This is a great somatic practice to help you to tonify the vagus nerve,
Which helps you to move out of states of stress with more ease and back into a more balanced state.
So clasp your hands together and interlace your fingers and bring your hands in front of your face.
Have your thumbs extended out,
Pressed together,
Pointing directly toward your mouth.
Place the tips of your thumbs in your mouth,
Take a deep breath in through the nose,
And as you breathe out through the mouth,
You're going to imagine you're blowing up a balloon.
Allow your cheeks to puff out as you exhale.
Repeat this for the next minute,
Inhaling through the nose and exhaling out slowly,
Puffing the cheeks as you exhale.
You want your exhales to be longer than your inhales.
So a combination of longer exhales and puffing out your cheeks gives both a tonifying effect to the vagus nerve and helps you to transition out of states of stress back into a more balanced,
Calm state.
So do two more breaths like this.
Beautiful.
Now release your hands and take your hands now behind the back of your head and interlace your hands behind the back of your head.
We're going to do this in order to keep your head nice and still.
Now,
Keeping the head still so you're not turning your head at all,
Using your eyes and your eyes alone,
Look to the far right side,
Keeping your head completely still.
Hold this for 30 seconds.
So I'll tell you when the 30 seconds is up.
And as you do this,
Keep your shoulders nice and relaxed.
Relax the muscles of your face and your jaw.
Just keep your gaze as far to the right as you can,
Keeping your head very still and facing to the front.
OK,
Just a few more seconds.
Now take your eyes back to centre and keeping your head completely still again,
Look over to the left and notice what's happening in your body as you do this.
Perhaps you notice your breathing getting easier.
Maybe there's more saliva in your mouth or maybe a yawn or a sigh is wanting to be released.
And if nothing's happening right now,
That's also OK.
So just a few more seconds with your eyes looking over to the left.
And now take your eyes back to centre,
Release your arms and simply notice,
Just notice any subtle shifts or changes that have taken place in your body or in your mind.
