Mindful Mondays With Ashley Bentley: The Art of Resilience | the Squeeze, the Release, and the Capacity to Return

Summary

Podcast Summary:

The Neurodivergent Experience
Episode: Mindful Mondays With Ashley Bentley: The Art of Resilience | The Squeeze, the Release, and the Capacity to Return
Host: Ashley Bentley (Mindful Mondays feature)
Date: February 2, 2026

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Episode Overview

This Mindful Mondays episode, hosted by Ashley Bentley, explores the nuanced meaning of resilience—particularly through the lens of neurodivergent and sensitive nervous systems. Ashley reframes resilience not as relentless, stoic strength, but as the dynamic capacity to return, recover, and find wholeness after moments of discomfort, stress, or "the squeeze." The episode is both a reflection and a practical guide, weaving in metaphors, memorable quotes, and a soothing guided somatic practice to help listeners embody resilience in their daily lives.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Nuanced Reality of Resilience (02:58–05:38)

• Challenging Stereotypes: Traditional images of resilience as unwavering strength are questioned; for many neurodivergent people, trying to mimic these ideals leads to masking, shutdown, or self-abandonment.
• Resilience as Flexibility: The true essence of resilience is not never experiencing overwhelm, but knowing how to tend to oneself and move through states of discomfort and back to equilibrium.
  • Quote:
    “The goal isn’t to live permanently in green, calm and connected. The goal is to be flexible enough to move up and down the ladder, to always find your way back. That movement, that ability to return, that's what resilience looks like in the body.” —Ashley Bentley (05:02)

The Metaphor of Squeeze and Release (05:39–08:19)

• Embodied Practice: The practice—and metaphor—of consciously tensing (squeezing) then relaxing (releasing) one’s body is foundational for both nervous system regulation and understanding life’s challenges.
• Lessons from Discomfort: Deliberately exposing oneself to manageable discomfort (cold plunges, hard conversations, breathwork) trains the nervous system to tolerate and learn from intensity.
  • Insights:
    1. Training the body to stay present during intensity.
    2. Heightening appreciation for relief after discomfort (contrast).
    3. Gaining perspective—minor annoyances diminish after hardship.
• Notable Story: Ashley recounts Christopher Manning’s story: after a week with compounding adversities, his baseline happiness held steady—demonstrating acceptance, not denial.

The Lobster & Impermanence: Buddhist Wisdom on Change (08:20–10:28)

• Lobster Shedding Shell: Growth requires entering states of discomfort and vulnerability, paralleling the lobster’s need to shed its shell to grow.
• Change as Universal: Resilience is the capacity to trust this recurring process of shedding, vulnerability, and reintegration.
  • Quote:
    “Resilience in this sense is the capacity to trust the process of shedding, to let old forms crack and fall away, to be soft for a while and to trust that a new shell, a new structure, a new way of being will grow around the deeper you.” —Ashley Bentley (09:44)

Rewiring Emotional Responses (11:05–12:55)

• Emotional Complexity: Resilience isn’t about suppressing complexity, but allowing oneself to feel multiple, even conflicting, emotions.
• External Wisdom: Citing psychologist Susan David’s work: being emotionally agile means giving ourselves “the space to be a messy, capacious human.”
  • Quote:
    "Resilience here isn't about tidying your feelings up into one acceptable emotion at a time. It's about letting yourself be big enough to hold conflicting truths. You can be scared and still be brave. You can be grieving and still catch moments of joy." —Ashley Bentley (12:15)

Wisdom from Writing and Somatic Experts (13:16–18:45)

