Episode 9: Embodiment

Episode 9: Embodiment

Today I want to come back to the topic we talked about in the very first episode: getting out of the head and into the body. It’s this practice of shifting out of our thinking mind & into more actively focusing on the feelings in our bodies. Like: The quality of our breath, the rhythm of our heart, tension or relaxation in our muscles, discomfort or comfort anywhere in our bodies, noticing our emotions which live inside our bodies, listening to where we might hear our gut instinct or our intuition speak to us quietly. The body is so full of wisdom. It’s constantly sending us signals to make sure we are staying safe, surviving life and reacting as needed. We get to know it more intimately, little by little, by simply being willing to witness, listen, and act from a place of inner knowing. These signs can be sending us signals to get us to rest more, to make discernment in certain situations, to speak up and say no to things that don’t feel right to us, & say yes to things that light us up. This becomes more familiar, the more we practice it. We come back to this practice of embodiment again and again to gradually build increased awareness and understanding of the subtleties that go on inside us. Today I’ll guide us through a gentle movement practice to increase this awareness of embodiment. When you’re ready, find a comfortable position for your body, seated if possible & with back support if you’d like. I appreciate you being here!! As always, take what works, use what feels good, and leave the rest. Follow this and my storytelling on Substack: https://substack.com/@katiescoggins [https://substack.com/@katiescoggins] Intro Music: Music: Apollo 11 by Wanheda https://soundcloud.com/user-724527508 [https://soundcloud.com/user-724527508] License: Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0 Free Download / Stream: https://audiolibrary.com.co/wanheda/apollo-11 [https://audiolibrary.com.co/wanheda/apollo-11] Music promoted by Audio Library: https://youtu.be/Ot9187kyNpM?t=273 [https://youtu.be/Ot9187kyNpM?t=273] Meditation/Breathwork music: Music: long way by Rexlambo https://soundcloud.com/rexlambo [https://soundcloud.com/rexlambo] License: Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0 Free Download / Stream: https://links.al/isg [https://links.al/isg] Music promoted by Audio Library: https://links.al/youtube [https://links.al/youtube] Get full access to A Daily Pause at katiescoggins.substack.com/subscribe [https://katiescoggins.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

Episode 8: Humming

Today we are going to hum together. Humming creates vibrations throughout the body, helping to physically stimulate something called the vagus nerve. This nerve is not only the longest cranial nerve in the body, but it is also in charge of the involuntarily functions of the body, the things that just happen automatically. This includes your heart rate, your breathing rate, digestion, inflammation management and immune response. Activating the vagus nerve can trigger an immediate shift in your body to go from a stressful state to a more relaxed state within a few minutes. So when you’re ready, find a comfortable position for your body. Seated or lying down and today, maybe somewhere you feel comfortable making a little bit of noise. I appreciate you being here!! As always, take what works, use what feels good, and leave the rest. Follow this and my storytelling on Substack: https://substack.com/@katiescoggins [https://substack.com/@katiescoggins] Intro Music: Music: Apollo 11 by Wanheda https://soundcloud.com/user-724527508 [https://soundcloud.com/user-724527508] License: Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0 Free Download / Stream: https://audiolibrary.com.co/wanheda/apollo-11 [https://audiolibrary.com.co/wanheda/apollo-11] Music promoted by Audio Library: https://youtu.be/Ot9187kyNpM?t=273 [https://youtu.be/Ot9187kyNpM?t=273] Meditation/Breathwork music: Music: memories of the sea by Rexlambo https://soundcloud.com/rexlambo [https://soundcloud.com/rexlambo] License: Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0 Free Download / Stream: https://audiolibrary.com.co/rexlambo/memories-of-the-sea [https://audiolibrary.com.co/rexlambo/memories-of-the-sea] Music promoted by Audio Library: https://youtu.be/wjgpQXfY4O8 [https://youtu.be/wjgpQXfY4O8] Get full access to A Daily Pause at katiescoggins.substack.com/subscribe [https://katiescoggins.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

