Calm Your Body And Mind Yoga Nidra

This guided Yoga Nidra practice gently leads you into deep relaxation so you can release tension on every level. As you are guided through soothing body awareness, conscious breathing, and subtle imagery, your system is invited to shift from effort into ease.

In this state of conscious rest, the nervous system has space to recalibrate and the body can unwind naturally. The practice encourages stress relief, emotional softening, and a return to inner steadiness and clarity.

Open to all levels, this session simply asks that you lie down, get comfortable, and allow yourself to be supported. Settle in and receive the restorative stillness that helps calm both body and mind.

This is a recording of my weekly live yoga nidra event, which happens most every Sunday at 7pm MST.

Transcript

I'm Kumari Skye, In case we haven't met yet. If you've never practiced Yoga Nidra with me, I love this so much. It's one of my passions in life and I feel really grateful that I get to share it with you. I would encourage anyone who is ready to end their day to get snuggled up in bed, But otherwise if that's not your situation of course just get as comfortable as possible. Yoga Nidra is wonderful any time of the day and in fact Yoga Nidra will help to regulate your circadian rhythm any time of day that you do it. It is a deep rest practice and we're teaching and reminding our nervous system that it's safe to let go and relax or fall asleep. So yeah, It's such a beneficial and amazing practice anytime and what I was gonna say I just remembered was that I will be bringing you out of this Yoga Nidra session. So this one isn't especially for sleep. If you haven't already, Close your eyes. Make a few more little adjustments that could help you feel even just even 4% more comfortable. Take a few deep breaths with me. You made it here. You set an intention to rest and here you are. How wonderful. Allow yourself to just melt down. You allow your body to conform to the shape of whatever you chose to rest on. All the muscles effortlessly softening simply by stillness. Every cell in your body responding to the stillness, To the quiet, To the focus on the breath. Again check is there any other little place you could tuck something under or do you want to cover your eyes. As I mentioned earlier, Yoga Nidra is a deep rest practice. A practice that uses a systematic set of techniques that guide the physical body, The breath, The mind into a position where everything is quiet and still. And we start to dis-identify from the physical body and the mind. It's like we are simply dwelling in our most subtle layers of being. The subconscious, The super conscious, Aligning with the forces of our true nature that can sometimes get shaded or covered up by habits and stories, Beliefs that the thinking mind regurgitates over and over and over. Yoga Nidra means a separation. The more we practice, The more we start to align with what is our true nature. Or I could say the shade gets pulled away, The muddiness gets cleaned off all that we are because we're never not a being of pure positive energy. Picking your hands into a gentle fist and squeeze. Squeezing the arms. Squeezing and then let it go. Open wide the hands. You might even stretch out your arms. Now do the same thing with your feet. Squish up your feet and then do the opposite. Reach through the heels and feel the muscles in your legs engage and let it go. Tense the hips and buttocks and release. Lift up the head a few inches and release. Opening and closing the jaw. Moving the face around. Even sticking out the tongue. Whole face relax. Take a belly breath. Inhaling, Poofing up the belly and release. This time we're going to hold the breath. Inhale, Poof up the belly and hold and let it go. Now can you focus the breath at the ribcage. Feel the ribcage expanding and condensing. Again fill it all the way to the top to capacity. Fill your lungs and hold and then let it out. Now sensing how your abdomen and ribcage can work in harmony. Feel how both rise and fall without effort. And all together let's take in a deep, Deep breath filling to capacity. The biggest one and hold. Open your mouth let it go. Another just like that and let it go. We'll spend a little time breathing to account. We'll be inhaling for four and then trying out exhaling for four, Five and six. Together inhale four, Three, Two, One. Exhale four, Three, Two, One. Inhale four, Three, Two, One. Exhale five, Four, Three, Two, One. Inhale four, Three, Two, One. Exhale six, Five, Four, Three, Two, One. Inhale four, Three, Two, One. Exhale at your own pace. Keep counting. Keep going. Settle on an exhale length that's suitable for your breath capacity tonight or today. A few more times. Letting it go after this next exhale. Essentially hypnotizing yourself inward with your breath. Sense of your whole body. Feeling your whole body already completely relaxed. Receiving the medicine of deep breath. Now call in your sankalpa. If you're not currently working with a sankalpa you can create one for this practice. Create an intention like statement or even a word works. Something like I trust in the divine unfolding of my life. And repeat your special intention or sankalpa three times. Now the next part of our journey is meant to effortlessly release even more in the body. You do is follow my voice around your body and see what you notice in each area. Starting at the top of the head, Just aware of the very top of the head. Awareness melting into the whole scalp as if you could sense every hair follicle. And now an awareness of the ears, The shape and structure of the ears. Inside the ear canals until you can imagine sensing the center of the brain or the pineal gland rest. And expanding out to sense the brain inside the skull. And now a sense of the center of the forehead, The third eye center, To the eyebrow, The eyeballs, Eyelids and lashes, The temple, Cheekbones, Nostrils, Upper lip, Jaw, The bottom teeth and gums, And the upper teeth and gums, The roof of the mouth, And now the tongue. The inside of the mouth alive with subtle sensations to the inside of the throat. Expanding to sense the collarbones and the fronts of the shoulders, The crease of the right elbow and the crease of the left elbow, The inner wrist and both palms and all ten fingers, And the tops of the hands, The fronts of the wrists, The bones of the elbows and the back of the neck. Of the shoulders into