So,
Welcome.
Welcome to this practice of Yoga Nidra.
Welcome to this time you are making for yourself.
Time that you are stepping out of all the demands of the world,
Just to give yourself some time for some precious rest,
Real rest,
Deep rest.
And take some time to arrive,
To greet your practice.
Settle in and make yourself comfortable,
Really,
Really comfortable.
Lie down in Shavasana.
Lie flat on your back with your legs stretched out in front,
Arms by your sides,
With your palms facing upwards,
Ready to receive.
You can place a low pillow or blanket under your neck.
Just be sure that your neck is unobstructed and remains nice and open.
And roll your head from side to side.
Release any tension from your neck and drop your shoulders away from your ears,
Creating space in this simple movement.
And as always,
Know that I will be guiding you throughout this practice.
And there will also be invitations for visualization and some breath work that you can take or leave.
It's your choice,
Your practice.
So,
Really take what you need and leave what you don't.
Try not to have any expectation of what might happen in this practice today.
Just let everything unfold and happen as it should and will.
Take a deep breath in and sigh everything out through your mouth.
Another deep breath in through your nose and just let everything go with a big sigh through your mouth.
Just let everything go.
Here,
There is nothing for you to do.
Here,
There is nothing for you to do.
You can just put everything to one side for this practice.
Remember,
You can't get yoga nidra wrong.
This is truly the art of effortlessness.
And start to feel your body settle here,
Your whole body.
Feel the weight of your body lying here.
Sense the space around you,
The space outside your body.
Now,
Feel the air around your body,
Maybe on your face.
Just really focus on the sensation of air as it meets your skin.
And the sensation of your body that's covered by your clothes or blankets,
Perhaps.
But really feel the sensation of being covered and contained.
Your whole body in this space.
And let go of all expressions of the day that you might still be holding on to.
Just let everything soften in your face.
Let all the tiny little muscles around your eyes,
Allow them to soften.
Your temples,
Your cheeks,
Your mouth.
Allow the lower jaw to open gently,
Softening.
Your tongue to lie in the base of your mouth,
Everything softening.
Your neck,
Your shoulders.
Feel them melt onto the ground.
Your chest,
Glutes,
Arms and legs.
Everything releasing and letting go.
Bring your attention now to your breath,
Breathing in and out of your nose if possible.
Your full attention and awareness,
Bring it on to your breath.
And witness this.
Witness the process of you breathing in and out of your body with ease.
Notice the air coming in through your nose,
Brushing past your cilia,
Your microscopic hairs which help purify the air coming into your body.
Now,
Notice the temperature of the air.
Perhaps cooler on your inhale and warmer from the natural warmth of your body on the exhale.
Now,
Notice your body's movement with your breath.
The way your chest and belly rise as you receive breath in,
And gently fall away as you release it and let it go.
Notice everything.
Your breath,
Moving in and out of your body,
All on its own.
Your body breathing itself.
I now invite you to make your sankalpa,
Your deepest intention,
Your deepest breath,
Your deepest intention,
Your heartfelt desire.
Sankalpa is a short statement made in the present tense,
Starting with the words I am that we repeat at the beginning and at the end of Yoga Nidra.
It is a potent affirmation to the subconscious to make something real in your life,
Like a seed being planted in the subconscious.
Now,
You may ask what makes Sankalpa different to manifestation?
Sankalpa is the inward realization and understanding of your heartfelt desire,
Which is rooted in your true nature of being,
Aligning to the highest potential of who you are.
In manifesting,
We bring in our desire from the external.
Whatever it is,
We call it in,
Manifest and make it conscious,
Make it real.
Sankalpa is the awakening within to a deeper truth of your value and who you already are.
It's that inner knowledge of something within,
That something that's waiting to be named,
To be owned,
Nourished and nurtured.
A quality,
An attribute,
An answer to the question,
What will you do with your one wild and precious life?
If you are already working with a Sankalpa,
Prepare to repeat it now,
Or you may wish to use the following intention for this practice.
I am alive with a sense of renewal,
Of hope and potential.
Everything I need is within.
Whatever your Sankalpa in the space that now follows,
Repeat it three times,
Silently and wholeheartedly to yourself.
Allow your awareness to spread out once again,
To take in your whole body lying here,
Your whole body lying here on the ground.
Feel the support beneath you.
Notice how you can let go.
You can release onto the ground,
The earth under you,
That it's solid,
Steadfast matter is holding you,
Supporting you.
Sensing the matter of your body,
Meeting the matter of your body,
Of your body,
Meeting the matter of the earth beneath you.
