Emotional Healing After C-Section: A Yoga Nidra Practice

Allow yourself to rest in a safe, deeply relaxing space and integrate your birth experience. This gentle guided yoga nidra practice can help you to heal and integrate any trauma or lingering emotional residue you may have following your surgical birth. Oftentimes, this event is unanticipated, and the magnitude of this major surgery may go unrecognized with it accompanying the arrival of a beautiful baby. This meditation offers you a space to let go and bring healing energy to your body and your psyche.

Transcript

Hi beautiful mamas,

Welcome to this guided yoga nidra practice.

My name is Alicia and my intention for this practice is to hold a space of emotional healing for mothers recovering from a surgical birth.

You may have had your c-section recently or it may be in your more distant past,

But it's common for it to take time to integrate this experience into one's psyche and sometimes mamas may have complicated feelings around it.

Perhaps you had dreamed of your birth playing out a different way and you may have some grief or a feeling of loss around that.

Perhaps there were even aspects of your birth that may have felt traumatic.

Everyone's story is different.

Surgical birth is a powerful tool and can absolutely be invaluable and at the same time sometimes mothers can feel invalidated in their experience or feel like their birth feels diminished either in their own eyes or in the eyes of others.

Sometimes mothers may feel minimized when well-intentioned people say things such as the most important thing is that your baby is safe.

Well of course we all want our babies to be healthy and safe.

We are also active participants in this experience and our experience matters and deserves to be honored and integrated.

This practice is intended to offer you a safe supportive space to process your birth experience with gentleness and with love.

So please take a moment to set up a loving nurturing space to support yourself with during this practice.

We will be lying on our backs for the duration of the practice and if it feels good to you,

You can dim the lights,

Perhaps take a moment to apply a calming essential oil.

It can feel really comforting to cover yourself with a blanket during this practice.

I'll give you a moment here to make any adjustments that you need to your space.

Now let's begin.

Make yourself comfortable lying flat on your back and then see if there is anything you can do to make yourself even more comfortable.

Perhaps removing any jewelry or letting your hair down if it's up.

Taking your time to make any needed adjustments.

During the practice it's best to remain still.

You can move if you want to or need to but if you do need to move try to do so as slowly and as gently as possible.

I'll guide you through this practice but you don't have to listen to everything that I say.

It's perfectly fine to drift off sometimes so that my voice just becomes a gentle sound in the background.

Now bring your awareness to your breath.

Bring your awareness to your breath.

Inhale through the nose and allow the belly to expand.

Inhale through the nose and allow the belly to expand.

Exhale through the mouth with a sigh and relax the whole body.

Relax the whole body.

Again inhaling through the nose creating space and exhaling and soften.

Soften two more times going at your own pace.

And now set your intention.

Perhaps you would like to make peace with your surgical birth or perhaps you would like to honor your initiation of crossing over the threshold into the realm of mother and the birth experience that brought you into this new season of life.

This birth experience experience that is valid and no less than.

Or maybe you would like to give yourself space to grieve for the birth experience that you had hoped for but didn't get to have.

Everything is welcome.

Feel into your heart and notice what feels the most true to you.

Take a moment to visualize your intention in your mind's eye and then let it go,

Let it go.

We will now begin the body scan.

When I mention a body part bring your awareness there and if you like imagine filling each part of the body with a golden,

Warm,

Nurturing light.

The top of the head,

The forehead,

The right eye,

The left eye,

Both eyes together,

The nose,

The mouth,

The right cheek,

The left cheek,

Now both cheeks together,

The right ear,

The left ear,

Both ears together,

The back of the head,

The neck,

The throat,

And now focusing on the right side of the body,

A golden light gently touching the right shoulder,

The right shoulder,

The upper arm,

The elbow,

The forearm,

The wrist,

The hand,

The whole right arm,

The whole right arm,

The right armpit,

The outside of the ribs and the waist,

The right side of the chest,

The right side of the belly,

The right hip,

Thigh,

Knee,

Lower leg,

Ankle,

Foot,

The whole right leg,

The whole right leg,

The right side of the pelvis,

The lower back,

Upper back,

The whole right side of the body,

The whole right side of the body.

Notice if there is a difference between the sensations of the right side of the body and the left.

Now bring your awareness to the left side of the body,

A golden light gently touching the left shoulder,

The upper arm,

The elbow,

The forearm,

The elbow,

The forearm,

The wrist,

The hand,

The whole left arm,

The whole left arm,

The left armpit,

The outside of the ribs and waist,

The left side of the chest,

The heart,

The left side of the belly,

The left hip,

Thigh,

Knee,

Lower leg,

Ankle,

Foot,

The whole left leg,

The left side of the pelvis,

Lower back,

Upper back,

The whole left side of the body,

The whole left side of the body,

The whole body glowing with golden light.

