Yoga Nidra For Deep Settling Rest

A beautiful 20-minute guided meditation, through the body to help you settle deeply into rest. Prepare to lie down and rest in the arms of the earth as you are steadily guided through your breath and use of skillful imagery to help you settle your nervous system and release stress, so you can begin to rest.

Transcript

Welcome to this practice of Yoga Nidra.

This Nidra for deep rest.

This Yoga Nidra for deep rest.

So,

Lying comfortably,

Please make sure you're as comfortable as you need to be.

Please make sure you're as warm as you need to be.

Maybe feeling into your body,

Feeling into the curve of your neck,

And just say,

Oh do I need to adjust that,

Adjust that a little.

Feeling into your shoulder blades,

Do I need to wriggle them a little.

Feeling into your lower back,

Hmm,

Do I need to ease that out or lift up my pelvis and place my lower back and down in a slightly different place,

Just to ensure a tiny bit more comfort.

Ensure your feet are warm and comfortably placed and your hands are where you'd like to have them,

Whether resting alongside you or on your belly or in a different part of your being.

There is no right,

There is no wrong,

It just is.

So,

Within that there is no other place to be,

There's nothing else to do.

For the next 20 minutes or so,

This is your practice of yoga nidra.

So,

Maybe coming to your breath and with every exhale just do an audible sigh or release.

For the next two or three breaths,

It can be a groan,

Whatever you like,

Just a little bit of a beginning of a letting go with your breath.

So,

Lying here,

Feeling your body upon the floor,

The floor which is upon the earth and the earth which is holding you.

Feeling those points of where your body touches the earth,

Feeling the spaces between the two places,

Between your body and earth.

Breathing into your body,

Lying onto the earth,

Lying wherever you are and with every out-breath,

Allow yourself,

Allow your body to feel heavier,

Allow your body to sink deeper into the kiss of earth,

Into the kiss of gravity.

With every out-breath,

Going deeper into her arms and feeling her soft,

Tender embrace as she gently holds you,

Wherever it is you're lying.

Almost so if you got up,

You would leave a visible imprint,

Your body would leave a visible imprint.

So,

With every out-breath,

Sinking deeper,

Dropping into her tender embrace,

Feeling yourself held and becoming connected with earth through the simple fact of you lying down.

So,

Allowing your body to be in this deeply held place,

This place in contact with earth,

In contact with the pull and the desire of earth to get to know you deeper.

Inviting in a beautiful regenerating flame,

Soft flame that lights up your heart and with every in-breath,

This flame brings in a sense of deep soothing and with every out-breath,

The flame compresses ever so slightly.

So,

With every in-breath,

It grows slightly and swells with the soothing soft nature and with every out-breath,

It just reduces ever so slightly in size.

Being with this sense of wonderful regeneration,

This light of soothing love that comes with this flame,

This flame in your heart and you have the sense that it's always been here in this,

In your heart,

Holding,

Soothing,

Regenerating.

It's the flame of life.

Just be with it with your breath.

Notice the color of it as we're going to take this beautiful,

Regenerating,

Soothing flame around your body.

All you need to do is listen to where I take you.

You can imagine the body part if you want to and if you lose where I go,

That's fine.

Just come back to the tone of my voice.

So,

Taking this flame,

This regenerating flame,

This soothing flame to your right hand thumb,

To your right hand thumb,

Your right hand thumb,

The index finger of your right hand,

Middle finger,

Ring finger and little finger,

Palm of the hand and the back of the hand,

Your wrist,

Forearm,

Elbow,

Shoulder,

Armpit,

Side,

Waist,

Front of the hip,

Back of the hip,

Front of the thigh,

Back of the thigh.

Taking this beautiful,

Soothing,

Regenerating flame to the front of your knee,

To the back of your knee,

To your shin,

To your calf,

To your heel,

To your ankle,

Instep,

The sole of the foot,

The top of the right foot,

The right big toe,

First toe,

Second toe,

Third toe,

Little toe.

The whole right side of the body,

The whole right side of the body is deeply filled with the soothing,

Regenerating flame of your heart.

Taking this beautiful flame to the left side,

To the left hand thumb,

The left hand thumb,

The index finger,

The middle finger,

The ring finger,

The little finger,

Fingers and thumb together.

This beautiful,

Soothing flame of your heart to the palm of your hand,

To the back of your hand,

To your wrist,

Your forearm,

Your elbow,

Your upper arm,

Your shoulder,

Your armpit,

Side of the body,

Your waist,

Front of the left hip,

Back of the left hip,

Front of the thigh,

Back of the thigh,

Front of the left knee,

Back of the left knee,

To the shin,

To the calf,

Taking this beautiful flame to your left heel,

Your left ankle,

Left instep,

Left sole of the foot,

Top of the foot,

Left big toe,

First toe,

Second toe,

Third toe,

Little toe,

The whole left side of the body,

The whole left side of the body is filled with the beautiful,

Soothing flame of your heart.