the shoulder blades, The back of the rib cage, A sense of the whole chest, The front of the rib cage and the solar plexus, The abdomen and navel, Low back, The hips and buttocks, The back of the right knee, The back of the left knee, The back of the heel on the right foot and the back of the heel on the left foot. And now sensing the soles of both feet and all ten toes, The tops of the feet and the fronts of the ankle, The right kneecap and the left kneecap, Both knees together, The right hip bone and the left to the heart center. Awareness expanding into the whole right half of the body, The whole right side of the body, And now the whole left side of the body, The whole left side of the body, Fill with your attention. Front of the body, Backside of the body, A sense of the whole body, Radiant, Alive with subtle sensation, Sensing the whole body as one, Your body a radiant vessel of life force energy, The whole body. I'm coming to sense the breath again, Feeling the movement of the breath effortlessly flowing in and out, The whole body breathing, A sense of every cell respirating, Vibrating, Body expanding and condensing, A sense of the prana, The life force energy that resides within you, Every cell breathing, Taking the breath to the crown of the head and letting it cascade and flow down the whole body, Breathing into the crown, A breath moving out like a wave, Sense, Feel, Or just imagine the flow of energy that is your breath, Perhaps perceiving this as a mist or a shimmer of energy, And now begin to add a count to the breath from 10 to 1 backwards, Inhaling to the crown, 10, Exhaling through the body, 10, Inhale, 9, Exhaling, 10, Take yourself all the way to 1, Don't worry if you lose track, Just come back to 10, Focusing the mind, Wherever you are in the count, Let that go, Every cell and energy being, Resting, Every cell dynamically nourished, And continue to just notice the breath, You don't need to change anything, Just noticing how the breath is flowing, Feeling the body resting, Supported, Supported, And we're going to experience or explore effort, Without moving physically, Begin to imagine effort in the body, You might recall a time when you were trying very hard, Working or striving, Pushing towards something, Feel what effort feels like in your body, Perhaps there's a subtle tightening in the jaw, Or a holding in the belly, Something in the shoulders or neck, Invite the sensation of effort into the hands, Ever so subtly, Think of the energy of clenching, Of doing, And now, Send awareness to the feet, Sensing the feet as if they were about to move, And effort in the breath, Imagine what it would feel like if the breath was efforting, Or controlling, Holding, Really noticing where you're holding effort in the body, No judgment, Just awareness, Sensing what effort is feeling like in the body, And now, Gently releasing the image of striving, Shift your awareness to the opposite experience now, Effortlessness, Effortlessness, Imagine there is absolutely nothing you need to hold on to, Nothing to manage, Nothing to fix, Nothing to achieve, And now, Feel the jaw soften, Feel the tongue gently resting in the mouth, Sense the shoulders relaxing, Feel the hands as open and receptive, Could you sense the feet as soft, The breath breathing itself, Completely effortless, As if you were being breathed, As if you were being lived, And there's no holding or pushing here, Even the mind doesn't need to concentrate, Effortlessness in the whole body, Like warm water pouring, Through every muscle, Softening it, Effort dissolving from the forehead, From the throat, From the heart, From the belly, From the hips, Completely supported by the earth, Nothing to do, Resting and just being, And now, Gently bring both experiences into your awareness, Effort and effortlessness, Effort and being, You might notice that both exist within you, Resting now in effortless awareness, Now bring awareness to the space behind your closed eyes, Imagine you're standing beside a wide, Gently flowing river, Noticing the landscape all around you, The feel of the soft earth beneath your feet, The open sky above, The sound of water moving steadily, Hearing the sound of water moving, And in your hands, You're holding a small wooden boat tied with a rope, And this boat represents effort, Control, Or managing the direction of life, Imagine you could step in to this little boat, And feel yourself gripping the oars, And imagine you begin rowing, Rowing upstream, A felt sense of the muscles engaging, The arms working, And the eyes focus, A sense of the water resisting, Resisting you, You keep rowing against the natural flow, Keep rowing against the natural flow, And now a felt sense of stopping the rowing, Feel yourself let go of the oars, The boat pauses in the water, But the river is still moving, Even without your effort, You let go of the oars, And you're just floating, Floating with the current, The whole body is soft, Supported by the water, By the boat, Trusting the flow of the river, Effort dissolving into trust, You are held in this effortless state, Resting back as pure presence, Gentle, One with all that you are, Union with your divine true nature, Welcoming back your intention, Your sankalpa, Feeling the essence of your intention, Your desire, Floating here with you, You might repeat it a few more times, And can you come back to your breath, Gently encouraging a deeper breath, Feeling the life force energy once again flowing, Conscious of this movement of energy that is your animating force, Prana flowing, You might start to move around your body a little bit, Your fingers, Touching your fingertips with your thumb tips, Squeezing the toes, You're moving on with another segment of your day or evening, You might start to stretch the body a little bit more, Take a few sips of breath in, You might be ready to change your position, If you can, Keep taking some time to reintegrate into your time, Your space, Noticing how and what you're feeling, You might be aware of some benefits and effects of this practice at this very moment, It can be nice to do a little writing, Contemplation after this practice, It's also just fine to move into whatever is next, You can trust that your trillions of cells benefited your whole being, This is the power of deep rest, Benefiting on every layer of our being, This is called the koshas in yogic philosophy, Whatever is next for you, I'm wishing you all the very best, Namaste.