Welcome to this yoga nidra for sleep.
Start by coming to lay into a position that's most comfortable for you.
So it doesn't necessarily have to be on your back,
It could be on either side.
Just making sure that it's a position where you can start to let the body relax.
So really feeling into it,
Whether you want to adjust the positioning of your head,
Maybe you want to bring your knees,
Your legs into a different position.
Just feeling this intimacy with the body,
Noticing what it needs right now.
And if you arrived at that beautiful,
Comfortable place,
Slowly start to close your eyes,
As we'll take three breaths together here.
So take a full breath in through the nose,
Filling up the lungs completely,
Holding it at the top of the inhale for a moment,
And then sigh out through the mouth as you feel the body sinking into the bed a little further.
Take another breath in,
Fully inhale,
Holding this in relaxation,
And then exhale through the mouth as you feel the body letting go a little further.
One more full breath in like this,
Through the nose,
Hold,
And then a soft and releasing sigh out,
Emptying out,
Completely releasing,
And then coming back to your natural,
Effortless breath.
Now feel into the body again.
Feel how you can let all the muscles in the body come to a rest,
Letting go of the day within the body,
So letting go of any holding that's still present there,
As you simply allow every muscle in the body to relax,
To soften.
Start to bring your whole body into awareness,
All the way from the tips of the toes to the crown of the head,
Holding it in your presence.
Notice how that gentle embrace allows the body to soften even further,
Allows it to sink down into the embrace of your presence.
Now bring awareness specifically into the face,
And notice if there's any remnants of tension here still,
Letting that just soften,
So allow the whole forehead to be soft,
The temples on both sides of your eyes to simply release a little further.
The eyelids are completely soft,
Just very gently touching the upper lids to the lower lids.
Eyes are resting heavily in their sockets,
Letting go of any doing of the eyes.
This is a time where the external function of the eyes can just be released,
Letting go.
The point in between eyebrows is softening down,
Just like both lips,
Upper and lower,
Are completely relaxed,
Tongue resting softly within the mouth,
And even the inside of the cheeks completely softening,
Whole face soft,
As you allow the whole body to relax deeply into the knowledge that there's no right or wrong doing in this practice.
You may allow yourself to just very kindly listen to the words you're hearing without needing to attach any meaning or analysis to them,
Released in need for understanding,
Just opening to the field of sensing beyond meaning.
Open up to being without interpretation.
Let's tune into the subtlety of the breath flow,
Feeling the complete effortless stream of inhalation and exhalation.
With every exhalation,
Having that magic power of being able to relax the body further down,
Creating space with every inhale,
And a relaxing letting go every time you feel that effortless exhale,
Ever-present flow of breath,
We'll rotate awareness through the body,
And feel how as we touch a particular place with our awareness in the body,
How this allows that part to relax even further,
Just by bringing our presence fully there.
Effortless loving awareness,
Starting in the right thumb,
Index finger,
Middle finger,
Ring finger,
Little finger,
Spaces in between the fingers,
Palm of the hand,
Back of the hand,
The wrist,
Lower arm,
Elbow,
Upper arm,
Shoulder,
Armpit,
Right ribcage,
Hip,
Thigh,
Knee,
Lower leg,
Ankle,
Heel,
Sole of the foot,
Top of the foot,
Whole toes of the right foot,
Whole right side of the body at once,
The left thumb,
Index finger,
Middle finger,
Ring finger,
Little finger,
Spaces in between the fingers,
Palm of the hand,
Back of the hand,
The wrist,
Lower arm,
Elbow,
Upper arm,
Left shoulder,
Armpit,
Ribcage,
Left hip,
Thigh,
Knee,
Lower leg,
Ankle,
Heel,
Sole of the foot,
Top of the foot,
Whole toes,
Whole left side of the body at once,
The lips,
Tip of the nose,
Vision centre in between eyebrows,
Whole forehead,
Crown of the head,
Back of the head resting down,
Back of the head,
Shoulder blades,
The middle back and the lower back including the sacrum,
Right hip,
Whole right leg,
Right hip again,
Left hip,
Whole left leg,
Left hip,
Right arm,
Left arm,
Right arm,
Left leg,
Left arm,
Right leg and the whole body at once,
Whole body into awareness,
Feeling the weight of the bones of the body resting down,
Weight of the body resting down into deeper levels of relaxation,
Whole body softening further,
A complete letting go.
Awareness now flowing towards the subtle flow of breath,
Feeling into that effortless stream of inhalations and exhalations and while we keep feeling into that get our awareness fully into the soles of the feet and on your next inhalation you guide awareness through the soles of the feet up through the legs all the way into the heart space and as you exhale distribute that awareness into the full body,
Gather awareness into the soles of feet again and as you inhale rising that energy up into heart space and as you exhale that energy distributes throughout the whole body,
Continue like that on your own effortless rhythm of breath,
Every inhale guides that grounding energy all the way from the soles of feet to heart and you feel that soft distribution of that grounding energy through the whole body on each exhale,
Guiding that grounding energy with the simplicity of your soft breath,
Each breath an opportunity to ground the body further into relaxation.
For a moment noticing the totality of the body again.
I will now count back from 7 to 1 and with each successive count you'll notice how the body sinks into a deeper state of consciousness,
Sinking into deeper layers of rest.
7,
6,
5,
4,
3,
2,
1.
Now gather all awareness into the space of your feet completely inhabiting the feet from the inside out,
Feeling the space within the feet and while feeling the space in the feet bring awareness into the space of the heart inhabiting both the heart space and space of the feet simultaneously.
Now feeling the feet,
The heart and the space in the side of the head,
Filling the whole head with your awareness completely inhabiting the space inside your head.
Now starting to dissolve these spaces into one unified experience of space.
Unified experience of space in which the body sinks further into relaxation.
Space where the mind softens further into restorative being.
A complete letting go.
Releasing everything and anything into this space of rest.
All that remains is this space in which you may rest,
Allowing the whole body to relax.
All doing dissolves into the nothingness of this space.