The whole right arm,

The right arm,

The right arm,

The left arm,

The left arm,

The left arm,

Both arms together,

Filled with the light of this soothing flame.

The whole right leg,

The whole left leg,

Both legs together,

Filled with the soothing light of the flame of regeneration from your heart.

Coming back to the base of your spine,

Right in your tailbone,

Sending this beautiful flame,

This beautiful soothing flame to your tailbone and your sacrum,

The lower back,

The middle back,

The upper back,

The left shoulder blade,

The right shoulder blade,

The place between the shoulder blades,

The back of the neck,

The back of the head,

The top of the head,

The forehead,

Left eyebrow,

Right eyebrow,

Left eye,

Right eye,

The space behind the eyes and the space between the eyes,

Bringing this beautiful soothing flame of regeneration to your eyes and your eyelids,

To your nose and the tip of your nose,

Your left ear,

Your right ear,

Right cheek,

Left cheek,

Top lip,

Bottom lip and both lips together,

To your chin,

To your throat,

To the soft spot at the base of your throat,

To your breastbone and the place at the centre of your breast,

To your left chest,

To your right chest,

To your diaphragm,

Left ribs,

Right ribs,

To your upper belly,

To your navel,

To your lower belly,

To your pubic bone.

So the whole body,

The whole body is filled with the soothing sense of a generating light,

The deeply restful,

Soothing flame of your heart,

The whole body,

Whole body.

And now deeply resting back,

Resting back with the light of this soothing sense,

To feel the support from behind,

The support from underneath you,

To allow you to rest back a little bit deeper,

Feeling your spine supported by the earth,

Almost as if a bed of moss were behind you,

Holding your spine,

Soothing your spine,

Supporting your spine and the whole of the back of the body and with every out-breath you feel the support between your spine and whatever it is that's under you,

Holding you from behind.

And it appears almost as if it's an energy that's supporting you from underneath and behind you,

That allows you to rest deeply back.

With every out-breath the sense of this grows deeper,

With every out-breath you really come to that clear feeling of support from underneath and behind.

And now with the in-breath,

There's a sense with the in-breath of a gentle movement that guides us forward.

Don't worry about the out-breath,

Just allow the in-breath to fill you with that gentle movement of being guided forward,

The soft movement that allows us to move forward at our own pace with our in-breath,

The sense of knowing how we're to move forward.

And now come to the out-breath of resting back,

Knowing you're supported from behind and with the in-breath knowing there's a soft movement forward and with every out- breath resting back and with every in-breath the soft movement forward.

Be with that for a few breaths.

And now how would it be,

How would it be to allow there to be both things at once?

If you just let go of your breathing and allow the sense of support from behind and the gentle flow forward to be there at the same time,

How would that be for you?

And letting those sensations fade,

Coming back to the simplicity of your breath.

So with every in-breath,

Breathing up with a soft gentle sweep from your feet up the front of your body to the top of your head,

Almost like a feather brushing up,

Brushing up your body up the front and with every out-breath a soft gentle sweep down the back of your body to the soles of your feet as the feather travels down from the soles of your feet and the tips of your toes up to the top of your head with your in-breath and with your out-breath from the crown of your head down your spine to the soles of your feet,

Breathing out.

Maybe do this for nine breaths,

Counting back from nine.

If you lose track,

Don't worry,

Just come back to starting again at nine.

Letting that fade and allowing your breath to come back to a normal pattern of breathing.

Maybe deepen your breath ever so slightly as you bring your attention back to your body,

Feeling your body lying on the floor,

Feeling your body lying on the kiss of earth in the embrace of her,

As you take in a deeper in-breath and a deeper out-breath and begin the journey back to your awareness of where you are in the room.

You might want to start by wriggling your toes and your fingers,

Maybe clenching them and extending them a little bit and you might extend that movement a little bit more into a wriggle of your legs and your arms and possibly moving your spine a tiny bit before you rub your palms of your hands together,

So you feel a nice bit of warmth between them and place them,

Cup them over your eyes and so you can softly,

Tenderly open your eyes into the cup,

Into your cupped palms and blink a little bit in there,

Regenerating your warmth before you return to your room and open your eyes and do a big stretch up and down.

This practice of yoga nidra is now complete.

Thank you for listening to your heart,

For honouring your heart,

Your inner teacher,

As I honour my heart,

My inner teacher.

Reviews

This was deliciously soothing. Thank you. I’m grateful to Trisha Clarkin for letting me know you posted this here.