35-Minute Yoga Nidra - Inner Refuge

This is a 35-minute Yoga Nidra that explores your Inner Refuge or Inner Sanctuary.

An Inner Refuge is a real or imagined place that is always available for you when you need it. Visiting your inner refuge can help you to create a connection to your place of safety and security that resides within you.

During this Yoga Nidra, I guide you through breathing, a rotation of consciousness, and a visualization of your Inner Refuge.

Relax back and enjoy.

Transcript

Hi,

I'm Jocelyn.

This is a yoga nidra aimed at connecting with our inner sanctuary or inner refuge.

Your inner sanctuary or inner refuge is a place of security,

Of safety.

And we all have one inside of ourselves,

Whether it's a real or imagined place.

And that place is unique to you.

The inner sanctuary or inner refuge is a place that you can explore and know that it's always available for you at any time that you need it.

So,

When you're ready,

If you could find yourself either laying down or sitting back where your body feels supported.

You may want to put a pillow under your knees or under your ankles.

You may want to put a pillow under your head or an eye pillow to block out the light.

And when doing yoga nidras,

It's nice to have a blanket because sometimes our temperature will drop when we are being effortlessly aware and relaxed.

So it's nice to have a blanket if that's available to you.

And once you find yourself in a comfortable place where your body is supported,

Just quickly bring your awareness to all the major muscle groups of the body.

You might just bring your awareness to your hips,

To your shoulders,

To your head.

And by just bringing awareness,

We allow our body to let go of the hold on that part of our body.

Just for a minute,

Opening your ears to the different sounds and vibrations in the room around you or on this recording.

Do you hear opening up the inner ear,

The center of your mind,

Letting that just relax down and back,

Unfurling like a fist,

Gently releasing the fingers.

And take a moment to bring your awareness to your eyes,

Allowing them to rest back and down.

And the back of the tongue,

The muscle of the tongue,

Just bring your awareness there and let it relax back and down.

And just taking a few physiological breaths,

And a physiological breath is two gentle sips in of air through the nose,

And then opening your mouth and exhaling it out.

So it's two gentle sips,

One after the other.

Open your mouth and exhale it out.

Two gentle sips in through the nose.

Open the mouth and exhale it out.

And you're going to do this in your own time,

Continuing.

Two gentle sips in through the nose.

Opening your mouth and exhaling.

Inhaling.

Exhaling.

Inhaling.

And exhaling.

And finding your own pace with these two gentle sips in through the nose.

Opening your mouth and exhaling it out.

Continuing a little longer with the physiological breath of two sips in through the nose.

Open your mouth and exhale it out.

And you can gently release that.

And allow your natural breath to come back.

Not trying to force it in any way,

Just allowing and almost being a witness to your breath breathing you,

Or your body breathing you.

I'm going to take you on a rotation of consciousness through the body.

Yoga nidra is effortless,

So as I guide your attention to an area of the body,

If you could imagine your attention sitting just gently on that area of the body,

As if a feather gently fell on it,

Beginning with the center of the throat.

Your attention falling gently on the center of the throat,

As if a feather gently fell from the sky and landed there.

The back of the tongue,

Your attention like a feather gently falling and landing on the back of the tongue.

The roof of the mouth,

Your attention gently falling on the back of the tongue.

The tip of the nose,

The right eye,

Your attention landing like a feather gently falling from the sky.

All the little muscles behind the right eye.

The right temple,

The right ear,

The space between the ears,

Your attention falling like a feather gently landing in the space between the ears.

The left ear,

Left temple,

All the little muscles behind the left eye.

The left eye,

The center of the forehead,

The mind's eye,

With your attention gently falling like a feather.

The top of the head,

The back of the head,

The back of the neck,

The right shoulder,

Your attention gently falling like a feather from the sky.

The right shoulder,

Your attention gently falling like a feather from the sky on the right shoulder.

Elbow,

Wrist,

Palm of the right hand,

All five fingers of the right hand,

Your attention gently landing like a feather on all five fingers of the right hand.

The heart space,

The belly,

The right hip,

Your attention gently falling like a feather from the sky on the right hip.

Thigh,

Knee,

Calf,

Ankle,

Bottom of the right foot,

All five toes of the right foot,

Your attention landing on all five toes of the right foot like feathers falling from the sky.

The belly,

The heart space,

Your attention effortless,

Gently falling on the heart space.

The left shoulder,

The right shoulder,

The left shoulder,

Left elbow,

Wrist,

Palm of the hand,

The hand,

Your attention gently falling like a feather from the sky on all five fingers of the left hand.

The heart space,

The belly,

Left hip,

Your attention falling gently like a feather from the sky on the left hip.

Thigh,

Knee,

Calf,

Ankle,

Bottom of the left foot,

Your attention gently falling like a feather from the sky on all five toes of the left foot.

Your belly,

Your heart space,

Your attention landing in your heart space like a feather that's fallen from the sky.