Now let your awareness rest at the soles of your feet for a moment and just observe how it feels.

If there is no sensation at all,

That's also an observation.

Now as you breathe in,

Imagine drawing energy up through the soles of the feet,

Along the legs,

Hip,

Upper body,

All the way up to the shoulders.

And as you exhale,

The energy moves in the opposite direction from your shoulders all the way down and out through the soles of your feet.

Inhale from the soles of your feet to your shoulders and exhale from your shoulders to the soles of your feet at your own pace.

Breathing in,

Breathing out,

Breathing in,

Exhale,

Breathing out and in.

Like a gentle ocean wave that brings you energy and that washes away anything that you don't need away,

Carrying it far out to sea.

And now letting go of awareness of the breath,

Begin to explore if any part of the body feels a little warmer than the rest.

If you don't notice anything in particular,

You can choose to bring your awareness to the heart for example,

And visualize a soft warmth glowing in your chest.

And now notice if any part of the body feels a bit cooler than the rest.

And if you don't notice anything in particular,

Then you can choose to focus on the space between your upper lip and your nose.

Perhaps the air is slightly colder as you exhale.

And now bring your attention back to where it feels warm,

Back to where it feels cool,

Alternating back to where it feels warm,

And imagine that the warmth is expanding in your body.

And when the warmth reaches the area that feels cooler,

Then these two energies merge,

The warmth meeting the coolness,

The coolness meeting the coolness,

Perfect temperature,

In balance,

And let go.

Now begin to visualize yourself in a safe space in nature,

A place where you feel calm and grounded,

And bring the space clearly into your mind's eye.

What colors do you see around you?

Are there flowers?

What kind are they?

Notice what sounds you hear around you.

Perhaps you can hear birds,

Or the liquidy flow of water running around you.

Breathing in and breathing out,

You find yourself walking slowly about this gentle space,

And taking it in with all of your senses.

You feel your bare feet connected with the earth below you.

Is the earth made of grass?

Sand?

Feel your toes connect with the pulsing energy of the earth below you.

Shafts of sunlight shining through the top of the trees,

And it feels so peaceful here.

You notice a place where you'd like to rest,

And you carefully bring your body to the ground,

Lying on your back with your hands resting softly upon your womb space,

Feeling the earth support you and hold you,

And enjoying the tranquility and feeling of a warm,

Comfortable breeze against your skin.

You begin to bring your awareness to the incision site at your lower abdomen,

Resting your fingertips ever so slightly against the scar.

You take a breath deeply into your heart,

And as you do so,

Your heart begins to glow with a pulsating rose gold light,

The light growing brighter with each breath in,

And growing warmer with each breath out.

The light begins to travel from your heart to your shoulders,

Down each of your arms,

Down your wrists,

Streaming into your fingertips.

You feel the warmth of the light against your incision site,

And you sense tenderness,

Love,

Compassion,

And gratitude flowing from your fingertips down onto the line crossing your womb.

The light begins to pour through the incision site,

Shining directly into your womb space,

And as the light reaches your uterus,

The walls of your womb begin to glow with an iridescent rose gold light pulsating slightly,

And filling the sacred space with a beautiful healing energy.

The light begins to morph into delicate pink and orange and white rose petals lining the inside of your womb.

You feel the beauty and the vulnerability and the power present within this incredibly sacred part of your body,

And as you breathe in,

You begin pulling the rose petals up the center of your body and bringing this energy back into your heart where it originated.

As you do so,

You feel any emotional heaviness,

Resentment,

Sadness,

Powerlessness,

Or negativity you may have surrounding your birth experience begin to soften and slowly dissipate,

Leaving your body,

And letting those emotions go,

And trusting the divine to compost them back into the matter of the universe.

You notice yourself feeling so relaxed and free,

So much lighter,

And noticing again the soft breeze against your skin.

It's time now to get ready to leave this place,

But know that you are welcome to return here anytime you desire.

You begin to slowly initiate your gentle return,

And noticing the sounds in your surrounding area.

Taking a deep breath,

Feeling your lungs,

Feeling your body,

Feeling your breath,

And gently begin to move your hands and your feet.

Maybe you'd like to stretch your arms up over your head,

Or move your tongue from side to side in your mouth.

Slowly awakening the body to what feels good.

Draw your knees into your chest,

And giving a tight squeeze,

Rocking gently from side to side,

Rolling slowly onto one side,

Your head cradled gently upon your forearm,

And taking your time,

And whenever you are ready,

Slowly coming up,

Slowly,

Slowly,

To a seated position.

Thank you for bringing yourself here today.

This healing practice of yoga nidra is now complete.