My Nervous System Needed Time To Adjust

Can you imagine that the key to calming your emotions could simply lie in your breath and the tips of your fingers? This hold was a particular favorite for emotional calm whenever I would get irritated hearing a bird singing at two thirty in the morning. At the time, this solitary bird’s chirpy song felt like a grand aria! It helps to harmonize the system by rebalancing energy flow through gentle touch. Just as in yogic practices, certain fingers are related to specific planetary energy or the energy of the elements. We can calm different emotions by connecting to different fingers and meridian pathways. When thoughts are swirling in the middle of night, holding your fingers and breathing long and deep and slow will help you get back to sleep. The many different methods of energy work build upon each other, shifting the subtle layers. Perhaps you’ll just feel calmer than before, but that is still worthwhile. Grasp lightly and take long, slow breaths. Set your intention for bringing balance into your system. You could then switch hands. A longer balancing ritual, do each finger on each hand starting with the thumb and then switch hands. This is a great ritual for the middle of the night, but it can be done at any time.

Withdraw With Merciless Aloofness.

As always, if you do not have the flower essences on hand, you can just visualize the flower or the name of the flower with each balancing hold. This has been extremely supportive for me in the middle of the night. It’s also excellent for the morning, especially if you haven’t slept well. Truthfully, this ritual can be used anytime to keep your energy balanced and flowing! The first two weeks didn’t just involve being around colleagues at work. It had been a year and one month since I had last worked in person. I was exhausted those first two weeks and didn’t quite know why until I realized that my nervous system needed to acclimate. As thrilled as I was to be out in the world again, my nervous system needed time to adjust to working in person and being social. In short, it needed to relearn how to be around people. A wonderful colleague of mine reminded me of this practice, which totally helped me reset and resource myself. Begin by touching the top of your head with the fingers of your right hand. Hold until you feel your pulsation in your fingers, or simply hold for two minutes. Take gentle, long, and slow breaths in and out as you move through the different positions.

Hold On To This Hope

It’s the combination of breath and holds that creates bigger shifts in the system. Now bring the fingers of the left hand to touch the point between the brows. Hold here until you feel the pulses synchronize in both hands, or just hold for two minutes. Then move the fingers of the left hand to the tip of the nose. Again, hold here until you feel the pulsation synchronize in both hands, or just hold for two minutes. Move the fingers of the left hand to the middle of the chest, holding until the pulses synchronize, or for two minutes. Move the fingers of the left hand down to the base of the sternum, where your ribs branch out. Again, hold until you sense that the pulsation has synchronized in both hands, or for two minutes. Now move the fingers of the left hand to the top of the pubic bone and wait for synchronized pulsation between the hands, or for two minutes. Then, keeping the fingers of the left hand on the pubic bone, remove the right hand from the top of the head and bring the fingers of the right hand to the tailbone. Hold until you feel the pulsation synchronize or, again, simply hold for two minutes. After all of this, you may find yourself feeling calmer and more centered.

I'm Tired Of Knowing It's Always Coming Back

You may feel ready to sleep deeply and soundly knowing that the energy in your system is more grounded and balanced. If this practice resonates, do it daily and notice all the different ways in which you shift into more flow. While Grandma Oula was in the hospital, my sister relayed to me quite late in the evening that Grandma had asked my father to get in touch with the head monk at the temple. My father replied that with the temple closed during the pandemic, it would be difficult to contact him. I went to bed that night extremely upset with the thought that my grandmother might be denied her last rites. It upset me so much that I woke up in the middle of the night unable to sleep as I agonized over her situation, determined to get my father to find this monk for her the next morning. In the meantime, I still felt helpless and unable to fall asleep. During these situations, it often happens that our anxious mind finds something else to worry about. They asked me to answer a few questions, and since this was all happening while my grandmother was unwell, I responded quickly just to get it done and out of the way. My anxious mind, triggered by my grandmother’s situation, began berating itself for the responses I had sent out. Why hadn’t I taken more time to give more thoughtful answers? Why didn’t I include this, that, and the other? An endless litany of what I had done badly and what I hadn’t done at all filled my thoughts. This thought escalated and then got doused with gasoline. It got so bad that I wanted to crawl out of my skin. I felt a tightening and overwhelming pressure in my chest. My ego, crushed by the certainty of this future event, beamed a discomfort into my mind that was so intense I knew that I had to do something. It was so awful that I didn’t know what to do. And so I turned to mantra.