Our spiritual alignment is so deeply connected to our ability to regulate our nervous system, so much so that when our nervous system is dysregulated, we lose access to our higher consciousness and to our ability to be awake and aware. In this video, I’m going to share with you two very simple, accessible exercises that you can use when you are feeling dysregulated in your nervous system to support you, and come back into your spiritual alignment.
Before I do that, I want to share with you my new book, Align: Living and Loving From the True Self. Align offers a comprehensive map to come back home to the truth of who you are, and to live in love from this deeply sacred, authentic place within yourself. I also have these new self-guided alignment cards. There’s 48 cards in a deck, and each card has a sacred wisdom, teaching, and a sentence stem to support you in living and loving from your true self.
As we begin, I want to talk for a moment about the Vagus nerve. The Vagus nerve comes from the brain stem and travels down towards the gut, and is known for its ability to regulate our nervous system and to sense into the social engagement to the people around us. When we sense a threat to our safety in the world around us, the Vagus nerve contracts and we feel dysregulated. When we feel dysregulated, the amygdala, the emotional center of the brain, starts to get activated, and the higher functioning of our higher consciousness shuts down the parietal lobe and we go into a fight-flight, freeze, or fawn response, where everything within us is focused on finding a sense of safety.
What I’ve learned in my work with clients is that the Vagus nerve and the cranial nerves that connect to the vagus nerve in the brainstem, travel down towards the heart center and into the gut where they connect the upper chakras; the solar plexus, the heart center, the throat, Chakra, the third eye. and the crown. When our Vagus nerve and our cranial nerves are contracted in a fear, our Chakra system, our energy centers, are also closed off. As we learn to regulate our nervous system and become more available for our own experience, our energy centers also begin to open and our vitality begins to move through us with more ease.
I want to point out here, that the solar plexus is right above the belly button and below the heart. The solar plexus and up are the upper chakras that align us vertically, up towards the sky, towards the source that beats our heart. And then there is the lower energy centers, the sacral and the root energy centers, that move down towards the core of the earth. They anchor us here in our connection to the earth, in our sacred connection to the earth and in our deeper sense of safety within our body.
In the exercises that I’m going to show you, the first one touches on the upper energy centers focusing on the vagus nerve, and the second one touches slightly more on the lower energy centers.
To begin, if your hair is up, make sure it’s down. If you have glasses on, take them off. If you have on a necklace, take that off also, because that could also get in the way.
Now close your eyes and I’m going to invite you to bring your fingertips to the crown of your head. Take a moment to feel the touch of your fingertips on your head and take a nice, loving inhale, and as you exhale, just kind of sense into your fingertips and feel if that quality of touch feels good to you.
Touching ourselves is a really loving act, and so just sense in. Can you feel the love from your fingertips to the crown of your head? Once that touch feels loving and enjoyable to you, take another inhale and as you exhale, slowly slide your fingertips down the side of your head. This is getting to all of those cranial nerves. Then continue down around both sides of your ears, exhaling down the sides of your neck.
Keep breathing in a way that feels loving. Keep feeling the love of your fingertips on your vagus nerve, move nice and slow down the side of your neck towards your heart center. Move so slow, almost like you’re moving through molasses. Move down towards your solar plexus towards your belly, just stopping there for a moment, inhaling and exhaling. Do that again. Bring your fingertips to the crown of your head and at your own pace, sliding your fingertips down, just feeling the love of your own sacred touch around your ears, down sides of your neck. Nice and slow, breathing in the breath of love towards your heart and then towards your belly. We’ll do this one last time at your own pace, sliding your fingertips down, really letting your Vagus nerve know that you are here, really contacting yourself so that you’re present with your touch, with your body, your sensations, with your breath. Allowing the breath to mobilize and move old energy. Bringing your fingertips towards your heart and towards your belly, and then still with your eyes closed, just lowering your hands, noticing how that feels.
Then we’re going to stretch the Vagus nerve. I want you to just look over your left shoulder, stretching from your left shoulder to your right hip, feeling that stretch across your Vagus nerve and looking behind you, just noticing that nobody’s there, that you’re safe. Exhaling, coming to center. Then do that on the other side, just making sure nobody is behind you, looking over your right shoulder. stretching your vagus nerve. Exhaling, coming back to center. Doing that one more time on each side. As you do that, I also want you to feel in to your root as you come back to center, feel your seat of safety and security. And again looking over the right side. staying connected to your root as you look and then come back and really let yourself land in your seat, and root down. Exhale, surrender even more down into your seat. You might even want to do a little wiggle and feel that your seat is connected, and that you’re right here. You’re here in this moment.
When the nervous system is activated, the mind is such that we can have a hard time discerning past from present. Past threats and traumas can actually feel really present in the moment, and guide our thinking in that way. So becoming really present with our body, with our sacred connection to the earth, with our breath, with our touch, we can be more awake and aware. Your awake awareness is your most resourced, regulated self, and to access our awake awareness is what allows us to meet life from our alignment.
I hope you enjoyed this practice today. I have new online courses, Living Your Alignment, and Spiritually Aligned Relationships. These two courses are for everybody. I have some really beautiful offerings for therapists and coaches who want to learn how to facilitate alignment with your clients.
Blessings to you on your sacred journey. Thank you so much for joining me today.