Winter Solstice Yoga Nidra For Intention Setting

This 24-minute Yoga Nidra meditation is intended to be listened to on the Winter Solstice. Winter Solstice is a wonderful time to settle into hibernation with your intentions, giving them time to grow and fully emerge in the spring. In this practice, you'll be invited into a full body scan to promote deep relaxation and a sense of calm.

From this place of rest, you'll be prompted to explore your intentions, giving them attention and energy as you bring them into storage with you for the winter.

Transcript

It's time to get cozy.

It's winter solstice,

Or hibernal solstice.

Give yourself permission to feel as though you are hibernating,

Just like a bear.

Find a place to lie down,

A bed,

A yoga mat,

A couch.

Any place where you can lie down will suffice,

As long as you have warm layers,

Whether that be clothing or a blanket.

You may use pillows,

Bolsters,

Other props as needed to help get your space as supportive as you'd like it to be.

This is your practice.

This is your opportunity to sit with the darkness.

I hope that you feel safe,

Supported,

And most of all,

Snug.

The winter solstice is the shortest period of daylight,

Longest night of the year.

At this point in time,

The sun is at the largest daily maximum elevation in the sky.

In yoga and astrology,

The sun symbolizes the soul.

This is a place where we can reflect on the soul,

Our spirit.

Solstice in Latin means sun standing still.

The sun is standing still,

And we're preparing to lie in that stillness for a few more moments before we let the light back in.

At this point in time,

As you are lying down,

Start to close your eyes,

Creating your own darkness within.

Prepare to relax.

Give yourself a few moments to simply breathe out of your mouth and through the nostrils.

With every breath you take,

Let the body start to feel a little more relaxed,

More grounded into the surface that lies beneath you.

Allow your clothing or blanket to become heavy.

They are wrapped around you,

Helping you feel grounded,

Safe,

Secure.

As we go through this yoga nidra practice specifically for the solstice,

I invite you to welcome in anything and everything that comes into your awareness.

Awareness is that space in which we are consciously tuning into what our minds are telling us.

Not only our minds,

But our bodies as well.

Sensations,

Thoughts,

All of this is welcome.

We are at a place where we can abandon assessment of things and become the observer of the process.

Here,

Today,

The sun is standing still.

You are in a place where you can linger in stillness.

You are in a place where you get to be with yourself as you are,

And I invite you to feel that.

Feel what it feels like to simply draw in some gratitude for you as you are on this day.

If there's a word that comes to mind,

Let that word move through your headspace.

Let it fill the headspace.

Let this word vibrate with positivity.

This is who you are today.

As you sit here in silence,

Feeling who you are,

Start to feel that vibration in every part of your body,

From the head to the toes.

Starting at the crown of the head,

Feeling that vibration of you.

Start to emerge.

Feel it fully breathe into the body.

Breathe in gratitude.

Start to become aware of the face,

The nose,

The eyes,

The cheeks,

The mouth,

The tongue,

The teeth.

Full awareness of this space that is you.

Be with you as you are today.

Let the sensation move into the back of the head.

Notice any and all sensations.

What does it feel like?

What do you feel like today?

Allow the awareness to move down into the throat,

Back of the neck.

Every breath you take,

You as you are,

Are opening up an airway.

Letting the breath in,

Letting the breath out.

Drawing your awareness into the collarbones,

Into the shoulders.

You are rising,

You are falling.

There's a lift in the chest.

There's a lowering of the chest.

Moving into the left shoulder.

Moving all the way down through the left arm.

Bicep,

Tricep,

Forearm,

Thumb,

Pointer finger,

Middle finger,

Ring finger,

Pinky finger.

The whole left arm is feeling everything that it needs to feel.

You are fully present with the sensation.

Moving into the right arm.

Starting at the shoulder.

Moving down through the bicep,

Tricep,

Forearm.

All five fingers.

Thumb,

Index finger,

Middle finger,

Ring finger,

Pinky finger.

All five fingers feeling everything fully.

Breathing deeply.

