The Top 3 Neuroscience-Supported Ways to Calm Your Nervous System Post-Election

Thank you for being here with me today. My name's Ashok Gupta and I'm the founder and CEO of the Gupta Program. And many of you have reached out on social media into our clinic to say that you really wanted to share your experiences of the election. And we wanted to provide this special event for you to feel like you're not on your own if you're experiencing certain emotions. And so, in this half an hour live stream, what we'll be doing is going through some exercises and some ways of looking at the situation which enable us to become more aware of our nervous system and to reregulate our nervous system, no matter how we're feeling. And we're also joined today by our various coaches as well. And this is going out live on a couple of our social media channels, as well as all our normal participants of Daily Gupta Sais. So, firstly, if you don't know who I am, my name is Ashok Gupta and I'm the, as I said, the founder and CEO of the Gupta Program. And together we're going to help you feel not alone in whatever you're experiencing today. And of course, we want to emphasize that we here at the Gupta Program are non partisan in the sense that we welcome all people to this experience. And we've had people reach out to us saying they're feeling a fear of the future. They're feeling perhaps angry at the election results, or indeed feeling a sense of feeling frozen, zoning out from the situation, or feeling very emotionally dysregulated. On the other hand, we've also had people who've reached out who actually welcomed the election results, but have said that they feel very judged by those around them, or they've even felt a sense of separation from family and friends. And that's been really difficult for them. And therefore, what they've been able to do is use some of the Gupta Program tools in order to support them. So either way, whichever part of the political divide you may be from, whether in the US or globally, this is just an opportunity for us to come together in unity and understand how we can re regulate ourselves. If this has been a shock for you, we want to show that empathy for what you're experiencing right now and validate it. Because whenever we have something shift in our personal environment, or indeed our professional environment, then what happens is it can sometimes feel very discombobulating and it's a loss of normality. And so whatever you're experiencing, I want you to feel that it is very normal to experience that. And. Okay, we just got A technical issue. So we're just going to sort out a particular technical issue that people are experiencing here. Okay? All right. And so of course, if you're finding this very tricky, what we'd love for you to do is reach out to our coaches so you can have a one on one session with our coaches and you can find our coaches@guptaprogram.com coaches and they'll be there to support you in a one on one situation. Because of course there's only so many things that we can work with you in this one to many environment. And of course we have our webinar series to support you as well. So those of you who are part of the Gupta program, each of our webinars, every week you get to join me and we'll talk about some of these issues. And on Monday's webinar, perhaps go further into it if people want that further support. But mainly it's to realise that this forum, which we call Daily Guptasize, which is a daily zoom call, available free to the planet, this is when we all come together in community and we have often 2 to 300 people a day coming together and supporting each other to help heal. And so we often start with 20 minutes, or rather 10 minutes of body work, somatic work, then some breathing followed by some meditation. And people find it, they go to each day to be able to calm and regulate their nervous system. So today we will do that. And first of all, as I said, people have been reaching out saying, how do we handle this situation? We're feeling dysregulated, we feel like it's the end of the world. What do we do with our experiences? And the first thing really that I want to share is whatever you're experiencing, there is a part of you that will want to research this further. There's a part of you that will want to doom scroll. And if you don't know what doom scrolling is, Doom scrolling is this idea that you go onto social media and you find out about a particular piece of news or a particular newspaper that you follow and suddenly you read that and then you want to read more and more and then you're reading all the comments or indeed you're watching the news and you're fixated on the news and watching the news 24 hours a day. And in all of these situations, the challenge is that the brain and neuroscience is involved in this type of this approach, this factor. You, your brain is wanting to find out more information. And so to make it super easy for these three things, we've said that are going to help you navigate this post election world. The first one is a for analysis or stop analyzing. So there's a part of you that's going to want to analyze the situation, try and work out what's going on in order to fix it. And what we want to share here is that that analysis isn't something that's going to help you and it comes from this part of us. So for those of you who are aware of the work that we do here at the Gupta program, we often share little puppets that represent our little parts. Okay, so there's a little part of us that is the safety seeker and this is represented by Sam the fireman. So Sam the fireman