15-Minute Yoga Nidra For Trauma Support & Recovery

When life feels uncertain, overwhelming, or demanding, it can become difficult for the nervous system to recognise moments of safety.
This trauma-informed Yoga Nidra invites you to reconnect with a sense of anchoring in the present through conscious rest, gentle breath awareness, a guided body scan, and the exploration of the felt sense of rest, support, and being anchored in this moment.
Rather than asking you to relax, this practice offers space to rest exactly as you are — an opportunity to step away from high alert for a while and notice the support of gravity, breath, and the body resting here, now.
Accompanied by immersive binaural beats, this practice may be supportive for those living with PTSD, operational stress, anxiety, burnout, grief, or significant life transitions.
With gentle care,
Carly
Female British voice

Transcript

Welcome, I'm Kali. And this short yoga nidra is an invitation to spend a few minutes anchored in the present. Allowing some deeper rest for your nervous system So if you're not already. Find a position where your body can feel supported. And once you're there, Bring your awareness straight to the contact beneath the body and the surface beneath you Feel the weight of your body gravity drawing you down. Anchoring you to the surface beneath you and feel where that contact is strongest the weight of the back of the head. The shoulders the length and breadth of the back body. The heaviness of the pelvis. The leg. The heels Feel the surface receiving you your weight settling down into it. Gravity drawing you towards the earth while the ground beneath you holds and supports your weight sense that meeting place between your body and the ground pressure. Heaviness. The feeling of being held. Just the physical sensation of your body being supported and let yourself linger here for a few moments and ask yourself if there are any small adjustments you can make to be even 1% more comfortable. And then feeling again the downward pull of gravity the steadiness of the surface beneath you. Your body anchored between the two. Here. Now. Held in this present moment. And now take one long, Nourishing breath in through the nose, A gentle pause at the top of the breath, And slowly release, Letting the breath go, Feeling the weight of the body travel down with the exhale. And then let the breath return completely to normal. Again, A long comfortable breath in. A gentle pause at the top. And slowly letting the breath go, The shoulders giving up a little more of their weight to the surface beneath you and then the ordinary breath again One final time. Letting the breath go letting the body be held. And returning the breath to normal. Your body knows how to breathe without your instruction dropping your awareness now to the head. And feel its weight resting into the surface beneath you the jaw. The hinge of the jaw. The weight of the lower jaw. The tongue resting within the mouth the teeth parting slightly. The tongue itself may be resting softly against the roof of your mouth. Let the muscles around the eyes soften. And if it's available to you, Allow them to shut down. Feeling the eyes themselves resting within their sockets and now move your awareness behind the eyes into that quieter space behind them. A sense of the wiring behind the eyes beginning to ease. Miss Searching. They're scanning. Best to attend to in this moment. Let that easing spread across the temples through the space between the eyebrows and across the forehead. Feel the whole forehead born. The skin across the brow smooth. The space behind the forehead, Open and spacious. Nothing to search for here nothing to anticipate. Your eyes can rest. Your attention can rest and beneath it all the steady sensation of your body being held. Anchored by the surface beneath you. The gravity the way. The contact. Anchor to now. And maybe places in your body that I've learned to hold. Muscles that brace. Places that tighten. Parts of you that remain ready or coil. These responses have had their reasons We don't need to work with those reasons here. Instead. Feel again what is happening beneath you. The solidity of the surface. The weight of your body resting on it. The sensation of being supported. And begin to travel slowly through the body. Feeling the shoulders. And noticing their way. The arms. The elbows. The forearms. The waist. The hand. The weight held within the palms and the fingers moving into the chest. And feeling its natural movement with the breath rising and falling No intentional deepening or slowing just the body breathing and bringing awareness to the belly. Feeling its way. The movement beneath the skin any softness that may be available here. And then down into the pelvis. A heavier part of the body Sense that heaviness. Let gravity have it. Down through the thighs the knees. The lower leg. The ankles. The heels the whole weight of both legs. And now feel the whole body as one from the crown of the head all the way down to the feet. Nothing separate. The whole body resting within gravity supported from beneath. And good day. And now return to the rise and fall at the belly Sense the ebb and the flow of the breath its natural rhythm. The body knowing what to do without your control. And perhaps you can imagine the sense of the breath arriving at the crown of the head and moving like a gentle wave down through the body in through the crown and down through the throat the chest. The belly, The pelvis. Down through the legs and flowing out through the feet. And with the next breath sense that movement returning entering through the feet. Like a wave traveling upwards through the legs. The pelvis, The belly, The chest, The throat and leaving through the crown of the head. A gentle wave moving through the whole body Breathing in receiving something fresh. Something light. Something gentler. And breathing out, Allowing the wave to carry with it a little of what the body has been holding. From the crown through the body and out through the feet and back again from the feet through the whole body and out through the crown Nothing to force. Simply sensing that movement precious moving in. A little of the weight of holding moving onwards. Allow the next few breaths to move in this way and now let go of the movement of the breath through the body and allow the breath to return to its own natural rhythm Resting with the breath just as it is. And if the mind moves towards some pain from another time a thought, An image or a memory there is no need to follow it and no need to push it away. Recognize that belongs to another moment and come back to your anchor. The surface beneath you. And the weight of your body. The rhythm of the breath. What has happened remains part of your experience. Nothing here is asking you to erase it. Nothing here is asking you to let it go. And right now there is space between that moment and this one. Men. And now. What happened then? And the body resting here now if you'd like to continue resting for a while. Or simply to fall asleep. You might want to remove your headphones or switch off your media. Otherwise. Begin to notice the room around you again. The sounds in the room. Or beyond the womb the temperature of the air against your skin. And space around your body. The shape of your body. Feeling once again the weight of the body against the surface beneath you. Gravity is still here. The ground is still holding you. And your anchor is still available. And take one long, Comfortable breath in through the nose. A gentle pause at the top and slowly release however audibly you like. Begin to bring movement back into the body. The fingers. The toes. Maybe clenching the hands and the toes and circling the wrists and the ankles. And stretching the body however it asks. And moving in whatever way feels natural as you return your awareness fully to the space around you. And when you're ready, Allow the eyes to open. Take a moment to notice how you are right here before moving away from the practice. Thank you for allowing me to practice alongside you today. We're the Greatest One. Kali