Hello,
My name is Ryan and I'm going to guide you through a yoga nidra practice today.
This practice is designed to help you feel centered and grounded and one of my favorite ways to feel grounded is when I spend time out in nature.
Particularly when I spend time in a forest or a woodland but sometimes we might not have access to one of these places.
So I want to guide you through visualization into a forest so that we can access that same feeling from the comfort of our own home.
So just taking your time to get nice and comfortable.
So coming to lie down in any way that feels good for you might be on your sofa,
Your bed,
On the floor but the important thing is that you feel settled and you're in a place that you're not likely to be disturbed.
Perhaps taking a blanket to cover yourself,
Maybe an eye covering to block out any light.
Once you've found that place of comfort,
Just allowing the body to soften allowing the eyes to close softly allowing the forehead to soften allowing the jaw to release so the whole of the face is completely relaxed.
We allow that softness to move down onto the shoulders and then just starting to connect into your breathing a little bit from here.
Notice where your natural breath sits within the body and then just with every exhale let's just see if we can soften the body a little bit further.
And then on your next breath we're going to draw an even deeper breath in through the nose fill up the lungs entirely,
Take another little sip of breath at the top and then let it all go through the mouth.
And then again we take a big breath in and then we pause another little sip and then let it all go.
And just take two more of those in your own time allowing the body to get a little bit softer each time.
Now I want you to move your awareness to your heart space the center of the chest that place that lies between your breastbone and your spine deep into the chest what we might call the anahata chakra.
And I just want you to notice what is present here for you.
And there's no right or wrong or good or bad here just noticing whatever is present in your heart center.
And then with your awareness still at the center of your heart coming to set yourself in intention for your practice.
This might be I am grounded,
I am centered or I am resting deeply.
Or if you have an intention that you're using currently feel free to use that here.
And then just repeating your intention a few times in your mind but feel it in the body each time you repeat it allow the words to permeate through your entire being.
And now we're going to begin the body scan part of our practice today.
When I read out a part of your body I want you to move your awareness to that place.
Notice everything that's present within this space and at the same time allowing it to soften.
So we'll begin by taking our awareness to the tips of all 10 fingers.
All 10 fingertips in your awareness full of sensation,
Full of aliveness.
All 10 fingers entirely from the tips to the knuckles,
The palms of the hands,
The backs of the hands,
The wrists,
The elbows,
And the shoulders.
Both of the arms in your awareness from shoulders to fingertips.
The shoulder blades,
The collarbones,
The breastbone,
And the entire ribcage,
Front,
Back,
And sides.
The abdomen,
The waist,
And the lower back.
The entire spine in your awareness from the base of the skull all the way down to the sacrum.
The entire pelvic bowl,
The hips,
The ankles,
The tops of the feet,
The soles of the feet,
And all 10 toes.
Both of the legs fully in your awareness from the hips to the tips of the toes.
The jaw,
The cheekbones,
The eyelids,
The eyes sinking back into the sockets,
The eyebrows,
And the entire forehead.
Every muscle in the face softening.
Can we even soften through the scalp?
The entire physical body now from the crown of the head to the soles of the feet.
In your awareness full of sensation full of aliveness.
And now imagining your lead on the floor in a beautiful forest.
The ground beneath you is soft and spongy.
You're lying on a thick bed of moss.
There are trees all around you towering above you as you lie beneath them.
You can see the blue sky from between the leaves and the sun is trickling through creating shadows all across the forest floor.
It's early spring so the forest floor is covered in a thick sheet of purple.
The bluebells are everywhere and the light from the sun is causing that purple to glow even brighter.
You can hear the birds singing from a distance.
The leaves from the trees are rustling in the breeze and you can hear the branches from neighboring trees gently touching.
The earthy smell from the ground beneath you is permeating up from the floor.
But you can also smell the distant leaves of the wild garlic when the wind blows in your direction.
And as you lie here on the forest floor coming to repeat your intention to yourself once again in your mind but feeling it in the body and then visualizing roots and branches growing from the back of your body into the earth beneath you just like the trees that you're surrounded by.
And these roots begin to grow deep into the earth beneath you intertwining with the roots of the trees and grounding you and then visualizing breathing through these roots.
So as you inhale visualize drawing the breath up through these roots through the back of the body and filling the whole body with breath.
And then as you exhale the breath releases back out from the back of the body through these roots and into the earth beneath you.
Just continuing with this visualization and maybe allowing the breath to get a little bit deeper drawing even more breath up through the roots into the body feel the body expanding and opening and then exhale feel the whole body drawing down closer to the floor as the breath releases out through the roots beneath you and perhaps leaning just a little bit more into your exhalations so that with every round of breath we become a little bit more grounded a little bit more rooted and a little bit softer through the body and then we'll take 18 last breaths into this visualization we inhale for 18 exhale for 18 inhale for 17 exhale for 17 and just continue like this where each exhale you get a little bit more grounded and then just letting that go after your next exhalation just letting go of any control of the breath letting go of our visualization and just starting to become a little bit more aware of the space around you the points of contact with the floor beneath you a touch of air against your skin maybe distant sounds smells,
Tastes and then only when you feel ready beginning to find a little bit of movement through a finger or a toe and just allowing that to build maybe into something a little bit bigger perhaps a stretch,
A yawn,
A sigh that might eventually take you on to one side and feel free to stay here for as long as you like basking in the benefits of this practice and only when you feel ready might you sit up and open the eyes again my name is Ryan and thank you very much for practicing with me today
