Hi,
And welcome to Pressing Pause.
I'm your host,
Rae Louise,
And today's session will focus on compassionate self-touch.
Today we will use our own hands,
Our own arms,
Our own body to offer ourselves care and comfort when things are feeling hard or when we are feeling alone.
So we'll begin today by placing a hand over the heart.
Just feeling the warmth and weight,
The gentle pressure of your hand over your heart space.
Maybe feeling the breath rise and fall under the warmth of your hand.
And just feeling the way that this gesture says to you,
To the body,
I'm here.
I'm listening.
You matter to me.
And just see if you can stay with this gesture for a few moments,
Noticing where the body could soften or relax into the palm of the hand.
Or if a mantra like that feels helpful,
Just repeating it as you focus on the warmth and the weight of your hand there.
I am here.
I'm listening.
You matter to me.
Just speaking to the most tender parts of yourself that could really use your care right now.
You might stay with that.
If it's really resonating,
Just holding the hand over the heart.
Or you might move into a second activity,
Just taking both hands to opposite shoulders,
Just resting them over the top of the shoulders.
And feeling the sense of the arms wrapping the body in,
Protecting gently around the heart and the chest,
And drawing the shoulders very softly down away from the ears.
And that might feel good.
Or you might engage this self hug a little further.
You might wrap your arms even farther around the body if that's possible.
You might squeeze a little,
Just feeling that gentle compression that sometimes can feel so comforting when things are feeling chaotic or out of control in the body.
It's just trying a gentle squeeze in and down.
Or you might find that a little bit of patting,
Gently patting the tops of the shoulders,
Tapping the tops of the shoulders,
Just starts to feel regulating or soothing to you.
Just gently tapping.
Or you might find that holding the hug as you rock gently right to left.
Maybe that feels comforting.
There is a natural feeling of grounding and comfort that can come along with this kind of bilateral movement side to side.
So just very slowly,
You might rock in your hug.
And if this hug had a mantra,
It might sound something like,
I love you.
You are safe.
So whether you're just holding or you're squeezing or you're patting or rocking,
Just see if you can stay with that hug a few moments longer.
And if you'd like to stay there,
Stay there.
If you want to try a third option,
You might take the hands and just rub them together for a moment,
Just to create a little bit of warmth,
A little bit of heat.
And then when you've got that,
Just taking the palms and wrapping them around the cheeks and under the chin,
Holding your own face gently and with care.
As you feel the warmth and the holding of your hands around your face,
Just letting the chin settle into the heels of the hands.
So you can very softly just let the weight of your head relax into the support of your hands.
You might find that there's an affirmation that feels like it matches this for you.
Or maybe it just quietly lets you feel held,
Loved.
And so you might stay with this for a few more moments,
Just letting the head soften into the hands.
And when you feel ready,
Just gently releasing,
Letting the arms drop and just letting the breathing continue soft and natural.
As you check in with yourself,
Just noticing any effect that these practices had on you today,
What it felt like to just offer yourself care and comfort and presence.
If any of these felt helpful for you today,
Remember that you can come back to this track or back to these practices anytime you need them.
Namaste.