Can you put your attention and awareness on the entire right side of the body?

Place it gently on the right side of the body like a feather that's fallen from the sky.

The whole left side of the body.

Of the body.

Can you imagine your attention settling gently on the entire left side of the body like a feather fallen from the sky?

The whole back side of the body.

Can you allow your attention to gently settle on the whole back side of the body like a feather gently landing on the whole front side of the body?

Your attention gently landing like a feather fallen from the sky on your whole front side of your body.

Your whole body.

Your attention on your whole body.

Gentle as if a feather fallen from the sky lands gently across your whole body.

And without changing your breathing in any way,

Allowing your body to breathe you,

Just begin to notice your inhale and your exhale.

There's no effort here,

Just noticing when you inhale and when you exhale.

And on your next inhale,

If you could imagine inhaling right into your heart space.

And exhaling out your heart space.

Inhaling right into your heart space in your own time.

And exhaling through your heart space.

Might you imagine on your next inhale that you inhale through your heart space and down to your belly.

And when you exhale,

You're exhaling from your belly all the way back up to your heart space.

In your own time,

When you inhale,

Inhaling through your heart space,

Down deep into your belly.

And when you exhale in your own time,

Might you imagine exhaling from your belly all the way up to your heart space?

To your heart.

Doing this a few more times,

Allowing your body to breathe you.

Imagining that inhale through the heart space into the belly.

And when you exhale from the deep belly to the heart.

Allowing that to recede.

You might take a moment to imagine a place.

This place may be real or imagined.

But picture for yourself a place that feels safe.

For some,

This might be outdoors with limitless air and landscape around you.

And for others,

This might be in a cozy nook.

When I say the word secure or safe,

Allow your mind to wander into those words.

To wander into those words.

You don't have to have a perfect idea of this place.

But you can start with colors,

Colors,

Textures,

Sounds.

So really allowing yourself to explore your own place of safety.

What colors are you surrounded by?

What textures are you surrounded by?

Are you surrounded by a gritty sand at your feet or rough bark at your back?

Or rough bark at your back?

Are you surrounded by soft fleece or wool?

Are you surrounded by water?

What textures are there to explore in your place of safety and security within you?

What shapes or symbols do you see around you?

And as you're in this place of safety and security,

Your inner sanctuary and inner refuge,

What temperature is it on your skin?

Do you feel a breeze or a cool breeze?

Are you inside?

Is it warm or is it cold?

Open up your inner ears,

Just bringing awareness to your inner ears as you're in this place.

And what do you hear?

Is there talking or a certain kind of music?

Are there sounds of nature or birds or animals?

Is there a sound of a waterfall?

Or a fan?

Or an ocean?

Opening up your inner ears,

What do you hear?

Is there anyone with you in this place?

They might be here in this life or they might not be in this life anymore.

You may or may not have a person or an animal in your inner refuge,

But you might.

Take a moment to feel into what it feels like to be here.

What does it feel like to be in your inner refuge?

In your inner refuge.

This place is all yours.

It is unique to you and your experiences.

This is your place of safety and security.

You can have here anything you need,

Anyone you need.

And you can visit here anytime you need.

Taking a deep breath into this space,

This inner refuge.

And experiencing it through your heart space for just a moment.

How does your heart feel here?

Breathing in deep.

Breathing in deep.

How does your heart feel here?

You can always come back here.

This is available to you anytime you need.

This place is always available to you.

And it may shift and change as you shift and change.

I'm allowing your awareness now to go back to the heart center.

And just inhaling and exhaling with the heart center.

Ahhhh.

You may even want to put some sound on that exhale.

So you're inhaling.

And opening your mouth and exhaling out.

And doing this three more times at your own pace.

Ahhhh.

Ahhhh.

Ahhhh.

Ahhhh.

Ahhhh.

Ahhhh.

And letting that go.

You may want to just become aware of your fingers and your toes.

Maybe wiggle them a little.

You may want to gently rock your head back and forth.

You might want to take a full body stretch.

You might want to gently open your eyes or flutter them open.

And be aware of your breath.

And just be aware of your breath.

And beginning to come back to the present moment here.

It's a good idea if you have a moment or two to write down some of the sensations or images,

Shapes,

Colors,

Textures that you experienced in your inner refuge.

The more you work with your inner refuge and the more you come back to it,

The more strength it will hold for you in the moments that you feel you're far from it.

But this inner sanctuary,

This inner refuge is always within you.

And it is yours and yours alone.

It is from your life and your experience and your heart.

It is real or it is imagined,

However you put it together.

And when you go back and explore it,

Try to open up all of your senses.

Breathe in that space.

It is a beautiful practice to explore your inner sanctuary and your inner refuge.

And I hope that you come back and do it again.

Thank you so much for joining me in this exploration.

And I look forward to leading you in new and wonderful ways,

My friends.

Namaste.