Yoga Nidra For Balancing Chakras

Yoga Nidra, a profoundly relaxing practice similar to guided meditation in savasana, tunes us into the seasonal shift into Autumn and take much needed rest after a bustling summer. Yoga nidra gets you in touch with the power of the subconscious mind to achieve your intentions and life goals while shifting you into a healing parasympathetic nervous system response. This Yoga Nidra focuses on balancing the chakras.

Transcript

Again,

Just stating,

I will remain awake and aware throughout the entire practice of yoga nidra.

And turn your attention to the breath and begin to elongate your exhalations.

Recognizing these longer exhalations help your body and mind sink even deeper into relaxation.

And so each exhalation melts your body into the support underneath you.

As the surface tension melts away.

And before we do the body scan today,

I want you to imagine that you have in front of you a box.

The box can be any size and made of any material.

In any time that you have a thought,

Or there's a distracting noise or sensation,

You place the thought,

Sound,

Sensation,

Or any other distraction,

Place it into the box.

And so take a moment while I'm quiet to observe and anytime a thought or other distraction comes up,

Place it into the box.

And then go ahead and when you feel complete with that,

Imagine putting the lid on the box.

You could even imagine locking it up or taping it shut like you're going to send it through the mail or put it on a train or a plane or a boat.

And however you want to send the box away,

Whether you walk away and it just stays back getting smaller and smaller,

If you're sending it away on a vehicle,

Imagining it getting smaller as you watch it disappear and it gets smaller and smaller until you can no longer see the box.

And now that you've completed this,

We'll begin with a body scan that is going to be entirely on the right side of the body.

Visualize it,

Feel it,

Repeat the name of it in your mind,

But do not move the body part.

And so I invite you to bring your awareness to or visualize your right thumb,

Index finger,

Middle finger,

Ring finger,

Pinky finger,

All five fingers,

Spaces between your fingers,

Wrists,

The palm of your hand,

The back of the hand,

The wrist,

Forearm,

Elbow,

Upper arm,

Shoulder,

The armpit,

The right shoulder blade,

The right ribs,

Waist,

Hip,

Thigh,

Ankle,

Heel,

Sole of foot,

Top of foot,

Your big toe,

Second toe,

Right foot,

Left foot,

Third toe,

Fourth toe,

Fifth toe,

All five toes,

Spaces between your toes.

Go ahead and bring your awareness to the left side of the body,

Beginning with your left thumb,

Index finger,

Middle finger,

Ring finger,

Pinky finger,

All five fingers,

The spaces between your fingers,

Palm of the hand,

Back of the hand,

The wrist,

Forearm,

Elbow,

Upper arm,

Shoulder,

Armpit,

Shoulder blade,

The left ribs,

Waist,

Hip,

Ankle,

Heel,

Sole of foot,

Top of foot,

Big toe,

Second toe,

Third toe,

Fourth toe,

Fifth toe,

All five toes,

All five toes,

Spaces between your toes,

Bring the awareness to the crown of the head,

The very top of the head,

The scalp,

Forehead,

The right eyebrow,

Left eyebrow,

The space between your eyebrows,

The right eye,

Left eye,

Right eyelid,

Left eyelid,

Right temple,

Left temple,

Right ear,

Left ear,

Right cheek,

Left cheek,

Right nostril,

Left nostril,

Tip of the nose,

The upper lip,

Lower lip,

Upper teeth,

Lower teeth,

Roof of the mouth,

Floor of the mouth,

The tip of your tongue,

The back of the tongue,

The throat,

The right collarbone,

The left collarbone,

Right side of the chest,

Left side of the chest,

Right abdomen,

Left abdomen,

Right upper back,

Left upper back,

Right lower back,

Left lower back,

Right buttock,

Left buttock,

The right arm,

The left arm,

Right hand,

Left hand,

Right leg,

Left leg,

The right foot,

The left foot,

The whole right side of the body,

The whole left side of the body,

The whole right side,

And the whole left side.

And now both sides together at the same time.

Both sides together at the same time.

Bring the awareness to your breath once again.

