Brain Relaxation

52:10

52:10

Brain Relaxation

Rated

4.6

Type

guided

Activity

Meditation

Suitable for

Everyone

Plays

11k

This is a guided, somatic (body-based) meditation to assist you in relaxing your brain. Our brains are often overwhelmed by information, stimulation, anxiety, worry, and stress. Somatic meditation offers incredibly simple and profoundly effective tools to get back into your body, breath, and heart. This practice will increase a sense of wellbeing and create space in your mind to observe your thoughts rather than be ruled by them.

Meet your Teacher

Portland, OR, USA

Meet your Teacher

Portland, OR, USA

Transcript

Hello and welcome. The following is a guided meditation by René Sills, A somatic movement educator, Energy worker and astrologer. This meditation is intended to help support your embodied meditation practice. If in the recording you are prompted to do something that doesn't feel good for your body, Please adapt and modify to make it work for you. Please also note that the content of these meditations sometimes explores deep and subtle states and memories, And sometimes guided visualizations. You are encouraged to work with discernment as you practice with them. If any of the guidance René offers feels too activating or uncomfortable, Please listen to your body's knowing and pause the recording until a later time if you wish to return to it. These guided meditations range anywhere from 20 to 40 minutes and do not require any supplementary equipment to participate. We hope you enjoy. Hi everyone. This is René. Thanks for joining. I am happy to offer a guided meditation today that will focus on the head glands, The endocrine glands in your head. Some of you might appreciate a visual before we get going. And if you are somebody who works well with visual learning and that helps you place things, Then I am going to suggest that you pause the recording and go look up the pituitary and the pineal glands, Or pineal, However you say it. So these are two glands that are in your head. They are part of the endocrine chain and they are important. They are very important for many reasons. So you can read about them, You can learn about them, Go research and then come back and do the meditation or if it doesn't matter to you, Then we will begin. And as always I am going to offer that this meditation can be explored either sitting down, Lying down, Standing up, Moving around, Being in your body intentionally in whatever way makes the most sense to you. I would really love to promote more meditative body awareness in our lives. And so that is why I actually don't subscribe to one posture or one stance is I think that all the time is an option for meditation. All the time is the right moment to do it. And if you have practiced these meditations a couple of times, Then all it is is bringing attention somewhere and then allowing that space to speak or to expand in your awareness. So please feel free to do whatever you need to do and go ahead and get comfortable. I am going to tell you that what I am choosing to do is sit and I will sit for the first part as I describe where the glands are and then I am going to lie down on my back and do the second part and then I will sit for the last part. So if you want to follow along with me, Then also just take a minute right now and get yourself set up so that you can sit comfortably with your pelvis a little higher than your knees. This helps your hip joints relax and it keeps your back from curving into a C shape and you can also sit upright in a chair. You can sit relaxed back in your couch. And then you will also want to have a place where you can easily transition to lying down. And if you are somebody whose back and neck are very tight, You might want to have a couple of folded blankets nearby. Not pillows, They are going to be too squishy for what we are doing. But if you have some folded blankets or towels, They would be perfect for your head support. So go ahead and pause, Whatever you need to get ready and then we will begin seated or whatever you are doing. Closing your eyes if it is comfortable for you and starting to take some deep relaxing breaths and if it is possible to breathe in through your nose and out your mouth, I find that that is a really nice way to breathe. As you inhale you can feel the passage of your breath and you notice how the touch of your breath comes up into your sinus cavity. And that flow of the breath as it comes in, You can feel it traveling up the right and the left sides of your nose, Maybe into the bones above your eyeballs, Maybe into your cheekbones or your forehead. And as you feel the touch of your breath allow your eyes to relax. And imagine that your eyes can move back from whatever is in front of them. If your eyes are closed they move back from the eyelids, If your eyes are opened they move back from whatever you are seeing. So there is no reaching with the eyes, They are just relaxed, Receptive. And you might feel that as you relax your eyes there is a simultaneous softening in the back part of your skull. You want to encourage this by sending your breath into your throat and your upper back and then as you exhale and you sigh out, Feel that the shoulders can relax, The jaw can soften. And even this, Just this very simple breath, Inhaling through your nose, Exhaling out your mouth, Just this, Kind of immediately can bring in a