Episode 7: Restful Sleep

Today we are going to relax deeply, and maybe even fall asleep if you”d like. You don’t necessarily have to save this audio ONLY for when you are ready to go to sleep. You can also use this when you want to take a moment for a deep relaxation of both the body and mind. I’ll guide us through a relaxing, down regulating counted breathing technique followed by a progressive relaxation visualization. And this time, I’ll leave the podcast quietly, without closing, so that you can either enjoy this moment of relaxation for as long as you’d like, or you can drift off to sleep without any distractions. When you’re ready, take a moment to find a comfortable position, lying down if you’d like and settle in. Get comfortable. Position your body in a way you like to rest. With Pillows, blankets, maybe even something to put over your eyes. I appreciate you being here!! As always, take what works, use what feels good, and leave the rest. Follow this and my storytelling on Substack: https://substack.com/@katiescoggins [https://substack.com/@katiescoggins] Intro Music: Music: Apollo 11 by Wanheda https://soundcloud.com/user-724527508 [https://soundcloud.com/user-724527508] License: Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0 Free Download / Stream: https://audiolibrary.com.co/wanheda/apollo-11 [https://audiolibrary.com.co/wanheda/apollo-11] Music promoted by Audio Library: https://youtu.be/Ot9187kyNpM?t=273 [https://youtu.be/Ot9187kyNpM?t=273] Meditation/Breathwork music: Music: under the stars by Rexlambo https://soundcloud.com/rexlambo [https://soundcloud.com/rexlambo] License: Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0 Free Download / Stream: https://www.audiolibrary.com.co/rexlambo/under-the-stars [https://www.audiolibrary.com.co/rexlambo/under-the-stars] Music promoted by Audio Library: https://youtu.be/YlIeGCslNDs [https://youtu.be/YlIeGCslNDs] Get full access to A Daily Pause at katiescoggins.substack.com/subscribe [https://katiescoggins.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

Episode 6: Energize & Activate

This week we are going to change things up a little bit. Over these past 5 episodes, we have focused on down-regulating breathing techniques and meditations. These practices can help calm you down and relax your nervous system by deepening and slowing down the breath while lengthening our exhales. This down-regulation has been show to lower heart rate, lower blood pressure, as well as decrease release of stress hormones in the body due to activating the part of our nervous system in charge of “resting and digesting”. Today I want to introduce an activating breathing technique to up-regulate your nervous system. This can be a tool to used to when you are feeling tired, low energy or want to wake your system up and get things moving. This breathing technique is meant to temporarily activate your stress response, triggering a release of adrenaline to help bring alertness, increased energy, and sharper mental focus to the body. As always, make sure you feel safe and secure in any practice before doing so. Please use caution here if you know you have any cardiovascular, respiratory or circulatory health concerns or a history of severe trauma that causes panic attacks. As always, take what works, use what feels good, and leave the rest. I appreciate you being here!! Follow this and my storytelling on Substack: https://substack.com/@katiescoggins [https://substack.com/@katiescoggins] Intro Music: Music: Apollo 11 by Wanheda https://soundcloud.com/user-724527508 [https://soundcloud.com/user-724527508] License: Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0 Free Download / Stream: https://audiolibrary.com.co/wanheda/apollo-11 [https://audiolibrary.com.co/wanheda/apollo-11] Music promoted by Audio Library: https://youtu.be/Ot9187kyNpM?t=273 [https://youtu.be/Ot9187kyNpM?t=273] Meditation/Breathwork music: Music: Eclipse by Onycs https://soundcloud.com/onycsmusic [https://soundcloud.com/onycsmusic] License: Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0 Free Download / Stream: https://www.audiolibrary.com.co/onycs/eclipse [https://www.audiolibrary.com.co/onycs/eclipse] Music promoted by Audio Library: https://youtu.be/aG5X40oWhag [https://youtu.be/aG5X40oWhag] Get full access to A Daily Pause at katiescoggins.substack.com/subscribe [https://katiescoggins.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

Episode 5: Finding Balance

Today we’ll work with another practice that also down-regulates, but this time with the lens of finding balance. Balance in the body with breath control and balance in the mind with our shift in focus. This practice of mindfulness can help interrupt any anxious or distracting cycles in your mind, help clear mental clutter, and help to better concentration & decision making. Together we’ll do a short visualization getting deeper awareness into the body, followed by a breathing technique known as box-breathing. This consists of equal counts of inhales and exhales with equal counts of breath holds in between each inhale and exhale. The counted breath in this practice not only gives your mind something specific to focus on, the counted rhythm of your breath, but this pace of deeper, slower breathing also allows your system to gradually calm down. So when you’re ready, find a comfortable position for your body & let’s get started… As always, take what works, use what feels good, and leave the rest. I appreciate you being here!! Follow this and my storytelling on Substack: https://substack.com/@katiescoggins [https://substack.com/@katiescoggins] Intro Music: Music: Apollo 11 by Wanheda https://soundcloud.com/user-724527508 [https://soundcloud.com/user-724527508] License: Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0 Free Download / Stream: https://audiolibrary.com.co/wanheda/apollo-11 [https://audiolibrary.com.co/wanheda/apollo-11] Music promoted by Audio Library: https://youtu.be/Ot9187kyNpM?t=273 [https://youtu.be/Ot9187kyNpM?t=273] Meditation/Breathwork music: Music: space by Rexlambo https://soundcloud.com/rexlambo [https://soundcloud.com/rexlambo] License: Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0 Free Download / Stream: https://audiolibrary.com.co/rexlambo/space [https://audiolibrary.com.co/rexlambo/space] Music promoted by Audio Library: https://youtu.be/0ZF1bQszHFk [https://youtu.be/0ZF1bQszHFk] Get full access to A Daily Pause at katiescoggins.substack.com/subscribe [https://katiescoggins.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]