Hello,
I'm Emma and this Yoga Nidra is for times when the mind feels busy or caught in old loops and the body is asking for more space,
More kindness,
More rest.
It's to help you cross thresholds of change gently and to come home to yourself and your body.
Thank you for being here,
For taking care of yourself,
Let's begin.
Find a position where your body can feel supported,
Creating comfort with pillows and blankets underneath and surrounding your body,
So that the body knows it can rest here.
As you enter into this experience,
Know that there's nothing to hold and nothing to solve.
The thinking mind can soften for a while and you can welcome everything else.
If at any point discomfort arises or something feels unmanageable,
Please know you can open your eyes,
Move your body or bring a hand to your heart or your forehead,
Letting the nervous system know you are safe.
For now,
Let the eyes close or soften their outward gaze,
Inviting awareness inwards so it may travel through the body without interruption.
You may even welcome the feeling of an eye mask or a light scarf to cover the eyes,
Top of the nose and forehead,
Signaling to the body and brain that it's safe to look inwards,
To rest from the effort of external vision and information.
Let the eyes rest now.
Planning,
Thinking and stories can begin to soften and dissolve in their own time.
If the mind tries to run ahead,
Gently bring it back by feeling your contact with the ground,
The ground that holds your physical body and all it contains.
Welcome any feeling and sense of aliveness within your body,
Each layer speaking in the language beyond words,
The language of sensation and knowing.
Insight and soul wisdom,
Can you offer the weight of your bones to the ever-present pull of gravity,
A relief from constant bracing and holding,
A gentle letting go,
Layer by layer.
You may notice the pace of your mind still present and that's welcome too.
Just witness how your body is moving today,
How your body is held.
You might sense thoughts looping and stories replaying,
Even stories about what it is to withdraw from external sensation and go within.
Know that everything is welcome.
It's natural to notice the mind at first as external stimulation softens.
And for now,
Can you sense breath in the body at the lower ribs,
Where the body moves to welcome life.
Sensations of breath just underneath the ribs.
The body quietly making space for each exhale and each inhale.
The ribs gently drawing back towards center,
Ribs and breath at the front of the body.
Ribs and breath at the sides.
The ribs and breath at the back of the body.
Feeling the back of the ribs and movement of breath connecting to the ground or the space behind you.
Breath after breath,
The body breathes.
Notice any sounds.
Sounds to the right side of your awareness.
Sounds within the right ear.
To the left side of your awareness.
Sounds within the left ear.
Gently noticing sounds and any silence between sounds.
The threshold of sound and silence merging.
Then notice your heart space.
Any sensations here within the body.
The sense of the lungs moving and connecting to the heart.
The top of the left lung meeting the borders of the heart with the inhale.
The spiral of the heart muscle and the spiraled energy of the heart gently expanding.
Notice sounds and silence once again.
Right side.
Left side.
Lungs receiving breath.
Right lung.
Left lung.
Gently hugging the left lung.
Heart.
Thresholds merging.
Imagine or feel a circle of light spiraling around your body.
Starting at the heart space.
Enveloping your body in light.
A living threshold.
Light attracting sound and thought waves.
A magnetic field.
Sounds of thoughts softening.
Held in light.
Thoughts living here for now.
As your attention slowly drops into the body.
Feel the breath moving over the threshold of your body through the passages of the nose.
The breath then leaves into the space all around you.
Breath enters and leaves a living field of light.
An intention arising to enter this space of internal remembrance.
Perhaps from your own heart.
Light codes carried on breath.
Is there an intention for you to name now?
Or maybe inviting these words.
This love.
I return to my body and listen to my soul.
Let this or your own words be offered quietly within three times.
I return to my body and listen to my soul.
The energy of intention crossing thresholds of thought,
Blood and bone.
Woven true through your body.
Rest awareness at the sternum.
The breastbone meeting the threshold of the ribs.
The ribs encircling the heart and lungs.
The shape of the shoulder blades like wings.
Top of the shoulders.
Collarbones.
Threshold of the neck and throat.
Back of the head.
Space behind.
The forehead.
Right ear.
Earlobe.
Behind the ear.
Space between the eyes.
Left ear.
Earlobe.
Behind the ear.
Right jaw.
Left jaw.
Chin.
Below the bottom lip.
Top lip.
Threshold of the mouth.
Inside the mouth.
Gums holding teeth.
Tongue.
Throat.
Hollow between the collarbones.
A threshold.
Right shoulder.
Threshold of arm and body.
Right arm.
Palm of the right hand.
Back of the hand.
All five fingers.
Space around the fingers.
Wrist.
Lower arm.
Elbow.
Upper arm.
Shoulder.
Heart space.
Shoulder blades gently holding the spiral of the heart.
Body held in a living field of light.
Hollow between the collarbones.
A threshold.
Left shoulder.
Threshold of arm and body.
Left arm.
Palm of the left hand.
Back of the hand.
All five fingers.
Space around the fingers.
Wrist.
Lower arm.
Elbow.
Upper arm.
Shoulder.
Heart space.
Shoulder blades gently holding the spiral of the heart.
Body held in a living circle of light.
Belly.
Lower back.
Pelvis.
Spine rising from the pelvis.
The whole spine and back of the body.
Left hip.
Right hip.
Threshold of the legs.
Both legs resting.
Thighs.
Knees.
Behind the knees.
Calves.
Shins.
Ankles.
Soles of the feet.
All five toes on each foot left and right.
Top of the feet.
Ankles.
Lower legs.
Knees.
Thighs.
Hips and pelvis.
The whole back of the body.
The whole front of the body.
