Author: ben@alignedself.ca
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Our inner life is, in large part, an extension of our early experience. When we are young, a certain communication dynamic takes place between us and the people who raise us, and that dynamic tends to become the template for how we later communicate with our own emotions. The way we were spoken to when…
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Maybe you have found yourself flooded by anxiety, overwhelmed by an emotional response that seemed to come out of nowhere, or that felt out of proportion to whatever was actually in front of you. Why does that happen? Why do we get swamped by responses we do not understand and cannot seem to control, responses…
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I want to write about something that sits underneath a lot of our struggles, even though we rarely name it directly: the mind-body disconnection. What it is, and how it comes about. The place to start is with a claim that might sound strange at first, which is that your mind and your body were…
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How Our Environment Affects Our Nervous System We are living in a moment of unprecedented pace. The amount of information we’re expected to absorb, the speed at which things shift around us, the pressure to keep up with our work, our relationships, our feeds, our finances, all of it has created an environment where switching…
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Mindful Interoception I want to talk about a skill called mindful interoception. The term sounds technical, but the thing itself is simple: it’s the practice of noticing what’s happening inside your body, and staying with those sensations without rushing to judge them or fix them. That’s the whole of it. The hard part, as we’ll…
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Yoga nidra, sometimes called “yogic sleep,” is a guided meditation practice that brings you into a state between waking and sleeping. Lying down comfortably, you follow a facilitator’s voice through a sequence of stages, typically including setting an intention, a systematic rotation of awareness through different parts of the body, breath awareness, and the noticing…
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The physiological sigh is a breathing pattern that the body performs naturally and that can also be done deliberately to calm the nervous system quickly. It consists of a double inhale through the nose, a normal full breath followed immediately by a second, shorter “top-up” inhale, and then a long, slow exhale through the mouth.…
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Find grounding through mindful breathing Mindful breathing is a cornerstone of mindfulness practice, providing an array of benefits that enhance both mental and physical well-being. By focusing on the rhythm of your breath, you anchor yourself in the present moment, which can significantly reduce stress by interrupting the cycle of worry or rumination. This simple…
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Coherent breathing, also known as resonance breathing, has roots in various ancient practices, including yoga and pranayama from India, where breath control has been used for thousands of years to achieve mental clarity and physical well-being. The modern conceptualization of this technique, however, can be traced back to the late 20th century when researchers began…