is the part of us that is looking for regulation and safety in any environment in our lives. And Sam the fireman is very intelligent in the sense that when there is threat or danger, he says where's the fire? Where's the fire? And he's hypervigilant and looks for all the information that can support us in regulating ourselves and making sure that we're safe. Now the challenge that we have is that this part of us also may overanalyze. It will take in as much information as it can. It will try to find as much information information as possible. And therefore it's an attempt by Sam the fireman to regain control. Because our brain has this idea, if I can get in as much information as possible and doom scroll and watch 24 hour news, maybe I'll be able to figure out what's going on and come up with a way of resolving my difficult emotions. But actually the opposite is true. If you get keep reading the news now and finding out more and more information, all you're going to be doing is retriggering your nervous system. So our first point is let's get let go of analysis paralysis. This part of us that is doing that, the safety seeker. And so I would encourage you to switch off the news for the moment we know what has happened. You've probably read a lot of articles, you've watched the news and that allows you to begin the process of dealing with the freeze element you may have, which is the shock of the news. Whether you, you liked it or not. There is a shock experience that we have and that can result in the freezing of the nervous system. So we want to just be able to become aware of that. But if we're doom scrolling and we're watching 24 hour news, we're just reinforcing that in our nervous System. So I encourage you to, to stop the scrolling and the reading and the watching. Okay? And that brings us on to B. So we like to make everything abc, so it's super easy to remember. So during your day, today, tomorrow, this coming week, if you're feeling dysregulated, you can remember abc. Very, very simple. So A is for stop analyzing. B is for your body and your breath. When we go through a shocking experience, we've mentioned three states so far. We mentioned freeze. Our body can go into this frozen state. We've mentioned fight, where we can experience the emotion of anger in our bodies. We've mentioned flight, that is the experience of fear and dread and wanting to run away from the situation. And there's a fourth emotion that we may be experiencing, which may be that feeling of grief. And grief is a loss of normality, a loss of what we held sacred or dear to ourselves. And if you're experiencing that, then all of these emotions often get trapped in our physical body. And if we're. By what we've experienced and feeling that those emotions can be observed and we can become connected to them and those are stored in our body. And so what we're going to do today in our little exercise is do some breath work and some somatic work to really tune into our bodies and be able to observe what's going on. For us to be centered in ourselves and be able to release that. Because if not, we hold onto these emotions inside of ourselves and, and they magnify and they become louder and it takes us out of what we call the window of tolerance. Now what that means is it can actually feel like a continual state of dysregulation. So we want to stay in our window of tolerance, sometimes called the energy envelope. What feels comfortable to us. Now, this is the key point for B, which is body and breath. When we tune into our emotions, and often we may feel grief or sadness at what's happened in the throat and chest area. We may have anxiety and fear that we experience in the chest area, in the middle of the chest, in the heart area. We may feel that also in our gut. Whether we feel the butterflies, the tension in our gut when we experience those emotions, the first thing that we often do is connect those emotions to the situation. So we say, oh look, I'm feeling anxious or I'm feeling scared, or I'm feeling annoyed, and it's as a result of this situation or this election, or we may blame the other side or the other voters or what we're experiencing right now. If we start connecting those physical sensations with blaming others, we stay stuck and the emotions simply continue within our system. So what I encourage you to do is to disconnect those things. So to become aware of your body and what's going on for you, as we will shortly in our exercise. But then separate that from what you think has triggered that and just focus on the sensations themselves. Let go of what caused them or what triggered them. Just focus on the sensations and what you'll be able to do is reconnect back into your body, feel less of a sense of overwhelm, and be able to navigate the situation in an easier way. And we'll demonstrate that shortly. C stands for compassionate self care. In these situations where we feel dysregulated, stressed, anxious, this existential dread some of you have commented on, it can be very tempting to stay in our rooms, to want to almost hibernate or not engage in social functions. And I encourage you, if you feel comfortable, to really indulge in self care. So that's walks in nature, the meditation and breath work that are so crucial at times like this, the physical exercise that you may find beneficial to your system. These are things that often we neglect when we're feeling overwhelmed or in a state of shock. And yet these are the most important things for our system at this time. And that's opportunity to focus on what you're experiencing right now with a sense