Dreamy Yoga Nidra For Cultivating Inner Refuge

Allow yourself to be guided into a space of deep rest and healing with this gentle Yoga Nidra practice. In this practice, we journey through body awareness, breath, and soft Inner Refuge visualization.

This session is designed to support your nervous system, ease anxious thoughts, and reconnect you with a deep well of peace within you.
No experience needed - simply find a cosy space, lie down, and allow yourself to be guided.
Your rest is sacred. Thank you for being here.

Transcript

Hey,

This is Greta.

Welcome to your Yoga Nidra session.

Today's theme,

As suggested by my dear friend,

Is going to be imagination and play.

As imagination and visualization is the language of our subconscious mind,

In the deep states of relaxation and slowest brainwave states,

We come into our subconscious,

Sometimes called as unconscious.

Which is not actually true.

This part of our being is always active,

Always here and always listening.

It is communicating to us in a language of sensation,

Starting with the very subtle ones,

Ending to the gross ones.

We all can learn how to listen to the deepest layers of ourselves by practicing patience and attentiveness.

During this Yoga Nidra practice,

We will slowly and gently move deeper into our subconscious minds by slowing down the brainwaves and coming into a deeper,

Slower brainwave state.

In this state,

We are able to place,

Or in Today,

We will be exploring Ashraya,

Our inner refuge,

A real or imagined space where we can feel totally safe,

Relaxed and at ease.

We will begin by getting ourselves comfortable,

Laying down in Shavasan or any other shape that is accessible for your body today.

Getting yourself really comfortable,

Making sure there will be no distractions,

Plugging in your earphones,

Maybe using an eye covering to welcome that inner soothing darkness.

When you are ready,

Closing down through the eyes,

Begin to turn your attention inwards,

Inside of your body.

First of all,

Notice the darkness behind your eyes.

Notice your body,

How it is laying on the surface.

And we will start by taking a deep breath in through the nose and a deep sigh out through the mouth.

The next breath in will be a physiological sigh.

So first of all,

Inhaling.

And another one,

Mini inhale,

Filling the lungs all the way up and exhaling through the mouth.

And then coming back to your normal breath,

Notice how you are breathing and begin to welcome sensation in the body,

Just roughly scanning your head and allowing willfully any tension to release,

Maybe the jaw,

The brows,

The ears,

Sensing your arms and hands,

Allowing them to release towards the ground,

Uncurling your fingers,

Sensing the whole torso and the legs and noticing the whole body loosening up,

Melting into the support.

If you are working with any tension,

You can call it in and repeat it for a few times silently in your mind.

If you are not working with any tension or sankalpa,

You can consider using I am free to be whoever I choose.

I welcome playfulness into my life.

I am relaxed,

At ease,

My imagination is free.

Now,

Allowing your awareness to travel through the body as I name the body parts,

Just feel those body parts,

Notice sensation there and allow your consciousness to flow like a river inside of the mouth,

