When you're ready to start,
Find your way onto your back.
Let your legs relax naturally.
With your heels a comfortable distance apart.
If your lower back asks for support,
Just place something beneath your knees to help your lower back feel less strained.
You deserve to be warm and comfortable,
So find any last blankets,
Pillows,
Or props that you want to have.
Once you settle in,
Your only job is to stay and we'll do the rest together.
Allow your eyes to close.
And allow them to remain closed until I invite you to open them again.
What we're moving towards is called yoga nidra or yogic sleep.
You may be heading to the place between wakefulness and dreaming,
That luminous space between where your nervous system gets to relax.
You don't have to make anything happen for this yoga nidra practice to work.
You just have to listen to my voice and allow the practice to do its magic.
If your mind runs off.
Which it naturally will.
No problem.
Just come back to the sound of my voice.
Anytime you need to,
Just come back to the sound of my voice.
Start by simply listening now.
No need to reach for sounds or identify them.
But let the soundscape around you arrive.
Find the furthest sound you can detect without straining.
Maybe it's the sound of the wind moving across the landscape.
Maybe it's something you can't name at all.
Let your awareness travel outwards to meet this distant sound to stay for a moment.
And then to let it go.
Slowly draw your attention back towards closer sounds now.
The sounds of the building around you.
The sounds inside the room.
The breathing of the space surrounding your body.
Without opening your eyes,
Imagine your location.
The ceiling or space above you.
The floor beneath your body.
The walls or space surrounding you.
And visualize your body resting on the floor.
The weight of it.
The length of it.
The shape you are resting in here.
Your clothes.
Your hair.
The slight rise and fall of your chest as you breathe naturally.
Your full existence,
Here,
At rest,
Enough.
When you're ready,
Turn your attention to your breath.
Not to change it,
Just to witness it.
Witness the breath that moves in and out of you without you having to ask.
The breath has been doing this your entire life.
In wakefulness and in sleep.
Notice the slight coolness as the breath enters your nostrils.
Follow this coolness inside.
Into the sinuses,
Down the back of the throat.
All the way down into the lungs.
Notice the warmth of the exhalation.
Feel this warmth on your upper lip as the breath leaves.
Now let your breath lengthen.
Without forcing,
Just allowing more space.
A slow inhale.
And even slower exhale.
At the bottom of the exhale,
Find a pause,
A still point where the body is neither breathing in nor out.
Continue breathing like this for a few cycles.
Slow inhale.
Even slower exhale.
And pause between the cycles.
Now release any breath control.
Let it return to its own rhythm.
Let the breath return to its natural movement without any control or manipulation.
Your work with the breath is complete.
The practice of Yoga Nidra begins now.
So call to mind your Sanculpa.
Your resolve or intention.
For this practice.
Your Sankalpa could be the truest sentence you could possibly say about who you are becoming.
Allow it to be short,
Positive,
Present,
As though it is already true.
When you have your Sankalpa.
Plant it in the fertile soil of your relaxed mind.
By repeating it internally three times to yourself.
Three times with clarity and total belief.
Then say to yourself,
I am practicing Yoga Nidra.
I am awake and I am at rest.
Will now move awareness systematically through the body.
As I mention each part,
Bring your attention there immediately.
Just feeling,
Without moving or speaking.
And release the attention to the next body part as soon as I name the next.
We begin on the right side.
Notice your right hand thumb.
And left hand thumb.
Right hand,
Second finger.
Left hand,
Second finger.
Right third finger.
Left 3rd finger.
Right fourth finger.
Left fourth finger.
Right fifth finger.
And left fifth and pinky finger.
Feel the right palm.
Left palm.
Back of the right hand.
Back of the left hand.
Your right wrist.
Left wrist.
Right forearm.
Left forearm.
Right elbow.
Left elbow.
Right upper arm.
Left upper arm.
Right shoulder.
Left shoulder.
Right armpit.
Left armpit.
Right collarbone.
Left collarbone.
Right side of the chest.
The left side of the chest.
Right waste.
Left waist.
Right hip.
Left hip.
Your right thigh.
Left thigh.
Right knee.
Left knee.
Right calf.
Left calf.
Right ankle.
Left ankle.
Right heel.
Left heel.
Sole of the right foot.
And sole of the left foot.
The right big toe.
Left big toe.
Right second toe.
Left second toe.
Right third toe.
Left third toe.
Right fourth toe.
