Hi,
This is Neil Shepherd from Inner Synergy and what I'd like to do is just share some thoughts about watching out for falling into fearful reactions all the time.
We have a fight or flight and freeze response which is excellent when we're in survival,
Life threatening situations.
But when we don't have self awareness and self regulation which is about being aware of what we're thinking,
Not just getting caught up in it and fused with thought and being aware of our emotions and how long we let an emotion hang around.
We should try to let our body get back into homeostasis and balance it's what it wants.
So this meditation is not about downplaying the seriousness of any situation.
What I'd like you to hear is that there's benefit in retaining our focus,
Our clarity and our ability to discern.
Some of you may or may not have heard of the link between the amygdala and the prefrontal cortex.
The amygdala is a part of our brain that helps us with survival situations,
Quite a primitive part of the brain.
The problem is some of us when we get very stressed and fearful that becomes very reactive,
That part of the brain.
And so we're easily upset,
Spooked,
Made more fearful.
When we meditate it has the benefit of reducing that reactivity of the amygdala.
The actual size of the amygdala can be reduced by meditation,
Measurable.
It also helps us have our prefrontal cortex more available for discernment,
Emotional regulation.
Still to see what is so that we can respond accordingly rather than just reacting.
We can look at things more dispassionately.
Some things we do have to just accept like now there's a virus situation.
We don't have to like it,
But it is here we do have to accept it.
What we can do though is we can look at things we can do to protect ourselves and others.
We can look at what are the affirmative actions we can take.
How can we contribute?
It's a really good opportunity for a better sense of community and less a sense of individuality and competitiveness.
Here in Australia there's been a crazy situation where people are hoarding toilet rolls in case they run out.
The problem with all these things is an element of truth.
It would be terrible if we run out of things,
But it's that fear,
That fearful response that makes us do things more extremely and it adds fuel to the fire.
People turn up to just buy some groceries and the shelves are empty.
We can be calmer.
We can be relaxed.
We can do things that limits the risk.
You might say well why?
The reason being it doesn't help us physiologically speaking.
When we're in chronic stress our body doesn't have any mechanism for dealing so well with reducing chronic stress.
That is stress that's been built up over a long time.
Like when we're in fear or deep stress for extended periods of time without release.
So taking another slightly deeper,
Slightly slower breath down into the belly.
There's a great heart brain cartoon that I saw recently and it depicts the heart looking at a huge big pile of good things and saying to the brain come and have a look at all these good things and the brain was looking at one bad thing with a microscope and saying no I'm busy.
And if we're not careful that's what we do we get fused in thought of one bad thing and we miss out on all the beautiful things in life.
Like the look of a partner or look of a child.
Beautiful sunset.
We forget that we've got eyes that can see most of us.
We've got legs we can walk most of us.
There's many things we can be grateful for and when we can get into gratitude we're less controlled by fear.
Taking another slower,
Deeper breath down into the belly.
There's wisdom in knowing what you can control and what you can't.
And making decisions that move us towards what enriches and benefits our life.
Fear and anger.
Aggression.
Overly competitive.
They're not necessarily states of being that help us.
We all like people that are kind to us or do kind things for us.
So it's not such a stretch to say let's be kinder to ourselves and let's extend that to others.
One nice thing a day is 365 nice things to do.
What a different world it might be.
It's just common sense.
Letting your body in the room either on the chair or lying down.
Letting go of any tension in your body.
Letting it drain away.
Letting your mind learn there's another way.
We're finishing up this meditation shortly.
Just some quick thoughts.
Food for thought you could say.
Food to open your eyes.
Come back into wherever you are.
Looking around maybe noticing something you haven't seen before.
Smiling.
My name is Neil Shepherd.
I'm with Inner Synergy.
And I hope you can build your inner synergy by building the practice using some of these meditations.
All the very best with your practice.