Feel your body melt into the earth,
Becoming the land itself.
A rich,
Fertile land of matter,
Full of minerals and nutrients,
Nourished by your richness within.
Imagine your whole body now as the earth itself.
And within this earth,
This matter is your seed of Sankalpa.
Laying in the quiet darkness of your body,
Your internal world,
Waiting to take life.
Waiting to take life.
We will now go around your body for the rotation of consciousness.
In your mind's eye,
As we move around your body,
Welcome the invitation to plant your seed of your Sankalpa at different points that are named around your body.
Bring your full focus and awareness to your right hand now,
And the very tip of your right hand thumb.
See in your mind's eye a seed of your Sankalpa being planted here.
This seed being gently pushed into your rich and fertile soil.
And now your first finger,
Your second finger,
Third finger,
And little finger.
Another in the palm of your hand,
The back of your hand,
Your right wrist,
Elbow,
Shoulder,
Shoulder,
The right side of your chest,
Your hip,
Knee,
Ankle,
And sole of foot.
Your right big toe on the very tip of your toe.
The tip of your second toe,
Third toe,
Fourth toe,
And little toe.
Now move your attention and your full awareness to your left hand and your left hand thumb.
At the very tip of your thumb,
Place a seed here in your mind's eye.
And now your first finger,
Your second finger,
Third finger,
And little finger.
Little finger,
The smallest of seeds being planted at each point.
The palm of your hand,
The back of your hand,
Your left wrist,
Elbow,
Shoulder,
Shoulder,
The left side of your chest,
Your hip,
Knee,
Ankle,
And sole of foot.
Your left big toe on the very tip of your toe.
Second toe,
Third toe,
Fourth toe,
And little toe.
Now bring your attention to your back body.
Plant more seeds on your heels,
Your calves,
In the hollows behind your knees,
Your thighs,
And glutes,
Your entire back,
Your shoulder blades,
Your neck,
And your head.
Little seeds of your sankalpa,
Your heartfelt desire.
Plant them everywhere with your intention.
Now the crown of your head,
Your forehead,
Temples left and right,
Both your ears left and right,
Your left eyebrow and right eyebrow,
And the space between your eyebrows,
Your eyes left and right,
Your left cheek and right cheek,
Your nose and the bridge of your nose to the very tip of your nose,
Your top lip and bottom lip,
Your jaw,
Your teeth,
And your tongue,
Your chin and the front of your neck,
Your left collarbone and right collarbone,
And the little dip between your collarbones.
Plant another seed here,
Deep within,
The hole of the left side of your chest,
The hole of the right side of your chest,
The hole of your chest,
The hole of your chest,
Your belly and abdomen,
Your pelvis,
The hole of your left leg,
The hole of your right leg,
Both legs together,
The hole of your left arm,
The hole of your right arm,
Both arms together,
From the bottom to the top,
The left to the right,
The inside out,
Your whole body,
The whole of your body now,
Planted with the seeds of your sankalpa,
The smallest of seeds for the greatest of intentions.
Trust these seeds of your sankalpa will germinate,
That it will unfold,
Like spring.
As beneath the frozen earth of winter,
A stirring in the stillness takes place,
A stirring that leads to the tiny shoots of life we now see with the spring bulbs and flowers.
We now see with the spring bulbs and green leaves,
The change of energy in the air,
The promise of longer days,
The vibrancy of colors starting to burst through,
The blossoms that hang sweet,
All a welcome assault on the senses,
And a testament in nature's unchanging order and life's enduring strength.
It's here in the darkness,
In this space,
That your own transformation occurs.
Feeling sensation in your whole body now,
An awareness,
An energy,
And whilst your body remains in deep rest,
Call to mind lightness,
Not of weight,
But of luminosity,
A lightness that comes to feed the seeds of your sankalpa as they break open and push up through the earth to the sunlight and the air above ground.
Now bring to mind darkness,
The darkness that's beneath ground,
The mysterious,
Rich darkness of quiet transformation,
Of silent renewal.
Now switch back to luminosity,
Lightness,
Then melt back once again into the shrouded mystery of the darkness within,
And move with ease between these two states,
All whilst your body is lying at rest,
All whilst your body is lying at rest calmly in equanimity,
At rest here in your body.
Now go outside your body,
Leave the parameters of your exterior,
And go outside to the vastness of the world beyond yourself.
Move back inside to your internal world,
Slide back to the peaceful,
Unchanging stillness of your internal world,
And again move between these two states of being,
These two states of awareness.
Now bring these two states of awareness together in your mind's eye at the same time.
