Overwhelmed and exhausted? Decompress with this breathwork session from Self Space

Is your nervous system exhausted today? Perhaps you’ve been holding everything together, holding everything inside for a little bit too long? Find somewhere quiet and comfortable, and join Jodie Cariss for a little decompression session. Jodie’s a psychotherapist and the founder of Self Space, a mental health service offering straightforward access to flexible therapy. She’ll guide you through some breathwork, body release, and visualisations that’ll allow you to let go of the mental and physical tension you’re holding. Find out more about Self Space https://theselfspace.com/?utm_term=self%20space&utm_campaign=B2C_Online_(Excluding+London)&utm_source=adwords&utm_medium=ppc&hsa_acc=6529518307&hsa_cam=23483647172&hsa_grp=192954460458&hsa_ad=793839457571&hsa_src=g&hsa_tgt=kwd-549286336697&hsa_kw=self%20space&hsa_mt=p&hsa_net=adwords&hsa_ver=3&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=23483647172&gbraid=0AAAAA97FoJwjVXPfGjuSGQr5p5aSQEunW&gclid=CjwKCAjwwpDQBhAuEiwAa-4Wo4rnUvEXGKkQ9rVhscnQwy1HdOo5IMc8C3-1QX7Sdt-AsswY3oj4DxoCaGUQAvD_BwE. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy https://acast.com/privacy for more information.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Fearne Cotton?

  Hello and welcome to Happy Place. I'm Fern Cotton and I'm actually going to be handing this space over to someone else today. You're going to be getting a gorgeous decompression session designed to help your nervous system calm down after a day of holding everything together. I need this so desperately. I know that's what I feel like I'm doing every day and I know from talking to you lot that you do too, just holding it all together. Hold my shit together. So this is going to be a really special session because just resting isn't enough if we haven't let go in the first place. Jodie Carris is going to be taking us through this

• 0:42Fearne Cotton?

  session. She's a psychotherapist, author of How to Go Through What You Grow Through and the founder of Selfspace. Selfspace is a contemporary mental health service offering straightforward access to flexible therapy. It's built around a super simple idea that mental health maintenance should be part of everyday life. So this is a place you can come in a crisis as you reach for your potential and everything in between. They have locations in Shoreditch, Borough, Soho, King's Cross, Greenwich and online too. They're open seven days a week and there are no long waits or white coats, just a proper conversation with a qualified human. What a gift. By the way,

• 1:26Fearne Cotton?

  if you're coming to the Happy Place festivals this year, Selfspace are going to be doing loads of gorgeous stuff. So definitely pop and say hi to them. Right, here we go. Find somewhere quiet and comfortable. Let's join Jodie for this decompression session.

• 1:42Speaker 01

  I'm Jodie. I am the founder of Selfspace and I'm a psychotherapist and for a very long time I really thought that pushing through was just part of life that we all had to do. The keeping going, the holding everything together, not really stopping to notice just how much I was really carrying. And I guess what I've come to understand both personally and through my clinical work at Selfspace is that it's not just stress that impacts us, it's the lack of space and capacity to come down from that. And that's where I really think decompression comes in.

• 2:17Speaker 01

  Before we start, I just wanna say that you really don't need this to be perfect. There's nothing to get right, there's nothing to achieve here. You don't need to clear your mind or suddenly be super calm. This is just a moment in time to pause and to let your body catch up with you. So wherever you're sitting, lying down, maybe you're curled up somewhere cosy, just take a moment to really arrive. You've made this space for yourself and that matters. And we hear a lot, don't we, about relaxation, bubble baths, spa days, nice cups of tea. But what we're doing here is slightly different.

• 3:01Speaker 01

  This is about decompression and decompression is what helps your nervous system to really come back down after you've been holding things for a long while. Because most of us move through the day carrying so much, we move so fast. We hold conversations, pressure, decisions, emotions, and we don't always get the chance to properly process any of that. So it doesn't just disappear, it stays in the body and the psyche. Sometimes it feels like tension, maybe it's restlessness, or that feeling of being a bit wired or maybe a bit flat. So this time isn't about switching off, it's about really letting some of that go.

