(music) #22 EVERYTHING STOPS - Stress & Pain Relief (Jason Newland)

Hello and welcome to jasonnewland.com. My name is Jason Newland and this is Stress and Pain Relief Podcast. Please only listen when you can safely close your eyes. This podcast is aimed at helping you to reduce either or your stress or chronic pain.

So whatever feelings you have in your body that are feeling uncomfortable or painful, that's what this podcast is for, to help you to reduce that discomfort with the overall aim of calming your body and your mind, reducing the stress levels, tension and relaxing you. Because the more relaxed you feel, the less chronic pain you will feel as well. So you may be coming to this podcast with chronic pain issues.

You may be coming because you are having anxiety, stress, tension and you really need to learn to let go. You may be coming here because you feel the need to sleep, to get so relaxed that you can just drift off to sleep. Which is why there's two versions of this podcast episode, one with, one without music.

The longer one with music in a sense would be more suitable for those of you that are looking to fall asleep. Now, of course, the one without music can equally be sleep inducing. But it's just the other one is two hours long.

So it's a lot longer. The music is by Kevin MacLeod. It's open source and the information is in the description.

Now, what I'm going to ask you to do is just one thing. Just one thing. I'd like you to choose a hand.

Ideally, your dominant hand. And that's what we're going to do. We're going to focus on that hand.

And ideally, you'd be sitting in a comfortable chair with your feet on the ground, with your back straight, and not straight as in, you know, you can, it doesn't really matter, you can be sitting back in your chair. If you're looking for relaxation, if you're not wanting to fall asleep, that then might sound a bit weird, but don't get too comfortable. You're going to feel comfortable anyway.

But if you lay back in a reclining chair, or lay down on your bed, there's a really, really, really big chance that you fall asleep. Partly because of the boredom of my boring voice. Also, when you're laying back or when you're lying down, your body and your mind associates that with being asleep.

And when you then proceed to go into a deep relaxation, your body starts to relax naturally anyway, when you lie down. And then your mind slows down. And that's without listening to me talking.

That's just what happens naturally. Listening to me can, it can also be a distraction from those thoughts that you were having before. Because once you start listening to me, it's almost like my words replace those thoughts that were in your mind before you decided to press the play button and allow yourself this safe space to just let go and follow my instructions.

Even though my instructions are going to be very, very simple. Or maybe on the boring side. But at the same time, useful.

Because this stuff works. It really does. And if you listen to me regularly, you already know that this stuff is useful, that these recordings can help you relax.

You already know that because otherwise you wouldn't be listening. And if you're here for the first time, just give it a go. The worst case scenario, or the worst possible outcome, if you're listening for the first time is that you feel more relaxed.

That's it. You might get bored and you feel more relaxed. Now as far as side effects go, that's not a bad one.

But the best results, of course, will be where your body completely and totally relaxes and your mind almost melts into comfort and calmness. And that's all within a bubble of safety. A place where you can really just let go of everything.

A place and a space where nothing matters. None of that stuff from life doesn't even exist in this moment. You've stepped out of the world.

You stepped out of all that stuff, drama and any of that kind of things. Just it's gone. You've left it behind.

So when you're listening to me and you can hear my voice, that means that you are in a safe space of comfort and relaxation and you don't need to do or say or think anything. This is also a place of freedom. Freedom for you just to be yourself.

There's no one to impress. There's no one to judge. And there's no one to judge.

It's just us. It's me talking and you just listening. So what I'm going to do is ask you to focus on one of your hands.

Whichever you choose. I would say possibly choose your dominant hand. If you're right-handed, choose your right hand.

But it might not really matter. Just do whatever you want to do. And whether you're lying down or sitting in the chair, just allow yourself to get in contact with that hand that you're going to be using during this recording.

I'm going to use my right hand. And what I'm going to do is I'm going to put my hand on my table. So I'm sitting at a table while I record this.

You can put your hands on top of your thighs, you know, near your knees. If you're sitting in a chair, face down. So your palm down.

If you're lying on your bed, you can just have your arms stretched out, palm down. Now, of course, if you have any physical issues with your arms, your shoulders or your hands, then use the other hand. You know, this is about comfort.

It's not about pushing through any kind of pain barriers. This is the opposite to that. If for any reason you can't use your hands, either of them, then you can do the same thing with your foot, one of your feet.

Okay, it's a little bit different, but not that much really. So when I say, you know, tense your hand, you can just tense one of your feet. Or if I make a fist, of course, you can't wrap your toes all the way, curl them all the way back unless you can, which is.

I don't mean you're a monkey then, I guess, if you can do that, because I don't think humans can. But you can just tense your feet to whatever, you know, effect feels okay for you. I'm just going to assume, assume that everyone's got a chosen hand.