And as you breathe in,

Imagine the breath flowing from the top of your head,

The crown of the head,

Down through the third eye,

Through the throat,

The heart,

Solar plexus,

Sacrum,

All the way to your tailbone.

And as you exhale,

The breath ascends from the tailbone up through the sacrum,

Solar plexus,

Heart,

Throat,

Third eye and out through the crown of the head.

And keep visualizing your breath flowing from crown of head to tailbone as you inhale and as you exhale tailbone up to the crown and the head as you exhale.

I'll give you a few minutes to do that while I'm quiet.

Just continuing to breathe from the crown of the head down to the tailbone as you exhale from the tailbone,

The breath rises up out through the crown of the head.

Just a few more moments.

And then go ahead and visualize your spine laying on the floor.

Only the spine and not any other part of your body.

Just seeing your spine laying on the floor.

And imagine sense or feel as if you're standing nearby looking at your spine.

And you see,

At the very bottom of the spine,

You see a stem emerging from the inside.

At the top of the stem,

A flower forms.

And around the flower are several leaves,

Beautiful green,

Round leaves,

With drops of dew glistening on them like pearls or little diamonds.

If you shake the leaves,

The pearls or diamonds fragment into many small beads.

If you shake the leaves again,

The small beads come together again to form big pearls or diamonds.

And as you shake the leaves,

The water comes together and then disperses and fragments.

And then a lotus flower at your root chakra,

The muladhara chakra,

Is a dark red lotus flower with four petals.

You are looking at it from the top because the root is underneath the spinal cord,

Which is laying on the floor.

Then at the base of the spine,

In Shraddhistana,

The sacral center,

See the vermilion lotus with six petals.

These leaves also have drops of water on them,

Just like those in that root chakra.

And you can shake them the same way as you did before.

And all the water disperses into many diamond-like drops or pearl-like drops.

The water never touches the petals of the lotus flowers.

Though the lotus flower is rooted in the bottom of the pond,

It rises up through the water,

Yet its petals are never wet.

Therefore,

Sages and yogis advise us to always be as detached from everything in the whole universe as the lotus leaf is from the water,

Completely non-attached.

The lotus comes from the water,

But it only survives due to the water.

Yet it does not get wet.

The water cannot touch the lotus flower.

And in the same way,

We all live in the world.

We eat.

We enjoy.

We suffer.

We practice these spiritual practices like yoga and meditation and do many things.

And yet,

We must detach from all of this.

And so go ahead and visualize behind the navel of the spine,

The manipura,

That solar plexus,

Visualize a 10-petaled yellow lotus flower at the solar plexus.

And see the leaves underneath sparkling with those pearl or diamond-like drops of dew.

And go ahead,

If you like,

Shake the leaves and see the drops disperse and then come back together.

Disperse and come back together.

And then move your awareness up the spine and you see at the heart,

The anahata chakra,

A 12-petaled blue lotus.

It also has many leaves underneath.

These leaves are covered in the same fine drops of dew.

Visualize the drops of dew and this 12-petaled blue lotus flower at the heart.

And then bring your awareness to that throat center of the spine.

This is the vishuddha chakra,

The throat chakra,

And you visualize a 16-petaled purple lotus with many leaves underneath it and dew drops shining on them like little pearls or diamonds.

And go ahead and move the awareness up behind that third eye space,

The anya chakra,

And you see a two-petaled gray lotus flower with two leaves beneath it,

Covered with those same dew drops like pearls or diamonds.

And you can imagine above this gray two-petaled lotus flower,

Maybe about three inches above it,

You see a radiant full moon.

Above the full moon,

Above this two-petaled gray lotus flower,

Big,

Bright,

Full moon,

And at the top of the back of your head,

You find a bright,

Full moon there also.

Visualizing a bright,

Full moon behind the back top of the head,

This is called the bindu,

And move your awareness still further above that full moon,

About another three inches,

And you see a thousand-petaled bright red lotus at the kram chakra.

This is called the sahasrara chakra,

A bright red thousand-petaled lotus flower.

There are so many petals on this lotus flower at the kram chakra.

The water droplets gleam like coral all around the bottom of them.

And then bring your awareness down from the kram chakra to that full moon.

It's so quiet,

Tranquil,

Peaceful,

And cool.

