Cherry Blossom Yoga Nidra

Welcoming in the Cherry Blossoms with a chakra jewel visual, ebb/flow breath, and dark moon/full moon opposites in a live recorded Yoga Nidra practice from the regular Monday Yoga Nidra with Brenda here on Insight Timer each week. Deeply restful, nourishing, and healing.

Transcript

Beginning to settle down.

Beginning to settle down now into a little comfortable nest that you've made for yourself,

Lying on your back,

On your side,

You can be on the floor,

You could be in your bed,

Make sure you're warm,

Eyes can be open or closed.

So settling down into that security,

That stability of the earth,

Knowing that earth is underneath you.

Almost as well as if the earth is coming up to cradle you a little bit more.

So snuggle down even more.

And when you get to a comfortable position,

Maybe even ask yourself,

Is there anything that you could do to make yourself 5% more comfortable?

How would that be?

To become 5% more comfortable than you already are?

And welcome yourself to this practice of yoga nidra.

Know that every part of you is welcome.

And you are welcome just as you are,

However you show up.

All of you is welcome.

Can you become aware of the weight of the body being supported on the ground or in the bed?

Take a nice long,

Slow,

Full deep breath in.

And as you breathe out,

Settle down a little bit more.

Perhaps doing that two more times.

Each time you breathe out,

Even making that universal sound of rest.

Settling down even more.

And it's at this time that the earth in the northern hemisphere is beginning to warm up.

And if you're listening in the southern hemisphere,

It's beginning to cool down.

But that whole time,

The earth is still supporting us.

Noticing the form that the body is taking on the earth,

Where you might feel parts of the body heavier.

Is it the head,

The heels of the feet,

Or the arms and hands,

The pelvis.

And then turning the attention to the breath.

Begin to watch the body breathing itself.

This movement could be the chest or the belly or boat,

Or perhaps a whisper of air in and out through the nostrils.

The breath settling down even more.

And if you like,

Imagining that ebb and flow of the breath,

That gentle waves lapping up the shore.

And the inhale is almost like that growing tide at springtime.

As you're breathing in a little bit of growth or swell in the tide.

And then as you're breathing out the resting tide,

Autumn time.

As you breathe in,

It's the growing tide.

And as you breathe out,

That gentle,

Still resting tide.

Sticking with the ebb and flow of your breath for a few more moments if that is comfortable for you.

Now this tide of our breath allows us to relax and settle down even more if you like,

Bringing to mind your Sam Kalpa,

Your intention,

Your positive statement and affirmation,

Something that you say to yourself in the present tense.

A positive word or image can work as well.

And repeat it mentally three times.

The Sam Kalpa Nidra is the form of awareness.

And we take this form of awareness on a little map around the body.

So each time that a part of the body is named out,

If you like today,

You can sense,

Feel or imagine a little cherry blossom landing on this area or even coming into blossoming,

Opening out on each part as it is named.

These lovely pink or white delicate petals opening up each time a part of the body is named.

And if we began and begin with the right hand thumb,

So as you let all your focus and your attention come to the right hand thumb,

Perhaps a cherry blossom appears here and then onto the index finger and then the middle finger and then the fourth finger and then the little finger and then all the fingers on the right hand have these beautiful pink cherry blossoms on them.

And then one appears on the back of the hand,

The palm of the hand and then the wrist,

The elbow,

The shoulder,

The armpit,

Right side of the chest,

Right side of the waist,

The right hip,

The right thigh,

Knee,

Ankle,

Top of the foot,

Sole of the foot,

Instep of the right foot and then the right big toe,

Second toe,

Third toe,

Fourth toe and fifth toe.

The whole right side of the body with all these blossoms floating away on it.

And then let the focus,

The attention come over to the left hand thumb and a blossom appears here and then the index finger,

The middle finger,

The fourth finger,

The little finger,

The back of the hand,

The palm of the hand,

The wrist,

Elbow,

Shoulder,

Left side of the chest,

Left side of the waist,

The hip,

Thigh,

Knee,

Ankle,

Top of the left foot,

Sole of the foot,

Instep of the foot,

The left big toe,

Second toe,

Third toe,

Fourth toe and then the fifth toe.

And then the whole left side of the body has these beautiful dancing cherry blossoms.

And then how would it be to let the focus,

The awareness come to both heels,

Noticing both heels,

Backs of the knees,

Back of the pelvis,

All the way up the spine,

Right shoulder blade,

Left shoulder blade,

Back of the head and then up to the crown of the head,

To the crown of the head.