• James Baldwin: Our suffering, while personal, connects us to humanity; resilience is not minimizing pain but seeing it as part of a universal story.
• Alan Gordon (Chronic Pain): Discomfort is not the enemy—resistance to it is. The nervous system learns safety when we allow discomfort without resistance.
  • Quote:
    "One of the most valuable skills you can learn is to allow discomfort without resistance. When you can feel something hard without tightening around it, your brain gets the message: this isn't a threat. I can stay here." —Ashley Bentley, quoting Alan Gordon (14:48)
• Xavier Dagba (Shadow Work): Healing is not urgent self-rejection, but reconciling fully with oneself.
  • Quote:
    "Urgency is what you feel when your transformation is fueled by self-rejection. You find your true pace when your transformation is fueled by the desire to fully reconcile with yourself." —Ashley Bentley, quoting Dagba (17:17)

Surfing & “Falling Cat” Metaphors: Adapting to Life’s Waves (18:38–21:09)

• Surfing the Unknown: Instead of trying to control the waves of life, resilience is about continual adjustment and going with the flow.
• Alan Watts’ Cat Image: Like a cat, relaxing through falls enables adaptability; tensing leads to a hard landing.
  • Quote:
    "We are all falling from a great height from the moment we're born. We can't stop the fall, but we can choose whether we're going to be rigid or whether we're going to be like the cat." —Ashley Bentley, quoting Alan Watts (20:16)

Finding Baseline Peace & Loving Kindness (21:30–22:13)

• Acceptance as Peace: True resilience often manifests as a fundamental acceptance of reality, not as an absence of feeling, but as a depth beneath transitory states.
• Legacy of Kindness: Letting pain deepen love and commitment rather than harden one's heart.

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Practical Tools for Resilience (22:17–24:33)

Ashley shares simple, actionable “resilience anchors”:

• Name the State, Not the Identity:
  “Instead of ‘I'm failing’ or ‘I'm a mess,’ you could try ‘my system is in sympathetic right now, I'm activated’ or ‘I'm feeling flat and shut down.’” (22:20)
• Check Your Circle of Control:
  Identify one thing you can influence—breath, posture, reaching out for support.
• Micro-Regulation:
  Use small physical interventions: slow nasal breathing, gentle stretching, hand on heart, or stepping outside for fresh air.
• Extract the Wisdom:
  When ready, ask, “What did this experience show me about what matters, about what needs to change, about what I stand for?” (23:21)
• Appreciate the Release:
  Allow yourself to notice and savor the feeling of relief, even if brief.

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Guided Practice: The Squeeze and Release (24:42–36:25)

Timestamps for Activity:

• Practice begins: (24:42)
• Breathing segment: (24:53–25:37)
• First full body squeeze: (25:59–26:17)
• Second round: (26:42–27:01)
• Third round: (27:15–27:28)
• Soothing reflection and intention-setting: (29:31–35:45)

Practice Elements:

• Gentle breathwork: inhale through the nose, exhale longer through the mouth.
• Three rounds of intentional tensing (“squeeze”) and releasing the entire body.
• Reflection on how life's squeezes, both chosen and unchosen, offer eventual release—even if small at first.
• Encouragement to identify a “small, concrete way to support your own bounce back in the coming days,” such as extra rest, minor self-care, or connecting with a supportive person.
• Affirmations/intentions, e.g.,
  “I am learning to bounce back with kindness.”
  “I give myself permission to rest and then rise.”
  “I am building resilience, one small step at a time.” (34:51)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “The release is richer because of the squeeze.” —Ashley Bentley (06:28)
• “You can be scared and still be brave. ... You can be overwhelmed and still feel a thin thread of gratitude.” —Ashley Bentley (12:19)
• “The very experiences that make us feel most alone are actually the ones that connect us to everyone who has ever lived.” —Ashley Bentley (14:15)
• “Discomfort isn't the enemy. Resistance to it is.” —Ashley Bentley, quoting Alan Gordon (14:48)
• “You find your true pace when your transformation is fueled by the desire to fully reconcile with yourself.” —Ashley Bentley, quoting Xavier Dagba (17:27)
• “We can't stop the fall, but we can choose whether we're going to be rigid or whether we're going to be like the cat.” —Ashley Bentley, referencing Alan Watts (20:16)
• “You're not failing when you wobble. You're learning how to ride the wave.” —Ashley Bentley (37:09)

