Welcome.
I'm so glad you're here.
Find your way into Shavasana,
Lying on your back.
Align your legs to fall gently apart.
Your arms resting a little way from your body,
Palms facing softly upward,
Open and receptive.
Let the floor fully receive your weight.
You don't need to hold anything up right now.
Close your eyes or soften your gaze downward,
Whichever feels most natural.
Take a moment to make any small adjustments,
A gentle shift of the shoulders.
A lengthening through the back of the neck.
Perhaps a slow roll of the head from side to side.
Let the body find its own ease.
You may wish to cover yourself with a blanket.
Or play something.
Beneath your knees.
This time is yours entirely.
Now simply arrive,
Arrive in this body,
Arrive in this moment.
Whatever you have carried here today,
The busyness,
The thoughts,
The weight of the world,
You can set it all down.
Just for now.
There's nothing to do.
Nowhere to be.
Nothing to achieve.
Yoganidra will simply do.
Its work through your willingness to receive it.
All that is asked of you is that you remain still and that you stay gently awake.
You are ready.
Let us begin.
Take your awareness inside and to investigate the whole physical body.
Relax the body.
See if there is any tension.
Bracing.
Clenching.
Or holding.
Then consciously loosen it.
Like,
Let it go.
If the muscles are tight,
Release them.
If the jaw is clenched,
Let the jaw drop a little.
Let go of the frown between the eyes.
Soften the muscles around the eyes.
Settle.
Become aware of the sounds far away in the distance.
Become aware of the most distant sounds you can hear.
Now move your attention from sound to sound without attempting to identify the source.
Gradually bring your attention to closer sounds.
Two sounds outside this building.
And then to the sounds inside the building.
Now develop your awareness of the room without opening your eyes.
Visualize the four walls.
The ceiling,
The floor,
Your body lying on the floor.
Body in contact with the floor.
Become aware of the existence of your physical body lying on the floor.
Your body lying on the floor.
Total awareness of your body lying in perfect stillness.
Your whole body feels so heavy.
That it is sinking into the floor.
Surrender the whole body completely into the earth.
Your whole body.
Withdraw your mind and concentrate on the space in front of your whole being.
Vision your closed eyes.
The space we call Chidakasha.
Imagine before you.
A transparent screen.
Through which you can see infinite space.
A space that extends as far as the eyes can see.
Rest your mind in this warm friendly darkness.
If thoughts occur,
Let them come and go.
But continue watching the dark space with detached awareness.
At this point a Sankalpa has to be made.
A sankalpa is simply an intention.
A resolution,
A resolve,
An affirmation of something you wish.
To happen or change or transform in your life.
A sankalpa should be brief,
Only a few words,
A short and positive,
Clear statement.
The same statement or sentence should always be used whenever you repeat the Sankalpa.
Now make your Sankalpa and repeat it three times.
Now we move into rotation of consciousness,
Awareness of the different parts of the body by taking a trip through the body.
Let your mind jump freely from one part to the next.
Right side right hand thumb.
Second finger,
Third,
Fourth,
Fifth finger,
Palm of the hand,
Back of the hand,
Wrist,
Lower arm,
Elbow,
Upper arm,
Shoulder,
Armpit,
Side waist,
Hip,
Left thigh,
Kneecap,
Calf muscle,
Ankle heel,
Sole,
Top of the foot,
Left toes,
Burst,
Second toe,
Third toe,
Fourth toe,
Fifth toe,
Left side,
Left hand thumb,
Second finger,
Third,
Fourth,
Fifth finger.
Palm of the hand,
Back of the hand,
Wrist,
Lower arm,
Elbow,
Upper arm,
Shoulder,
Armpit,
Side waist,
Hip,
Left thigh,
Kneecap,
Calf muscle,
Ankle heel,
Sole,
Top of the foot,
Foot,
Left toes,
First,
Second,
Third,
Fourth,
Fifth toe.
Back,
Now to the back,
Become of the way,
The right shoulder blade,
The left shoulder blade,
The right buttock,
The left buttock,
The spine,
The whole back together,
Now go to the top of the head.
The top of the head,
The forehead,
Both sides of the head,
The right eyebrow.
The left eyebrow.
The space between the eyebrows.
The right eyelid.
The left eyelid.
The right eye.
The left eye.