And at the crown of the head is a sparkling red ruby jewel.

And then it turns pink.

And then it turns a crystal clear diamond colour.

And it's shining with spirit,

It's connecting you to the heavens.

Then let the awareness come down to the space in between the eyebrows.

And if you like,

An amethyst jewel is here.

And it's glowing.

And it's awakening your intuition,

Allowing you to see deeper.

And then we bring the focus down to the throat.

And here a lovely bright sapphire blue jewel sits.

And it's shining with the truth.

It allows expression,

Allows you to be creative,

Discover your creativity.

And then the awareness moves,

We drop down into the space in the centre of the chest,

The heart centre,

And a beautiful emerald green jewel rests here.

And it's glowing.

And it's full of loving and forgiveness and kindness and empathy.

Then our awareness moves down to the solar plexus above the belly button.

And a beautiful amber yellow jewel sits here radiating confidence and inner strength and courage.

And then past the belly button,

A beautiful orange carnelian jewel begins to light up here.

And it lights up your senses,

Your creativity,

And your ability to feel.

And then finally,

Down behind the pubic bones down at the end of the spine,

Another sparkling red ruby jewel.

And this red ruby jewel is stabilising,

It's protective,

It's grounding.

So we have all these beautiful jewels working down through the chakras.

And at the same time,

The whole body,

The whole body resembling a beautiful cherry blossom tree.

And these delicate pink and white flowers dancing almost as if they're sparkling as well throughout the whole body.

The whole body now is resting.

The whole body is resting deeply,

Supported by the earth.

And if you were to let the attention then turn once again to the breath,

Begin to notice the inhale and the exhale.

And if you like the next time as you're breathing in,

Breathing in two,

Three,

Four,

Breathing out two,

Three,

Four,

Breathing in two,

Three,

Four,

Five,

Breathing out two,

Three,

Four,

Five,

Breathing in two,

Three,

Four,

Five,

Breathing out two,

Three,

Four,

Five,

Continuing with this breath and count and choose a comfortable count if the one that I've given you does not feel right.

But continue with your count for a few more rounds.

Letting go of that count wherever you are.

And bring to mind on this night of a new moon,

The dark velvet sky,

Very little light,

A fragile,

Faint outline of the dark moon.

There might even be a tiny,

Tiny little sliver to the right of the moon as the new moon begins to show itself.

But otherwise,

It's invisible in the sky.

And it's peaceful.

And then if you like bring to mind a full moon in this sky and this silvery,

Bright,

Wondrously bright,

Grey,

Silvery light coming from this moon and it's exceptionally bright.

And even in the nighttime sky,

Everything has this beautiful glow,

This glorious glow from the silver light of the moon.

And that's calm.

It's beautiful.

And let the attention again,

Come back to that new moon,

The darkness,

Stillness,

Velvet sky,

Invisible.

And then awareness to the full moon,

That bright,

Energetic,

You can almost feel the energy building up from the full moon,

The brightness,

The whole sky filling up with this light.

All the shadows that are cast around everything from this bright light from the full moon.

And then if you like going back again,

Go from one to the other,

Go from the darkness of the new moon,

To the fullness and brightness of that full moon in all its glory.

And then how would it be to hold in your awareness,

Both of those experiences of the new moon and the full moon,

Both at the same time,

How would that be?

How would that be?

Reminding yourself now that all of you is welcome.

However you are,

It is welcome.

To let your attention to come to the Chitrakash,

The place behind,

Almost like a screen behind the third eye.

Letting the attention rest here.

If there is any inner wisdom or guidance to come forward,

We allow this space for that to happen or maybe it's to allow for an even deeper rest to arrive.

And we leave a little bit of silence for a few moments.

I'll mind the time.

Okay.

Gently begin to welcome yourself back.

If you're using this practice of yoga nidra to help you with continuing with your sleep for the evening,

Gently roll over onto a different side,

Settle down again.

We need to use the time to bring yourself back to waking life.

Begin to welcome in a little bit of movement into fingers and toes as we draw this practice of yoga nidra to its completion.

There's a little stretch that needs to be made.

Giving a little stretch,

This practice of yoga nidra is now complete.

Welcome in any sounds that you might hear around you.

This practice of yoga nidra is now complete.

And in your own time come to roll onto whatever side and take a breath or two there in that little twilight zone.

This practice of yoga nidra is now complete.