Lesson #1

Part 1

Most clients I see do not know how to relax. They expect me to relax them in the same way they expect alcohol, medication, and even other people to help them feel better. While these things can be useful, they are what I consider third parties, and the point of self care is cultivating care of the self by the self. If you can find a way to accomplish this, you have utilized your own inner being to unlock a whole new level of experiencing life. I have been practicing meditation for almost 5 years now. While I may not be considered a guru, I have definitely discovered something very special that does not seem to be shared among the handful of practiced meditation guides. It is my hope to impart this specialness through this course and inspire you to relax, let go, and let your own inner coach lead the way. So let's get in flow...

Do you know what relaxation even feels like? Has your wellness provider ever asked you your level of pain or stress? I do, and I've discovered most people do not even know they have pain. That was me just 5 years ago before I discovered meditation. I wanted to experience float therapy and discovered instead how much pain I had been holding in my neck. Most people would dismiss that as an unpleasant experience and decide it wasn't for them. Thankfully, I was able to recognize I didn't know how to relax even though I had been a massage therapist for over a decade. I went back the following month with one goal in mind: focus on relaxing the neck!

It's all about intention. What do you hope to gain from this course? Please write it down and save it. We will return to your answer much later.

Pain points. Where are yours? Is your pain acute? chronic? neuropathic? nociceptive? radicular? emotional? The point is becoming aware of the sensations that present due to dis-ease of the body-mind complex, aka YOU! You know what and where many are, but often we don't even know what exactly is ailing us. A symptom pops up and then another and then another.

Tension- Let's create some some! In order to experience 'letting go,' we need to first get really tense. Lay on your back in a comfortable position. If you are unable to lay on your back, then sit in a comfortable chair. You need to squeeze your entire body. Roll your hands into a fist, extend your feet, bend your toes, squeeze your face and jaw, and squeeze (contract) every muscle you can think of not mentioned. Squeeze for 30 seconds. Let go. Starting at the scalp and working your way down to your toes, become aware of the contrast you just created from tension to relaxing in every muscle you squeezed. This entire activity should take about a minute.

Now that you are aware of what relaxation should feel like, we are going to work on intension. We will bring the tension inward and hold it, so that we may experience the relaxing effect outwardly. With daily practice, you can create new neural pathways of being and help the body remember the goal, whether it is inner peace, relaxation, joy, or something else. Yes, there is so much you can utilize meditation for, not just relaxation!

THE self-care nerve is your vagal nerve. Knowing how to stimulate your longest nerves, there's one on each side of your body, that connect all your major organs to your nervous system is the key to starting the body vehicle. For all intents and purposes, your body has already started, but if your stress response isn't what you'd like, then your body almost seems to have a mind of its own, correct? That's because it's in automatic, running amok every habitual bad stress response you've picked up during your lifetime. Good news is you just got to take control and shift to manual. Manual mode is deeply breathing, also known as conscious breathing, as opposed to unconscious or automatic breathing.

In Part 2, the following video, we will learn