Welcome.
Welcome to this practice of yoga nidra.
With the intention of a midday reset.
Intention of awakening and enlivening the body through the act of rest.
Welcome home to your rested self.
Allow the body to lie horizontally in whatever position is most comfortable for you.
Maybe covering the body with a blanket.
We're covering the eyes with a little cushion.
Perhaps placing a cushion under the knees.
For extra support to decompress the lower back.
Making sure to spend this time intentionally to set up a cozy nest of nourishment and rest.
See if you can make any adjustments to allow the body to be even 1% more comfortable as you allow the body to rest and surrender to being held by the bed beneath you.
Perhaps you see if there's any adjustments you can make to allow the breath to travel more freely.
Perhaps you notice the unwavering support beneath you,
Noticing you are fully held.
By the pillows,
The bed.
The soft blanket by the earth beneath you.
Perhaps you notice.
You don't need to do anything.
Everything is being held for you.
All you have to do is rest.
Perhaps you can feel the edges of where your body meets the support beneath you.
And perhaps you notice.
Where your body meets the space surrounding you,
The touch of the air on the skin.
Clothes or covers.
The sensation of being held in space,
Of being fully supported.
All you feel is welcome here.
Every physical sensation,
Every thought,
Every emotion.
All of you is welcome in this sacred abode of rest.
There is nothing to do.
Nothing to achieve.
There is no more pushing,
Driving,
Or striving.
All you are here to do is simply rest.
Simply be.
Simply allow the body to be horizontal.
Resting on the earth.
Perhaps you bring attention to the gentle flow of your breath.
Nothing to change.
Simply noticing.
Just witnessing the breath.
Feeling the breath.
Feel the air moving in and out of the nostrils.
Sense your breath flowing gently in and out of the body.
As your natural breath continues.
Bring your attention to the rise and fall of the abdomen as you breathe.
A natural,
Subtle,
And effortless action.
Begin to deepen your breath.
And see if you can allow yourself to localize the expansion of the breath in the abdomen while allowing the chest to remain still.
Feel the swelling of each inhale expand into the belly.
And feel the soft emptying of the belly when you breathe out.
With each exhale,
Your body naturally releasing muscular tension.
With each inhale,
All of the cells of your body are nourished by the vitality of your breath.
With each exhale,
The mind is slowly emptying of all unnecessary activity.
With each inhale,
The mind is refreshed with a sense of calm presence and peace.
Now release the practice of abdominal breathing.
Let the breath become natural.
Involuntary.
Simply watching.
As the breath is restored to its most organic and optimal depth and rhythm.
Release all effort and control over the breath.
Just letting the breath breathe you.
See if you can allow the body to completely yield to the subtle force of gravity.
Release all holding.
Let the earth and the bed beneath you hold your body.
Allow yourself to settle completely into the experience of being held.
Now rest back into a calm and quiet sense of well-being.
Sink back as you let the bed beneath you fully support you.
Allow the earth to fully hold the weight of your body.
Release all doing and all thinking and rest back into a part of you that is neither seeking no resisting The part of you that is simply resting Surrendering to gravity.
Being nourished and alive and as you are held and supported.
If it's helpful,
You can cultivate feelings of peace,
Well-being,
Or ease.
By recalling a person,
A memory,
Or an environment that helps support your connection to this feeling of well-being.
A feeling may begin to arise as a sense of security or groundedness.
Maybe stability or a general sense of calm.
The blissful feeling of being completely okay in this ease-filled moment.
Bringing attention now to the heart space.
Perhaps you feel your heart beating.
Or the movement of your breath in the center of the chest.
However this awareness arises.
Bring your awareness deep within the center of the chest into the heart.
Perhaps you notice it is an abode that is peaceful and quiet.
Welcome home to your rested self.
Just to be here is enough.
Take note of what it feels like to come home to this space of the heart.
How it feels to come home to your rested self.
Perhaps you receive these words as if they were your own.
I allow myself to rest and reset.
I allow myself to fully receive the nourishment of rest.
By allowing myself to rest.
I cultivate the capacity to remain solid and separate.
I carry the gifts of rest into the continuation of my day.
Notice how these words feel in the body.
Notice what it is like to feel these words as true.
Now we will direct our awareness sequentially throughout different parts of the body.
As each part is named.
I invite you to imagine the sun illuminating that part.
Perhaps you imagine that as a feeling of warmth.
The imagery of light.
Feeling the sunlight gently enlivening that place of the body.
Connecting to a feeling of warmth or inner quality of stillness.
Let go of judgement.
Let go of all thinking.
And just feel what is present.
Feel the sun on your body as you bring your awareness to the center of the eyebrows.
The third eye.
Sunlight beaming onto the forehead.
An emergence of a point of radiant sunlight.
Warming the entire body.
Enlivening the cells.
All coalescing at the center between the eyebrows.
Feeling the sunshine illuminating the center of the throat.
Sunshine,
Kissing the right shoulder joint.
Illuminating the elbow.
The rest.
Of sunlight in the tip of the right thumb.
Tip of the index finger.
Tip of the middle finger.
Tip of the ring finger.
Sunlight in the little fingertips.
Sunlight in the wrist.
The right elbow.
Feeling the sunlight in the shoulder.
Sunlight in the center of the throat.
A brilliant beam of sunlight.
Deep within the center of the chest.
Sunlight nourishing and enlivening the heart Feeling that sunshine travel to the left shoulder.
Some light nourishing the left elbow.
Left wrist left thumb.
