Yoga Nidra For Sleep Recovery

This yoga nidra practice is designed to help you recover from poor or insufficient sleep during the day. Through systematic body awareness and guided relaxation, you'll enter a state of conscious deep rest that can restore mental clarity and physical energy. The practice guides you into the borderland between waking and sleeping, allowing your nervous system to reset and rejuvenate. Whether you've had a restless night or are feeling sleep-deprived, this session offers a restorative break that can leave you feeling refreshed and more balanced.

Transcript

Welcome everyone to this special Yoga Nidra recording.

We're going to be here for around 18 to 20 minutes or so.

And this is a Nidra that's specific to help you to find some deep rest and find some calm in your day.

So just making yourself as comfortable as possible lying down,

Maybe on your bed,

Maybe on your yoga mat.

Grabbing anything that's going to make you feel even just a little bit more comfortable,

Whether it's a cushion for your head,

Whether it's a blanket or anything at all.

And just taking some moments just to settle in to your space and settling in to yourself.

Yoga Nidra is an opportunity just to come back to yourself,

To come back home to yourself.

So making any last little final adjustments that you need to so that you can be comfortable here.

And just taking some moments,

Just allowing your eyes to close if they haven't already.

Knowing that there's nowhere else that you need to be right now other than just here.

And there's nothing else you need to be doing.

There's no one else for you to please right now.

And this time is all for yourself.

So giving yourself permission to have this time.

And just starting by noticing your breath.

And I want you to imagine that your breath begins at your feet.

And when you inhale,

Just imagine that breath moving up through your feet,

Through your body and all the way to your eyebrow center.

And when you exhale,

Just imagine that going from your eyebrow center all the way down through your body,

Through your legs and out through your feet.

And then inhaling again,

Visualizing your breath moving all the way up through your body to your eyebrow center.

And then exhaling,

Visualizing your breath going all the way down through your body and out through your legs.

And just breathing in this way for a short while.

Visualizing the breath as it comes all the way up through your body and all the way down and out.

And we'll just take a few more breaths in this way.

And then you can just let go of this practice now.

And just allow yourself to be here.

We're going to begin with our rotation of consciousness throughout our body.

So I'm going to say each part of the body and each time I do,

I want you to just notice and be aware of that part of your body.

So we'll begin with the right hand.

Just noticing and feeling what's in your right hand right now.

Maybe it feels cold or hot or tingly.

Just notice what you feel.

And then be aware of your right hand thumb,

Your index finger,

Your middle finger,

Your ring finger and your little finger.

And then be aware of the palm of your right hand.

And then your forearm and your right elbow.

Maybe you can feel your right elbow in contact with the ground beneath you.

And then to your right shoulder and the right side of your chest.

And the right side of your waist.

And your right hip.

Your right thigh muscle.

And the back of your thigh.

And your right knee.

And the back of your knee.

And your shin.

And your calf.

And your right heel.

Your foot.

Your big toe.

Second.

Third.

Fourth.

And your baby toe.

And then the whole right side of your body.

The whole right side.

And I just want you to bring your awareness now to your left hand.

How does it feel?

Maybe it's cold or hot or maybe there's just a warm tingly sensation in your left hand.

Bring your awareness to your left hand thumb.

Your index finger.

Middle finger.

Ring finger.

Little finger.

The palm of your left hand.

Your forearm.

Your left elbow.

Your left upper arm.

Your right arm.

Shoulder.

Left side of your chest.

Left side of your waist.

Your left hip.

Thigh.

The back of your thigh.

Your knee.

And the back of your knee.

Your shin.

Your calf.

Your heel.

Your left foot.

Big toe.

Second toe.

Third.

Fourth.

Baby toe.

And the whole left side of your body.

The whole left side.

And then let your awareness come to your lower back.

And then the top of your back.

And the back of your head.

The top of your head.

Your forehead.

Your left eye.

Right eye.

Left cheek.

Right cheek.

Nose.

Mouth.

Your tongue.

Your throat.

And ending with your awareness in the space of your heart.

Your heart space.

Know that you can rest here now.

And then bring your awareness to all of your body.

The whole of your body.

I want you to imagine now that your body is really,

Really cold.

How might it feel to feel cold in the whole of your body?

Maybe imagining yourself outside on a frosty winter morning.

Bring up the sensation of cold in your body right now.

And then bring up the sensation of warmth.

How might it feel to feel really warm in the whole of your body?

Maybe imagining yourself outside on a sunny,

Hot,

Summer's day.

Maybe lying on a beach.

Bring up the sensation of warmth in all of your body right now.

And then coming back to the cold.

How might it feel to feel really cold in your body right now?

And then bring yourself back to feeling warm.

How might it feel to feel really warm and cozy in your body right now?

And then see if you can feel both together at the same time.

How might it feel to feel both warmth and cold together?

We're now going to move into a visualization.

So for this I want you to begin to imagine yourself standing on a piece of grass.

The weather is however you want the weather to be.

Your favorite weather.

And you look down at your feet and you notice that your bare feet are touching the ground and the earth.

And this gives you a sense of groundedness.

A sense of peace.

You begin walking around and you notice a big wall.

And this wall is slightly higher than your height.

You walk up to the wall and you see a door in the middle.

As you walk up to the door you notice that it's locked.

And you reach inside your pocket and you find a key.

You place the key inside the lock and the door opens wide.

And you step inside,

Closing the door behind you.

And inside is a garden.

And this is the garden of your own mind.

You walk through the garden and you feel a real sense of safety and familiarity.

You've been here many times before.

You notice the flowers,

The plants,

The trees,

The little butterflies that are flying around.

You continue walking through your garden.

Feeling a real sense of lightness.

A sense that this is really your place.

It's your safe place.

There's no one else around right now.

It's just you and your garden.

You continue walking through your garden until you come across a stream.

And it's a little stream.

You find it quite easy just to step over the stream.

And you enter another part of the garden.

And this part of the garden is a little less well-kept.

You notice a wheelbarrow and some gardening tools.

And you decide to do some work on the garden.

Digging up any areas that need digging up.

Weeding.

Tidying up this part of the garden.

In the wheelbarrow you also find a box of seeds.

One of these seeds is a golden seed.

And this is the seed of your dreams and your aspirations.

All that you might become.

You place the golden seed in your hand.

And then you bury it in the earth.

You place the soil back over the seed.

And you water it.

And you wait for it to grow.

You continue walking in this part of the garden until you come across a great big oak tree.

You lie down under this tree.

Knowing that this is your time for rest.

As you lay down under this tree,

You fall into a sleep.

And you can rest here under this tree for as long as you like and as long as you need.

And after some time of being under this tree,

You wake up resting in this tree.

You wake up rested.

Having had one of the deepest and most fulfilling rests that you've had in a long time.

You walk back to the part of the garden that you were working on earlier.

And you notice it's already began to grow.

And that the seed that you planted has also already began to grow.

You walk back,

Finding the stream.

You step over the stream.

And you enter back into the first part of the garden.

You continue walking past or through this part of the garden until you once again come to the door.

And you bid farewell to this garden,

Knowing that you'll be back soon.

Knowing that you can enter here as many times and as often as you'd like.

You open the door.

And you leave the garden.

And you come back to this space here right now.

And just landing in your body once again.

Coming back into yourself.

And we're slowly,

Gently coming towards the end of our time in this nidra.

So we'll very slowly start to make some little movements.

If you're ready,

You can wriggle your fingers and your toes.

If you could let a little bit more breath come into your lungs.

You could gently rock your head side to side.

And just in your own time,

There's no rush bringing yourself back into this space here.