Welcome to Stretch—your guide to reclaiming your body as a powerful tool (not just a wobble of flesh) for creativity, focus and resilience.

⏪ Last edition, I shared how the book Good Anxiety by Dr. Wendy Suzuki has helped me understand and re-frame my (primal brain’s) anxiousness around quitting my job. Catch up on that here.

⏩ This edition, I’m sharing a body relaxation script to prepare your nervous system to “dive” into your day (this eye-roll analogy will make sense in just a second.)

The Breathe-Up—deep breathing and body relaxation

Floating facedown in a Mexican cenote, I breathed slowly through my snorkel: 4 seconds in, hold, 6 seconds out. Over and over, until I felt calm enough to drop the snorkel, grab the rope, and pull myself head-first into the water.

This was my first freediving experience, and I was going through a series of breathing exercises called ‘the breathe-up’ to calm my mind and body before diving down.

Relaxation and breath control is everything in this sport.

It’s funny, actually—when I mention I like freediving, people get an immediate worried look in their eyes and ask me if I’ve seen the Netflix documentary The Deepest Breath?! I know they’re suddenly imagining me blacking out as I exhaustedly make it back to the surface after a 200m dive.

You’d laugh if you saw what I was actually doing. It couldn’t be further from that. I spend about 75% of my time in the water at the surface, focused on my breathing and releasing all tension in my body.

Because when you freedive, all you have is your own breath. There are no oxygen tanks strapped to your back, like with scuba diving. So how long you can go underwater on a single breath, is entirely dependent on your ability to relax. Not just before the dive, but also during. Keeping your belly, throat and face soft despite the increasing pressure. Equalizing the pressure in your ears. You can imagine it also doesn’t take long before your mind starts resisting. But the more you panic, increasing your heart rate and muscle tension, the more oxygen you waste.

So the skill is to teach your nervous system to stay relaxed despite the mental and physical stress, so you can enjoy the mesmerising experience of being underwater.

On my last freediving trip in Portugal, I realized that so much of what it takes set yourself up for a “good dive” is similar to what it takes to set yourself up for a “good day.”

In the morning, before we go out into the world and face the onslaught of to-do’s and demands, why don’t we do a breathe-up as well? Just 10 minutes to calm our minds and bodies.

And this isn’t just about being relaxed and zen. For ambitious, busy, driven people, that’s not always a convincing argument. (“I can’t be too relaxed, I don’t want to lose my edge!)

Think of it this way:

When our brains and bodies are in a rest state, all physiological and neurological processes work at their best. We’re open to connection with others and with our environment. We have access to the higher-level functions of our neocortex, like abstract thinking, creativity and logical reasoning.

When we don’t take a few minutes to downshift our nervous system, most of us start the day in defensive survival mode. And the reality is, when you’re anxious or stressed, you are literally not thinking clearly and revert to habitual learned ways of behavior. Your body is flooded with cortisol, you’re hypervigilant and your upper-level cognitive functions are diminished.

I’ve been using a body relaxation script from a book Mind Magic for the past few weeks and it’s been so good. A combination of deep breathing and body scan, just like in freediving.

I’ve made a 10-minutes recording of myself reading the script and have been listening to this every morning. If you don’t mind my exotic Belgian accent, you can listen to it here. Feel free to download and save. I personally like having these recordings saved to my phone so I don’t need any other app or internet connection in order to listen.

And below is the full script, if you prefer to read it or record it yourself. But honestly, any deep breathing and body relaxation script you find online will work. Even if you only have 5 minutes in the morning. Even 2 minutes! It will make a difference to your nervous system.

1. Get yourself ready
   Find a time and a place to do this practice so that you will not be interrupted.

2. Choose a posture
   This practice can be done standing, sitting, or lying down. Before beginning, establish yourself in a posture that is comfortable enough for you to feel relaxed, yet solid and steady enough for you to be alert to your experience.
   
   Straighten your spine, and let your shoulders drop. You are looking for a posture of relaxed confidence and gentle strength.

3. Begin to settle
   Close your eyes or softly direct your gaze at a point a few feet in front of you. Let your attention turn inward.
   
   Now become aware of the places where your body contacts whatever surface is holding you. Let gravity root you to the earth, and feel the ground pressing upward into your feet. Notice any areas of obvious tension in your body and gently acknowledge them in your awareness.
   
   Begin by taking 3 deep breaths in through your nose and slowly out through your mouth. If you like, you can sigh loudly as you breathe out. Repeat these deep breaths until you get used to this type of breathing so that the breathing itself is not distracting to you.
   
   Once you feel comfortable breathing in this manner, specifically notice how you are sitting or lying and imagine you are looking at yourself positioned in that way.

4. Start the body scan
   Begin focusing on your toes and invite them to relax. Invite any tension in them to let go. Now focus on your feet, relaxing all the small muscles inside. Imagine the muscles in your feet almost melting away as you continue to breathe in and out. Focus only on your toes and feet.

5. Continue the body scan
   Once you have been able to relax your otes and feet and they feel soft, light, and at ease, extend the practice upward, focusing on your calves and thighs. Sense the larger muscles of your legs and invite them each to relax until you feel they have almost melted away as you breathe in and out.
   
   Follow the same process with the muscles of your abdomen and chest.
   
   Next, focus on your spine and relax the muscles all along your back and up to your shoulders and neck. Remember, the goal is to be both relaxed and alert. If there are any places of obvious or heightened tension, you might experiment with sending your breath directly into those places, inviting them to loosen and let go.
   
   Finally, focus on the muscles of your face and scalp and invite them to relax and lighten, releasing any tension they have been holding.

6. Bring awareness to relaxation

   As you extend the relaxation of your muscles all over your obdy, notice that there is a calmness coming over your entire body. Notice how this calmness in your body calms your mind. Notice the pleasure and good feelings of being calm in body and mind.
   
   It may take multiple attempts to relax the body fully while remaining awake and alert. Be patient. Be kind to yourself, remembering that with every attempt, you are rewiring your nervous system, teaching it to experience a state of peace and regulation.
   
   When you have relaxed your whole body to the best of your ability, focus on your heart. Think of your heart as a muscle that you are relaxing as you slowly breathe in and out. You may notice that your heartbeat is slowing down as your body relaxes and your breath slows.

7. Deepen the relaxation
   Imagine your body in a state of complete relaxation. See if you bring your awareness to a sense of simply being as you slowly breathe in and out: nothing to do, nowhere to go, no one to be. You might feel as if you’re floating and be overcome with a sense of calmness.
   
   Let your nervous system know that this state of relaxation is possible, desirable, and accessible when you need it.
   
   On your next exhale, slowly open your eyes. Allow yourself to sit for a few minutes in this state of relaxation with your eyes open, just resting in your experience of being completely at peace.

What else I’m up to…