Teeth and gums,

Lips,

Cheekbones,

Nose,

Left eye,

Right eye,

Both of the eyebrows,

The middle of the forehead,

The hairline,

Scalp,

Both of the ears,

Back of the head,

Back of the neck,

Shoulder blades,

Upper back,

Mid back,

Low back,

Hips,

Backs of the legs,

Backs of the thighs,

Calf muscles,

Heels,

Sole of the right foot and sole of the left foot,

All of the toes,

Tops of the feet,

Ankles,

Shins,

Knees,

Front thighs,

Front of the hips,

Low belly,

Belly button,

Solar plexus,

Hips,

Hips,

Middle of the chest,

Collarbones,

All the ten tips of the fingers,

Palms,

Wrists,

Lower arms,

Elbows,

Upper arms,

Shoulders,

Front of the neck,

The whole face and head,

Both of the arms,

The torso,

Front and back,

Hips and legs,

The whole front side of the body,

With every inhalation the front side of the body is expanding,

With exhalation contracting,

With exhalation contracting,

Just imagine how the whole front body expands like a balloon with an inhale,

Just natural breath,

Inhaling expanding the balloon,

Exhaling balloon shrinks,

You can imagine the color,

Your favorite color or anything that pops up,

Body expanding,

Taking up space,

Exhaling,

Body contracting,

Becoming smaller,

Now placing your awareness on the back side of the body,

Noticing sensation,

Maybe there's not that much space to expand,

And here you can imagine that with an inhale,

You're filling your body with water,

Exhaling,

Releasing,

Becoming like a puddle,

Inhaling taking up form and shape,

Exhaling releasing the shape,

Becoming shapeless,

Formless,

Just imagine keeping your breath natural,

No need to alter the breath,

Just imagine,

Imagine your body shape-shifting,

With inhale form,

With exhale formless,

With a few more natural breaths,

Now imagine breathing into the whole body,

Filling the whole body up and exhaling,

Releasing everything,

The whole body becoming weightless,

Floating,

Imagine your body as light as a feather,

With the next inhale imagine your body sinking,

Like a stone on a rock,

Heavy sinking into the ground,

Heavy,

Just imagine,

With the next inhale welcome both of the opposing sensations,

Both lightness,

Weightlessness and heaviness,

How does that feel in your body to welcome both?

Sending your awareness to the middle of the eyebrow and welcoming here imagination,

This can be a real place,

A totally imagined place,

Start to imagine your safe space,

Maybe it's a cozy room,

A place in nature,

Maybe close to a body of water,

Start imagining the sights around you,

Maybe trees,

Plants,

Wildlife or if it's indoors,

Walls,

The windows,

The floor,

You're free to welcome anything in,

This is your inner refuge,

You are the creator,

Welcoming any sounds,

Sounds of birds or favourite music,

Any smells and tastes,

Just imagine the touch,

Maybe touch of favourite fabrics,

Touch of the soil beneath you or the floor,

Touch of air,

Maybe warm and gentle,

Just try to invite as many details as you can,

Just invite all of your favourite things,

Maybe you are alone there or you can also invite your pets or beloved ones,

Inviting sensation created by this visualisation,

Maybe a sensation of safety,

Gratitude,

Love,

Compassion,

Any warm,

Tingly sensation,

Noticing the places in the body where you can feel those sensations and when you're ready,

Slowly dropping the visualisation and just staying with the sensation,

Just noticing sensation in the body,

Your safe haven,

Notice the sensation that you have created,

Just stay with that,

Observe,

Allowing your awareness to open up,

Wide and bliss,

Enjoying the silence for a few moments and welcome back your intention or sankalpa,

Feel it resonating through that spaciousness inside of your awareness,

Aware of that spaciousness,

Your sankalpa resonating,

Slowly noticing the breath,

Welcoming back sensation in the body,

Notice the shape of your body,

The outline,

Imagine your surroundings,

Notice how you are being right now,

Notice what might have shifted,

What you cultivated during this time,

This time of soft rest,

And turning back inward,

Then gently start to move your fingers and toes,

Maybe rotating wrists and ankles,

Your head from side to side,

Maybe interlocking the fingers up above the head,

Giving yourself a stretch,

Hugging the knees into the chest,

Hugging yourself into a little cozy ball,

You can roll on from side to side,

And then finally rolling on onto one side,

Still noticing how you feel,

Giving yourself that time to come back into the doing state,

And remember that the more you come back to your inner refuge,

Creating your inner refuge,

The more powerful it can get,

You can even call it in into your waking life,

If you are having any troubling emotions,

Sensations,

Emotions have a tendency to come and go,

But if you have a really strong one,

So having a deep connection with your inner refuge and calling that in in the moment of struggle,

It has the power to soften that strong emotion,

To kind of come back into the neutral state,

So with practice and with strengthening the inner refuge or ashraya,

It can become a really beautiful tool for day-to-day life.

Thank you for coming here,

For choosing this yoga nidra,

For choosing this time for rest,

If you found it useful and enjoyable,

Please you can share and subscribe,

Thank you so much and see you later.

Reviews

Nice way to go to sleep. I'm glad that this meditation found me last night. I have problems getting to sleep, but this meditation helped me relax and sleep. I don't remember hearing the end of this meditation. Thank you very much. Have a great day 🙏❤️🙂

It’s was so lovely to reconnect with my inner refuge. Thank you so much for this beautiful guidance. Also, the music was amazing! 💚