Welcome to your practice of yoga nidra.
I invite you to get settled in your most comfortable possible position.
For most of us this is a lying down,
This is a lying down practice,
But if you need to do it seated then that's totally fine.
And I want you to imagine you are settling yourself and getting yourself cozy just like you would for someone you really cared about,
You know a child or a niece or a nephew or tucking a grandmother in.
You'd want them to feel so cozy and safe and I wonder if you can do that for yourself now.
So gathering your cozy pillows and something to cover the eyes maybe and blankets so you stay warm,
Just like a bird gathers feathers and sticks to make its nest and rummaging around in your bed or on your sofa to find the most comfortable position.
You for finding that ideal spot to lie down.
And as you move further into stillness I want you to know that you don't have to remain perfectly still for this entire nidra practice.
You are welcome to scratch a niche or find a more comfortable position or wriggle a little bit at any time.
And knowing now that as you settle into your rest there's no expectation for you to be doing anything right now.
You've been doing enough all day I'm sure,
But this is not a practice of doing,
This is a practice of being.
And in that way there's no way that you can do this practice wrong.
You can just you know vaguely listen to my voice,
But if you sort of zone in and out or fall asleep that's totally fine and your subconscious will be picking up the parts of this practice that you most need right now and delivering them right to those areas of your body or mind or soul or heart that needs that rest.
So yeah,
Be effortless.
Let go of expectation or worries or to-dos.
All you need to do is to be.
And finding your awareness moving around the parts of the body that are resting down now.
I wonder if you can give yourself permission to rest now.
The body has permission to rest from head to toe,
Left or right and front to back.
Can you transfer a tiny bit more weight into the surface below you knowing that the earth is deep down there below you always ready to hold you.
And just letting gravity do its thing.
Every cell of your body shifting gently and slowly closer towards the earth like fine grains of sand settle down sifting down towards the earth.
And finding your breath now.
Your breath is your constant companion and if you feel unsettled or anxious or any unpleasant thoughts or anything come up for you during this practice you can always go back to noticing the feel of the air moving in through the nose.
And just for now we're going to take a few deeper breaths into the belly.
And if you need to yawn or sigh very welcome to sigh out any annoyances or little things that got on your nerves today.
The more dramatic the sigh the better.
Be free to express yourself.
Feeling the body gently expanding as you inhale and I wonder where can you feel the body rising.
Maybe a slight movement in the chest maybe lower down by the diaphragm and your lower ribs.
Maybe you can feel your belly rising and maybe not and that's okay.
However your breath is being right now is just right for you.
And we're going to take three humming bee breaths now to signal with the vibrations of the humming to our body via the vagus nerve that it's time to rest and this will help our bodies move into a deeper state of nervous system relaxation,
Down regulation.
So taking a lovely deep inhale now through the nose and humming out your exhale with the mouth closed.
Filling your lungs with air and humming out.
Feeling the vibrations in your chest and settling into your bones.
Allowing the breath now to become natural and soft.
No more effort needed here in the breath or in the body or in the mind.
I invite you to move your attention now into the heart center.
Space around the breastbone around your heart and in yoga nidra we aim to connect into our inner listening our intuition.
We can do this by setting a sankalpa which is an intention for your practice and this intention it's like a seed that you plant to start in your yoga nidra practice and that will spread into your life.
This may be something that you want to happen in your life like a strong manifestation or who you want to be or what you feel your purpose is on this earth.
No right or wrong answers here and if nothing comes up that's absolutely fine and I've prepared one that you can use if it resonates with you.
So repeating in your head now your sankalpa silently to yourself.
If you'd like you can use I am happy and healthy.
I am happy and healthy.
I am happy and healthy.
I'm going to take your awareness around the body now and as I name different body parts there's nothing you need to do no movement needed and just invite your awareness into those parts and just feel any sensation that might be coming up in that body part.
Hold it in the light of your awareness and then move on.
So starting on the right hand side taking your awareness to the right hand thumb.
How can you feel on the right hand thumb?
What sensations are present?
Bringing your awareness to the index finger,
Middle finger,
Fourth finger,
Little finger,
Palm of the right hand,
Back of the right hand,
Feeling into the wrist,
Forearm,
Elbow,
Upper arm,
Right shoulder,
Sensing the right armpit,
Side of the ribs,
Right waist,
Hip,
Right thigh and knee,
Lower leg and right ankle and awareness to your right foot now,
Sole of the foot,
Top of the right foot and awareness to the big toe,
Second toe,
Third toe,
Fourth toe and little toe.
Sensing the left thumb now,
Awareness to any sensations in the left thumb,
Index finger,
Middle finger,
Fourth finger,
Little finger,
Awareness to the palm of the left hand,
Back of the left hand,
Wrist,
Forearm,
Elbow,
Upper arm,
Shoulder,
Armpit,
Side of the ribs,
Left waist,
Hip,
Awareness moving down the left thigh,
Knee,
Lower leg into the left ankle and the left foot,
Feeling the sole of the left foot,
Top of the foot,
Left big toe,
Second toe,
Third toe,
Fourth toe and little toe.
