Deep Yoga Nidra For Anxiety Relief

If you are experiencing anxiety or a restless mind and body, try this 45-minute yoga nidra practice. We begin by calming our physical body, then move into some intentional breathwork. We follow this up by sinking into a guided meditation/visualization to bring your whole self back into balance.

Transcript

Hello friend.

Welcome.

My name is Drew and I'll be guiding you through this 45-minute Yoga Nidra practice.

It's designed to help alleviate anxiety and restlessness in both your mind and body.

As with all Yoga Nidra practices,

We'll begin lying down.

Try to get as comfortable as possible.

You might even consider grabbing a bolster or a large pillow to place under your knees,

As well as a pillow or a rolled up blanket to support your head.

You may even like to consider diffusing some calming essential oils like lavender or rose.

Once you've arrived on your back,

Go ahead and take a moment to adjust anything you need.

Your clothes,

Your physical body,

Anything to just help you feel a little more at ease.

If it would feel good,

You might take a full body stretch,

Reaching your arms up overhead,

Making a few slow,

Deep breaths here,

Just helping to create some space in your body,

Perhaps taking some wrist circles and ankle circles.

And then whenever you're ready,

Go and let your hands come down by your sides.

We're going to begin this practice by consciously using various parts of our body to help release tension and help that part of our body sink down and relax a little bit more.

So,

To begin,

Go ahead and take a breath in through your nose and as you inhale,

Press your tongue firmly against the roof of your mouth and clench your jaw gently.

And then exhale,

Open your mouth as wide as you can,

Maybe sticking your tongue out.

Gently move your jaw from side to side.

Let it relax down completely,

Bringing the tip of your tongue to rest on the roof of your mouth.

You may want to swallow or clear your throat a couple times.

Just try to let your jaw be completely at ease now.

And then bring your attention to the back of your neck.

And take an inhale,

Flexing the back of your neck.

Exhale.

Slide.

Slowly.

And release the tension as you exhale.

You may want to roll your head from side to side.

Allow your neck to fully disengage.

Take a couple slow,

Deep breaths here.

In through your nose.

Out through your nose.

If you're still holding tension in your jaw or your neck,

Try to send your breath to those spaces.

With each inhale,

Imagine coming back.

With each exhale,

Imagine creating space.

And with each exhale,

Sinking down into that space.

Next,

On an inhale,

Go ahead and draw your shoulders up towards your ears.

And then on your exhale,

Roll your shoulders down and back away from your ears.

Letting your shoulders completely relax.

Couple slow,

Deep breaths here.

If you want to take that same movement again,

Feel free.

Inhale.

Let your shoulders roll up towards your ears.

Exhale.

They roll down and back.

Creating a nice,

Expansive space across your chest.

Allowing your shoulders to sink down into either your mat or your bed.

Wherever you may be.

On your next inhale,

Begin to flex your biceps.

Squeeze your hands as tight as you can.

Then exhale.

Relax your arms completely.

Maybe fluttering your fingers a couple times or rolling your wrists in a few circles.

Do your best to help your hands and your arms completely relax down.

After a few breaths here,

Once your head,

Your neck,

Your shoulders,

And your arms are completely relaxed,

Go ahead and take an inhale.

Flex your pectoralis muscles,

Your chest muscles,

And then your abs.

Exhale.

Relax your abdomen.

Exhale.

Relax everything down,

Releasing your abdomen and your chest.

Take a few slow,

Deep breaths here.

In through your nose.

Out through your nose.

And then we'll continue down our body.

On your next inhale,

Go ahead and squeeze and flex your glutes.

Exhale.

Relax them down completely.

You might even kind of move your hips from side to side.

Just try to help your hips and your glutes relax as much as possible.

Allowing any anxious or restless energy to kind of move through and out.

And then we'll continue down our legs.

On an inhale,

Engage your quadriceps and your knees.

Exhale.

Release.

Maybe roll your knees from side to side,

Almost like windshield wipers.

Just taking a few slow,

Deep breaths to let your upper leg completely relax.

Now,

Moving down our legs.

Again,

Start to flex your feet forwards,

Pointing your toes away from your body and engaging your calf muscles in the backs of your lower leg.

Exhale.

Release.

Relax your legs down completely.

Maybe taking a few breaths to roll your feet around.

Maybe moving them from side to side.