Let go of thinking one or the other.
Let them merge into one,
Into the same,
The two sides of the same.
The two sides of the same.
Bring your attention back to your breath,
Your breath moving effortlessly through your body,
And invite your breath now to enter your body from the soles of your feet.
Invite it to rise up through your whole body,
Welcoming in a sense of groundedness,
A nourishment,
A vitality,
A renewal.
Let it rise up from the soles of your feet as if you are receiving energy and nourishment from the earth itself,
Replenishing your body,
Your whole body with your breath.
And now move your attention to the crown of your head and feel an opening here of light,
Of a sunlight,
A luminosity,
And receive this on your inhale,
A sense of light and luminosity filling your entire being.
And on your exhale,
Allow this lightness and this luminosity to travel like a wave throughout your whole body.
And continue receiving breath from the crown of your head on your inhale,
Spreading it throughout your body on the exhale,
Feeding,
Nourishing,
Spreading it throughout your body on the exhale,
Feeding,
Nourishing your seeds of Sancalpa,
Feeding,
Nourishing a sense of renewal in your own personal season of spring.
Direct your focus now to the space between your eyebrows,
Your full attention,
Awareness,
And energy,
All directed to this space.
Now move inwards,
Go behind this space to your pineal gland in the center of your brain.
And be gentle with this focus.
See it as an opening,
An awakening,
And breathe into this space.
I'm now going to name a few things.
Don't try too hard here to visualize them.
Rather,
Let what comes from your mind just appear to you.
Let the source of your imagination flow freely here and imagine in your mind's eye the quiet of the dawn,
The blue sky above the clouds,
The spring buds on a tree,
Melting snow,
Blue bellwoods in full bloom,
Running through rain showers,
The sound of morning birdsong,
Spring blossom on trees,
Freshly cut grass,
Freshly cut grass,
Open windows with sunshine pouring in,
Kites flying in the sky,
Fields of lavender as far as the eye can see,
A perfect full rainbow,
A cave full of butterflies,
The scent of freshly turned earth,
Bumblebees gently hovering over pollen,
Eggs in a nest beginning to crack open with new life,
The sun shining in on a bright Sunday morning,
A feeling of renewal.
Allow this feeling of renewal to gently pulsate inside.
Feel it growing within,
Pulsating and growing,
Softly but stronger and stronger,
Growing from the darkness within,
Your earth,
Your body,
Your being.
Like a bud on a tree tightly wrapped in green leaves,
In its own good time,
It bursts open with vibrancy,
Color,
Scent,
The most magnificent display of nature all by itself.
And there it is,
The gift in the long approach to spring,
To renewal,
To renewal,
The reminder to trust,
To trust that you are enough exactly as you are.
You are all this.
There is nothing anyone has that you do not have.
You have everything you need within you.
All you need do is trust,
Trust that it will unfold,
That it will be.
Observe the stillness and the space within,
The space that allows it all to unfold.
Now go beyond and enter pure awareness,
Pure being of all that there is.
May today there be peace within.
May you trust that you are exactly where you are meant to be.
May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of faith in yourself and others.
May you use the gifts that you have received and pass on the love that has been given to you.
May you be content with yourself just the way you are.
Returning once again to your Sankalpa,
Prepare to repeat it again three times silently and wholeheartedly to yourself,
Knowing now it is planted,
Seeded,
Germinated and already growing within.
Be it your own Sankalpa,
Or our intention for this practice,
Repeat it three times.
In the space that follows,
I am alive with a sense of renewal,
Of hope and potential.
Everything I need is within.
Start to bring your awareness back to your breath once again.
Feel your breath in your body,
Your whole body as you start to journey back.
Feel the space that your body is lying in as you return now.
Feel the clothes that are covering you,
The place that your body is lying in,
The place where you have taken rest as you return to this space.
Keeping all the benefits of this practice with you,
Acknowledge and affirm your renewed connection to the new season of spring that is already within you,
Alive and well.
As you land back into this space,
Gently moving your fingers and your toes,
Breathing deeply into every corner of your body,
Feeling revitalized,
Replenished and restored as you return to this space renewed.
So hear your clarion call and get outside to this new season of life.
Feel it,
See it,
Smell it.
Let every sense be filled,
Seduced and nourished at this time.
Most of all,
Your heart.
Be joyful.
Gently open your eyes and maybe turn onto your side as you come back with a sense of gratitude for all that you have.
Welcome back to your world.
And may the peace which passes all understanding keep your heart and mind in the knowledge and presence of love.
This practice of Yoga Nidra is now complete.
