Hi,
I'm Miriam Umavi and welcome to our quick little somatic meditation to soothe and nurture your nervous system,
To build more capacity for whatever challenging moment you are currently moving through.
Because these feelings mean that our nervous system perceives some sort of subjective threat.
So in this meditation,
We're signaling safety to your body so your nervous system can regulate itself,
Leaving you feel calmer,
Safer,
And lighter.
You can start by finding a comfortable place to sit and begin by lightly patting down your body.
You can start on your hands and pat down your arms and you can experiment with a pressure that you want to use.
I recommend not patting too intensely because that can signal danger again but we just want to create some sensation and bring the brain back into the presence and then you can pat down on your chest and your belly.
And then at some point you can move to your legs and pat down your legs if you can reach them.
And what we're doing here is interrupting whatever our brain is currently fixating on,
The worries,
The overwhelm,
And getting the brain back into the present helps our brain to locate itself and know that in this moment we are safe.
Even though your mind may not feel like this,
Patting down the body helps release stress.
And then once you're done patting down your body,
You can notice how it feels now if you could mobilize some of that nervous or anxious energy,
Some of that stress,
And kind of let it out.
And now we're going to do one of my favorite exercises.
It's also a fan favorite from all people that I work with.
And you can cross your arms and bring each hand to the opposite upper arm and gently rub up and down your arms.
And just notice the texture of your skin or the texture of your sleeve,
The fabric.
And stay with your awareness on the sensations.
It's really important in this meditation to stay in your sensations,
Not judging what you feel,
But just noticing is the texture smooth?
Is it bumpy?
Is it soft?
Is the surface warm or is it cooler?
Are there differences in temperature,
Differences in texture?
And just gently rub up and down your arms.
Experiment with the pressure that your body wants you to use.
And if you want to add a layer of safety as well,
You can gently start to sway from side to side,
If that is something that feels good right now.
If you're lying down or reclining,
Perhaps you want to stay still.
And keep on focusing on the sensations that you can notice.
What does it feel like to rub up and down your arms in the palms of your hands?
And then you can put your attention on how it feels from within your arms to feel the touch of your hands.
And perhaps even want to massage your arms up and down.
And if you feel any sighs or yawns or spontaneous deep breaths,
That just means that your nervous system is regulating itself,
That it's calming down,
That it's feeling safer,
That it feels safe enough to release stress and anxiety.
And notice how with these gentle,
Havening motions,
You are giving yourself this gift of safety,
Of calm,
Of understanding.
Acknowledging that you're moving through a difficult moment,
But that you are able to attune to yourself.
To give yourself some safety,
Some gentleness.
That you don't need to judge yourself for feeling like this.
You can just attune to it in a compassionate way.
And if you don't feel any change,
That is okay.
Sometimes our nervous system just takes a little longer until it feels safe enough to release the stress and anxiety.
And this comes down to practice.
And then you can slowly release the rubbing up and down your arms,
Put your hands in your lap.
Notice how you feel now compared to when we started this exercise.
And perhaps it's just one little percent more soothed.
The important part here is that you reacted compassionately to a difficult moment.
And if you feel like you need a little bit more and want to go a little bit deeper into nervous system regulation and heal your own nervous system from stress,
Anxiety,
You're invited to check out my course here on Insight Timer called Anxiety,
Stress and Overwhelm Practical Tools to Regulate Your Nervous System.
I'm excited to see you there and follow me for more somatic nervous system exercises.
I wish you a wonderful day and you've got this.
