If you are arriving here tired,
This is exactly right.
Lie down on your back.
If there is a blanket nearby,
Throw it over you,
Maybe a pillow under your head,
Something under your knees,
If that is what the body is asking for.
Take a moment to make any small adjustments until the body feels it can stop negotiating with what holds it.
If something is still pulling at your attention,
A phone that might ring,
A door that might open,
Take care of it now before we begin.
The next 30 minutes belong only to you.
When you are ready,
Close your eyes.
Take one easy breath in and let it go slowly out.
Again,
Breathe in.
And let the exhale be long and soft And one more time,
Breathe in.
And breathe out.
Now let your breath return to its own rhythm.
No need to shape it or count it or improve it.
The body knows how to breathe.
Let it do that.
Feel the places where your body meets the ground,
The back of the head,
The shoulders,
The weight of the arms,
The wide surface of the back,
The hips,
The back of the legs,
The heels.
Feel the ground receiving all of that.
You do not have to hold any of it up anymore.
The floor is doing that now.
Now silently say to yourself,
I am beginning my practice of Yoga Nidra.
And them.
I will stay gently awake and aware.
And if you drift towards sleep at some point,
That is okay.
There is nothing to struggle against.
Just come back when you can.
Now bring to mind your Sankalpa,
A single and simple intention,
Not a list of things,
Not a goal that makes you work harder,
Just one sentence in the present tense that feels quiet and true,
Even if only slightly.
If nothing comes right away,
You may borrow one of these.
I am safe to rest.
I trust myself.
I have enough time.
I am allowed to slow down.
I come back to myself.
Take a moment to find the one that lands.
And then repeat it silently 3 times from the inside.
Now we begin the rotation of awareness through the body.
I will name a body part.
All that is needed is that you bring your attention there,
The lightest possible touch.
You don't need to feel something special,
You don't need to move anything,
Only notice.
And if it helps,
Repeat the name quietly in your mind as you follow.
Bring your attention to the right hand.
Right thumb,
Index finger.
Middle finger.
Ring finger.
Little finger palm of the right hand.
Back of the right hand.
Right wrist.
Right forearm.
Right elbow.
Upper arm.
Right shoulder.
Right armpit.
Right side of the waist.
Right hip.
Right side.
Right knee.
Right calf.
Right ankle.
Right heel.
Sole of the right foot.
Top of the right foot.
Right big toe.
Second tone.
Third toe.
Fourth toe.
Little toe.
Feel the whole right side of the body.
And now left hand,
Left thumb,
Index finger,
Middle finger,
Ring finger,
Little finger,
Palm of the left hand.
Back of the left hand.
Left wrist,
Left forearm.
Left elbow.
Upper arm.
Left shoulder.
Left armpit.
Left side of the waist,
Left hip.
Left thigh.
Left knee.
Left collar.
Left ankle.
Left heel.
Sole of the left foot,
Top of the left foot.
Left big toe.
Second toe.
Third toe.
Fourth toe.
Little toe.
Feel the whole left side of the body.
Now bring awareness to the back of the body.
The back of the head.
The right shoulder blade.
The left shoulder blade.
The whole upper back.
The middle back.
The lower back.
The right buttock.
The left buttock.
The back of the right thigh.
The back of the left thigh.
The back of the right knee.
The back of the left knee.
The right calf.
The left calf.
The right heel.
The left heel.
Feel the whole back of the body resting on the ground.
Now the front of the body,
The crown of the head,
Forehead.
Right eyebrow,
Left eyebrow,
The space between the eyebrows.
Right eye lead.
Left eye lead.
Right eye,
Left eye.
Right cheek.
Left cheek.
Nose.
Upper lip.
Lower lip.
Chin.
Door.
Throat.
Right collarbone,
Left collarbone.
Center of the chest.
Right side of the chest.
Left side of the chest.
Upper belly.
Navel lower belly.
Pelvis.
Feel the whole front of the body.
And now feel the entire body The whole body lying here.
From the crown of the head to the tips of the toes.
The whole body at once.
Begin to feel the whole body becoming heavy.
Heavy in a comfortable way.
The kind of heaviness that comes when something has finally been set down.
The arms are heavy.
The legs are heavy.
The head is heavy.
The whole body is heavy.
As if the floor is gently drawing you down.
Not pulling,
But just holding.
As if the Earth remembers how to receive you.
There is no need to resist any of this.
Now let the heaviness begin to fade.
And notice gently if the opposite is possible,
The body becoming light.
The hand slide.
The arm's length.
The fifth light.
The face light the whole body light.
So light that the edges between you and the air around you feel less certain,
As if you are being held from above as much as from below.
Just lightly held,
Not floating away but simply unweighted.
And now feel the heaviness again.
Solid.
Grounded.
Support.
And now,
Lightness.
So.
Spacious.
Almost weightless.
Now let both go.
You do not need to be heavy or light,
Just rest exactly as you are.
Bring your attention to the natural breath.
Just notice,
No need to change anything.
The breath is moving in through the nose.
Feel the slight coolness of it at the nostrils and moving out the gentle warmth leaving the body.