And then bring the awareness to that moon by the third eye.

And you then see that two-petaled gray lotus flower,

Seeing the drops of dew on that two-petaled gray lotus flower.

And then you bring your awareness down to the throat chakra,

That sixteen-petaled purple lotus.

And bring your awareness down to the heart,

Where you see that twelve-petaled blue lotus.

The twelve-petaled blue lotus flower at the heart.

And move your awareness down behind the navel,

Visualizing that ten-petaled yellow lotus flower once again.

Ten-petaled yellow lotus flower at the navel.

And then moving the awareness down again to that sacral center.

And at that sacral center,

You see that orange lotus with six petals.

Orange lotus with six petals.

And one more time,

You move your awareness down to the root chakra,

Seeing that dark red lotus with only four petals.

Dark red lotus with four petals.

As the moonlight strikes all these lotus flowers,

The drops of water on the leaves shine like hundreds of diamonds or pearls.

Some look simple,

But others are bright,

Reflecting and refracting light like coral.

It depends on your angle of vision.

These drops of dew shine like diamonds,

Like nuggets of gold and silver.

Like many moons and suns,

Like stars.

And the flowers are only able to be seen due to the light reflected from those brightly shining jeweled drops.

And now visualize your entire body on a big lotus flower.

Your whole body lies relaxed on this lotus flower.

And you sink into those soft petals.

And you feel the cleansing,

Soft,

Nourishing energy of the lotus flower flowing into your physical body.

This energy nourishes you,

Revitalizes you,

Heals anything from aches and pains and injuries.

To old memories,

Worries about the future.

Anything is healed by this nourishing lotus energy.

Giving you exactly the resources that you need to achieve your heart's desires.

And so as you listen to your heart,

Take a moment.

Tuning into your heart's deepest desire.

This is your sankalpa,

A yogic intention.

And as you're listening for this heart's desire intention,

I invite you to phrase it in the present tense.

With positive language only.

I've worked with.

.

.

I've worked with people who want to lose weight.

And when they say they want to lose 25 pounds,

For example,

We don't phrase the sankalpa or intention that way.

We phrase it,

I am my ideal weight of,

And they fill in that number.

And so I'll let you work with that phrasing.

And once you have it,

Repeat it to yourself three times mentally.

And now that you have your sankalpa crystallized in your mind,

I invite you to re-imagine yourself lying on that lotus flower and you have soaked up all that nourishing,

Revitalizing,

Healing energy.

And it's almost as if you've woken from a nap on your lotus flower.

And you see yourself in the time and place where this sankalpa manifests.

Where it fruits into maturity.

And so take a moment like you were designing a mental movie.

See where you are,

What you're doing,

Who you're with.

Fill in some sensory details like smells,

Sounds,

Things you see,

How the skin feels the air where you're clothing.

And take a moment to do that while I'm quiet.

And get in touch with all the good feelings that this visualization brings about.

And then hang on to those good feelings.

And let go of the imagery.

And as you hang on to the good feelings,

Know that this is your true nature,

Your true self,

The bliss body.

It's beneath the day-to-day identity.

Of location,

Hobbies,

Career,

Likes and dislikes,

Etc.

But this bliss body is wise,

Inspired,

Joyful,

Satisfied.

So get in touch with all these good feelings for another moment while I'm quiet.

And as you magnify these good feelings,

We can make them even more potent and intense by sending them out.

Because we're an infinite source of all these good feelings.

The joy,

The satisfaction,

Inspiration,

Gratitude.

And so beam it out like you are a lighthouse.

Shining your light out to everybody and everything.

Every living thing on the planet.

And beyond.

Feel that joy,

Inspiration,

Gratitude and satisfaction.

And go ahead and bring your awareness back into your body.

Feeling your body supported by what's beneath you.

And you start to imagine the room around you.

The things in the room.

The quality of the light.

Sensing the air on your skin.

Bringing the awareness back into the room,

Back into your body.

And allow your breath to begin to deepen.

And maybe there's a little bit of movement in your fingers and toes as you gradually and gently reawaken.

Gradually and gently reawakening.

And then when you're ready you can roll to one side.