Yoga Nidra For Burnout Recovery

In this 17-minute Yoga Nidra, you are guided into a state of deep conscious rest that allows your nervous system to begin unwinding the accumulated stress of burnout. Through body awareness, breath, and visualisation, you'll be led gently to the threshold between waking and sleep — a place where profound restoration naturally occurs. This practice is suitable for complete beginners and requires nothing more than a comfortable place to lie down. Return to it regularly to help rebuild your energy reserves and reconnect with a sense of inner calm. Please do not listen to this track while driving or operating heavy machinery.

Transcript

Hi everyone and welcome to this yoga nidra for burnout. So if you just make yourself comfortable lying down, You might be lying down on your bed or you might be lying down on your yoga mat. And just settling yourself in, So making any little kind of wriggles or adjustments or movements you need to, To be comfortable. Scratching any itches, Doing anything you need to do. And once you've allowed your body to settle, You can let your eyes come to close. And knowing that there's nowhere else that you need to be right now, There's nothing else you need to be doing, There's no work to do, There's no one else you need to look after, So just giving yourself this time, This next 15 minutes or so, All for yourself. And I just want you to do a little scan of your body and just notice if there's any parts of your body that you could invite to relax a little bit more. Maybe your hands and your fingers, Maybe your shoulders, Your head and all the muscles in your face, Even your tongue can relax. Your chest and your heart, Your hips and your legs and your feet and your toes. And then I just want you to notice your breath and your breathing and just bring some awareness to either the sound of your breath or just the feeling of your breath. And I want you to begin to imagine that your breath begins at your feet. And when you inhale, Can you visualize the breath coming from your feet all the way up through your body, Up to your eyebrow centre. And then when you exhale, Can you imagine the breath coming from your eyebrow centre all the way down through your body, Through your legs and out through your feet. So just breathing like this for a little while, In-breath begins at the feet, Coming all the way up through to your eyebrow centre and then exhaling all the way down and out through your feet. Taking a few breaths like this. And then you can let go of this practice and just let yourself breathe naturally. And we're going to run through a rotation of consciousness through the body. So we're going to bring our attention and our awareness to each part of our body. This is a great way to ground, To calm our nervous system and to bring us out of fight or flight and into rest and digest. So I want you to start by bringing your whole attention and focus to your right hand. Can you just notice what you feel in your right hand? Bringing your whole attention here. And then moving that attention to your right hand thumb, Index finger, Middle finger, Ring finger, Little finger and the palm of your right hand and your wrist, Your right forearm, Your elbow, Your upper arm, Your right shoulder, The right side of your chest. And then just bringing your attention to the space of your heart, Your heart space. And just having a couple of moments just to be with and to check in with this part of your body. How is your heart doing today? And then gently moving your attention a bit lower down, So into your belly. How is your belly today? Or what do you feel in your belly today? And then we'll continue with the right side, So bringing your attention to the right side of your waist and your hip, Your right thigh muscle behind your thigh, Your right knee behind your knee, Shin, Calf, Heel, Your right foot, Big toe, Second, Third, Fourth, Little toe. And then being aware of the whole right side of your body, The whole right side. And then I want you to bring your attention to your left hand and just notice how it feels to your left hand thumb, Index finger, Middle finger, Ring finger, Little finger, The palm of your left hand, Your wrist, Forearm, Elbow, Left upper arm, Shoulder, Left side of your chest, Left side of your waist, Hip, Your left thigh muscle, The back of your thigh, Your left knee, The back of your knee, Your shin, Calf, Heel, Foot, Left big toe, Second, Third, Fourth, Baby toe, And the whole left side of your body, The whole left side. And then bringing awareness now to your lower back, The middle of your back, The top of your back, The back of your head, The top of your head, Forehead, Left eye, Right eye, Left cheek, Right cheek, Nose, Mouth, Tongue, Throat. Bring your awareness back to your heart space and then feeling the whole of your body, The whole of your body. And I want you now to imagine that your body is really, Really heavy. How would it feel to feel the heaviness in the whole of your body? So heavy that you could even begin to press down into the ground. And then I want you to bring up a sense or a sensation of lightness in your body. How would it feel to feel really light in the whole of your body? So light you could even begin to raise off the ground. And then coming back to the heaviness, How would it feel to feel so heavy in your body that you could even begin to press down into the ground? And then back to the lightness, How would it feel to feel really light in your body? So light that you could even begin to raise off the ground. And then how would it feel to feel both heavy and light together? Can you feel both at the same time? We're now going to move into a short visualization. And I want you to begin to imagine yourself walking in a forest. And you look down at your feet and you notice that your bare feet are touching the earth. And this gives you a real sense of groundedness, A sense of connection to the earth, And a sense of being in your body. And as you walk along this path, You notice the great big pine trees on either side. And you can smell the scent of the pine. This also brings you a sense of groundedness and a sense of calm and peace. You continue walking through on the gentle path through the pine forest. You work your way down some steps. You notice a little stream. And there's a little bridge going over the stream. You walk over the bridge. You enter another part of the forest. Before long after walking a little while you notice a great big lake. And the sun is shining. And you can see the blue, Beautiful lake. As you walk closer to the lake, You decide that it could be a good idea for you to get inside the water. So you take off your clothes and you enter the lake. And the water is nice and cool. Being in this lake gives you a real sense of joy, A real sense of connection to life, A real sense of connection to yourself and your childlike self. And you swim around for a little while, Really enjoying your time here. After a little while of swimming, You swim back to the side of the lake and you get out. You stand next to the lake. Close your eyes and you have some moments just to connect with your body. You have a real sense of groundedness, A sense of returning to yourself, To your true self. You decide to lay down for a little while next to one of the pine trees. You notice your body really deeply relaxing. Relaxing more than it's relaxed for a very long time. You can still smell the scent of the pine in the air, Giving you a sense of rest and connection. After a little while of laying down, You decide to get up. You put your clothes back on and the sun's been warming your body and drying you off. And you walk back over the bridge and over the stream. You enter the first part of the forest. You notice the great big pine trees next to you. This gives you a real sense of connection to nature, Connection to the whole world, And a sense that you and nature are not separate. Then you come from that space back to this space here, Resting, Knowing that this practice of yoga nidra is soon going to come to a close. If you wish to rest here for a little while longer, Please stay as long as you like. Or if you're ready, You can slowly begin to make some little movements. You can wiggle your fingers, Your toes. You can breathe a little bit deeper. Maybe rock your head side to side. Then maybe making some more movement, You can reach your hands and arms over your head. Take a big stretch. You can bend your knees and hug them tight and close in towards you. And just when you're ready, Continuing with your day.