Healing Isn’t Linear | Somatic Meditation for Nervous System Regulation

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Thank you so much for being here, and please settle into this moment exactly as you are. With no need to be calm to begin, or solve any of the puzzles from your week or your life. Just find a position where your body feels the least amount of effort, whether sitting, lying down, or reclining. It's up to you. Let the surface beneath you take over. Let the floor, chair, or the bed begin to carry your weight so that you don't have to. Take a slow breath in through your nose, and exhale through your nose. And as you exhale, let it be a soft sigh. Again, breathing in, and letting the exhale be a little heavier if it can. One more time. Inhale, safety. And exhale, release. And exhale, release. Over the course of your life, you might have felt like healing is a ladder that you're trying to climb. Or that somehow, your health and spiritual growth is a straight line, an upward trajectory. where we leave our humanity behind in exchange for some polished, perfect version of ourselves. But deep down, we know a different truth, and your nervous system knows too. Because healing is not a line, it's a spiral. It's a deepening and a return to the same places, but with a wider capacity to stay present. In this space, and today with this meditation, we're moving away from the strict, limited labeling of our experience. The beauty of an expanded nervous system is that it doesn't need to call things good or bad, success or failure. It learns to see nuance. It learns to hold the both in the end. You can be both tired and powerful, healing and whole, or grieving and arriving. As you breathe, notice if there are any labels that you've been wearing too tightly. Anything that comes to mind may be broken, stuck, or behind. And imagine those labels loosening like fabric, softening and re-shaping. Loosening like fabric, softening and water. Because you are not your labels. You are the being and the beautiful humanity underneath them. Bring your awareness to the places that you feel most connected to, and to the places that you feel most at ease with. To the places that you feel most at ease with. To the places where your body has learned to stay ready for the part of you that has survived through the fight response. To the places where your body has learned to stay ready for the part that has survived through the fight response. To the places where your body has learned to stay ready for the fight response. Imagine roots growing from your souls and connecting you to your soul. you to the ancient, steady earth, say quietly to yourself, I am allowed to be still and move at the pace of my own peace, let the doing drain downward through your legs and into the ground, you are not a phone running too many apps, you're a human being, you're plugged back into the source, feel her strength, moving on, we're going to give voice to the stillness for the part of you. That has survived through the freeze or the fawn, that part that learned to go numb, disappear or to manage the room by becoming what everyone else needed, this is your invitation to express. Your freeze was just like that. Your freeze was your shelter. Your fawn was your relational wisdom. You stayed quiet to be safe. But today, the silence is allowed to thaw. Bring your attention to your throat and your chest. Swallow gently, imagine a stream of warm water, loosening the places where you swallowed your words. If a sigh wants to come, let it out. Let it out with sound. If your body wants to sway or move intuitively, let it lead. And say quietly to yourself, "My voice is safe, my truth is a contribution." You're not just managing the flow of your life, you're managing the flow of your mind. You're not just managing the flow of your mind, you're managing the flow of your mind. You're not just managing the field, you are here to inform it. Your presence is a signal, and when you're regulated, that signal becomes a song of belonging. Now imagine the space around your body as a field of energy. As your nervous system expands, this field grows wider. It becomes more coherent and a place where nuance can live. In an expanded state, we no longer need everyone to feel the same, to be safe. We don't need to cast anyone out, to feel like we belong. Imagine that your field is touching the fields of others. Imagine that your field is a place where nuance can live. © transcript Emily Beynon © transcript Emily Beynon