Sunlight in the tip of the pointer finger.
The middle finger.
The ring finger sunlight in the tip of the little finger.
Feeling the sunlight warming and enlivening the body as it travels up to the left wrist.
Into the elbow.
Up to the left shoulder.
Back into the center of the chest.
The light of the sun shining into the center of the chest.
The left side of the chest.
Sunlight illuminating the right side of the chest.
The whole chest nourished by the energy of the sun.
At the navel center of the abdomen.
Sunlight nourishes the belly.
Deep within the center of the pelvis.
Illuminating the right hip.
Right to me.
And cold.
Sunlight shining in all the tips of the toes.
Tip of the big toe.
Tip of the second toe.
Third toe,
Fourth toe,
And fifth toe.
Sunlight traveling up through the ankle.
The right meaning.
The right hook.
Sunlight nourishing and enlivening deep within the pelvis And traveling down through the left hip.
Shining down into the left knee.
Thank God.
And sunlight on the tips of the toes.
Tip of the big toe.
Second toe.
Third toe.
Fourth time.
And fifth tower.
Some might be ankle.
Left me.
Left hook.
Illuminating the pelvic bowl.
Traveling up to the center of the abdomen.
The center of the throat.
Feeling the sunlight once again.
Allowing the crown of the head and the third eye to bask in the glow of the light of the sun.
Feeling every cell of the body being fused with the vitality and life force of sunlight.
See all of these points of sunlight illuminating the entire body.
Feeling the entire body of glow with the kiss of the sun.
Feeling every cell energized and nourished as you allow yourself to rest.
The sacred act of rest is what allows the entire body and soul to be energized.
Allow yourself to feel the warmth of the radiant rays of sunlight touching every part of the body Allow yourself to feel the sensation of sunlight on your skin.
Feeling the warmth throughout the whole body.
What does it feel like to have the whole body warmed gently by the light of the sun?
The whole body wrapped in a gentle,
Nourishing,
Enlivening warmth Now I invite you to release the warmth and the kiss of the sun.
And what would it feel like?
To embody the coolness of a dark starlit night.
Feeling the coolness of the moonlight.
The coolness of darkness.
Peaceful.
Restful.
Yet cool to the touch.
Wrapped in the nourishing coolness of night.
The absence of the sun.
Invite this coolness into the whole body.
What does it feel like to be nourished under the dark night sky?
And perhaps you can invite in the feeling of the warmth of the sun and the coolness of night.
Into your body at the same time.
What would it be like to be resting like the night time?
While bringing in energy like the day.
To be resting under the light of the moon while pulling in energy from the light of the sun.
Perhaps you notice your natural capacity to rest and re-energize at the same time.
Perhaps you notice you cannot have energy without rest.
Perhaps you notice a balance of both is essential.
What does it feel like to hold the rest of the moon and the energy of the sun?
At once.
I invite you to imagine on your inhale.
As if the sun is rising from dawn.
Rising up through the sky and at the top of the breath.
The sun is at brilliant high noon,
Casting warmth across the earth.
And as you exhale and release the breath,
The sun is descending.
And at the bottom of the exhale,
The sun sets beneath the horizon.
Inhaling,
Imagine twilight turning to dawn.
As the sun rises up to high noon at the top of the breath.
And as you release and exhale,
The sun sets from high noon to dusk,
Setting in to twilight.
Feeling the breath rise from the belly into the ribs,
Up to the chest and collarbones,
Like dawn to high noon.
And releasing from your collarbones,
Chest,
Ribs,
And down into the belly with the sun setting from high noon.
Into the sunset and welcoming in the night.
Continuing to expand the breath in the belly,
Ribs,
And chest.
Bringing dawn into the body and exhaling from the chest down to the ribs,
Into the belly,
Into the dust of the body.
Inhaling down.
And exhaling dust.
Allowing the energy of the sun to travel upon your breath.
Providing you with rest,
Nourishment,
And vitality.
Now welcome forth feelings of well-being deep peace and potentially joy.
From the silence beyond the mind.
From a place of our true nature,
Our rested self.
Perhaps you feel a growing sense of peace,
Support,
Or ease.
A sense of deep rest and contentment that is beyond all circumstance,
Beyond the subtlest movement of the mind.
Here settle into the part of you that is truly resting.
Truly nourish.
The part of you that is neither pushed nor pulled by experience.
The part of you that is simply content to rest exactly where you are.
The part of you that's not seeking elsewhere.
But abiding and resting peacefully in this present moment.
As we begin our journey back to full wakeful awareness,
I invite you to take this sense of rest with you as you continue throughout your day.
See if you can cultivate the qualities experienced here.
As you carry forward with anything that needs attending to.
I invite you to deepen your breath.
And invite awareness back into the channels of the five senses.
Taking a note of all you can hear,
All you can smell.
All you can see behind closed eyes.
You are always welcome to stay and rest longer,
Taking whatever time that you need.
There is no rush.
But if you would like to return to full,
Wakeful awareness,
I invite you to take whatever breath and movements feel absolutely delicious to awaken and enliven and nourish the body,
Inviting energy and vitality and wakefulness into every stretch and every cell.
Wakeful,
Wakeful awareness.
Perhaps taking a full body stretch or wrapping yourself in a little hug or taking this time out of your day to rest and reset.
Thank you so much for joining me for this practice of yoga nidra.
With the intention of a midday reset.
This practice of yoga nidra is now complete.
Praying Tat Sat Praying Tat Sat Praying Tat Sat