The whole body held in a living circle of light.
Air becoming breath.
Breath becoming the air all around you.
A living field of light.
Become aware of breath high inside the nose.
Sensation as breath travels towards mind's eye.
Sensation as breath travels within the heart space.
Within the mind's eye.
Within the heart space.
Imagine or sense breath gathered from the space around you.
Entering through the nose.
Within the mind's eye.
Exhale descending to meet heart space.
The inhale from heart space to mind's eye.
Exhale to heart space.
Inhale mind's eye.
Merging the wisdom of your heart and the brilliance of your intuitive sense of breath.
Expression.
Breath weaves between mind's eye and heart space.
Mind's eye and heart space.
Crossing the threshold of heart and mind.
Knowing and thought.
Understanding and story.
Mind's eye and the whole head.
Nourishment flowing.
A gentle stream.
Sense this quality beginning to move.
A gentle descent.
From crown through the center of the brain.
Brainstem through the spine touching the heart space.
Resting within the sacrum.
The body soothed from the inside.
Bringing ease where there's been effort.
The channel of the spine.
Each vertebra bathed in liquid light.
Each nerve pathway soothed.
Awareness flowing like a balm along the length of the spine with the breath.
Resting within the skull now.
And within the layers of the brain.
Right hemisphere of the brain floating.
Left hemisphere of the brain floating.
Fluid threshold between left and right.
Front of the brain.
Back of the brain and brainstem.
Spine flowing with energy.
Sensing the right side of the spine.
Sensing the left side of the spine.
Right side of the spine.
Left side of the spine.
Right side of the spine and left side of the brain.
Left side of the spine and right side of the brain.
Right side of the spine and left side of the brain.
Left side of the spine and right side of the brain.
Energy flowing.
Resting now within the sacrum.
And the base of the skull.
Sacrum.
Base of the skull.
Both spaces together.
A sense of nourishment flowing.
The body soothed from the inside.
Mind's eye and heart space.
Sacrum.
Skull.
Whole spine.
Whole body soothed.
Whole body held as you.
Now sense or imagine yourself at the edge of a threshold.
Letting integration and insight arrive at a threshold of possibility.
One side familiar.
The other side is space.
Space to create a new story.
For a while,
You can be in both spaces,
Known and unknown.
Just imagine.
A simple line in the earth.
A doorway in a stone wall.
Shoreline and the shape of wet sand meeting dry.
Bird wading in shallow waters.
Soft soles of your feet meeting the earth.
The branches of two trees touching,
Creating an arch.
A moon rising to meet the inky sky.
The edge of a cloud.
A dry riverbed receiving water as the rain begins to fall.
The shoreline of a slow flowing river.
Resting within a refuge of light.
Awareness of a moon.
At the edge of a cloud.
In the vastness beyond the inky sky.
Awareness drifting within the vastness beyond the inky sky.
From the vastness,
Your intention is alive.
Carried with inner nourishment.
Absorbed within deep intelligence.
I return to my body and listen to my soul.
Let this arrive as sensation.
As something already true.
And deepening over time.
I return to my body and listen to my soul.
Language as vibration absorbed through threshold of flesh and bone.
Awareness in the vastness beyond the inky sky.
At the edge of a cloud.
Within the moon.
Within the shoreline and the shape of wet sand meeting dry.
And within the soft soles of your feet meeting the earth.
Of a simple line.
Maybe you sense something already integrating.
Something softened.
Or shifted.
Or changed shape within.
You might gently inquire without needing an answer.
What subtle shifts might I notice?
Where has effort softened?
What feels less tight?
Less rushed?
Sense the living circle of light around you.
Still holding thoughts.
Sensations.
Inner and outer noise.
What stays within this field and what's ready to dissolve?
What's ready to dissolve?
Dissolve.
Invite the remaining light to spiral inwards.
Returning to your body.
Returning to your heart.
With a language of sensation and knowing.
With insight that doesn't need to speak.
With soul wisdom that knows you well.
You might sense that some stories have softened or lost their charge.
As you begin to notice the breath again.
Just feeling it arrive and leave.
Notice the contact of your physical body with the ground.
The shape of your body as it rests here.
The weight that's being held for you.
This is a place of stability.
Of support.
A place you can return to while life continues to move.
If it feels welcome and movement and wakefulness start to return.
You may turn to rest.
On your right side.
Letting the heart have a little more space.
Resting upward,
Open and supported.
We may choose to lie on your left side.
Allowing the physical stomach to stretch softly into the ribs.
Supporting digestion on all levels.
As you gently begin to return to a more wakeful state.
Another threshold now from one state of consciousness towards gentle wakefulness.
Still connected.
Awake and aware.
When you're ready,
Begin to reorient to the room.
Knowing you can stay here as long as you need.
As you sense light through the eyelids.
Small movements return in fingers or toes.
Take your time.
Notice what's here.
Breath.
Body.
Feelings and thoughts.
This practice is complete.
But will continue to be felt long after this moment as the layers of the body slowly integrate.
And you can come back to this again anytime.
Regular visits to the layers of your body create a lasting relationship with yourself.
Continue to take your time coming back.
There's no rush here.
Let the eyes stay closed for a little longer if they want to.
This is what it feels like to come home.
And whatever has shifted in this practice,
You don't need to name or understand it.
The body knows.
It always has.
So when you're ready,
Let a little more light in through the eyelids,
Perhaps opening the eyes.
More movements with fingers and toes.
A stretch.
A breath in and out.
And remember you can return here anytime to this body.
To this stillness.
To yourself.
Whenever life gets busy.
I'll see you again soon.
Thank you for practicing with me.