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Important Timestamps

• [02:23] Ashley introduces the episode's theme.
• [03:18–05:38] Defining resilience and the nervous system “ladder.”
• [05:39–07:56] Introducing “squeeze and release” and somatic experiences.
• [08:20–10:28] The Buddhist lobster metaphor; reflections on change and growth.
• [11:05–12:55] Emotional agility and welcoming emotional complexity.
• [13:16–14:48] Baldwin quote; pain as connection.
• [14:48–17:38] Alan Gordon and Xavier Dagba on discomfort and healing.
• [18:38–21:09] Surfing and the falling cat: adapting to uncertainty.
• [22:17–24:33] Concrete resilience tips (“resilience anchors”).
• [24:42–36:25] Step-by-step guided squeeze and release practice, reflection, and affirmations.
• [37:09] Closing affirmation and the episode conclusion: “You're not failing when you wobble. You're learning how to ride the wave.”

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Summary

Ashley Bentley’s Mindful Mondays episode artfully demystifies what it means to be resilient as a neurodivergent or sensitive person. Instead of advocating for relentless toughness, Ashley provides gentle wisdom, embodied practices, literary and personal stories, and actionable strategies. Listeners come away with a sense that resilience is about flexibility, integration, and self-kindness—that it’s less about never wobbling and more about learning, every day, how to ride the wave.

Transcript

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[Ashley Bentley]

Welcome back to Mindful Mondays. I'm your host Ashley Bentley, and this.

Is your weekly space to slow down.

Soften the edges and meet your inner world with curiosity and care right here on the Neurodivergent Experience podcast. Whether you're neurodivergent, highly sensitive, or simply.

Curious about consciousness change and what it.

Really means to live with presence, you're very welcome here. And over the last few weeks, we've.

Been exploring the anatomy of a breakthrough state, story and strategy, especially through the.

Lens of a sensitive or neurodivergent nervous system.

And today we're stepping into a theme.

That quietly underpins all of that work. Resilience.

What it really looks like to get comfortable being uncomfortable, and how to bounce back after the hard things.

And if you've journeyed with me on Insight Timer through my nervous system regulation course or yoga nidras or sleep practices.

There, you'll already know that I don't.

See resiliences pushing through at all costs. It is far more nuanced and tender than that.

So when we hear the word resilience.

It can easily conjure up images of unshakable strength.

The person who never cries, never wobbles, never cracks.

But for many of us, especially those of us who are autistic, ADHD or otherwise neurodivergent, that picture has been held up as the ideal.

And yet, for so many of us, trying to live up to that ideal.

Of resilience has actually led to masking.

Or shutdown or self abandonment. And back in November, on episode nine, we looked at the nervous system ladder with the green sympathetic rest and digest at the top, moving down to the yellow section, the sympathetic in the middle, which contains fight or flight and fawn.

And then finally moving down into the red state.

That's the freeze state at the bottom. And I say this often, but it's worth repeating. None of those states are wrong.

They all exist for good reasons.

They are part of how our species has survived.

So the goal isn't to live permanently in green, calm and connected.

The goal is to be flexible enough to move up and down the ladder, to always find your way back. That movement, that ability to return, that's what resilience looks like in the body. So resilience isn't I never get overwhelmed. It's when I do, I know how to tend to myself on the way back from overwhelm. And for a neurodivergent nervous system, that may be closer to activation at baseline, this distinction really matters. So I want to bring in a simple embodied image.

We're going to build this whole episode around squeeze and release later on when we get to today's guided practice.

I'll invite you to deliberately tense and squeeze your whole body and then let go so that you can feel the.

Contrast of relaxation even more deeply.

It's a classic trick in somatic and.

Yoga Nidra style work, but it's also.

An exquisite metaphor for life when we.

Deliberately expose ourselves to discomfort.