sense of relaxation and calm. So put this in your tool belt. And as you breathe you can consciously make space in between your thoughts. And the way that you can do this is simply notice that they are there. Our thoughts are very convincing and the way that we travel far, Far away from our present moment experience because a thought arises is quite astounding. You can be sitting here enjoying your moment and then a thought comes in and all of a sudden you are halfway across the world in another time and place talking to someone who is not there. So when you notice thoughts drift in, You just notice, That's it. And then you notice that you are here, Whoever here is for you. And in this way we cultivate the mind of the observer. And meditation isn't about getting free from the thoughts. You are always going to have thoughts. Your brain has a really important function which is to tell you stories and associate things. And it's working all the time. What ends up being not so great is when we believe everything that our brains are throwing up for us to see or hear or think about and the brain is kind of magnificent in some ways in its capacity but it also isn't the smartest thing ever because it's not present. So we have to train our minds. We have to train our minds to be quiet, To listen, To make space for observation. And when we can observe then we notice all kinds of things. When we cultivate the observer we notice first, Oh there's a thought coming in and I don't have to travel immediately halfway across the world into another time and space just because that thought is here. I can just notice I'm having the thought and then I can come back to my breath. This might seem kind of boring if you're somebody who really enjoys thinking and in this way we understand that there's an addictive quality to thinking. And when you indulge the thoughts often you'll get an endocrine response. You'll get a physiological response so if you're thinking about something that's stressful your body will release stress hormones and your heart rate will speed up and your tummy will get tight and you'll start going down that path. If you're thinking about the person that you're just falling in love with your body will release the love hormones and you'll be blissed out and spacey. Those ones might be nice. But you notice how your thoughts stimulate your body response and how the thoughts very quickly become an emotional state so we believe them. And this is a pattern that we want to get ourselves unhooked from because it's not always useful. Yes, It can be really nice to indulge thoughts of loving, Of pleasurable fantasy. But if we're not conscious and if we are not able to observe, If we're in a space of identifying with our thoughts then we really don't have much discernment when other thoughts come in. All the arguments, The stress, The worry. And this is a time on earth when there is a lot of stress and there's a lot of anxiety. And the fewer of us that are feeling stressed and anxious because we're lost in our thoughts, The better. We want to promote mindfulness and we can do that by practicing it. So let's just take a couple more minutes being present. Noticing your breath, Letting the inhale come in, The exhale relax out. Noticing when thoughts come in, Noticing yourself noticing. And the noticing you recognize that any sensation that arises is a place for meditation. So just like thoughts can lead us down certain paths, You might hear something or you might feel something in your body. And if you're practicing with eyes open, You might see something. So your other sense organs will pick things up and then immediately they'll become a thought. Immediately there will be a story. So you want to let yourself dwell in the space of receiving the sensation. You just observe it like, Okay, Maybe there's an ache or an itch. You notice temperature. And the yogis say that if you practice, Then you get over feeling hot and cold. These are the extremes of our experience. What that kind of means is that you lessen your reactivity. Sometimes we feel something and then right away we jump into an association. Oh, It's cold. I hate being cold. And then our whole body gets really tight and then we're screwed because the circulation shuts down and then we're really cold because we're thinking about it. And if we can cultivate a relaxed space where there's observation of like, Okay, There's cold, But I can still breathe into my belly. I can still expand my heart. You can actually have a little bit of influence on your circulation. You can imagine your blood pumping easily from your heart all the way out to your skin and extremities. So that's one example. You can turn that example towards whatever your experience is. Dwelling in the space of noticing. So now I'm going to ask you to touch the spot on your forehead that's kind of where you think of like third eye space. So it's between your eyebrows just a little bit above the bridge of the nose. And you could just lightly kind of rub the skin there. And then if it's alright for your arm, Let your shoulder relax, But let your fingertip just stay there just for a couple of seconds. So we're going to inhale and you're going to try and move your breath into the space where your fingertip is touching. You want to draw the breath up into this point on your forehead. And then as you exhale, Feel your exhale expanding out from this point, Like