👋 Opening +
Write in the chat:
- where you’re joining from
- how you’re feeling – in three words
🧘 Grounding (5m)
- Become aware of your posture.
- Try breathing into the back of your chest. See if you can feel the back of your rib-cage expanding slightly
- It’s amazing how much more energy we have access to when we’re breathing into the back of our body. As one of my mentors likes to say – Your back literally has your back.
- We’re going to do open with a few rounds of what’s known as cohorence breathing. In 4 - hold 4 - out 4 – with an emphasis on the breath going into the back of your lungs.
- For the next hour, keep bringing your awareness back to breathing here
- Finally, tune into why you are here? What are you excited to learn or explore?
🙋♂️ Introductions (10m)
Break-out Rooms: In threes share:
- Where you’re from
- What motivated you to join NSM & what would having greater regulation in your life enable you?
- What question or questions are most alive for you.
3 minutes to share each – and I’ll see you back here when you’re done.
👨🎓 What is Nervous System Mastery?
You've signed up for this course called Nervous System Mastery, and I'm guessing that before seeing the landing page, you hadn't considered that your nervous system might even be something that you could consciously control, let alone master.
📝 Heaven & Hell Journal Prompt (15m)
The main exercise I want to guide you through today is what I call the Heaven and Hell exercise.
The purpose of this is to help you clarify both your intention and desire to really give yourself to this training.
So I'd like you to all find a pen and paper, or open up a clean text document if you prefer to type.
For the next 5 minutes I'd like you to imagine yourself in 18 months from today but in this version of the future you didn't pay any attention to regulating your nervous system. You didn't complete this course and your nervous system became increasingly disregulated. Write about how you're feeling, what were some of the down-stream consequences to your work, to your relationships, to your hopes and dreams for the future? What does a day in your life look like? Write what comes up for the next **5 minutes**
Now please open up a fresh document or page in your journal. And now we're going to imagine that same day 18 months from now, but this time you really prioritised the practices and protocols to cultivate a greater sense of regulation in your nervous system. What were the effects of this on the quality and output of your work and creativity? How did your relationships change? What transformation did you observe over this period where you fully committed to these practices, gained greater awareness of your body and made giant strides towards a place of regulation? Write what comes up for **5 minutes.**
Okay pens down—I'm going to assign you to breakout rooms to each share what you've written. You'll have 3 minutes per person to share **(10 mins total)**
Coming back together for **reflections**.
What are your hopes for this future version of you? Tune into the sense of aliveness and curiosity that was present when you decided to commit to this program (write this using Futureme.org)
Also draw from Visualise Your Future
For this, I’d like you to close your eyes and we’ll do a little future visualisation.
Imagine yourself in 18 months time after graduating from NSM ~ see yourself going through the motions of a Monday morning ~ on the surface everything looks the same.
Except nothing really is the same ~ as you’re walking through life you have a deeper awareness and profound appreciation for how your environment — the people you spend time with, the buildings you inhabit, even the lights and sounds are all impacting your nervous system.
You are walking through life with the confidence of someone who knows that whatever curveballs or challenges the day might bring ~ that you feel empowered and possess the agency to shift your state in order to respond appropriately.
In the past ~
Now zoom the lens out ~ so you’re almost viewing this future version of yourself from above ~ and witness how the trajectory of your life will enormously change because there is no longer a fear of situations or conversations that previously may have been overwhelming, because you know how to work with your body and up or down-regulate as desired.
In the past ~
the quality of your relationships with loved ones and colleagues radically improves due to your capacity to show up with presence instead of reactivity.
In other words through practice, the half-life of your emotional reactivity is diminished.
Imagine now that you find your way to a bench, overlooking a wide and familiar horizon.
Perhaps most profound of all you’re aware of an entire inner-landscape that was previously inaccessible. You feel in tune with the sensations and emotions that arise & enjoy sinking into them, listening deeply to them and a perpetual curiosity about what is alive internally in each moment.
💀 Course Pre-Mortem (10 mins)
One exercise I'd like to explore together is a 'course pre-mortem'. This is something I’ll often do myself before starting a new project to see if I can figure out certain possible points of failure… so
As you look ahead to the next 5 weeks, can you think of any reasons why you might not be able to fully commit to engaging with this material and live sessions?
Are there any potential roadblocks that come to mind? How might these be mitigated?
Feel free to raise your hand or unmute yourself to share…
For example, is there someone in your life or here in this community that you can recruit as a learning partner to increase the chance of successful shifts?