Moving the light of your awareness of the back of the body now,
Feeling into the left heel,
Right heel,
Left calf,
Right calf,
Back of the left thigh,
Back of the right thigh,
Left bum cheek and right bum cheek,
Welcoming in any sensations in the lower back,
Middle back,
Upper back,
Left shoulder blade,
Right shoulder blade,
The whole spine,
Feeling the back of your neck,
Back of the head,
Top of the head and awareness to the left hemisphere of the brain,
The right hemisphere of the brain,
Sensing both hemispheres of the brain at the same time,
The whole brain resting now in your skull,
Feeling into the forehead,
Left temple,
Right temple,
Left eyebrow,
Right eyebrow,
The left and right eye and sensing both eyes at the same time,
The left cheek,
Right cheek,
Left ear,
Inner ear and outer ear,
Sensing the right ear,
Inner ear and outer ear and feeling both ears at the same time,
Feeling the top lip,
The bottom lip and the place that the lips rest together and sensing the tongue,
The teeth,
Gums and sides of the cheeks,
The chin,
The jaw,
Throat,
Left collarbone,
Right collarbone,
The left side of the chest and the right side of the chest,
Center of the chest,
Lower ribs,
Upper abdomen,
Lower abdomen,
Belly button in the middle and all the organs working away quietly and faithfully in the whole belly and the pelvic bowl,
Feeling the left hip,
Right hip,
Left thigh,
Right thigh,
Left kneecap,
Right kneecap,
Moving awareness down the length of the left shinbone,
Down the right shinbone,
Up the right foot and the left foot and feeling all ten toes.
Awareness to the whole left leg now,
Toes up to hip,
The whole left leg and the whole right leg,
Toes to hip,
The whole right leg.
Awareness to both legs at the same time,
Sensing the left arm and hand and the right arm and hand and both arms and both hands at the same time.
Awareness to the whole torso,
Belly,
Chest and back,
The whole head and face.
Awareness to the whole body now,
The whole body resting down,
Sinking with gratitude for this rest into the earth.
This body,
This rested being worthy of rest,
Deserving of rest.
And because all sensations are welcome here in this body,
Just as you are,
I wonder if you can notice parts of your body that are the most comfortable right now.
Which parts of you are so comfortable you can barely feel them at all,
They're so content,
Carefree,
Comfortable,
Relaxed.
And maybe you can find some part of your body that is a little bit more uncomfortable,
A little bit of discomfort present in some part of the body and that's okay,
Just holding it in our accepting awareness,
Acceptance of this discomfort.
Moving the awareness back to the comfortable parts of us,
Parts of us that are lying in comfort,
Deep comfort and ease.
And more awareness back to the places of discomfort,
More uncomfortable parts,
Awareness of the uncomfortable parts of us and then feeling the comfortable parts and the uncomfortable parts.
And how would it be to hold both the comfort and discomfort at the same time in your awareness?
Awareness of comfort and discomfort,
Of feeling comfortable and uncomfortable at the same time,
These two sensations coexisting simultaneously in your rested body at the same time.
Moving your awareness into the dark space at the back of the closed eyes now.
The Chitticash,
This is called the mind's eye.
It's like a movie screen we can project our imaginations or visualizations upon.
I'd like you to imagine using visualization or your imagination or memory or feeling any way that it works for you.
The sound of birds flying across the sky above you,
Birds flying in the sky above you,
Bees buzzing in a bed of bright red flowers,
Bees buzzing in a bed of bright red flowers,
Leaves rustling in the wind,
Leaves rustling in the wind,
A river gently gurgling and garbling its way down,
A river gurgling and garbling its way down.
And visualizing yourself now,
If our sankalpa had already come true,
You being healthy and happy,
Feeling it like it's already come true now and imagining yourself healthy and happy,
How would that feel and what would you be doing?
Living a fulfilled and happy life,
Healthy of body and mind and spirit.
Imagining yourself now,
Feeling happy,
Feeling healthy and repeating these words silently in your head three more times.
I am happy and healthy.
And awareness back to the breath and now the trusty companion of our breathing.
Notice how you have been being breathed this whole time.
Some gratitude might creep in for this miracle of life.
And as we move towards the end of our practice,
We will allow the breath to guide us out just as it guided us in.
So inviting some deeper breaths into the nostrils now.
Noticing how much you can fill your body up with air.
And allowing sighs out.
Allowing any yawns to come on the tail end of nice,
Big,
Full,
Juicy breaths.
Feeling the fresh air that you pull in and invigorate this resting body all the way down to the fingertips,
All the way down to the toes.
Sighing it out.
And we'll take one lovely humming bee breath to signal that our practice of yoga nidra is coming to an end,
Just as it came to a beginning not so long ago.
Taking a lovely,
Full inhale and humming out your exhale.
Feeling the vibrations settle into the body now.
Coming to reawaken and reawakening the senses.
Sniffing your environment,
Noticing any smells and wriggling the jaw around and moving the tongue around the inside of the cheeks and noticing any tastes that are present are welcome now.
And maybe the fingers and the toes might like to take a little bit of movement now.
Maybe the thumb would like to gently tap the tips of each finger tip.
The toes might like to curl and point and flex and curl.
Maybe rubbing feet against each other,
Waking them up and rubbing the hands against each other.
And it might be nice to take the hands over the eyes and give the eyes a little rub.
Rubbing the rest and maybe sleep out of the eyes.
And while we're here,
Rubbing into the temples,
Little forehead,
Scalp massage,
Down into the jaw,
Whatever feels good,
Why not go for it.
And maybe the eyes are blinking open gently.
And can you allow a little smile to come into your face as you look around the room,
Safe place that you have in which you've been able to rest and take this time for yourself.
As you make your way back up to a seat and if it takes a little bit longer to come back,
And if you want to rest a little bit longer,
Then you should rest longer.
Back into your day,
The sense of gratitude for the practice of yoga nidra passed down from the ancient Indian wisdoms down across to the West and into my lucky form and from me to you and to the wisdom of how to rest that is already deep within you.
Bringing some gratitude for yourself and for having given yourself this time to rest back into your day.
And for now,
This practice of yoga nidra is complete.
