Arielle Schwartz’s Somatic Practice for Anxiety | Connect Heart, Belly & Breath to Feel Safe

Foreign. I'll share one that. That is a particularly beloved set of practices. They're short. They're each. They're each maybe 30 seconds to a minute. And. And I'll just kind of link a few together and the first one, and I'll always name this when I'm offering a practice that you, as a listener or participant, you always have choice, like see, See if it feels right in your body, there's nothing that you ever have to do. My favorite somatic interventions for anxiety is what I call the head hold. It's a very simple practice of taking one hand to the base of your skull and of where your brain stem would be, and the other one right across the frontal lobes or your forehead. So you're essentially holding your head. And you can even sense that you're holding your brain under, underneath your skull and kind of giving a little bit of holding of yourself. And yes, your eyes can absolutely close with this one. It's a really lovely one to just drop inside if that feels right. And then with that holding of your own head, starting to sense your breath. And sensing breath can sometimes be challenging if you have a history of anxiety. So if that doesn't feel right, just simply pay attention to the felt experience of your hands holding your own head. If sensing your breath feels accessible, I want you to really sense the most upper pathway of your breath. So if you breathe through your nostrils, if you breathe through your nose, sensing how that breath can move into the sinus cavities, and almost imagining, as if you had lungs in the two sides of your brain, that you were to fill that whole space of your head with your own breath. And simultaneously having that containment of your hands, holding your own head, Feeling that you are lovingly, deeply, compassionately holding yourself in a way that maybe even acknowledges. Even though sometimes I feel anxious, I can deeply love and hold myself with kindness. Maybe another breath right here, breathing into the space between your hands, maybe even imagining breathing light into the space of your brain. And then so gently, smoothly moving your hands away from your head. You might even rest them down for a moment and notice how your body responded, maybe sensing subtle or perhaps not so subtle feedback that your body received that touch, any subtle shifts that accompany that. And I'll offer one more layer to this. And again, receive or. Or engage as only if it feels right for you. And this one is one that I use a lot. And it's an invit meditation to place one hand right over your navel and one over your heart. And so we're moving from perhaps that upper vagus, the. The way that extends up into the head down towards the lower vagus in service of connecting belly and. And a little bit of containment, right? There's a quality of your own hands can give you a sense of where you begin and end. You might again sense subtle movement of your breath, this time into your chest or belly. And you can even offer up that gentle affirmation or phrase of self compassion. Even though sometimes I feel anxious or worried, I can hold myself lovingly. And once again slowly in your own time letting your hands move away from your body if they were there, notice how your body or mind respond. And I'll offer up that no matter what happens, it's the right answer. So sometimes when we go towards these greeting of ourselves and what comes up is I'm not so sure about that or I feel more of my body and I feel a little bit more tenderness or I feel a little bit of my guarding, that's the right answer, right? Like can you turn towards whatever arises in the practice with some degree of that too is welcome here.