now,
After this realignment,
After this healing and after receiving whatever your body was ready to receive,
Gently open your eyes if they were closed,
Return to the world,
Carrying this awareness with you.
Your heart's wisdom is available to you always.
Every decision,
Every relationship and every moment when you need to know whether you're truly safe or simply performing safety.
Trust what your heart knows.
It's been speaking with you since your very first heartbeat.
It's been speaking the truth to you since your very first heartbeat.
Now,
Take this recording as a companion for returning to your heart's wisdom anytime you need it.
Come back when your mind is spinning but your heart knows differently.
And remember,
Your body holds an intelligence much deeper than thought and your heart has been teaching you about safety all along.
Thank you very much for joining me and Namaste.
