Yoga Nidra For Spring

This Yoga Nidra practice is a gentle guided relaxation themed around Spring, designed to support deep rest and renewal. As nature begins to stir after Winter, this practice invites you to soften, release effort, and simply be. Woven throughout are reflections on the changing season, from the quiet resilience of snowdrops to the growing warmth of longer days. However you arrive, this practice offers a space to pause, breathe, and embrace the transition into Spring.

Transcript

Welcome to your yoga nidra practice.

Start getting set up in a way that feels accessible and supportive for you.

That could be lying on your back with a pillow or bolster under the knees or lying on one side.

Do what you need to do to get as comfortable as is available to you today.

This is a guided relaxation themed on spring,

Designed to help elicit your body's relaxation response.

I invite you to release any effort or goal oriented drive to get somewhere in particular.

If you were to practice yoga nidra every day over the course of a week,

You may notice that some days you feel able to slip into deep rest and other days it's much harder to switch off.

That's the ebb and flow of life so rest back here and now and see how you experience this practice today.

February the 1st marks the midpoint between the winter solstice and the spring equinox in the northern hemisphere Celtic calendar.

We've made it through the darkest months of winter and now have the increasing daylight and the first signs of spring's arrival.

Spring is a time when nature starts to shift,

Stir and come alive again,

Waking up from the slumber of winter's hibernation.

For us too as part of nature it can be a time of renewal and expansion,

Easing out of winter into spring.

The dark,

Cold depths of winter prepared us for this gentle emergence into spring.

I'll be sprinkling themes of spring throughout,

Like the snowdrops emerging from the cold ground with their hopeful buds.

So rest back and follow my voice that is guiding you.

I'll invite you to begin by bringing awareness to your mouth and maybe that means taking a swallow or a deliberate yawn if that's available to you.

Could mean allowing the teeth to part a little bit in the mouth if that's comfortable and to soften the lips.

Imagine that tension could drop down away from the jaw into the ground.

Then guide your awareness to the point between the eyebrows.

So notice that point where you might sometimes frown or furrow the brow.

You could even take a deliberate frown now to see how it feels to have tension in the brow and then relax and soften across the brow so you're noticing the difference between tension and relaxation there.

Next,

Bring your awareness to the points of contact between your head and its support and get a real sense of the head fully supported.

Perhaps even a sense of heaviness in the head as it rests back.

And I'll invite you to bring your awareness now to the tip of your right shoulder,

The tip of the right elbow,

The palm of the right hand and the back of the right hand.

So bringing awareness can mean thinking about that place,

Imagining that part of your body or maybe if it's available to you,

Feeling and sensing that part of your body.

Awareness now to the right side of the waist,

To the tip of the right hip,

The right knee,

Right ankle and the right toes.

Awareness to the tip of the left shoulder,

The left elbow,

The left palm of the hand,

The left fingers.

Awareness to the left side of the waist,

The tip of the left hip bone,

To the left knee,

The left ankle and the left toes.

Bring awareness to your whole body.

Notice what you can feel between the points of contact of the body and the surface you're resting on.

So feel all the parts that you can feel of the back body resting on the ground.

Draw a deep full breath in and maybe sigh out the mouth on the exhale.

You can do this a few more times taking a deep full breath in,

Filling up and a big sigh out on the exhale.

One more time if you like.

And now is the time to create a sankalpa.

So this is known as a heartfelt desire,

An inner resolve and this can be something you'd like to bring in during spring.

It's like sowing a seed of intention in the underground of your subconscious mind.

And we'll make a simple present tense sentence.

So a few examples are I am resilient or I am open to change or maybe I embrace a slower pace.

You can use any of the ones I said or allow your own version to bubble up,

Something that feels supportive for you at this moment.

And repeat the words internally three times.

So you say the phrase,

The full phrase,

Three times.

Now take a moment to picture or bring to mind somewhere you feel at ease.

So maybe you're in a park.

So where is somewhere that elicits feelings of calm and safety?

It might even be where you are now.

Maybe it's a natural setting that makes you feel particularly supported and safe.

And see if you can get a sense of those feelings of ease associated with that place.

And know that if at any point a challenging sensation comes along,

It's something that comes up or you get lost.

You can always come back to this place.

You can keep it as a resource.

I'll now invite you to sense the rise and fall of the breath.

So wherever it is that makes sense to you to feel the rise and fall of the breath.

And then we'll count down from 32.

So 32,

Inhale,

Breath rises.

32,

Exhale,

Breath falls.

31,

Inhale,

Breath rises.

31,

Exhale,

Breath falls.

Keep counting down in your own pace.

Release the counting from your mind's focus if you haven't already.

And rest here for a few moments.

Feel the breath come in and out of the body.

Notice which parts of your body gently expand on the inhale.

And where you can sense a release on the exhale.

Can you even soften your body closer to the ground with each exhale?

Letting the bones rest.

So really feel a sense of lightness and lift in the front body with the expansion of every inhale.

And a sense of heaviness through the back body on the exhale.

Keep noticing the difference in sensation between the two.

So you have the lightness of the front body on the inhale and the sinking down into the ground with a heaviness through the back body on each exhale.

And these two opposites begin to dissolve into one.

So you feel both at the same time.

The lightness and the expansion and the heaviness.

I'm next going to list a few different images associated with the season of spring.

So if you can see visual representations in your mind's eye,

Picture the images.

If not,

Then repeat the words.

And whichever version you're doing,

Maybe you can access a feeling that comes with each word.

So let's begin.

Snowdrops pushing through the frosty ground.

Bluebells underneath a big tree.

A hedgehog.

Lambs bouncing in a greenfield.

White swans gliding across a lake.

A handful of seeds.

An acorn.

The flickering light of a candle.

Gently bring your focus back to your sankalpa.

That present tense sentence you said at the start.

And repeat it once more internally now or even out loud if you like.

Then rest back here.

Soaking up your relaxation for a few more moments.

Knowing how important it is to rest and restore throughout the turning seasons of each year.

And perhaps connecting to a sense of replenishing your reserves so you can awaken into spring.

If you have the time you might like to stay resting here.

Otherwise,

Slowly become aware of the ground beneath you.

So noticing once again the points of contact between your body and the ground.

And really imagining that you have just been in a hibernation like a creature through winter and you're going to slowly,

Slowly shift and stir awake into spring.

So small movements to begin with.

Maybe moving the head side to side or the fingers.

If you're not already over on one side you could curl into a ball on one side.

And wake up very gently.

Perhaps even offering yourself some appreciation for taking the time to slow down and rest.

And something I really love to think about at the end of the yoga practice is this idea that we aren't only practicing for ourselves we're practicing for each other.

So it might even be that there's someone that you want to dedicate this practice to.

And imagine that you can send any peace or calm that you might have found to that person or those people or even a place in the world.

Thank you for joining me.

Goodbye.

Reviews

Lovely practice! I appreciate your pace and intentionally. Thank you! 🙏🏽🌹💜