Hitting the Reset Button

If you’re interested in developing a meditation practice, or you’re curious as to what benefits it may provide, I am here to share with you exactly what it has given me. No cap.

I was considering the next steps in sharing my experience, and I decided that if readers are possibly on the hook, I need to reel them in with some concrete facts on why they should even bother.

If you haven’t read my post about the vagus nerve, I highly recommend you check it out for more info. Let me remind you that nothing is for sale. I really, really don’t care if you believe me anyway.

Certain meditation practices instruct you to focus on your forehead, turning your eyes towards the sky. We have facial muscles that we can flex and focus towards the forehead, or “third eye,” as well. This movement and flexing of these facial and cranial muscles is so significant and I cannot believe that it really is that simple. They connect all around your face, jaw, neck and into the shoulders.

Other meditation sessions involve deep diaphragmatic breathing, with a focus at the base of your spine. With practice, and possibly some light yoga/stretching, you will learn to focus and flex the muscles around the base of your spine.

Put these two together, and what are we doing here? We are grabbing your nervous system from the top and bottom, and essentially bending your spine back into it’s natural form. Wring that wet puppy out. The funny thing about your back is, it’s attached to my - no wait - the cool thing about your spine is that it WANTS to stand up straight. You’re just blocking it with all that doomscrolling. Once you get really good at it, then you’re basically walking around in “flow state” - your mind is at rest while your body is responding to your environment free of fear, bias, or other anxious thoughts. You will see the world as it comes in each moment.

We are all programmed a certain way, and when the trauma hits hard enough then we are much more susceptible to mental outbreaks, depression, and overall catastrophic fight/flight behavior because our body is locked in defense mode. Check out Bieber’s posture here, you hate to see it. Man needs some love in his life.

TikTok of Justin Bieber at Coachella
byu/Classic-Carpet7609 inFauxmoi

Here’s the catch though, I can bet my LIFE that you will have trouble doing this at first. At least I hope so, unless there’s nothing going on up there. Our lives are filled with fears, heartbreaks, experiences, triggers, sensations, traumas, memories - pick whichever you want and take it to your meditation session. What are you struggling with?

Our mind, body, and soul are all connected. Meditation is the practice of calming your mind, and your newly rested brain will send loving messages to your stiff, tired body. You might not have heard these in a while, because you haven’t been listening. People today, me included, have not been STILL mentally for far too long. We are all stressed, depressed, filled with anxiety and locked in defense mode with our heads buried deep in our phones and our own selfish problems.

Your body cannot reset until you power down the mind. Sit down, kneel (this is actually great for reducing pressure on the lower spine at first), breathe, and let it all go. Then stand back up, keep your head held high, and walk it off.

This is all by design.