Hello and welcome to the practice of yoga nidra.
I'm Kumari and I will be your guide.
This practice is specifically designed to lull you into a deep sleep.
So therefore,
At the end,
I will not be guiding you out of the state of yoga nidra and I will let the soft music continue to play for some time.
Yoga nidra helps you sleep because it helps to calm the nervous system and sends a signal to your brain that it is safe to relax.
My systematic guidance will allow your body to shift into the parasympathetic nervous system,
Which fosters a feeling of soothing and relaxation.
This type of meditation helps your body naturally release the sleep hormone melatonin and prepare your body to rest.
Take some time now to set yourself up for a delicious sleep.
Pillows,
Blankets,
Eye cover,
Do whatever you need to do to ensure warmth and comfort.
Welcome your body into a comfy,
Deep rest.
Let's begin with a gentle tension and release practice that will assist your muscles into being soft and relaxed.
Begin to gently squeeze your hands into fists and go about 50% of your strength.
And now begin to send this tensing or muscle engagement all the way up your arms.
Keep holding and squeezing.
Take a breath in and exhale and release.
Begin to reach through your heels now.
Feel your feet slightly lift.
Now add in the engagement of your thighs.
Squeeze,
Squeeze,
Inhale and exhale and release.
Now with an inhale,
Lift your head a few inches and exhale and release.
Rock your head from side to side.
Now take in a deep breath and poof out your belly.
Hold your breath and release through an open mouth.
Again,
Belly breath in,
Hold and exhale through your mouth.
One more time.
Poof out the belly as you inhale,
Then hold and now let it go.
In Yoga Nidra,
We practice Sankalpa.
Sankalpa is like an intention and is always spoken as if it has already manifest.
You are speaking this intention directly to your subconscious and that is so powerful.
In this meditation,
I'd like to offer a Sankalpa especially for cultivating deep sleep.
But if you have a Sankalpa you're currently working with,
I encourage you to use it.
Repeat this statement after me.
I am aligned with a deep and full night's sleep.
I am aligned with a deep and full night's sleep.
I am aligned with a deep and full night's sleep.
And so it is.
Next on the journey is a rotation of awareness around the body.
By bringing your attention to the areas in your body I mentioned,
Simply by placing attention in each area,
We are energetically freeing any stagnation or blocks that may reside there.
You could think of it as an energetic tune up and balance for your whole body.
Place your attention at the crown of your head.
Sense and feel the top of your head.
Now allow that awareness to cover your entire scalp.
Could you tune into the subtle sensations that fill your scalp?
And now sense the ears.
Both ears listening,
Aware and receptive.
Go inward now into your brain inside your skull.
Feeling the right and left hemispheres of your brain.
Right and left and now your whole brain.
The stillness of the brain.
Quieting down for the night.
Move your attention to the point between your eyebrows.
Your inward gaze focuses there for a moment.
Now a greater sense of the eyes.
Both eyes resting,
Held,
Protected and relaxed.
Imagine all the skin around your eyes now.
Soft and smooth.
Your nose and nostrils.
The air of your breath softly moving in and out.
In.
Feeling your breath deep into the sinuses,
Your cheeks,
Jaws.
Feeling how the skin softly drapes over your expressionless face.
And jaws so relaxed.
Send your awareness through softly parted lips to the inside of your mouth.
Sense your tongue,
The roof of your mouth.
The insides of your cheeks.
Your gums and teeth.
Can you feel the inside of your mouth buzzing with a subtle energy?
To your throat now.
All the tissues that make up your throat and neck.
Soft.
Relaxed.
Feel your collarbones,
Shoulders,
Elbows,
Wrists,
Palms.
Feel your palms shimmering with energy.
To the fingertips.
Feel into the tips of all ten fingers.
Buzzing with your awareness.
And now isolate the awareness of both arms and hands as fields of sensation.
And next slowly pour all of your attention into the center of your chest.
Your energetic heart center.
Begin to be aware of the space all around the center.
Expanding into an awareness of your whole chest.
Feel your chest move as you breathe.
