Welcome to this practice on shifting out of flight mode,
Also known as our anxious mode,
Our urge to flee,
Our urge to run away,
To escape.
As with all our nervous system responses,
Flight is here to protect us,
To give us an
appropriate solution for the situation that we encounter ourselves in.
Now you recognize that you are in flight when you start to feel on edge,
Like something
is wrong,
You feel anxious,
You feel frightened and you feel like you just need to run away
and leave right now.
However flight can exist in various degrees and various levels,
So maybe you don't feel
the urge to run away or to leave a situation,
But perhaps you do feel on edge,
You do feel
anxious or stressed and you are unsure what the source is and how to actually deal with
it in a healthy way.
In this practice I will be guiding you through somatic techniques that will allow you to
release the built up tension and energy of flight and to downregulate your nervous system
into a state of safety and safe connection.
So let's start if this is possible for you by standing up straight,
Placing both your
feet firmly on the ground below you and perhaps you notice you have a dry mouth,
Sweaty palms,
Maybe a pit in your stomach,
These are all subtle signs that you are in flight mode.
So as you are standing firmly with both feet on the ground,
We are going to start by sending
signals to our body that it is safe for us to be here,
That we don't need to leave the
situation or place.
On a physical level your body wants to flee.
So let's really ground down in both your feet,
Press them firmly on the surface below you
and gently bending your knees up and down,
Telling yourself it is safe for me to ground
here,
It is safe for me to be here.
As you are grounding down,
Start to relax your belly,
Unclench your jaw,
Allow your
eyes to relax and release any tension.
Take a deep and comfortable breath in and sigh it out with a long exhale.
Notice how this grounding feels like.
You can choose to sit down again or continue standing.
Now I invite you to focus on your head and your eyes.
Keeping your head straight,
Gently move your eyes towards your left side and keep looking
at your left side.
Take a comfortable breath in here and release.
Now really slowly shift your gaze from your left side back to front of you.
Take another comfortable breath in here and release.
You might notice you start to yawn.
Now move your eyes to the right side,
Keeping your head straight as you are looking to your
right side,
Again taking a comfortable breath in and slowly release.
Now moving your eyes back to looking in front of you,
Letting out any long sighs or yawns.
Become aware of your body and how you feel right now.
Now you can go ahead and sit down if you are still standing up and place both hands on
your chest,
Right below your collarbone.
Now take one hand over the other until only your thumbs are crossing each other.
So your fingers are pointing upwards and are just below your collarbones and your thumbs
are crossing over each other and touching each other.
Now start to gently tap with your left hand and your right hand and keeping your thumbs
locked and still.
Take a deep breath in and feel the support,
Feel the gentle pressure of your hands,
Your
flat hands and all ten fingers gently pressing down on your chest.
Remember to breathe comfortably at your own pace.
Optional is to make your exhales longer than your inhales but maybe you're not in the mood
for breathing exercises and you just want to focus on the physical sensations of gently
tapping on your chest.
This is called the butterfly and it instantly soothes and brings relief and calm to your
nervous system.
It helps us to shift out of anxiety and into love,
Into safety,
Inner safety and safe connection.
You can release your hands if that feels comfortable.
You can notice any shifts,
Any difference from when you started this practice.
I am so proud of you for doing this work.
Thank you and thank yourself for showing up today.
We always have so many choices on what we do in a moment.
We can distract ourselves,
Numb ourselves but you chose to show up for yourself and
to deal with what you feel in a healthy way and you deserve credit for that.
My name is Anais and I'm very honored to guide you through this practice today.
Thank you for being here and I'll see you soon.