Sending sensation down into the heart space.

Feeling the movement of the chest.

Even deeper rise and fall.

Allowing that heart space to expand with every breath that you take.

Feel deeply what is present for you.

No matter what it is,

We'll accept it.

We'll see it for what it is.

With gratitude for its simple presence.

Moving down into the belly.

Churning belly.

Motions.

Everything that we've consumed lies there within.

Whatever you are storing in this area,

You are feeling it.

The physical body and the emotional body.

As we rest here with the sun standing still.

Our true selves are shining through.

Who we are,

What we are.

Sending the sensation down into the hips.

Letting the hips rest.

Breathing into that space.

Letting go of whatever is being held there.

Keeping the breath.

Who am I today?

Be with whatever is present within this part of your body.

Moving your awareness through the left leg.

All the way through the quad,

The hamstring,

Shin,

The calf.

All five toes.

Big toe.

Second toe.

Third,

Fourth.

Pinky toe.

All toes are starting to settle back down toward the surface beneath you.

Being heavy.

And you are feeling all that is there,

All that is present.

Moving your awareness through the other leg.

Starting at the quad.

Moving through the hamstring,

Calf,

Shin.

All the way through the five toes.

Big toe.

Second toe.

Third toe.

Fourth toe.

Pinky toe.

All five toes.

Felt.

Noticed.

The entire lower half of your body is feeling sensation.

Without judgment,

We are there,

We are feeling it.

With compassion,

Gratitude.

You are in full awareness of what your body feels like today.

As the sun stands still.

I invite you to draw forth your intention for this period of time of the winter solstice through the summer solstice.

Or perhaps you will create a tension for a full cycle.

This winter solstice through the next.

This is an opportunity to cultivate your best intentions.

Take a few moments to allow your intentions to wander wide and far within your mind.

There is no intention too large,

No intention too small.

Let them move through the body.

Feel what the intentions feel like when you say them within.

Is the sensation a big sensation?

Or when you say the words within for your intention,

Does the body respond with a lack of energy?

Simply notice without judgment how your body is responding to these ideas that you are allowing to float within the mind.

In time,

A few intentions may start to appear more than others.

You may notice a higher vibration within.

This higher vibration is excitement.

It's passion.

It's intention.

When you have one or a few intentions that have really sunk and settled in with you,

They're nestled in as you hibernate.

Be with these intentions.

Breathe with these intentions.

With every breath you take,

We're allowing these intentions to grow.

Deeper breaths in and out.

Can you let that intention move gracefully,

Fully throughout your entire body?

What does that feel like to you?

Can you feel it in your heart?

Can you feel it in your throat?

Be with that lovely,

Glowing vibrancy that allows you to know that you are moving in the direction that you want to move.

Allow these intentions to culminate into a fire within.

You've already taken time to awaken all the parts of the body,

Bringing in joy and gratitude for what it is today.

With your current intentions,

Take in the image of a fire.

Let that image shine in front of your eyes.

Bright,

Bold,

Warm.

Simply let that image simmer and illuminate within.

Let that warmth spread from the head to the toes to the fingertips.

Light is spreading.

Hope is spreading.

You have taken time during the shortest period of daylight,

This moment of the sun standing still,

To be with all that you are.

To aspire.

To aspire to be all that you can be,

Everything that you desire.

Your intentions are bold and bright.

That color of red is grounding you down,

Keeping you strong,

Resilient,

And prepared to move forward.

Moving toward the light.

More sunlight.

I encourage you to take these next few moments simply to be as you are,

Feeling everything you need to feel.

I encourage you to take ten full breaths to bring you back to full awareness.

To the end of our practice in yoga nidra,

In celebration of the winter solstice.

I'll count backward from ten.

Inhale in for one,

For ten.

Inhale for nine.

Inhale for eight.

Inhale for seven.

Inhale for six.

Inhale for five.

Inhale for four.

Inhale for three.

Inhale for two.

Inhale for one.

Wishing all of you a really beautiful and wonderful solstice.