An ice bath, a cold sea dip, intense breath work, a challenging workout, or even a courageous conversation. We're not just being tough, we are doing at least three things. The first thing is you are training your nervous system. We're teaching our body. I can feel intense sensations and still stay present. That's resilience training. The second thing it does is create contrast. The warm towel after the cold plunge, the soft bed after a hard day. They feel more precious because of the difficulty that came before. The release is richer because of the squeeze. And finally, it puts things in perspective. You've probably noticed this in your own life. After a really hard week or a health scare, the small annoyances start to fall away. You stop sweating the small things and start seeing what actually matters. A meditation teacher, Christopher Manning, shared a.

Beautiful story on Facebook about a week.

That felt like a decade's worth of bad luck, a tooth abscess, a car.

Crash, an ADHD diagnosis, and a heart condition.

Yet his baseline happiness didn't move. There was no spiraling about how he.

Might have died or how long he.

Might have to live. Instead, there was acceptance. Every heart that starts beating one day stops, and that reality makes life precious, not terrifying. That's resilience too. Not denial or spiritual bypassing, but grounded clarity. This is how bodies and lives work. I don't have to like it, but I can move with it.

Which leads us perfectly to some bite sized Buddhism.

There's a favorite metaphor of mine that I speak of, the story of the lobster. The lobster grows inside of a rigid shell. Eventually, that shell becomes too tight, uncomfortable, constricting, and the lobster can't grow unless it goes somewhere safe, sheds the old.

Shell and grows a new one.

And that process is vulnerable. The lobster is soft and exposed, but without that uncomfortable phase, there is no growth. And from a Buddhist lens, this is just another way of telling the truth of impermanence. Everything is changing. Bodies, relationships, identities, jobs, health. When we cling to old shells that no longer fit, we suffer. And when we recognize ah, this squeeze means a new shell is coming, the discomfort becomes meaningful. Resilience in this sense is the capacity to trust the process of shedding, to let old forms crack and fall away, to be soft for a while and to trust that a new shell, a.

New structure, a new way of being.

Will grow around the deeper you. So when life squeezes you, you might quietly ask yourself, is this squeeze trying to harm me? Or is something in my life simply too small? Now, sometimes the squeeze is trauma we didn't choose. And sometimes it's life telling us gently or not so gently, that a particular pattern or shell is done and shows in discomfort. Things like ice baths and breathwork is popular for good reason, because it's controlled nervous system training. It's a deliberate squeeze.

Your body screams and your heart races.

But you stay and soften with longer exhales and a relaxed jaw. And you teach yourself. This is intense but safe. And I spoke about this once with Erin Harwood of rhythm and breath Meditation. He spoke about when he starts his.

Day off first thing in the morning with an ice bath. He noticed the rest of the day feels lighter by comparison. That email or supermarket run isn't the biggest stressor anymore.

The story shifts. I've already handled harder. I can do this. The deliberate squeeze can provide the contrast to make everything else seem much easier. And psychologist Susan David writes about emotional agility. And she says, many of us reflexively judge our normal, natural emotions.

We might examine whether we have the right to feel the way that we.

Do, or judge ourselves based on what we think someone in our position should feel. But it's normal to have mixed feelings. Give yourself the space to be a messy, capacious human. You are capable of holding hope and anxiety, joy and sadness, frustration and delight. Emotional complexity is purposeful, beautiful and human.

And I love this so much. Especially for us neurodivergent folks whose emotions are often described as too much or too confusing.

Resilience here isn't about tidying your feelings.

Up into one acceptable emotion at a time.

It's about letting yourself be big enough to hold conflicting truths. You can be scared and still be brave. You can be grieving and still catch moments of joy. You can be overwhelmed and still feel a thin thread of gratitude. Getting comfortable with being uncomfortable starts with this. Nothing has gone wrong because I feel more than one thing at once. This is part of being human, and.

It'S definitely part of being neurodivergent.

