TOOLS for HSP’s
Here’s a meditation specifically designed for HSPs:
Retraining our Nervous Systems
- Meditations/techniques to modulate arousal level: These techniques stimulate the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS), which sends calming, soothing, healing ripples through your body, brain and mind.
- Safe place visualization with associational cue
- ‘Letting Everything Be as it Is’ meditation
- ‘Letting in the Good’ meditation
- Stroke the back of your hand with your opposite palm.
- Touch your lips. This activates the parasympathetic nervous system.
- Tapping on heart opens heart chakra and clears stuck energy
- Snapping fingers on back of head clears thoughts
- Massaging feet prior to sleep (can also use sesame oil to help ground)
- Butterfly hugs and alternate tapping
- Run warm water over your hands
- Sensory awareness work – experience arousal (charge in the nervous system) and emotions at the level of sensation, without the mental story.
- Body Resource– allow yourself to focus on a relaxed, calm or neutral spot in your body
- Resource Brainspotting – after relaxing by focusing on a calm area in your body, find a spot to gaze at that supports the calm feeling
- Pendulation*
- Biolateral music and nature sounds
- Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT)
- Mindfulness:
- Become aware of the thoughts that accompany and feed the arousal.
- Dis-identify from the thoughts. Step back, relax and ask, “What is the story I am telling myself? Do I want to believe this thought?”
- Chose to not feed the thought by fixating or suppressing. Whatever we resist, intensifies.
- Allowing thoughts to pass by like a bird flying across the sky.
- Breathing Techniques:
- Abdominal Breathing to reduce anxiety – Normal but slow breath in through nose. Slowly out mouth, like blowing out candle. Do ten times for a quick calm down. This automatically makes next breath come from abdomen. Breathe in scent of flower. Blow out a candle.
- Equalized Breathing to activate the PNS– equal slow deep breaths in and out – gradually increasing to level of comfort.
- Heart Breath – Imagine breathing in and out through your heart. Call to mind a pleasant, heartfelt emotion, such as by thinking about a happy or positive time – and imagine this feeling moving through your heart with the breath.
- Create a sanctuary spot in your home
- Paste reminder notes/stickers or set computer to check arousal level, to breathe, etc.
- Take 5-10 minute relaxation breaks and during the day (and use one of the short visualizations above) to modulate arousal
- Aromatherapy- example:lavender lowers arousal level;
- Flower Essences – Example: rescue remedy calms nervous system. Clematis helps you reconnect with your body. Rescue remedy sleep assists in sleep. Put in water bottle.
- Soothing music
- Nutrition – Learn about foods and supplements that you are sensitive/allergic to and those which support your nervous system
- Regular Exercise
- Chart your optimal level of arousal and adjust your activity and rest to balance your arousal level.
- Shutting out sound- use earplugs, white noise sound screens, reframe thoughts about source of the sound, let go of resistance to sound and let it flow through you
- Use an imaginary protection field to protect from external emotions, energies such as silver or gold light or umbrella
- “Broadcast” versus “receive” – when around groups of people, feel yourself ‘broadcasting’ your energy outwards rather than absorbing energy in
- Epsom salts baths to absorb and calm emotions
- Sea salts baths to strengthen electromagnetic energy field
- Sit by a stream and allow the sound of the water to clear all negativity and “foreign energy”
Definitions:
Activation: hyperarousal or overcharge of the nervous system
Arousal: charge in the nervous system
Discharge: release of energy in the nervous system
*Pendulation: the technique of alternating back and forth between focusing on a relaxed area of your body (which promotes relaxation and discharge of energy), and focusing on a disturbing sensation.