into the space around you. This is an imagination. So you're inhaling into this space and then you're exhaling and you're relaxing from that space as if you're expanding it out into everything. Let's take one more breath like that. And then when you're ready, You can let your arm rest down if it's not already and keep your attention at this spot. So we just stimulated the touch spot for the pituitary gland. And if you looked at the pictures, Then you know where it is and you can see it sitting in this beautiful saddle of your sphenoid bone. It's this tiny, Tiny little gland and it sits in a perfect little indentation that's called the turkacellica, I think is what it's called. I'm forgetting right now. It's a Turkish saddle. And it's like, It's perfect spot in this amazing butterfly dragon shaped bone that is in the middle of your skull. Your body is amazing. So there's a gland there. And this gland is kind of the director gland for your entire endocrine chain. It tells things when to release hormone and your hormones regulate all of the cycles of your body, Your sleep cycles, Your hunger cycles, Your heartbeat, Your inhale and exhale, Your menstrual pattern, Your age, You know, When you develop in certain ways. So this is a very, Very important dude. And what I want you to do is just breathe into that space, Let your awareness dwell there. And as you exhale, Feel it expanding into everything. I want to really feel that your eyeballs are relaxed, That the skin in the forehead is soft, Lots of release. When we're really focused and intentional, Attentive, We tend to like squeeze on the pituitary gland. Our eyes get hard and our brow gets furrowed. So you want to do the opposite of that right now. Get like way, Way expansive. Soft eyeballs, Soft forehead. And as you breathe into the space, I just want you to notice what the sensation is in your body. If you're somebody that experiences head and neck or shoulder issues, I just want you to notice if we'll just notice these parts of your body now as you relax and soften the space in your skull. Okay. And so now I'm going to ask you to bring both hands back and gently cradle for a moment the back of your skull. I love this feeling, Just having a really gentle pressure at the back of my skull. Maybe you do too. And then you can use your fingertips to spread the skin at the back of the skull. And this is very, Very gentle. It's like you're moving your hands over tissue paper or something. Do that a couple of times. Relax the back of your skull. And then you can let one hand rest, Take the other hand. And I want you to find the soft indentation at the back lower portion of your skull where the occiput is. This is the soft curve in the base of the skull. And then from there, I want you to travel upwards. Stay on the midline, But travel upwards about three inches. And you're going to get into like the crown area. So this is like where, Like if you are part of the Jewish faith, Someone might wear a yarmulke at this part of the head. That's kind of where you want. You can imagine where that is. And then we're going to do the same thing here that we did with the pituitary. I want you to inhale into this part of your skull. And then exhale and feel that you can expand from this place. Now the expansion is going to move really wide into the space behind you and beside you and up into the heavens. Inhaling, Breathing into this portion of the skull. Relax the back of your brain. Exhaling and feeling that back of your brain could expand its antennas, Its perceptive webbing. And then you can let that hand rest down. And now we're going to keep the attention here. So continuing to relax the back of the brain and relax the front of the brain so the eyeballs are still soft, The forehead is still relaxed. So we just stimulated the touch point for the pineal gland. I don't know how you say it, I've heard it both ways. And this gland is really important. So this is the gland that gets stimulated by darkness and moonlight. And it has to do with a dream space. So it's the gland in the body that secretes hormone that puts you into the dream space. As far as I understand it, It has a lot to do with your ability to rest, To access the intuitive liminal nonlinear time. We live our lives, Many of us, With a lot of electric light. And this gland doesn't get stimulated unless it's dark. So it's important to turn off all the lights when you go to bed and if possible to turn off your Wi-Fi, Maybe get a good old fashioned alarm clock and turn off your phone. So you want to have enough space with darkness, Quietness, Emptiness. And that's what I want you to imagine now as you breathe into this space, You feel the inhale moving into the back of the skull. And as you exhale, There's an expansion and a rest outward. What I want you to imagine is that this space in your body is connecting to the infinite emptiness of the universe. Here in our Earth's atmosphere, We have night and day, Lots of lights, But take a trip just a couple hundred miles out of the atmosphere and then you're in a lot of empty, Dark space. So that's the place you want to breathe this part of your skull into and from. So now let's see if we can just simply feel both the forehead spot, The pituitary and the pineal spot in the back of the head. And as you're aware of these spaces, It's the same thing. You're breathing into them, You're feeling them receive your