Any kind of movement just to help move restless energy through your body.

Letting it go.

And then when you're ready,

Let your body find stillness.

Noticing your entire body sinking down.

Surrendering to the weight of gravity.

Bring your attention to your breath.

We're going to create a wave of breath in your body.

And we'll use these waves to continue to further relax your mind and body.

To create this wave of breath,

Let your next inhale begin with the lift of your navel.

And then the breath expands up into your chest.

When you're ready to exhale,

Your navel begins to drop first.

And then as the air flows out of your lungs,

Your chest compresses.

And your breath returns back to your navel center.

Let's try that again.

Inhale,

Your belly rises.

The breath then expands up into your chest.

Exhale,

Your belly falls.

Start to pull everything else down with it.

Do that again.

Inhale,

Your belly rises.

Breath expands up into your chest.

Exhale,

Your belly falls.

And pulls everything else down with it.

Try to keep going,

Taking it at the pace of your breath.

And if you're having trouble with this wave-like pattern of breathing,

You might consider bringing one hand to your belly and one hand to your chest.

And if you do this,

Make sure that your arms are completely relaxed.

I'm going to be quiet now for about a minute.

And let you practice your wave.

Alright friend,

Let's begin to grow this wave.

On your next inhale,

Your belly rises.

Breath expands up into your chest.

And maybe now you even imagine your breath extending all the way to the crown of your head.

Exhale,

Your belly drops.

Begins to pull your breath back down to your navel center.

Inhale again,

Your belly rises.

Expands up,

Going all the way to the crown of your head.

Maybe even out down the sides of your arms.

All the way to the tips of your fingers.

Exhale,

Your belly falls.

And your breath begins to recede back to your navel center.

Inhale,

Your belly rises again.

Expands to the crown of your head.

Down your arms to your fingers.

Maybe also down your legs to your knees.

Exhale,

Your belly falls.

Just like a wave in the ocean,

Your breath recedes back to your navel center.

Inhale,

Your belly rises.

Expands up and out.

Down past your knees all the way to the tips of your toes.

Exhale,

Your belly drops.

And your breath recedes back to your navel center.

Inhale,

Your belly rises.

Expands out in every direction.

Perhaps even beyond the boundaries of your body.

Exhale,

Your belly drops.

And your breath begins to recede back into your navel center.

Alright friend,

Continue on with this pattern of breathing.

Allowing your inhales to start at your belly button.

Expand out in every direction.

Then exhale,

Your belly falls.

And your breath returns to your navel center.

I'm going to be quiet again for just a few minutes.

Allow you to ride these waves.

If you have one hand on your belly and one hand on your chest,

You can keep them there if that feels comfortable.

Or if you like,

You can always let them come to rest down by your sides.

Maybe you even consider placing them palm faced.

Beautiful work friend.

We're going to continue on bringing in just a little more visualization to this practice.

Do your best to maintain your wave of breath throughout the rest of class.

And if at any point you feel your mind wandering,

Feel free to pause the recording.

Try to just simply observe your thoughts.

And that you are having them without judgment.

Allow yourself to have the thought.

And see if you can just simply become aware that you are having the thought as an observer.

When you're ready,

Once the thought has moved through your mind,

Start to bring your attention back to your breath.

Creating your wave once again.

Then you can resume the recording whenever you're ready.

Alright,

As you lie there,

Completely relaxed,

Letting waves of breath pass through you,

Try to imagine a glowing ball of light right in the center of your chest.

Now,

I know there's no right or wrong answer here,

But can you tell what color your ball of light is?

And how about the texture?

Is it smooth and perfectly round?

Or does it have rays beaming out in all directions?

See if you can notice the quality of your ball of light.

Both its color and texture.

Maybe even the feeling of having it there.

How does your ball of light react to your breath?

Perhaps see if you can make your ball of light grow with each inhale.

Bringing your attention to both your waves of breath and your growing light.

You're going to try to fill your entire body with that ball of light.

Using your breath as a sort of fan to help the light grow.

With each inhale,

Maybe you imagine the light growing.

Each exhale,

Your light grows just a little bit stronger.

Brighter.

Just keep breathing slow and steady.

Focusing on growing your ball of light out in every direction.

Filling up your chest.

Your abdomen.

Maybe starting to move up into your head.

Out through your shoulders and down your arms.

See if you can send that light down through your hips.

