Welcome to this Yoga Nidra experience with me Abigail Poulton here at Insight Timer.
This replenish yoga nidra practice is to allow you to rest and rejuvenate,
To give yourself a little top up of prana or chi,
Your vital life force.
It is possible that you might drop into a sleepy state,
So if you need to be anywhere by the end of this practice,
You might want to set a little timer or alarm on a separate device.
So whenever you're ready getting into a comfortable position,
Having something under the head perhaps,
Even some comfort or support under the knees,
You could even have a blanket over the body.
And exactly as you are,
Take a few smooth and steady breaths,
Allowing the entire body to land.
Noticing your natural breath now,
And without needing to change anything,
Just allow the natural breath to soften the body more.
And it's usually the exhale breath that does this.
Notice the hips softening,
The shoulders softening,
The head softening,
The whole body just softening down toward the ground,
As if you allowed gravity to hold you.
Opening to gravity.
Take the deepest breath that you've taken all day in through the nose,
Fill up the lungs,
And as you exhale,
Release the breath slowly through the mouth.
Take two more of those breaths,
Inhaling through the nose,
And a slow release out through the mouth.
Beautifully done.
Notice how a simple breath like that can drop you into the present moment.
Notice how a simple breath can stop the mind's movements and bring you back into the body experience.
We're going to breathe together to ground and center.
So whatever breath you're on,
Whatever exhale you've released,
Let everything go until there's nothing left in the body.
And then inhale,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Exhale,
Two,
Three,
Four.
Inhale,
Two,
Three,
Four.
Exhale,
Two,
Three,
Four.
Inhale,
Two,
Three,
Four.
Exhale,
Two,
Three,
Four.
Continue on your own as your own teacher for the next few moments,
Breathing equal breath in,
Equal breath out.
If it feels appropriate to count,
You may count.
If this feels more appropriate to be in the felt sense of the breath,
Be in the felt sense.
Make this work for you.
Tuning in to the beautiful breath.
A tool that we can use to increase our prana,
Our life force.
Just take a moment as you breathe to imagine as you inhale vital new energy coming into the cells of the body.
And as you exhale,
Any stagnancy or stuckness in the cells gets released.
Exhaling vitality and exhaling stagnancy.
Vitality coming in,
Stagnancy being let go of.
And then coming back to a natural breathing.
A natural breath.
Easeful and effortless and it just moves gently like a wave in the background of this guided journey.
If you ever need to come back to your meditative state and you've wandered off in the mind,
Come back to the breath.
Feel the breath and then come back to the guidance.
Know that if the mind does drift into a dreamy,
Sleepy state,
That there's always a part of you listening and receiving the guidance.
Allow yourself to move into different brainwaves through this practice.
So we'll start with our sankalpa,
Our vow,
Our intention to replenish.
So you might say internally the statement,
I am replenishing.
I am replenishing.
And now drift your awareness to the very top of your head,
The top of your head.
Noticing any sensations here at the top of your head.
Moving into the face,
Forehead,
The eyes and eyebrows,
The nose,
Cheeks,
Upper lip and lower lip,
Left ear and right ear.
And then moving into the throat and neck.
Notice the entire head.
Any sensations present in the head.
All sensations are welcome and we meet them with equanimity,
A smoothness within.
And moving your attention now into the left shoulder,
The left shoulder.
Left upper arm,
Elbow,
Lower arm,
Left hand,
Into the palm of the hand and the fingers.
Any sensations here in the left hand,
A tingling,
A warm,
The coolness.
Let any sensations be present without judgment.
Just notice and observe.
And scanning the entire left arm from shoulder to fingers up and down with your awareness.
Notice anything that is altered or comes up as you do this.
And now noticing the right shoulder,
The right shoulder.
Upper arm,
Elbow,
Lower arm and into the right hand,
Fingers and palm of the right hand.
Drifting your awareness now up and down the right arm from the shoulder to the fingers.
Notice what's here.
Notice what's felt in presence,
In time,
In this body.
Notice now both arms and the head together.
And then drift your attention into the torso.
Left collarbone,
Left ribcage,
The organs on the left side here in the stomach,
The abdominal region,
The left hip bone,
And the left side of the length of the spine.
Notice the entire left side of your torso.
And then notice the right side.
Right collarbone,
Right ribcage,
Organs through the stomach on the right side,
The right hip,
And the right side of the length of the spine.
Notice the entire torso connected as one.
The head,
The arms,
Hands and torso connected.
And now moving your attention to the left leg,
Top of the leg,
Knee,
Lower leg,
Into the left ankle and left foot,
The entire left leg.
Allow your attention to scan up and down the leg,
Noticing what's there.
And then drifting your attention to the right leg,
Upper leg,
Knee,
Lower leg,
Ankle and foot.
Notice the entire right leg,
And then scanning from the top of the leg to the tips of the toes with your awareness.
Notice both legs together.
Notice the head,
The arms,
The torso,
And the legs connected as one.
The entire body connected as one.
And now moving your attention to the left leg,
Top of the leg,
And the right hip,
The exists in the USA.
Notice your attention to the other leg.
The surface of the ocean.
A tropical forest.
A snowy mountaintop.
A puppy stretching.
A golden egg.
A warm embrace with a friend.
Swimming in a lake.
Walking barefoot.
Being surrounded by community.
Sharing a deep conversation.
Laughing with friends.
Clear blue skies.
Now bring your awareness back into the body.
Back into the felt sense of the breath.
Notice the breath expanding the rib cage as you breathe in.
And simply notice the breath contracting the rib cage as you breathe out.
Each breath is a teacher that we get to start again.
We get to draw in something and then release,
And then do it again.
Allowing the breath to be your teacher.
Invite freshness and newness into your mind body.
You get to start again.
And allow the breath to give you this modern affirmation or modern mantra.
I am the new beginning.
I am the new beginning.
Allow this mantra to seep into your cells,
Feeling the freshness of this statement.
And then start to deepen the breath even more.
The inhale draws you back into the sounds in your room.
The exhale makes you aware of the room that you are in.
And you can start to slowly,
Very slowly awaken the physical body once again.
That might feel and look like some movements in the toes,
The fingers,
The ankles,
The wrists.
The neck,
The head.
And if it feels appropriate to have a little bit of a stretch out here on the ground,
Go for it.
Take all the time you need to blink the eyes open and come back into time and space.