breath, Relaxing. And as you exhale, There's an expansion and a release from your cranium, From your skull into the air and the space around you. And I want you to notice, Especially those of you that are sitting or standing, How it feels in your head and your spine right now. I sometimes when I sit, My head feels heavy on my neck and it feels so light right now and my spine feels incredibly supported. So if you're having a similar experience, Take note, Our heads can get real weighted down with all those thoughts. Okay so you can do this next part with your head still upright. I'm going to do it lying down. So I'm going to transition onto my back. And like I said, If you are someone with a tight neck with neck injury, Tight shoulders or upper spine, You might want a couple of folded blankets or towels right around you. I'm just going to make my transition here. Not pausing or anything. You're coming with me. Alright so now I'm lying on my back, Flat on my back and my head is supported just on one folded blanket. That's good for me. Okay so just take a minute and I want you to check in and feel the way that your head is in relationship to your body. You're sitting or standing, Just stay with this awareness of expansive space through the skull and feel that your head is supported to be over your heart. And if you're lying down, What I want you to notice is if your chin is greatly higher than your forehead and the back of your neck is getting compressed. And if that's the case, Then grab another layer or two of head support. You want to feel that your chin and your forehead are pretty much on the same plane and maybe the chin is even just a touch, Not very much, Just a whisper lower than your forehead. So if you're lying on your back, I'd suggest knees bent, Feet flat on the floor and otherwise place a bolster or a cushion under your knees so that your lower back isn't taken into a big curve. You can let your arms relax down beside you. Okay so now what I want is for you to let the weight of your brain rest in your skull. And we're going to experiment here with turning our heads because we're turning our brains. So try and pour your brain over into the right side and then let your head and your skull follow so that your face turns right. Again, You can do this standing, Sitting, Lying down. And you don't have to go any further than what feels easeful. And when you've gone that far, Then let your brain slide to the back of your skull and over into the left side. And as your brain slides over to the left, Your face and your skull follow, Your cranium follows. And then you're just going to go at your own pace here. I find that a little slower is better because if it's faster, I get into like directive movement. So really what you want to do is pour your brain. And if you're lying down, You might feel this like a water balloon, Like a bean bag, That the inner contents are pouring into one side and then pouring into the other. And if you're standing or sitting and your head is upright, It's kind of similar, Though you're not working so much with gravity, But you're moving the contents around. So it's like you're moving the fluid volume inside your skull. And actually, Your brain is a fairly fluid substance. It's not, You know, It's kind of squishy. And then your brain is also encased in fluid. So there's this amazing clear fluid that encases your brain. And you might even feel like your brain is taking a bath right now in this clear liquid. And we'll work to let the eyes and the forehead and the pituitary gland continue to soften and rest back away from the front of the face. And we're going to continue to feel that the pineal gland, The back of the brain is real expansive and relaxed and wide. We'll just do a couple more. And as you turn your head and it's just this fluid weight, Rolling, Shifting so that there's not a lot of effort in your muscle, It's like pretty much non-existent, That muscular effort of trying, Just letting weight shift inside. So as you do this, These last couple of times, Can you move your breath into the upper part of your chest and relax anything that feels tight between your heart and your brain. So of course, Your spinal cord travels down just behind your heart. And there might be, You know, Tight muscles, Habits around your chest and shoulders. And if the thinking about that creates like a thinking, And you notice your forehead get tight, I just noticed mine a little bit, The priority is just relaxing your brain. You can do both at once, But don't get so intentional about relaxing your heart that then you make your brain work. That thing works enough. Okay, So we'll just do one or two more. Rolling your head, Feeling everything is relaxing. Getting into your chest. I like doing these meditations with you guys. Your jaw, Your mouth, Your tongue, Relax everything between your heart and head. Relaxing. Okay. And then we'll let the head roll back to center. Okay. So for this next thing, If you're standing or sitting, It would be good, I guess, If you could bring your arms, You're going to do a reach upwards towards the ceiling with your hands one at a time. So your arms, Your hands would end up pointing in the same direction as your head. Your arms would be side your ears. But if you're lying on the ground, Then you'll lift your arms. So your hands are towards the ceiling and the arms are perpendicular to the line of your