In our daily lives, we tend to accumulate stress without even being aware of it. Stress is commonly manifested in our behavior and health, so we need to self observe and learn to manage it better. This way, we keep stress levels low and affect our interpersonal relations positively. In this episode, we practice a yoga-inspired breathing exercise and focus our attention on body parts and internal organs where stress is stored. Find a quiet place, put away your phone or any other distraction and concentrate on yourself. If you are driving or doing something that needs your attention, please download it and listen to it when it’s time to relax. Enjoy! Written by Chryssa Kourenta, Joanna Bakratsa. Narrated by Joanna Bakratsa. Music by Chryssa Kourenta. Recorded at OpenStudio Post.
Welcome to the brain tuning podcast! We are Joanna and Chryssa and together we will present a weekly meditation in English and in Greek. The idea for this podcast was born through our personal research and years of experimentation with meditation. We have seen that the more you repeat the process, the mind learns to concentrate and develop awareness, and the more often we practice, the easier it is to stay focused on what we are doing in the present. Whether you are a beginner in meditation practices or advanced, you can feel the benefits. So, let’s begin…
Stress is a natural function of our autonomic nervous system that helps us go into a fight or flight response when we are facing a physical threat. Excessive and long-term stress can lead to lack of concentration, inability to complete our work, frequent colds, physical pain, autoimmune diseases, high blood pressure, headaches, irritability, sleeping problems, changes in appetite. Meditation is very effective in managing stress, because the brain does not discern between something we imagine, and something we are experiencing at the moment. Therefore, by practicing meditation regularly, we learn to manage excessive and harmful stress in just a few weeks. Let's start!
You can sit or lie down in a comfortable place and loosen up your clothes if they feel tight. It is time to train your mind to be in the present, in the here and now. If you chose to sit, straighten your back so that your spine is not pressed down. If you are lying down, stay on your back in a neutral position where you can notice if there is any tightness in your body.
Now is the time to relax.
Close your eyes
and take a few deep breaths,
inhaling through your nose and slowly exhaling through your mouth.
Concentrate on your breath.
Notice how natural,
How harmonious,
how calm, how relaxed the rhythm of your breath already is.
Αnd the more you concentrate on it, the more you let go.
Each breath becomes deeper,
more relaxed and more enjoyable.
Slowly focus on your body, starting from your legs and going up to the top of your head. Feel the bottom of your feet, go up to your calves, scan your legs up to the hips. As you observe your body, notice any tightness. And relax.
Continue scanning the pelvic area, the abdomen, the back, stay for a while in your chest
area, feel your heart, your shoulders. Where there is any tension, allow it to be released.
Now, go to your arms, elbows and hands. Allow them to soften.
Go to your neck, the back of your head, your face. Relax your mouth, your jaw, your eyes.
Let go, trust the wisdom of your body, you are safe. You are in the here and now.
A different way of breathing is to imagine that the inhalation and exhalation are being done from a specific area or organ of your body.
And now notice in which parts of your body has stored some tension.
So focus all your attention on that point and imagine that your breath takes place there. For example, if you feel tension in your neck, imagine that you are breathing through it. Take deep relaxing breaths, until you feel it has softened. Now go to the other areas, if there are any, and repeat the same process. Once you have located and released all parts of your body, it is time to observe your internal organs. So, if you feel stored tension in your stomach, imagine that you are breathing through it. Take as much time as you need until you feel all excess stress being removed from your body. This time is dedicated to yourself.
Slowly return to the known rhythm of your breath, maintaining the feeling of relaxation that you just experienced and when you feel ready open your eyes.
During the day, whenever you feel that you are overwhelmed by stress, you can close your eyes and take a few deep breaths, inhaling through your nose and exhaling slowly through your mouth.
Remember that when you reducε excess stress and it’s proper management, the levels of cortisol in our blood are reduced and our health improves gradually.
Meditations are written and spoken by Chryssa Kourenta and Joanna Bakratsa, music is created and sound is edited by Chryssa Kourenta. Recordings are done at Open Studio Post. You can find the “Brain Tuning Podcast” in all podcast applications. If you enjoy our work and would like to support us, we have set up a donation button on the website www.holisticenergy.club. This will give us the opportunity to continue sharing more self-development techniques with you. For more information you can visit www.holisticenergy.club and www.wizebeeproject.com.