[gentle music]
- Hi, my name is Christine.
I'm a meditation teacher and Co-founder of Awarehouse.
And today I'll be sharing with you
one of my favorite practices to release tension in the body.
And the way we're gonna be doing that
is by humming to the tone we're hearing
from the shruti box, which is an Indian drone instrument.
And what we'll do is we'll begin humming,
and then we'll push the vibration of the hum
to the bridge of the nose.
And what's happening when we do this
is we're stimulating our vagus nerve,
which starts right about here,
and connects to our nervous system and many other organs.
And so when that happens,
it activates our parasympathetic nervous system.
I like to think of it
as just giving ourselves an internal massage.
Let's begin by getting into a comfortable seated position.
And for deep relaxation,
you're welcome to lay down on your back.
And the most important thing
is that your spine is nice and straight.
Wherever you're at,
allow your eyes to lower, or completely close.
[gentle music]
And so, beginning to withdraw from your senses.
Checking in one more time with your posture,
just making sure that you're very comfortable.
[gentle musical tones]
And beginning with the feet, we'll do a body scan.
Relaxing the feet,
your ankles,
relaxing the muscles in your calves,
your thighs,
releasing the hips,
softening in your lower back and your torso.
[gentle music continues]
Relaxing the shoulders and the arms.
And inviting a small smile to your face,
relaxing the muscles in the forehead,
the space in between your eyebrows,
and your cheeks.
[gentle music continues]
And so, begin by connecting to your motivation
for practicing today.
[gentle music continues]
[Christine exhales]
And now, bring your awareness
to the physical sensation of the breath.
[gentle music continues]
Allowing the breath to find its natural rhythm,
putting no extra emphasis on the inhale or the exhale.
Allowing the lungs to fill to their natural capacity.
And just breathing as though you are asleep.
[gentle music]
[Christine exhales]
Slowly begin to take deeper intentional breaths,
seeing if you can work up to six seconds in,
six seconds out.
[gentle music continues]
[Christine breathes]
[gentle music continues]
And on your next inhale, hold it at the top,
and let it go. [shruti box drones]
Resting your attention to the tone that you're hearing.
[droning continues]
Noticing the textures in the sound.
[shruti box droning]
Really diving into the details here.
[shruti box drone continues]
Slowly begin to hum to the tone that you're hearing.
[Christine hums]
[shruti box droning continues]
When you run out of breath, just start over.
[Christine hums] [shruti box droning]
Pushing the vibration of the hum to the bridge of your nose.
[Christine hums different pitch]
[shruti box drones]
[Christine hums different pitch]
[shruti box droning continues]
[Christine humming]
[shruti box droning continues]
[Christine humming]
[shruti box droning continues] [Christine hums]
[shruti box quickens and fades]
Slowly releasing the hum,
connecting with any shifts
within your physical or emotional body.
Just noticing how you're feeling in this moment,
and recalling any positive sensations you experienced
in the last few minutes.
And think of one person in your life
that might be in need of some relief,
and dedicate the benefits of your practice to them.
Slowly beginning to reconnect to all of your senses,
noticing any sounds in the space that you're in.
Any scents in the air.
Feeling the weight of your body
being supported by the Earth.
And whenever you're ready,
you can allow the eyes to flutter open.
Thank you so much for practicing with me today.
See you next time.