Hello and welcome to this Yoga Nidra practice with me,
YuYuYogi.
Yoga Nidra means yogic sleep.
It is a way for us to access the state between sleeping and waking.
It is recommended that you do this after a traditional short and easy yoga session of 5 to 20 minutes.
Whatever your regular practice is.
Just so the body is sufficiently naturalified and ready to enter calmer states.
If at any point you lose the track of my voice or drift off to sleep,
There is nothing wrong with that.
There is no right or wrong way to do Yoga Nidra,
But we do try in Yoga Nidra not to drift off to sleep.
It helps if you tell yourself before starting,
I am awake and I am practicing Yoga Nidra.
Find a comfortable spot to lie down and we will begin.
Make yourself as relaxed as possible and we will begin summoning our deep belly breathing.
On the next inhale,
Maybe try breathing into the pelvic floor,
Small muscles that make up the lower end of your torso.
Next,
Imagine your diaphragm being pushed downwards as the lungs expand and exhale.
Think of this as a welcoming of air into empty space inside.
Just getting ready to receive and release.
Receive and release.
Receive,
Retain and release.
Starting to hold the breath in now,
Receive.
In Yoga Nidra,
We set a sankalpa,
Which is an intention,
A seed planted,
An intention for this session.
Go ahead and think of an intention now.
It could be as simple as I am well rested.
I would like you to repeat this to yourself three times now,
Not louder in your mind.
I would like you to bring your awareness to the heart space.
We are going to do a tour of,
As we come into this heart space,
This is where the altar of this temple lies,
The Anahata Chakra.
In each room we will visit,
There are candles lighting up the space,
Washing the walls in a flickering golden glow.
As we exit each room,
We are going to blow the candles out.
You can imagine these as Viyas or you could imagine this as turning the light off.
If your temple has been electrified,
You are ready.
Let's start taking the corridor down on the right,
To the right shoulder.
Notice this space,
The warm yellow glow.
While holding your own candle in your hand,
Like a little monk walking around your own little monastery,
Blow out the lights in this room now,
Sending the shoulder to restful sleep of total darkness.
Traveling further down now to the upper arm,
Right side,
Elbow,
Right wrist,
Right hand,
Right palm,
Right index finger,
Right middle finger,
Ring finger,
Pinky finger,
Palm of the right hand.
Let's start traveling back up,
Trying to visualize the space enclosed by the entire right arm,
Upper arm,
Shoulder,
And slowly stepping back into the heart space,
The center.
Taking a journey now to the left side,
Exiting to the left shoulder.
Take your time to notice the room you're in right now.
Associations,
Memories,
And emotions you hold concerning this space.
Traveling down now,
Blowing the candles out,
Left upper arm,
Left elbow,
Left forearm,
Left wrist,
Palm of the left hand,
And traveling upwards this corridor on the left wrist,
Forearm,
Elbow,
Upper arm,
Shoulder,
And back to the heart space.
Keep your deep breath with you as a companion.
Bottom right,
Starting with the right big toe,
Second toe,
Pinky toe on the right side,
Sole of the right foot,
Heel of the right foot,
Top of the right foot,
Right lower leg,
Right knee lit up and then sent into rest of darkness,
Right upper leg lit up and then sent into rest of darkness,
Right hip,
Right wrist,
And lungs,
Right chest,
And upper neck.
Traveling down the left side of the body,
Down to the very corner,
To the left big toe,
Left second toe,
Third toe,
Left sole of the foot,
Left heel of the foot,
Left ankle,
Left lower leg lit up and then sent into darkness,
Left knee lit up and then sent into rest of darkness,
Left upper leg lights up and then goes to sleep in complete darkness,
Left hip lit up and then sent to sleep in complete darkness,
Left waist,
Lower ribs and lungs,
Left chest and lungs,
Entire left side of the body,
Entire right side of the body.
As you come into the heart space,
Notice how everything else has gone dark in all four corners of your temple.
And finally,
Let us blow up candles in this heart space.
If you like,
You can imagine a circle of beyond smart candles that you blow out now.
Inhale,
Soft,
Exhale.
Let's take that raptor now to the uppermost part of our temple,
The celestial observatory.
Many monks and spiritual figures,
Who are also astrologers and astronomers,
Have keenly studied celestial bodies and the events that went on in the heavens.
So let's step into this circular room upstairs.
Taking the stairs,
Maybe imagine the vertebrae in the neck,
Step by step by step.
Open the trapdoor and enter the skull,
Head.
Bringing awareness to the ears and all the tiny muscles on top of the ears,
Back of the ears,
Under the ears,
In front of the ears,
The jaw,
The chin,
Lower lip,
Upper lip,
Gum,
Teeth,
Roof of the mouth,
Floor of the mouth.
Back of the throat,
Nostrils,
Right and left,
Tip of the nose,
Bridge of the nose,
Top of the nose,
Cheeks,
Lower eyelid,
Upper eyelid,
Eyeballs resting in their sockets,
The entire scalp,
Top,
Right side,
Left side,
Back of the head,
The entire skin on the scalp,
The top right corner of the forehead,
The top left corner of the forehead,
The mang of the forehead,
And then trace it back to the very back of the head,
The central line of the skull.
Take it back up to the mang and then traveling down towards the eyebrows,
Come to rest your awareness at our last resting space here,
Ajna Chakra,
The third eye at the center of the eyebrows.
Behind closed eyes,
Let your eyeballs roll up to look at this point.
If possible,
Imagine a screen here now.
I will say some words and if any images pop into your mind upon hearing those words,
Maybe see them projected on the screen here.
Moonlit night,
Starry skies,
Silent lake under the moonlit sky,
Surface of moonlit lake,
Ripples on the surface of moonlit lake,
Gentle fragrant breeze on the surface of the moonlit lake,
Shimmering surface of moonlit lake,
Luminous halo of clouds around the moon,
Glowing wispy clouds traveling past the moon like ships in the night,
A complete silence,
A gentle howling of the wind in the valley.
Lie down now beside this lake.
Before we end,
If you are still with me,
Bring to your mind now the sankalpa,
The seed or intention that you set yourself at the beginning of this practice.
And I invite you to enjoy the silence of your now completely dark,
Unlit,
Sleeping temple.
Thank you for sharing this practice with me.
Namaste.