of compassion for yourself. If there's any part of you that's thinking, why I'm experiencing this, it's not fair, and blaming yourself or thinking I should be the bigger person, why are these emotions here? That's still a judgment and we're judging ourselves and judging these emotions instead, we can let that go and validate what we're experiencing. Whatever you are experiencing right now, the Gupta program validates that for you. But what's more important is you validating it for yourself. I'm okay to feel this, to have this emotion rather than resisting it. And when we validate ourselves for having it, guess what? The edge is taken off that emotion and we're able to begin those next stages of healing. So A is for stop analyzing. So switch off the news, switch off the sources of the things that may be triggering you. B is for body and breath to go inwards, become aware of the sensations in your body without connecting it to the external world. C is for compassionate self care. So remembering it's okay to become self focused in this moment and engage in the healthy activities, good healthy diet, walks in nature, meditation and Breath work to begin that self healing and having compassion towards yourself. Now I said there were three, but of course for a bit of fun, there's a fourth one which is D. D is for Daily Gupta Sais. So over the coming weeks we have these free daily sessions on Zoom. You can access through the Gupta Program app. So you can download the free Gupta program app on Play Store, on App Store. And with a free account, you can access these Daily Gupta size calls where we go into, once again, breath work, somatic work, meditation, and it's healing in community. So when we are experiencing this, we can often want to hibernate, as I said, and be on our own. And actually being together in a healing community, no matter your background, can be so therapeutic. And many people comment that just being in community, being the daily Gupta sais, has enabled them to feel that sense of connection. And they find that the depth of the stillness in their nervous system is much more powerful than when they do the somatic work or the breath work on their own. So coming in community, healing together in community. That's why we're here. And the Gupta Program is here for you, whatever you're experiencing. And just on a technical note, I know that some of you having some technical issues with your membership of the Gupta program. And if that's the case, if you can't get in right now, you can just make a free trial account and still access a lot of the Gupta Program resources for free. Okay, you can do that whilst we spend time just fixing that technical issue for some of you. And right now, many of you are in this, as we said, state of just trying to come to terms with this, in that state of shock. And this ABCD can just help us navigate that. And eventually it's realizing that we as human beings have been through many challenges as an individual level. We as a society have been through many challenges over decades, over centuries. And whatever your viewpoint now, things will change, things will move on. There will be a navigation through this. And it may not feel like that right now because we're in that state of shock. And so in the future, it's just knowing that you will reframe this, there will be other ways of looking at this. And right now you can just focus on that self awareness and that self healing. And if there's any anger, emotions of anger that come up as to why did this happen, or anger at the other people in the other sides of the political spectrum, it's also recognizing that ultimately let's not focus on what separates us, but instead on what unites us, which is just us as human beings just doing our best to navigate our lives in this world. And so it doesn't help sometimes with our anger to demonize others or other people with different views that only once again propels the emotions within us. But just to with that compassionate self care for ourselves, just realize just human beings on their journeys doing the best that they can. Good. So a quick summary to help us navigate. This is based on lots of neuroscience research that we do help us navigate the coming few days and months. Let's stop analyzing. So switching off the doom scrolling A is for stop analyzing, stop watching the news. B Body and breath work. So now focusing on the sensations in your body, breathing and meditating with that soft awareness. And in the program we have, if you're a premium member, the soften and flow and the safe sensations, the safe haven exercises C is for that compassionate self care. So validating how you're feeling and focusing on the things that you know help bring you to balance and bring you into that centeredness. And when you least feel like doing it, that's often a reason to do it. So we don't want to navigate so much by our feelings. Our feelings will be just to hibernate in a room. But actually with that compassionate self care, let's go beyond that and say actually what's good for me right now, walks in nature, meditation and breath work, physical exercise, getting movement into the body. And D is a daily Gupta Seisa A, B, C, D. And to demonstrate B that body and breath work, what I'd love for us to do is do a short exercise together where we'll just look at how we can begin to just tune in to those sensations. So if I ask you right now to just get comfortable, perhaps take a little stretch to just get comfortable with yourself and you can just gently close your eyes and let's take a slow deep breath in. And let go. Another deep