And when you've ridden the crest of a difficult wave, when the intensity begins to ease, you can ask the kind of a question that sounds like, what did I learn from this? What did this squeeze show me about what I need, what I value, and.

What I want to change?

And that's where resilience becomes integration, not just endurance. An author and civil rights activist James Baldwin once wrote, you think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the.

History of the world.

But then you read. It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me the most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive.

Or whoever had been alive.

And for sensitive and neurodivergent minds, it can be very easy to feel like no one feels the way I do, or something about my reaction is fundamentally wrong. Baldwin here is reminding us that pain, whilst deeply personal, is also profoundly human. The very experiences that make us feel most alone are actually the ones that.

Connect us to everyone who has ever lived.

So resilience isn't about minimizing your suffering.

Because others have it worse.

It's about letting your suffering remind you that you belong to a much larger story. You're not broken for feeling deeply. You're participating in something universal. So sometimes picking up a book or.

Hearing someone on a podcast articulate your inner world can be the first step in bouncing back.

And not because the problem is solved, but because you're no longer carrying it alone. And Alan Gordon, in his work on chronic pain in the brain, writes, discomfort isn't the enemy. Resistance to it is. One of the most valuable skills you can learn is to allow discomfort without resistance. When you can feel something hard without tightening around it, your brain gets the message. This isn't a threat. I can stay here. And that line, I can stay here is everything. For many neurodivergent nervous systems, discomfort has often been paired with danger, sensory overload, social humiliation, rejection, meltdowns, things escalating quickly. So of course, the body learns to brace, to tighten, to escape as fast as possible. What Alan is describing is the slow, patient rewiring of that association, learning to feel something intense without automatically treating it as an emergency. And I really need to be clear here about context. This isn't about enduring abuse or manipulation or genuinely unsafe situations. It's important that I specify here that if you are in harm's way, resilience looks like getting help, setting boundaries, and leaving when you can. What we're talking about are the normal, inevitable discomforts of life. The awkward conversation, the rising anxiety, the sensory overload you can plan around, the emotional wave that's painful but not dangerous. Each time, you can stay with a difficult sensation or feeling, even for a few breaths, without tightening against it. Your brain learns, this is uncomfortable, but it's survivable. I don't have to shut down or explode. That's resilience at the micro level. Coach and shadow work facilitator Xavier Dagba has a quote that I keep coming back to. He writes, you can't rush your body.

And your psyche into integrating a new way of being. Urgency is what you feel when your transformation is fueled by self rejection.

You find your true pace when your transformation is fueled by the desire to fully reconcile with yourself. And that is such an antidote to.

The productivity obsessed version of resilience.

When the drive to bounce back is.

Secretly driven by I shouldn't feel like.

This or I need to get over this faster. The nervous system hears rejection. But when the desire to heal is rooted in reconciliation, in wanting to know.

Yourself fully, including all the messy, uncomfortable.

Parts, that's when everything begins to soften. You become less interested in performing resilience and more interested in becoming whole. And Xavier also writes, how do you deal with the unknown? You don't. Not really. Instead, you let it have its way with you. You let it sober up the parts of you that got addicted to certainty, and you let it mold you into what you've prayed for. The unknown is the birthplace of miracles.

And whilst that sounds amazingly poetic, it's also extremely practical.

So much of our anxiety, especially in.

Neurodivergent brains that love pattern prediction and.

Control, comes from trying to manage the unknown. Resilience here looks like learning to ride the wave instead.

And this leads me to another favorite.

Metaphor, the surfer up on the surfboard. Can you imagine being that surfer trying to ride the wave and stay upright?

You don't have time to argue with the wave or tell it how it should behave.

You respond in real time, constantly adjusting. You work with the force that's already there. And the same is true in many martial arts like jiu jitsu, where you're taught to use the energy that's coming at you rather than fight it head on.

That's not passive.

It's deeply intelligent.

And then there's the amazing Alan Watts quote of the falling cat and the dow.

