soothe your nervous system: a therapeutic touch meditation for extra TLC
When we’re in a state of stress, uncertainty, or fear for too long, it’s our instinct to build armor to protect ourselves.
But this protective shell eventually causes us to harden and pull away from each other... and even pull away from our own hearts.
While we have to honor how we are feeling at any given time, it’s helpful to remember that there are tools available in these moments to help us feel supported. They remind us that showing up—for each other and for ourselves—can help soothe our nervous system and feel more connected rather than more separate.
It’s the medicine that we need right now.
a therapeutic touch meditation for extra TLC
When I need some extra tending and care, I often lean on one of my favorite personal practices to feel more physically soothed, held, and connected. I hope you’ll try it too.
This Therapeutic Touch Meditation works in a few ways.
Touch stimulates the vagus nerve, the primary switch that turns on our relaxation response. This isn’t about sweeping our feelings under the rug or feeding a false sense of positivity. The relaxation response enables neurochemical systems that support our well-being, including our ability to rest and digest and mend and befriend.
Also, touch helps release stress in our bodies and minds when we’re feeling restless, anxious, or angst. Even more, it’s a helpful therapy for sleep and digestive challenges, which are common during the energetic upheaval of autumn.
In other words, this special practice can help us feel more present so that we can send ourselves messages of care, which expands our capacity to stay open and connected rather than separate…. which ultimately helps us to respond skillfully in any given moment, rather than to resort to habitual reactions, hardening, or shutting down.
Above all, this practice is a way of holding ourselves through anything that is arising.
May we all pull together.
““for there is always light, if only we are brave enough to see it. if only we are brave enough to be it.”
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NEW PRACTICE SERIES STARTS FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 22
fortifying in the deep heart of autumn
In this series featuring 30-minute practices, you’ll strengthen your sense of physical, mental, and spiritual well-being in service of ourselves and each other. Through slow flow yoga, deep restorative relaxation, somatic nervous system regulation, and heart-based practices, our practice will support us in remembering the support that is always around us.
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