spine. And as you lift your arms, Notice how your shoulders have to engage to lift the arms. And I want you to let the shoulder blades rest back onto the ground. Okay. And if you're standing or sitting and you're lifting your arms, Then just feel that the shoulders are relaxed and the rib basket can support them. So it's not a lot of tightening up in the musculature around the shoulder blade. Okay. And then we're going to start to reach, Let's start with the right arm. So just take the right fingertips further towards the ceiling and let that roll. If you're lying down, Translate into your ribs. So you roll a little bit of your weight over towards the left. So the right shoulder blade slides up towards the right hand. And then you're going to let your right shoulder rest back onto the floor. You're rolling back to center and then the left fingertips reach to the ceiling and your left shoulder blade rolls away from the floor and your weight rolls into the right side of your upper back, The right side of your head. So I'm going to say this two more times for people lying on the ground, People standing up to what you're doing. Okay. So right arm is reaching up and you're rolling a little bit of your weight over to the left and then you're rolling back to center and then the left arm is reaching up, Left shoulder is leaving the floor and you're rolling onto the right. Coming back to center. Again. So as you reach up, Now I want you to let your organs turn so it's like your right lung is sliding up and your left lung is cushioning, Relaxing down. You can use your feet to help you turn and you're just going to let your head stay really relaxed. Okay. Coming on to the other side, The left lung is rolling up and then you're letting your head turn. Your brain is just again sliding over and coming down. Okay. So people on the ground keep on going with this and as you reach one arm up at a time, It'll create maybe a little bit of a curve in the back of your neck or it'll roll your head all the way to the other side and that's great. So either way is fine, But I want you to let your brain and your neck and your heart stay really relaxed and what we're thinking about doing here is moving the stuff underneath the bones. So this is your lungs and your heart and they're just kind of reaching up and rolling and your muscles and your bones are relaxing underneath them. Okay. And then if you're upright, If you're not lying down, The feeling is a little bit of the same. So you're taking one arm up at a time and you're welcome to let the opposite arm release to the floor and then you're going the other way and here instead of rolling on your back, You're going to be doing a little bit of like a side bendy and again, It's feeling that the stuff underneath the bones and the muscles, So your lungs are sliding and that your heart is turning. And if you're upright, You can really play around with your arm dance and you can move your arms actually in any direction and the prompt here is to initiate the movement from your lungs and your heart and then feel that your throat and your neck are really relaxed and I want you to let your brain just follow the movement. So there's no prescription as to where your head is going to go. Okay, So you guys move around, Do what you're doing. I'm going to come back to the on the floor direction. So what I'm feeling with this is a release from the heart center up through the neck and into the head. And I'll just do a couple more on each side. The movement here wants to be as kind of lazy as possible. Really it's like your lungs are turning and you might feel like it gets into some tight spots in your neck and shoulder and if you find those tight spots, You're just trying to breathe into them and again, Always just coming back to relaxation in your head. I find that if I can keep my brain relaxed, A lot of my other muscular tension magically disappears. That tells you something. Tells you what you might ask. Well, Your brain is very directive and that your body responds. That's one thing. So we're going to do a few more and notice how the body can be directive. The somatic sense of awareness can be directive and then the brain responds and it's so lovely when the brain just gets relaxed. Okay, So let's finish up with this. We'll just do a couple more, Do one more on each side or if you're moving, Finding a way to take these movements kind of back into a smaller space and then eventually just letting the hands rest down. All right, So we'll do one more movement. Now I'm actually going to move the blanket underneath my head. Just that exercise kind of loosens something up. Now I feel like it's a little bit too much. So you might check it out. You might need a little bit less leverage too and when we do the next movement, You might find that you want less anyway, So you can move it if you do. So you can do this standing, Sitting, Lying down and once you learn it, I'm going to say this is a really great thing to do and it just doesn't take very long. Okay, So hopefully you can understand my direction without needing a visual. What I want you to do is place your lower teeth about an inch, Half an inch below your upper teeth. So your lower jaw is probably sliding forwards a bit, But there's space between your teeth and let your tongue rest in the lower palate behind your upper teeth. And then I want you to lead from your chin and rock your chin