Now, before we go any further, just notice where you are on a scale of one to 10 of comfort. 10 being the most comfortable you can feel, one being, you know, really not. How comfortable do you feel emotionally, physically, mentally, in this moment, feeling of comfort? Where would you say you are on that scale? What number would you give yourself on that scale? And what number would you like it to be?

What number does it need to be for you to really feel significant change? Another question may be, what number was it before you press the play button? How has it changed just in these 12 minutes that I've been talking? Because just taking some time out of your day, just removing yourself from the world, really, really can have a tremendously positive effect on your mental health and your comfort level.

As those feelings of stress just seem to dissolve, your comfort levels increase all the time, constantly increasing throughout your body, just by taking a break and also hearing my voice instead of those things that maybe you were saying to yourself before. As my voice replaces those thoughts in your mind, and even though sometimes it may seem that I'm not really saying very much at all, the one thing you have when you listen to me, one thing that's missing in fact, is negativity.

There's no negativity in what I'm saying, there's no tension or stress or anxiety connected to my words.

So it's almost like you've, you may feel that you're like driving a sports car a lot of the time, driving very fast, very hectically, you're needing or thinking that you need to get to places very quickly and that might feel like what your mind is similar to. And then you allow me to drive the car and you're in the passenger seat and I just drive very safely.

Maybe it gets to the point where you think I'm driving too slowly and then you realize, because you might think, oh if you drive too slow that could be the opposite, that could actually cause danger to other drivers.

And then you realize as you look around that we're no longer on a normal road, there are no other drivers, it's just me and you. And then you realize that this car is no longer that sports car that was zipping around, but it's a very quiet, slow car that doesn't really require anybody to drive, it just moves on its own. So slowly, so calmly, and it's a nice feeling, it really is, a lovely feeling of comfort, quiet, nice and peaceful.

See your mind moving slowly and calmly, just there without you even really noticing it. It's almost as if you're moving so slow as to not even notice. And then you can start to notice or realize that actually it's a different, it's a different feeling, it's almost as if movement doesn't even exist, so you're not moving and nothing really at all is happening, it's as if time has just stopped.

Which means that the only feeling you can have in your body is comfort, because when time stops, tension cannot exist, when time stops, stress does not exist, only comfort exists. Only your natural person, the person you really are, the natural insides of you which is calm and relaxed and peaceful, only those feelings are available. As you focus on your hand, I'm going to ask you to make your hand into a fist, but not tight, you know, just into a gentle fist, you can tense it as much or as little as you choose.

I'll count to five and then I'd like you to let it go, so counting one, two, three, four, five, let it go. Just notice the feeling in your hand as you let it go, and that feeling of comfort spreads even more through your body, even though your body's already relaxed, make me come even more relaxed every time you make a fist and let it go. Again, make a fist as I count to five, now one, two, three, four, five, let go.

Focusing just on your hand. I noticed that at release just then in my mind, well actually it was more in my head, in my scalp, it's almost, yeah, almost like there's a little bit of tension that was hidden in my scalp has just escaped. And that's what this is for, it's for those little hidden, hidden bits that maybe I found a way to hide or you could call them the stowaways, the stowed away into this, this zone of no time, no space, just this safe feeling that we're now experiencing.

And so by tensing your fist, counting to five and then releasing it, it helps to find those stowaway feelings of tension or stress and they just pop and evaporate. Making a fist again, now one, two, three, four, five, let go. And each time you just feel even more relaxed, even more comfortable.

It's a really nice feeling to just let go of everything and your whole body just feels, it's like these, the same energy is traveling through your body and every part seem to just feel the same, the same level of comfort. Making a fist again now, one, two, three, four, five, let go. And each time you let go after the counting up to five, your body becomes more loose and floppy, so relaxed.

And again, making a fist now, one, two, three, four, five, let go. And even when I'm not talking, those small silences, there's nothing happening. Your mind is completely silent.

Ready to make a fist again, now, one, two, three, four, five, let go. Again, make a fist now, one, two, three, four, five, let go. Deeper and deeper, so peaceful, so safe, full of healing.

And this healing energy will stay with you. And each day, as you listen to this recording, every day for 30 days, you will find that you will become so deeply relaxed, that all you experience in your body is comfort. All you experience in your mind is comfort.

And you feel good for no good reason. You feel happy, because you feel happy, for no other reason than that. Making a fist again, now, one, two, three, four, five, let go.

Bringing this recording to an end. Remember to be kind to yourself, because you deserve to be happy. And you can listen, if you listen to the music, or if you're just listening to me talking, you can keep these feelings and open your eyes whenever you choose.

Lots of love. Bye.