Into your legs.

All the way down to the tips of your toes.

Again,

With each inhale,

Letting the boundaries of your light grow larger.

With each exhale,

Letting the light grow stronger.

A few more slow,

Deep breaths here.

Continuing to focus on growing your light.

You're doing great,

Friend.

Just a few more slow,

Deep breaths.

Really helping grow your light as strong and as bright as possible throughout your entire body.

Maybe bring your awareness to your body and how this light feels as it lights you up.

What sensations do you notice with each inhale as the light grows larger?

What sensations do you notice as the light grows brighter?

With your whole body glowing.

See if you can try to imagine a ray of light.

It starts to extend just below your tailbone.

Going down into the earth.

Stretching down past the soil.

All the way down to the core of the earth.

You can use your breath to help this ray stretch all the way down.

Bring with your inhales,

Letting the ray extend out.

Exhale,

That ray grows a little brighter.

As your ray meets the core of the earth,

Can you imagine a surge of energy passing back up through the ray?

All the way back into your body.

Helping your light at the center of your chest grow even stronger.

Okay.

Good.

And imagine your ray becoming firmly rooted in the core of the earth.

With both energy from the center of your chest passing down into the earth.

And energy from the earth passing up to the center of your chest.

Take a few more slow deep breaths here.

And then when you're ready,

Try to imagine a ray now extending from the crown of your head,

Shooting up into the sky.

Passing the clouds,

Moving into outer space.

Trying to get this ray extended all the way to the sun.

Again,

Each inhale allows your ray to shoot out further.

Each exhale allows your ray to grow brighter.

Stronger.

As your ray reaches the sun,

Allow it to continue all the way into the core of the sun.

And as your ray reaches the core of the sun,

Perhaps imagine a bright,

Pulsing white light coming back down into your body,

To the center of your chest.

Keep,

Continue breathing here.

Having a ray rooted firmly into the core of the sun,

And into the core of the earth.

With each inhale,

Sending light out from the center of your core,

Down into the earth and out into the sun.

With each exhale,

Allowing new energy from the sun and the earth to come back into your body.

Just keep breathing,

Allowing your waves of breath to shine light throughout your whole body.

Bringing in new energy.

Clearing out any stagnant or unhelpful energy.

And as you continue to breathe,

To bring fresh life into your body,

Try to imagine the ray that's connected to the sun starting to travel down your spine.

While the ray that's connected to the earth begins to travel up your spine.

Allow both of them to meet right in the center of your body,

Fusing into one another.

Now stay here,

Continuing to breathe in waves,

Soaking this beautiful light that's now anchored in the earth and all the way up to the sun.

Allow your mind to go quiet,

Doing your best to simply feel the sensations of your breath,

And the light pulsing throughout your body.

Alright,

I'm going to be quiet for the next 10 minutes.

If you'd like to hold this state for longer,

You can pause your recording now.

Otherwise,

Stick with me and we'll continue on in about 10 minutes.

Alright friend,

Start to deepen your breath slightly.

We're going to begin to release our cords of light.

And whenever you're ready,

We'll begin with the ray of light that's attached to the sun.

Just imagine starting to pull it back,

Allowing it to recede slowly all the way back through space,

Back through the clouds of earth,

And down to the crown of your head,

And back into that ball of light at the center of your chest.

And then when you're ready,

Moving to your ray that stretches all the way down to the core of the earth.

Allow it to start receding back into your body,

Moving through each layer of earth's crust slowly.

Making its way past the topsoil,

Then towards your tailbone,

And then finally up into the center of your chest.

Allow the light that's radiating throughout your body to stay.

Keep that shine going.

Perhaps just start to deepen your breath slightly.

Maybe finding a little movement in your fingers and toes.

And if it would feel good,

Perhaps taking another full body stretch,

Reaching your arms up overhead,

Pointing and flexing your feet,

Maybe taking some wrist circles and ankle circles.

And if it would feel good,

You could roll over to one side,

Curling up into a fetal position,

Just for a few breaths.

Whenever you're ready,

You can start to sit up.

Blink your eyes open.

Welcome back.

Thank you so much for joining me today.

I hope this Yoga Nidra session helped alleviate a little restlessness or anxiety that you may have been experiencing.

Go out and make this a great day.

Or,

If it's evening,

Hope you have a wonderful sleep.

I'll catch you next time.