Welcome to First This, a short mindfulness practice and message for any time.

I'm Catherine Nicolai.

Hi, I'm glad you're here.

Let's get comfortable.

Check your jaw, your shoulders.

Did you know, by the way, that if you squeeze your shoulders up into your ears really tight, you can keep bad stuff from happening?

No, wait.

Nope.

Let's soften them.

Draw a deep breath in through your nose.

Sigh with sound.

One more for now.

Fill it up.

Let it out. Good. Press your lips together.

Take natural breaths through your nose.

Let that natural breath be a point to focus. Just feel it as it comes in and goes out. When your mind wanders, you say to yourself, oh well, start again. Thank you. Oh well, start again. Thank you. So spending time in this state of calm attention allows us to communicate with the nervous system.

We're sending a signal that all is well,

that we can shift into the relaxation response,

which is a measurable response of the parasympathetic nervous system.

And just doing that is some strong medicine. But we can go a bit farther with a practice called remembered wellness.

And this can be a useful method for reducing pain.

So stay in the mindset of, oh well, low stakes, just watching my breath.

...