A small rise somewhere in the chest or the belly.
And soft release on the exhale.
Nothing to count,
Nothing to improve,
The body is simply breathing and you are watching it with curiosity.
And on every exhale notice the body has a little more permission to let go.
Not because you're forcing anything but because the body knows exactly what to do when it feels safe enough.
With each exhale the jaw softens slightly.
The shoulders settle.
The belly releases.
And the space behind the eyes,
That place where so much effort collects,
Softens too.
Feel the outline of your body,
The specific shape of you lying here.
And then slowly notice that this outline is not so important anymore.
You can still feel the body.
But its edges begin to soften.
Their hands feel less separate from the air around them.
And the feet feel less separate from the ground beneath them.
The whole body becomes spacious.
Like a cloud resting in open sky,
Still present but without sharp edges,
Without urgency.
Imagine the body becoming lighter and quieter.
The arms dissolving softly.
The legs.
The face.
Nothing sharp.
Nothing pressing forward.
Just a quality of rest that holds you without requiring anything in return.
You are still here.
You are safe.
Just for a moment,
You don't have to be so precisely defined.
You do not have to hold the shape of the person who has been managing everything.
Just for a little while,
That shape can soften.
And you can simply rest.
Now imagine somewhere ahead of you there is a bath.
Evening,
The air is warm and completely still.
No city sounds,
No notifications,
No voice asking you to be somewhere other than where you are.
Just a narrow path through a quiet field.
Something in you already knows that this path leads somewhere nothing is expected of you.
No performance,
No output,
No right answer,
No decisions to make.
And so you begin to walk slowly The ground is soft beneath your feet.
There is no need to arrive there quickly.
As you walk,
You notice that you are carrying a bag with you.
Maybe you had always forgotten how long you have been carrying it.
Inside of it everything you have been holding lately.
The unfinished work.
The future you are trying to predict.
The conversations you keep replaying.
The quiet feeling that you should be doing more with your time.
The guilt for resting.
The guilt for not resting well enough.
The pressure to somehow become a better version of yourself by tomorrow morning.
Your stop on the path.
And you set the bag down.
You do not have to throw it away.
You do not have to solve what is inside.
Tonight you are simply allowed to put it down.
It will wait for you here,
Safe on this path,
Until you are ready to take it on.
You continue walking and almost immediately the body notices a little more space in the chest,
A little more room in the breath.
A little less weight in the belly.
Your body knew it was there all along.
But now you are free.
Ahead of you a small house.
Warm light in the windows,
Simple walls.
All in the way that all things can feel safe.
You walk towards it.
The door opens before you even reach it.
Inside,
It is quiet.
A fire in the fireplace the soft sound of it.
The warmth reaching toward you before you have fully stepped inside.
A chair by the window,
A thick blanket waiting,
Everything simple,
Everything enough.
And there is someone there.
Maybe someone you've loved.
Maybe someone who has always made you feel like yourself.
Someone whose presence has never required you to explain yourself.
They look at you,
Not with expectation,
But just with loving kindness and they say.
.
.
You can stop now.
You have done enough for today.
You do not have to figure out your whole life tonight.
Let those words land wherever they can.
You don't need to convince your mind tonight.
Just let yourself hear it.
Let another part of you hear it.
The part that is tired.
The part that has been trying very hard.
The part that has been waiting for someone to say,
You can rest now.
You sit beside the fire and slowly the warmth begins to find you.
First the hands,
That particular warmth that softens the knuckles.
Them the arms.
The shoulders,
The center of the chest.
Their belly,
Their hips.
The long muscles over the legs.
The warmth reaches the places that have been tense or overworked or simply forgotten.
You don't need to explain them.
You don't need to make a plan for them.
You just simply let warmth arrive.
In this little house beside this fire,
There is nothing to perform.
You don't need to make this rest useful.
You don't need to deserve it.
Rest is not something you earn only once all the tasks are done.
Rest is just part of being alive.
Now bring your sankalpa back to mind.
Your simple intention,
The one you carried in at the beginning.
Repeat it silently 3 times.
Let it settle like a seed placed into warm soil.
Softly you rise from beside the fire.
The warmth stays with you as you step back out into the evening air.
The path is quiet.
And somewhere along it your back is waiting.
It will be there when you need it.
For now you carry only what the fire gave you.
Now begin to feel the body lying in the room again.
The floor beneath you,
Its steadiness.
The weight of the body meeting it.
The breath moving gently in and out.
Start to notice the sounds around you,
Whatever they are.
The temperature of the air on your skin.
Let the room return to you softly.
Begin to make small movements.
Maybe the fingers first.
Then the toes,
The jaw.
If your body wants to stretch,
Let it do so.
Take a deep breath in.
And letting go.
When you're ready,
Roll slowly onto one side.
Stay there for a moment.
No rush.
And then in your own time come up to sit down.
Keep your eyes closed for one last breath.
And notice how you feel without judging it,
Without grading it.
You came,
You rested.
That's enough.
When you are ready,
Open your eyes.
Thank you for practicing with me.