Left fourth toe.
And right fifth toe.
And left fifth toe.
Now shift your awareness to the back of your relaxed body.
Feel your right shoulder blade.
Left shoulder blade.
The space between the shoulder blades.
The upper back.
Middle back.
Lower back.
Feel the entire spine,
From tailbone to skull.
You're right,
Buttock.
And left buttocks.
Top of the head.
Center of the forehead.
Your right temple.
And left temple.
Right ear.
Left ear.
Right eyebrow.
Left eyebrow.
The space between the eyebrows.
You're right,
I.
.
.
And left eye.
Right nostril.
Left nostril right cheek.
Left cheek.
Upper lip.
And lower lips.
Both lips together.
Chin.
Jaw.
The front of the neck.
The upper chest.
Navel.
Low belly.
Right groin and left groin.
The pelvic floor.
The whole right arm.
And whole left arm.
The whole right leg.
And whole left leg.
The whole face.
The whole head.
The whole torso.
The whole body.
The whole body.
The whole body.
Let the body become heavy.
Every part of you sinking.
The heel's heavy.
The leg's heavy.
The hips,
Belly,
Chest,
Arms,
And head heavy.
Every cell pressed gently,
Completely into the earth beneath you.
Feel the body solid as red sandstone You are held.
You are heavy.
Now let the body become light.
So light it could lift from the floor.
The fingertips first.
Then the hands,
Then the arms begin to feel weightless.
Imagine the legs,
The torso,
The head,
All drifting upwards,
Off the ground,
Your whole body rising like heat off of a rock.
You weigh nothing at all.
You are only light.
Next,
Bring the sensation of calm into the body.
Let this calm move through you.
Like the moment a desert storm passes.
Feel the air surrounding you become still.
Feel the creatures around you release a collective slow exhale.
Feel any anxiety receding like water evaporating into the air.
The mind quieting.
The body held.
You are completely,
Entirely calm.
Bring your attention to the dark space behind your closed eyelids.
Imagine the space expanding.
Opening like the desert sky This is your screen,
Your inner sky.
Simply watch it without trying to see anything.
Let whatever arises,
Colors,
Shapes,
Lights,
Move across it without any attachment.
No need to direct,
Only witness.
If thoughts come in,
Let them drift through the sky like high,
Thin clouds.
Return to the sky.
I will start to name different images in succession.
Without thinking.
Simply feel and visualize each one,
Then let it go as soon as the next image arrives.
The Milky Way arching across the completely dark sky.
Nothing between you and the stars.
A saguaro cactus casting its shadow,
Long and strange,
Across the ground.
A doorway made of light.
Opening onto somewhere you've never been.
Yet still recognized.
The smell of trees after rain.
The deepest canyon.
An ancestor standing at the edge of your vision,
Offering something with open hands A hawk riding a thermal,
Spiraling higher and higher and gone.
The feeling of water across the backs of your hands.
A room full of people breathing together,
The light filtering through the pine trees right after sunrise.
A seed cracking open underground and beginning to sprout.
Your own face,
Younger,
Looking back at you with complete trust… A fire at the center of a circle.
Sparks lifting towards the stars.
The moment before you say yes to something that changes everything.
The full moon rising.
Your body.
This precious body as something sacred.
The sound of my voice.
Your body here on the floor.
At rest.
Bring your sankalpa back.
The same words you planted at the beginning of the practice.
Please say them again now,
Three times internally.
From this deep and open place.
The rested mind receives the Sankalpa completely.
Come back to your breath.
Natural,
Easy,
Continuous.
Feel the weight of your body on the floor again.
Feel the points of your body in contact with the support beneath you.
Heels,
Calves,
Backs of the thighs.
The sacrum,
Shoulder blades.
Arms.
Back of the skull.
The earth holding all of it.
Feel the boundary of your skin.
Your clothes.
The temperature of the air around you.
Without opening your eyes,
Sense the space and the people around you.
Where you are in the space.
Anyone else breathing nearby?
When you're ready,
Move slowly.
Beginning with the fingers and toes.
Let sensation and movement return in their own time.
There is nowhere else to be.
When you feel fully present,
Allow your eyes to open softly.
And try rolling to your right side and resting there for a few breaths.
Use your hands to press yourself up gently.
Letting your head come back to upright last.
Take one full deep breath in through the nose Let it go through the mouth.
The practice of Yoga Nidra is complete.
Thank you and welcome back.