breath in from the stomach. And just breathing out slowly through the nose. And we'll keep our eyes closed for the next 10 to 15 minutes and just becoming aware first of all of the community of people here together, hundreds of people in the Zoom call and on social media being together to support each other energetically, vibrationally, knowing that you are not alone in this journey, that whatever your viewpoints, whichever part of the political divide you may be on, you're here in community supporting each other, Just feeling into that sense of safety in this space right now and safety in the room right now. And if you were to feel safer in this room, who would you bring into your safe space right now? This might be a friend or a family member. It could be a representation of love, which could be a figure from your religion or spirituality. It could be nature, something that helps you feel safe and calmer. Just bringing that sense of safety into your safe bubble right now. And taking a slow, deep breath in, Holding the breath and breathing out slowly through the nose, Coming into feeling more safe in your body and in the room around you. And let's observe our bodies right now. So just becoming aware of your feet. And if your feet are on the floor, just noticing your feet feeling grounded, connecting to Mother Earth. Or if your feet are up on the bed or a chair, just feeling more grounded and connected on the chair you are sitting on. And as you stay connected with your eyes closed, feeling like there are roots coming out of the bottom of your feet, going into the ground, Connecting you and grounding you to the ear. Take a slow, deep breath in, Slowly breathing out and feeling our feet and that connection, connecting into our legs, Grounding into our legs, Connecting to our pelvis. Now connecting and feeling into our stomach area around the navel. And now notice what you experience in your chest and your stomach. Notice, like a curious observer, any sensations, any feelings of tightness. And knowing you are in your safe haven with your representation of love with you, smiling at you. Just notice any sensations of fear, any anxiety in your chest or stomach region, not trying to change it, just observing, like a curious observer, Sinking deeper into your chest and stomach region and noticing the sensations. Taking a slow, deep breath in. And breathing out with a smile. And as you notice those sensations, We let go of where they may have come from or what may have caused those sensations. We let that go, taking a deep breath again and breathe that out, let go of any connection that it has to the outer world, because we're letting go of the outer world and just connecting to the sensations only. And they are just sensations in your chest and stomach, they can't harm you. And if there are any sensations, they may have got a little stuck there, and that's okay. What they welcome is your conscious attention on them with a calm, centered attitude. So let's spend a couple of minutes breathing into them. So I want you to breathe in, feel any sensations in your stomach or chest and almost breathe through those sensations. And as you breathe out, just saying in your mind and let go. So let's do that again, let's take a slow, deep breath in, Feel those sensations and just breathing out, slowly breathing through the sensations and let go. Not trying to push those sensations away, but not resisting them either. Just noticing them like a curious observer with your eyes closed, Breathing in again, Connecting to any sensations in your chest and stomach. And breathing out slowly through the nose and letting go. And as we let go, consciously relaxing your shoulders and your legs and your stomach and chest, Taking another breath in, Seeing what sensations are still there, feeling them without judgment, feeling safe and just breathing through them and let go. As you bring the power of your consciousness to those sensations without connection to anything outside. These sensations feel met, they feel listened to, and that's what they're calling out for, is just your attention on them with your eyes closed. Once again, with our eyes closed, tuning into any remaining physical sensations in your chest and stomach area. Breathing in, Feeling even closer to those sensations, feeling them fully and let go. I'll give you a couple of minutes to do that in your own time. Breathing in with awareness, connecting the power of your total consciousness onto those mere sensations. They're just sensations. And with that calm, relaxed attitude, breathing out and letting go, feeling your whole physical body dropping and relaxing. Let's repeat that for a couple of minutes and let's just do that now. Taking a slow, deep breath in from the stomach, Holding the breath as you tune into the sensations and let go. And if you have any sensations in the throat area, the throat or the upper chest, almost like it feels like the throat's slightly choking. If you feel you have any sadness there or grief, just becoming aware of that sensation in the throat or the upper chest. And if you don't, that's okay, you can continue to focus on your chest. But if you do have any sensations in your throat or upper chest, take a slow, deep breath in, Feeling those sensations. And let go. And keeping your awareness whilst you breathe slowly and deeply, keeping your awareness on your throat and upper chest, or wherever you experience any sensations right now. And as you focus and breathe, sinking deeper into these sensations and whatever way feels safe for you, We can also feel into these affirmations. I