The NAP Meditation (How To Protect Your Happy Place, Part II)
Let’s learn how to do the NAP Meditation
Welcome to Part II of the Protect Your Happy Place series! No worries if you missed Part I, here it is: Protect Your Happy Place: Where Stress is Positive & Your Core is Strong.
Now that you are all caught up with how to Protect Your Happy Place, let’s get down to business. The NAP Meditation optimizes your ability to do everything from speak, sing, exercise, do everyday tasks such as housework or heavy lifting, and even have better sex.
Practice The NAP Meditation
Tips:
You can practice “NAP”ing anywhere so long as you don’t close your eyes while driving or cooking, lol. Seriously though, even 2 minutes of practice can help reset your nervous system and soothe stress, improving your resilience and your core strength, voice, respiratory diaphragm and pelvic floor all at the same time! For fun, the longer you can exhale while NAP-ing, the better and stronger you’ll be with stress response and core strength. Beginners can start with a 3-6 count inhale and 3-6 count exhale.
For Advanced Practice:
As you progress (and for more fun!), work your way up to a 12 count inhale and 12 count exhale. But don’t stress, if you can’t do that, simply work on elongating your exhale, feeling the waist draw in and the pelvic floor painlessly and gently lift, while releasing all tension in the throat and neck area, especially the tongue!
For Super Advanced Practice (just kidding, anyone can do this one):
For those focusing on dynamic vocal power, allow the tongue to rest behind the bottom teeth during the “P” (pitching) part of creating tonal sound. For those focusing on relaxation and passive work (you choose not to make sound (phonate), simply rest the tongue behind the upper teeth. You can vary your practice between both types if you like!
Don’t forget, if you can’t remember what The NAP Meditation is all about, or you need to practice some of the other breath types I mentioned in the video, go here: Protect Your Happy Place: Where Stress is Positive & Your Core is Strong.
Happy NAPPING!
Want to learn more? My short 3 part course on “NAP”ing is NOW AVAILABLE ON DEMAND from Yoga U Online: Core Foundations for Health & Well-Being: The Vagus Nerve & The Three Diaphragms
About the Author:
Ginger has spent 20+ years helping people with chronic pain as a physical therapist, athletic trainer, and professional yoga therapist. Ginger is the author of Medical Therapeutic Yoga, now in its 4th foreign translation, founder of ProYogaTherapy Institute, codirector of Living Well Yoga in Healthcare, and most recently ran for State Senate in NC.
