Meditation For Balancing The Nervous System

Hello everyone and welcome to Yoga With Adriene. Today we have a quick but effective meditation for helping to balance the nervous system in difficult times. You don't need much today, just a willingness and a little bit of time. If you want to sit up on something, go ahead and grab it now. Let's get started. Alright, my darling friend, let's begin in a comfortable seat. You come into a position that feels right for you today. I'm seated up on a meditation cushion, how convenient. You can sit up on a little blanket or just on the ground. You can also do this in a chair, on your couch or even lying down. If you feel like you can muster the energy to sit upright, I will encourage that for today just because we're gonna start off with a little breath work where it might be nice to be seated tall, erect in the spine, but again, choose your starting position. And as you're ready, go ahead and close your eyes. Just allow the sound of my voice to guide you here. You don't need necessarily to have a visual for this practice. Of course, peek at me whenever you need to. But thank you for letting me be your guide. Just take a moment here to relax your shoulders down. Maybe make a couple active gestures to sit a little bit taller. But then after that, just imagine the crown of your head reaching up almost like the top of a coat hanger and then your body's hanging on that hanger. Our yoga practice, we talk a lot about opposition. Kind of have that sensation here of lifting and lengthening up through the center channel of the body. And this softening, this soft grounding as the shoulders are heavy, the hips heavy, the limbs soft and relaxed. We've already begun. We're in it. Just start to notice what it's like today. Are you fidgeting a lot? Your mind bopping around from thought to thought? Just a reminder, this is the practice. That is exactly, exactly where you should be, where I would presume for you to be. Soften through the skin of the forehead. Relax your jaw. And I'll invite us together to slowly begin to gently deepen the breath. And then see if you can find stillness outside of that. So the movement is coming from the soft inhalation and the gentle exhalation. And we're starting to remove all the extraneous movement. Just do your best. Continue to slowly draw your attention inward. And on your next inhale, see if you can breathe in on a six count and out on an eight count. I'll guide us through a few. Here we go, inhaling for six, five, four, three, two, one. Exhaling for eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one. Inhale six, five, four, three, two, one. Empty it out for eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one. And now on your own, you can keep the count or you can release it. But I just wanted to really give us the opportunity to extend the inhale and elongate the exhale. And finish whatever elongated breath you're working on now and let it go. So letting the pranayama go and just allowing your breath to do whatever it wants to do naturally as we come to reside in this seated meditation. Slowly bring your awareness back to your body. If you can sit up a little bit taller gently, with ease, finding more length from the crown of the head. And slowly bring your attention, your awareness to any sound around you. Bring some energy back to the body. Maybe moving the fingers a little bit. Moving the tongue around in the mouth. Maybe feeling your teeth, your gums. Bat the eyes open. Bring the palms together. Take a deep breath in. As you exhale, just notice how you feel. We'll close with just a easy, reverent bow. Inhale in and exhale to bow. Thanks for joining me. I'll see you next time.