Welcome to this nervous system unwind practice.
This practice will help you to down-regulate your nervous system,
Bringing you back into a state of calm,
Safety,
Mindfulness,
Joy and relaxation.
You can use this practice any time you need to down-regulate and release any stress,
Anxiety or maybe you were feeling dissociated and frozen.
So let's begin.
Get yourself into a comfortable position.
I would recommend sitting up straight because we will be using our arms but if your body is asking you to lay down now,
Then it's perfectly fine.
As you are sitting or laying down,
Become aware of the contact points of your body and the surface below you.
Notice where your body ends and where the surface begins.
Allow yourself to drink in the support and the groundedness.
Become aware of the back of your body,
The back of your legs,
The back of your arms,
Your whole back,
The back of your head and your neck and now moving to the front of your body,
Your face,
Allowing all the muscles in your face to soften,
Allowing your eyes to melt like two ice cubes in warm water,
Allowing your cheeks,
Your mouth and your jaw to soften,
Allowing your chest and shoulders to open and relax.
Coming down into your belly,
Taking a deep big breath into your belly,
Filling this up with air,
Expanding your diaphragm and then slowly releasing it out through your mouth and allowing your attention to drift down into both your legs and into your feet.
If you're feeling a bit activated,
A bit anxious,
Allow your lower body to soften and melt into the surface below you.
If you're feeling a bit numb,
Dissociated,
Not really present in your body,
Allow some gentle activation,
Some gentle pressure in your lower body,
Slowly grounding yourself deeper into the earth below you.
We will practice some self-massage techniques today as well as neuromodulation,
We will be stimulating the vagus nerve,
The longest nerve in your body,
Your mind-body connection and your brain-gut connection.
By activating this nerve,
We will activate the rest,
Digest and repair state of your body.
So let's experience this together.
We will start with the ears,
So take two fingers in front of your ears and two fingers behind your ears.
Start to massage and rub your ears up and down,
Your index finger and middle finger are in front of your ear touching your tragus,
The small little front part of your ear and your ring finger and pinky finger are touching and massaging the back of the ear.
Notice what pressure feels comfortable for you and what pace feels nice,
Really making sure you are soothing,
Massaging the front and back of your ear and touching that little front part,
That is where you are massaging the vagus nerve directly,
In the tragus.
You might experience some yawning or the need to take a deep breath and a sigh out or perhaps you start to feel tired.
These are all signs that your nervous system is releasing the built up energy,
The built up stress and anxiety.
Now take your fingers and start to massage your ear itself,
So bringing your thumb to the front of your ear and with your index finger and middle finger to the back of your ear,
Gently pulling the top of the ear up,
Gently massaging and slowly making your way down to the side of your ear,
Gently pulling your ear out to the side just like a monkey and then slowly making your way down to your earlobe and again gently pulling the earlobe down,
Gently massaging.
Take a deep breath and notice what you feel,
Beautiful.
Now bring your two index fingers in your ears,
Feel your ear canal and start to massage the back of the ear canal.
When we are directly massaging the vagus nerve,
Take a deep breath and become aware of the felt sense and all the sensations that you notice.
How does it feel to be rubbing on the back of the ear canal,
Maybe you feel the need to yawn,
Feel how your system is balancing again,
Beautiful.
Now release your fingers,
Release your arms and take a moment to feel the practice of unwinding is not only about doing things,
It's more about being.
Can you allow yourself to be in your body,
Be in this moment.
Take a comfortable breath in and gently release.
To finish off our practice together,
We'll practice neuromodulation,
The vagus nerve also runs through your throat,
So we will practice some sounds together that will activate the vagus nerve and bring you calm and relaxation.
The sound we will be practicing today is called VU and it goes like this.
Take a deep breath in VUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU VUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU hungry or you will be yawning a lot,
Know that this is all normal,
Especially when you've been living in chronic stress or anxiety and your body has been living in high amounts of cortisol and adrenaline.
You will feel tired when you get off that,
Extend some compassion to yourself,
Thanking yourself for showing up for yourself and for being here today.
My name is Anais,
I'm a neuromindfulness coach and it's my deepest pleasure and honor to be with you here today.
Wishing you the most beautiful morning,
Afternoon or evening and I'll see you soon.