• 3:44Speaker 01

  And before we change anything, I just want you to gently check in with yourself. If you were to place yourself on a scale of one to 10 now, one being completely steady and 10 feeling overwhelmed, where would you be? There's no judgment, this is just about noticing where you're at. And then softly bring your awareness to the space around you. Let your eyes take in the room, the shapes, the colours, the light, just reminding your body, I'm here. If you feel safe enough to do so, I'm just gonna invite you to close your eyes and to really connect with your inner world.

• 4:26Speaker 01

  And if that doesn't feel good, then you can just lower or soften your gaze, whatever feels comfortable. And let's focus on the breath, nothing complicated. Just breathing in through your nose.

• 4:43Speaker 01

  And out through your mouth.

• 4:49Speaker 01

  And as you breathe out, I just want you to imagine that you're gently blowing out a candle. So longer, slower exhale and a soft and steady breath. And if it feels good, you can sigh out, you can make whatever noises you want. And I'm just going to invite you to do a few of those breaths. So in through your nose and exhaling through your mouth.

• 5:20Speaker 01

  There's no need to force anything. This is just like you're checking in, linking up, connecting with your own rhythm. And just allow your breath to become a little slower, a bit more intentional. And if your mind starts to wander, that's so normal. Just come back to focusing on the next breath. In and out.

• 5:55Speaker 01

  And now I want you to bring your awareness or your attention to your body, starting with your feet.

• 6:04Speaker 01

  Gently tense the muscles as you inhale, just slightly. Hold that tension and then just release the tension in your feet as you exhale. Just let them really soften and relax. Moving up to your legs, a gentle squeeze as you inhale. Slight tensing of the muscles. And as you exhale, I just want you to let that go.

• 6:36Speaker 01

  And then let your focus drift up to your tummy, tightening those muscles on the inhale

• 6:46Speaker 01

  and releasing them on the exhale. Now thinking about your shoulders, lifting them up slightly towards your ears, tensing the muscles with the inhale and then on the exhale, releasing that tension and letting your breath go. Maybe you could even give them a little roll, whatever feels good.

• 7:12Speaker 01

  Bring your focus to your jaw. Just notice if there's any tension there and then just let it soften on the exhale.

• 7:24Speaker 01

  Thinking about your forehead, just smoothing out where you might be furrowing your brow

• 7:31Speaker 01

  and on the exhale, just completely letting go of that effort.

• 7:38Speaker 01

  And if it feels okay, I want you to just let your mind drift to a place that feels really calm and easy. It doesn't have to be a perfect place, but somewhere that feels comforting to you. Somewhere you can feel just a little bit lighter. And just notice what's there, what's around you, the air, the space, the sounds, the temperature, what's the pace of this place? And just allow your body to take that in. And if you like, you can gently and slowly

• 8:22Speaker 01

  tap your hands on your legs. So, left, right, a slow rhythm, just tapping, which is just gently helping everything settle and ground.

• 8:42Speaker 01

  And I'm gonna count now from five to one. When I get to one, I'm gonna invite you to gently open your eyes, but not before. So five, four, three, take in a breath. Two, hold. And then one, exhale. Gently bringing yourself into the present and the space that you're in. What do you notice around you?

• 9:19Speaker 01

  Perhaps there are five things that you can see.

• 9:24Speaker 01

  Just take your time.

• 9:29Speaker 01

  Perhaps there are four feelings that you notice. What do you feel in your body?

• 9:38Speaker 01

  Three things that you can hear.

• 9:43Speaker 01

  Two things that you can smell, what do you notice?

• 9:50Speaker 01

  And one thing that you can taste.

• 9:55Speaker 01

  There's no rush. This is just helping your body settle and orientating you back in the world. Just taking your time. And just gently asking yourself, has anything inside of me shifted even slightly?

• 10:18Speaker 01

  Do I feel different than when I started? Sometimes it's really, really subtle. Just a tiny bit more space internally, maybe a slightly softer feeling. Perhaps there's just a little drop in intensity and that's really enough.

• 10:38Speaker 01

  And before we finish, just a reminder that decompressing can be really, really small. A breath before you respond, a momentary pause between things. Just a real moment to notice, how do I feel? Those small moments can really, really add up. They matter, they help with our buoyancy, they help us to manage difficult times. And this is really practising everyday mental maintenance.