The right ear.
Left ear.
The right cheek.
The left cheek.
The nose,
The tip of the nose,
The upper lip.
The low and the.
.
.
The chin.
The throat,
The right chest,
The left chest,
The middle of the chest.
The navel.
The abdomen.
The whole of the right leg.
The whole of the left leg.
Both legs together.
The whole of the right arm.
The whole of the left arm.
Both arms together.
The whole of the back.
Batox.
Spine.
Shoulder blades,
The whole of the front abdomen.
Chest.
The whole of the back and front.
Together now,
The whole of the head.
The whole body together.
The whole body together.
The whole body together.
Total awareness of your whole body lying on the floor.
Breathing,
Now gently bring your awareness to the breath.
Without changing it,
Without controlling it,
Simply notice it.
Feel the cool whisper of air as it enters through the nostrils.
Quiet pause at the top of the inhale.
And then the warm,
Soft release of the exhale.
Your breath has been with you since your first moment in this world.
Faithful and constant,
Rising and falling like the tide.
It asks nothing of you now.
Only your attention.
Let each inhale feel like an arriving.
And each exhale like a letting go.
Notice how the belly rises like a gentle wave and falls.
The chest softly expands and stills.
You are not breathing,
You are being breathed.
The body knows exactly what it needs.
Rest here in the rhythm that was always yours.
The most intimate pulse of being alive.
Now we enter the realm of sensations.
And through sensation something far older and deeper than thought.
For this is how the world is woven,
Not in absolutes,
But in the dance between them.
Every experience you ever had exists only because its opposite exists.
There is no light without the memory of darkness,
No warmth without the knowledge of cold.
This is not philosophy.
You can feel it right now in the body.
Become aware of heaviness.
Let the body grow dense,
Sinking as though you are made of warm stone.
Feel the pull of the earth drawing you down.
Down into its quiet depth.
Heavy.
Heavy,
Beautifully,
Restfully.
Heavy body.
And now lightness as though the breath itself has lifted you.
Hollow bones,
Open spaces,
A body barely there.
Floating,
Weightless,
Like a seed carried on the breath of the world.
Light,
Effortless,
Free.
Now feel warmth moving through you,
A deep golden heat,
Like lying under an afternoon sun,
The kind that reaches way all through the skin and into the bones,
Warm,
Radiant and glowing.
And our coolness.
A silver freshness.
Like mountain air on bare skin.
Like the first breath after rain,
Cool.
Clear awake.
Feel heaviness once more and lightness,
Warmth,
Coolness.
Let the opposites move through you like weather.
Knowing that you are not the heat or the cold.
Not the heaviness or the light.
You are the vast unchanging sky through which all of it passes.
Every sensation arising and every sensation dissolving.
This is the great teaching of the body that nothing is fixed.
Nothing is final.
Even now,
Even here,
You contain multitudes.
Rest in that knowing.
Take your awareness to a bright glowing full moon.
The backdrop of an ink blue sky.
Silver star.
Sunrise.
Dew on a lotus flower.
A flowing stream in a forest.
Yellow tulips.
Children laughing in a park.
Pure white sand on a beach.
Lush palm trees.
Angel White horse.
Rainbow Come back to your Sankalpa.
Repeat your intention,
Your affirmation,
Your resolve.
Repeat it now three times.
Slowly,
Gently,
Begin to sense the return.
Like a tide drawing back to the shore.
Awareness begins to move toward the surface.
Feel the weight of your body resting against the earth beneath you.
The celerity of the flow.
The warmth of your own skin.
Become aware of the space your body occupies.
The quiet boundary where you end and the world begins.
Notice any sounds in the room around you.
Near sounds,
Distant sounds,
Letting them remind you of where you are.
Gently invite the breath to deepen just a little.
Feel the fingers and if it feels natural,
Let them softly curl and release.
The toes,
A slow roll of the ankles,
A gentle stretch through the arms.
Take your time,
There is no rush.
You are returning but you are returning differently.
Carrying something quieter,
Something settled back with you into the waking world.
When you are ready.
Allow the eyes to flutter open,
Receiving light slowly without hurry.
You have arrived back in the room.
Back in the body.
And yet somehow more fully yourself.
Hariyom Tat Sat.
Har Yon Tat Sat The practice of Yoga Nidra is now complete.