Now into your sides.
The rib cage.
And the sides of your waist.
Your abdomen.
Pelvis.
Now attention infusing both of your hips.
Deep into the hip joints.
Both knees.
Fronts.
Back.
Insides and outsides.
Sense your knees as orbs of energy.
To your ankles.
Heels.
The arches of your feet.
The balls of your feet.
The bottoms of your toes.
The top of your toes.
The bottom of your feet.
The top of your toes.
The bottom of your feet.
The top of your toes.
The bottom of your toes.
The top of your toes.
The bottom of your toes.
The top of your toes.
The bottom of your toes.
The top of your toes.
The bottoms of your toes.
Can you feel the soles of your feet subtly tingling?
Now pouring your awareness into all ten toe tips.
All ten toe tips.
Light it up.
Now take a moment to spread your attention to the entire backside of your body.
Saturate your whole backside with your awareness.
Feeling and sensing the backside of your body.
Now imagine your next few inhales beginning to pull your attention to the entire front side of your body.
Feeling and sensing the front side of your body.
Now allow yourself to be absorbed into the awareness of your entire body.
Your whole body glowing with life force energy.
A field of pure radiance.
Come to notice your breath.
The rise and fall of your naturally occurring breath.
Observe your breath.
Feeling and emptying your divine life force energy and the breath of life within you.
Flowing and soothing your nervous system with no effort.
Synergistic alchemy of your breathing body.
Now could you imagine pulling in your breath solely through the left nostril and exhaling through the right.
Psychically inhale through the left.
Psychically exhale through the right.
Without effort inhaling through the left,
Exhaling through the right.
Slowly,
Mindfully and calmly breathing.
Keep going with this breath until you hear my voice again.
Focus on the breath now.
Dissolve.
And come to place your awareness on your body again.
Focus your attention on your right palm.
Sensing the right palm filled with a shimmering sensation.
Right palm tingling with energy.
Now slide your awareness over to the left palm.
Warmth generated by all the cells alive.
Perceptive tingling with energy.
And return to the right palm.
Feel your right palm alive with energy.
To the left,
Sensing the energy from the inside out to the skin.
And now sense both palms together at the same time.
Feel the shimmering energy present deep in your palms and radiating upward to the skin.
Now awareness drifting down the body to the sole of the left foot.
The sole of the foot.
Warm,
Sensational,
Vibrant with a swirling energy over to the right sole of the foot.
Filling into the sole of the right foot.
Warm,
Filled with sensation.
And slowly return to fill your attention into the left sole of foot.
Is it possible to feel deep beneath the sole of your left foot?
Sensing from the inside to the top of the skin.
Awareness filling the sole of the left foot.
Slowly shift your focus to the sole of the right foot.
Sensing and feeling into the deepest part of the sole of your foot.
Energy radiating from deep within.
And then imagine it moving to encompass both soles of feet and both palms.
Can you sense both palms and both soles of feet simultaneously?
Awareness of the palms,
Of the hands,
And the soles of the feet at the same time.
Stay with this focus.
And soles.
And allow that focus to dissolve now and begin to imagine yourself laying on a comfy cushion on a boat that is floating down a lazy river.
You can see the clouds above.
Still and fluffy.
As the boat floats,
You pass under tree branches and feel the soothing dappled sunlight warm on your skin.
The gentle lapping of the water against the side of the boat is so soothing and relaxing.
And you are just floating and can feel the gentle bobbing of the boat and the slow moving river.
All the sounds and movements are so calming.
You feel your breath is very slow,
Barely present,
And your entire being tranquil and drifting deeper.
Your eyes softly close from this visualization as you sense you are sinking into the cushion a little more.
So sleepy.
Deeply resting.
Deep,
Deep peace.
All focus has dissolved now.
Profound stillness.
You have completely let go into a dreamless state of profound stillness.
The gentle flow of your breath,
The only movement now.
One with your true nature.
Shimmering radiance.
Oneness with the entire universe.
Sinking even deeper now.
You are safe.
You are loved.
Sleep well dear one.