up so your head turns back, Keeping your teeth like this. And then take your tongue and place the tip of your tongue up on your upper palate. Slightly far back is okay, Don't stress your tongue out, But push your tongue on the top of your palate and then keep your tongue there and relax your jaw, Your lower jaw so that your lower teeth slide back. And then you're going to nod your head back down, Keeping your tongue on the top of your palate. So you're nodding your head down, Chin tuck, And then when your head gets all the way down, You're going to release your tongue from the roof of your mouth. Okay, So that's the movement. So lower teeth come forward, The tongue rests behind them, There's space between your teeth. And then you're leading from your chin, Taking your chin up so your head tilts back. And then you're pressing your tongue on the roof of your mouth and letting your lower jaw slide back. And then keeping your jaw released as you roll your head back down and come into a chin tuck, So your chin tucks into your throat, And then you're going to relax your tongue. Okay, So if we did that a couple of times and you were like, I don't need these blankets behind my head, Just move them. So I'm going to talk through it a few more times, You can move at your own pace. When you move the chin up, The tongue is behind your lower teeth and there's space between your teeth and your head is rolling back. And then when you get as far back as it's comfortable, Then you're taking the tip of your tongue and you're pushing it on the roof of your mouth. And then you're going to keep it there and let your lower jaw slide back, Totally relax the lower jaw. And then roll your head down into your chin tuck. Okay, Release your tongue. Again, There's space between your teeth, You're leading with your chin, Rolling the head up and then push your tip of your tongue on your upper palate, Relax the chin and then roll your head down. I'm going to talk through it two more times. Hopefully you understand. Okay, So leading with the chin, Tongue is relaxed behind the lower teeth, Space between the teeth, So the jaw is intentional. And then you tip of the tongue on the upper palate, Lower jaw sliding down and then roll your head down into your chin tuck. Relax your tongue. Okay, Again, Space between the teeth, Tongue is relaxed, Moving the chin forwards and up, Head is rolling back, Place the tip of the tongue on the upper palate and then let the lower jaw slide back and then nod your head down into your chin tuck. Go ahead and do this a couple more times. I'm going to talk to you while you do. I learned this from Patricia Sullivan. She's an amazing yoga teacher and she was talking about how relaxed she got. For me, When I did this movement, I realized, Whoa, This is a movement that mimics nursing. Maybe you don't remember when you were a baby or if you didn't get breastfed, You didn't have this experience, But it's incredibly calming to the parasympathetic nervous system and it allows the head glands to relax a lot. You can do this movement sitting, Standing, Lying down. I find that I get the most release from my neck if I'm lying down, But if I need a quick ticket to relaxation and I'm at a traffic light in my car or standing in line for something, You can do five. If you practice maybe a set of 10, Once or twice a day, You'll start to actually develop a muscle that is attached to your hyoid bone and it gives you very, Very deep support for your neck. Let's finish up and then just come back to center and let's take a minute here. Breathe, Feel the inside of your head. Just notice what sensations are there. Then for the last couple of minutes of our meditation, I'm going to transition back to a seat. You're welcome to stay lying down. You're welcome to do whatever you want. The interesting thing for me coming back to a seat is noticing the relationship now between my heart and my head. We're going to finish our meditation the same way that we began, Just breathing. And if thoughts slide in, You just say, Hey, But you don't need to go with them. Feel that the brain is soft, The front of the head and the back of the head are expanding. The jaw is relaxed. And what I'm going to invite now is that you let your breath start and end in your heart, Just in the center of your heart space. All right. I think it's amazing how quickly and easily we can access quiet. It's easy to forget with the pace of our lives and how much noise there is, But simple practices can have profound effect. Remember quiet space and suddenly what was so noisy a minute ago ceases to be that important. So I hope that this practice serves you and if you're in any kind of position where you're dealing with making decisions a lot or people who make decisions, I would love to encourage you to bring this into your workplaces, To your family situations. You can see if everybody would do chin tucks with you for five minutes before you start the meeting and you might have a really different outcome than normal. All right. This has been a meditation inspired by a dear friend and brilliant body worker in Portland, Oregon. If you are looking for somebody to help you with your body, Monier is amazing and I will include a link to her practice in the SoundCloud file and on the blog. So yes, Look her up. She inspired me to work with the head glance. All right, Everybody until the next time much love and bye for now.