When a cat falls, it lets go of itself. It becomes completely relaxed and lands lightly. If, however, the cat decided in midair.

That it didn't want to fall and.

Tensed up, it would land like a.

Bag of broken bones.

And in Watts's words, we are all.

Falling from a great height.

From the moment we're born, we're all falling. We can't stop the fall, but we.

Can choose whether we're going to be.

Rigid or whether we're going to be like the cat. And I Just want to go back.

To Christopher Manning's social media posts we discussed earlier. After his week of decade level bad.

Luck, the tooth abscess and the crash.

And the ADHD diagnosis and heart condition.

His baseline happiness didn't budge. No fear spiral about death or time left, just quiet acceptance. And he spoke about his grandmother and how as she approached death, he told her, wow, you're going to discover the great mystery. Find out what all of this is about. And that line gave me chills because it holds both grief and wonder, fear and reverence. And from a resilience perspective, this is what I'd call baseline peace. A depth of acceptance about how life works that means even big storms don't fully uproot you. You can still be sad, tired, frustrated and in pain, but underneath there's a current that says this is part of.

The deal of being alive.

I don't need to fear reality itself. That kind of peace doesn't come from avoiding discomfort. It comes from having met discomfort honestly, repeatedly, and discovering that you can still love, still give, and still be kind. Christopher wrote about wanting his legacy to be loving kindness, to know that somewhere someone felt a transmission of ease and peace through him. That is resilience at the existential level, letting pain deepen your commitment to what matters instead of hardening you against the world.

And before we move into today's guided practice, I want to offer a handful.

Of simple, concrete ways to support your bounce back process. Think of these as little resilience anchors. So first off, name the state, not the identity. Instead of I'm failing or I'm a mess, you could try my system is in sympathetic right now, I'm activated or I'm feeling flat and shut down. This reminds you that states are temporary, but identities feel permanent. Check your circle of control. Ask yourself, what's one small thing that is in my control right now? It might be your breath, your posture, what you say to yourself or who you reach out to. Micro regulate one low, slow nasal breath with a longer exhale, a gentle stretch, a hand on your heart, a 30.

Second pause to step outside into fresh air. These tiny acts send big signals to.

Your nervous system and think about extracting the wisdom, not just the wound. When you're ready, and only when you're ready, gently ask what did this experience show me about what matters, about what needs to change, about what I stand for. That's how difficulty becomes depth, not just damage. And remember the contrast. The sweetness you feel on the other side of a squeeze isn't fake. It's Your system appreciating relief. Let that register. Let yourself notice. Ah, I'm okay now. Even if things aren't perfect. So if you are currently driving or operating heavy machinery, please ensure to pause the recording now until you can safely come back into stillness. And just find a comfortable position, either lying down or seated with your back fully supported, and let your body be as comfortable as it reasonably can be right now.

And when you're ready, gently close your eyes.

And let's begin with a few easy breaths. Inhaling in through the nose.

And out through the mouth. Another one in through the nose. And out through the mouth. We're just letting that exhale be just a little longer than the inhale.

[Sean]

Good.

[Ashley Bentley]

That's right. And now I'm going to guide you into a full body squeeze, a deliberate conscious stress that will then soften and release. So take a gentle breath in.

And as you breathe in, begin to squeeze.

Curl your toes, tighten your legs, clench.

Your glutes, make gentle fists with your hands.

Scrunch your face, your eyes, jaw and forehead.

Not to the point of pain, just.

To the point of noticing a whole body of. I'm holding on. Holding for 3, 2, 1, and exhale. Release everything. Let the hands open and the jaw soften, the shoulders drop and the legs relax and notice what that feels like. And we're going to do this two more times.

Go ahead and breathe in, squeezing the whole body again.

Your toes, your legs, your belly, your.

Hands, your shoulders, your face. Feel what uncomfortable on purpose is like.

