Activate Your Parasympathetic
Nervous System
Pay Attention to Your Body’s Cycles.
The goal is to switch your brain for a few minutes from the busy beta wave state to an alpha wave state. This activates the parasympathetic nervous system, allowing the body to slow down and the brain to regenerate. It only takes 10-15 minutes of meditation to feel the benefits.
Give Your Brain A Break
1)Take an Air Break!
No not a smoke break, a brain break. Every 90 minutes take the time to go outside and take a real break for 10 or 15 minutes. If you can’t go outside try staring out the window or at a calming picture. Now take long breaths through your nose for a count of 8 and out your mouth with a gentle “ha” sound for a count of 8. It does not have to be perfectly timed – you can do it at any time – but there is a scientific reason for aiming for every 90 minutes.
2)Active Meditation
Do Hakalau, a form of meditation from the ancient Hawaiian Huna system called “the active meditation of the Kahuna.” Hakalau is used for entering a rapid trance state at will.
Here are the five steps to this form of meditation:
1. Pick a spot on the wall to look at, preferably above eye level, so that your field of vision seems to bump up against your eyebrows, but not so high as to cut off the field of vision. This will take you to an alpha state.
2. Next “let go.” Take deep slow breaths as you stare at this spot, just let your mind go free from thought, and focus all of your attention on the spot. Spend about 15-20 seconds on this step.
3. Now “spread out.” Continue with your slow deep breathes as you notice that your vision begins to spread out, and you see more in the peripheral than you do in the central part of your vision. Just stay on this step for 20-30 seconds
4. Now, “pay attention” Pay more attention to the peripheral than to the central part of your vision. Try looking behind you.
5. “Stay” in this state for as long as you can.
Start with 5 minutes and work up to 15.
3)Simple Alternate nostril breathing
Why?
This type of breathing can balance the two sides of the brain and this will then calm the mind and help return vital energy.
How to do it.
Sit comfortably with your head and spine straight.
Close your eyes and relax your shoulders.
You will be using one hand for this.
Your thumb and your ring finger will be the ones used to close the nostrils.
Close one nostril with the thumb
Breathe in a long slow deep breath (always from the belly) through the open nostril.
Pause for a moment.
Now remove the thumb and cover the other nostril with the ring finger, and slowly exhale through the open nostril.
Then inhale back into that same open nostril,
Cover it with the thumb again,
and exhale through the other side.
And so on for several rounds.
Keep the length of breath even.
Breathe in 4, hold 4 and 4 out.
Feeling anxiety/nervousness, then inhale 4, hold 4, and exhale slowly for 8.
Why?
Every time you exhale, your vagus nerve squirts some acetylcholine which acts as a tranquilizer-like substance to slow down beat-to-beat intervals and has shown to improve heart rate variability and clams you down.
Still need more help calming your mind and resetting
Donel Rourke, C.HYP.