observe my body with compassion. I observe and ground into my body with gentle, loving awareness. In the past, what I resisted, persisted. But now what I lovingly observe with compassion will dissolve away, dissolves away in its own time. And when I observe my sensations with a calm, neutral, loving and compassionate observer, I know that at a deeper level I feel taken care of by this universe, That whatever temporary events may occur, I am a powerful human spirit. Beyond the temporary ups and downs of life. And as I observe and release these sensations, It becomes easier to connect to the strength that I truly am within. And wherever there are any remaining sensations in your body, just observing them with loving, compassionate kindness, take a deep breath in. And breathing out slowly through the nose as you connect with any remaining sensations and letting them go, sinking deeper into your body, Feeling more grounded in your physical being. That whatever happens, I'll be okay. Whatever happens, we together will be okay. Believing the genuine goodness of our fellow man and woman. We've come through challenges, separations before and we'll come through this. Knowing that as a whole, having that feeling of being taken care of at the deepest level. In your mind with your eyes closed, you can say any personal affirmations and statements that support your healing. Right now, With your eyes closed, notice how you feel more inside your body and maybe a bit more in your body than you did before this exercise. And that is the secret of b body and breath. Letting go of the outer stimulation, coming into your inner world with loving kindness and safety, observing your sensations which enables you to ground back in and connect to that powerful human spirit that you are that can navigate any difficult seas with the powerful sails and the winds of grace that will propel you forward. As we come towards the end of this exercise, let's now come back into the room feeling grateful for our bodies and our breath. And let's take a powerful energizing breath in from the stomach. And breathing out with a smile. Another energizing breath in. And letting go, really loosening the entire body. And when we feel ready, when we feel complete, we can just gently open our eyes. Welcome back. Now what I'd love for you to do is just shake out your body bit. So just shake out your hands, your arms, maybe get up and shake some of the feelings from your legs as well. We've loosened up some of that stuck energy inside you. So now we finish off loosening that stuck energy through shaking it out in your physical body to shake out your body. And so a quick reminder for those of you who've joined us on social media through our live Gupta size every morning we've gone through the ABCDE of handling this post election experience that you may be having a is for stop analyzing. So you want to switch off as we reminder the social media, the news, the articles, let it go for a period of time. Remember, all of those channels rely on stimulating your nervous system. So the news and social media wants to stimulate your nervous system because they're all competing for eyeballs. Eyeballs are the currency of the modern era. So therefore more of the posts will Be emotionally stimulating and dysregulating. So let's switch off the analysis of the situation which helps us move forward. B For body and breath, please listen to some of the meditations on the Gupta Program app which are free. Tuning into your sensations and releasing them which may be in your chest, your throat or your head. Observing compassionately and separating off the cause of them from the outside world. Just focusing on the sensations with your loving awareness. C Compassionate self care. This is the time to take care of yourself, to make good practices and good habits of meditation. Breathwork, walks in nature, communing with the greenery around you or the sea, the mountains. And D knowing that Gupta Program is here for you. Our D is for Daily Gupta Sai. So please if you're finding this hard over these coming weeks, coming days, join us for free through the Gupta Program app. You can download it from App Store or Play Store, get a free trial account and you can join us for Daily Gupta size at 7 o' clock Pacific, 10am Eastern, 3pm UK, 4pm UK Europe. Okay. And on this Daily Gupta size will be a beautiful coaches will be there for you, taking you through from somatic work, breath work and meditation to help you and as I said, healing in community, realizing you are not on your own, that you are part of a powerful force. This human race, this humanity. We're with you every step of the way. So thank you so much for joining. Now for those of you who have joined through the app, we have our brain retraining coming up next on Zoom. So you can join the separate Zoom call for that. And if you've enjoyed this on social media, please do share this social media stream with your friends and family and enable them to also experience how they can deal with this. If you know people around you feeling shocked, overwhelmed, a sense of dread, the only way forward is for us to really go into self care and support internally for ourselves so you can share this exercise with them and it's free. It's on social media now. So thank you all for watching. Much love and blessings to you all. We have Francis presenting our Daily Gupta Sais tomorrow who will also in a similar way take you through these gentle exercises to help you re regulate yourself. And I wish you all the best over the coming days and weeks. Thank you so much everyone. Bye.