And let's hold it for 3, 2, 1, and exhale and soften. Let gravity have more of you this time. Good. That's right. And one last round.

Go ahead and inhale in gentle full body squeeze, squeeze. You might even imagine all the week's tension gathering into this contraction.

That's right. And hold for 3, 2, 1, and exhale. Let it go. And maybe imagine the ground, the chair or the bed absorbing some of that effort for you. And just let your breath and body settle exactly as they want to. And notice the contrast, the echo of that tension and the relief of not having to hold it right now. And as you rest here, I'd like to weave in a subtle reflection. Life will squeeze you, sometimes gently, sometimes brutally. Some squeezes you'll choose like cold water, A new challenge, a difficult but honest conversation. And others, you won't choose at all. But in every squeeze, there is eventually some kind of release, even if it's small at first. A moment of quiet, a breath.

A.

Conversation with someone who gets it A night of sleep, a piece of good news, Or even a fleeting sense that I'm okay in this moment.

Even if.

The bigger situation is still hard. Resilience lives in how you meet both sides, how you acknowledge the squeeze.

And.

How you allow the release. And can you bring your awareness now to the breath moving in your chest, your heart space? You might imagine that with each inhale, you're gently acknowledging the squeezes you've been through recently, the big ones, the small ones, the ones you're still in. And with every exhale, you're allowing just a fraction more softness. Not fixing anything, not forcing anything, just letting your body know, in this moment, I don't have to hold it all by myself. Inhaling acknowledgment and exhaling tiny permission to soften. And if it feels supportive, you can place one hand over the heart and one over the belly and feel the warmth of your own palms, The rise and fall under your hands. Good. That's right. And if there was one squeeze in your life that has taught you something important, perhaps about what really matters, or about your strength, or about what you will and won't do tolerate anymore, you might let that come to mind now, not to relive it, but to honor the wisdom it gave you. You might silently say to yourself, thank you for what you've taught me. I don't have to love what happened, but I honor who I've become through it. Just let those words land wherever they need to. And can you now bring to mind one small, concrete way you could support your own bounce back in the coming days? It might be going to bed 20 minutes earlier, or saying no to one thing that drains you.

Or reaching out.

To one person who helps you feel like yourself, or doing one small regulating practice each morning or evening. Let it be modest and kind.

Something.

Your nervous system is ready to receive. And if you like, you can phrase.

It as a simple intention.

I am learning to bounce back with kindness. Or I give myself permission to rest and then rise. Or I am building resilience. One small step at a time. And just repeat your sentence silently now a few times, And then very gently begin to bring awareness back to your body. And notice the contact points.

Where you.

Are supported, and notice the sounds in the room.

And wiggle your fingers and toes.

Move your head from side to side. And whenever you're ready and not a moment before, you can feel free to gently open your eyes. Thank you so much for joining me today.

If you'd like to keep building these muscles gently, you're very welcome to join.

Me over on Insight Timer.

Just search for my name, Ashley Bentley.

You'll find nervous system informed meditations and.

Yoga, nidras, bedtime stories and courses like.

My 14 day nervous system Regulation Mastery Course, all designed with your beautiful sensitivity in mind. Next week on Mindful Mondays, we'll continue.

This exploration of resilience by looking more.

Closely at mindset and how to reframe.

Your life to support you, not weigh you down.

Until then, remember, you're not failing when you wobble. You're learning how to ride the wave.

And as always, remember, we're all just walking each other home.

[Acast Announcer]

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[Kristy Lee]

If you think of Canada as polite and boring, think again. From the Toronto Crossbow Killer to the trial of Canadian idols Jacob Hoggard to the serial killer pig farmer, Canadian True Crime will immerse you in the human stories behind the shocking headlines from your neighbours to the north. Hi, I'm Kristy Lee. Over 200 episodes and 75 million downloads, I've taken listeners through some of the most disturbing crime stories from the country I call home. Join me find Canadian True Crime wherever you get your podcasts.

[Acast Announcer]

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