Yoga Nidra: Preparing For Lucid Dreaming

This yoga nidra practice, complete with a gradual body scan, is especially geared towards preparing for lucid dreaming and lucid dreamless sleep by setting the appropriate intentions over the course of gradual relaxation. The practice itself is not a promise of lucid dreams, but a process of gradual strengthening of respective mental habits. Even if you don't have a lucid dream on a given night, it is advisable to record your dreams in a dream diary and continue sowing the seeds again and again.

Transcript

This nidra practice is designed to assist with relaxation and strengthen certain propensities for relaxed sleep,

Lucid dreaming,

And even lucid dreamless sleep that will sometimes allow us to transform our sleep time into a practice of meditation.

The practice doesn't imply that we will have lucid dreams every time or that we will experience them anytime soon.

Instead,

It is helping us build new habits that will eventually allow us to have greater awareness of our experiences both in dreams and in waking state.

To begin the actual practice,

Take a comfortable stationary position.

Since this is a nidra practice for preparing to sleep and gradually building a propensity towards lucid dreaming,

Your stationary position would probably be closer to the supine posture or any other position your body is comfortable lying in.

Take a few moments to just quietly settle into this position and release all other concerns.

Before moving into the main body of the practice,

Generate a positive motivation.

First,

Think of your highest spiritual aspirations,

Be that full awakening,

Full liberation,

Full transformation,

Complete healing,

Or something else.

Expand these aspirations to include the benefit of all beings and the healing of the world.

Now also think of the immediate goals such as improving your sleep,

Working on your resilience,

Or building the habit of relaxation.

Direct your practice to both the far-reaching and the immediate goals with love and compassion for yourself and others.

With this motivation as a basis,

We're gently bringing our awareness to our body.

The body is already relatively still,

But at the same time it is a field of moving energy and changing sensations.

We're taking a few moments to become aware of that,

All the changing sensations and the very presence of these somatic experiences.

Within this field,

Some experiences have to do with the element of earth,

Stability,

Stillness,

Reliability.

We are noticing these with loving attention as we relax and drop into this stability,

Resting in this awareness.

From this stability,

We move into becoming aware of the stillness of the body.

Despite all the movement,

Such as the movements of the breath,

There is a natural stillness that never leaves,

Never ceases.

Even when we are actively moving in any way,

There is also a level of stillness.

We're taking a moment to connect to just that,

The background level for all the energies and all the movements of the body,

The stillness.

It is from this stillness that we switch into a gentle body scan.

Moving through the parts of our body with caring attention,

We bring interest and loving presence.

No body part is fixed,

Static,

Or inherently existent,

And yet they do conventionally exist and perform conventional functions that help us continue our existence.

With gratitude and joy,

We attend to our right foot.

Our right ankle.

Our right knee.

Our right thigh.

Our right hip.

Then our left foot.

Our left ankle.

Our left knee.

Our left thigh.

Our left hip.

Our pelvic floor.

And then expanding our awareness throughout our abdomen.

Bringing it to our lower back.

Becoming aware of the navel area.

Expanding the awareness throughout our chest.

Our right shoulder.

Our right arm.

Our right arm.

Our right elbow.

Our right forearm.

Our right forearm.

Our right arm.

Our right hand.

And then with the same level of gratitude,

Caring,

And affection,

Switching our attention to our left shoulder.

Moving down to our left arm.

Our left elbow.

Our left forearm.

And our left hand.

Then coming back to our chest and the area around our heart,

Bringing the affectionate awareness there.

Then becoming aware of our upper back.

Then both of our shoulders.

The back of our neck.

Our throat.

The back of our head.

Our crown.

Our face.

Our eyebrows.

Our eyes.

The nose.

The tongue.

And the jaws.

And then expanding our attention to our entire body,

Noticing its sensations.

Allowing the body to breathe naturally,

Without any control from our side.

The body doesn't need our control.

So we are allowing it to choose the optimal speed and depth of each in-breath and out-breath.

Allowing it to find its own rhythm and heal itself,

Soothe itself gradually.

Simply breathing.

And now we will also use a little bit of imagination,

Seeing our body as surrounded by a cloud of soothing gentle light.

The color of that light is totally up to us,

Whatever feels comforting,

Safe and pleasant right now.

Seeing or feeling that light,

We experience being protected from any interferences,

Any obstacles to our peace and comfort.

In order to develop our capacity for lucid dreaming and dream yoga,

We now gently bring our awareness to the level of our throat.

First,

There is an awareness of the physical sensations here.

Then,

Using our imagination,

We can also imagine a radiant orb of red light in this area,

Inside of our body.

This red light,

This orb of light,

Is a symbol of lucidity.

With that as a symbol,

We will generate a new intention,

An aspiration towards lucidity or lucid dreaming.

It is important to generate this aspiration again and again,

And at the same time stay relaxed,

Deeply resting.

There is no hurry.

We can do it very gently.

And the intention that we're generating is this.

I will recognize my dreams as dreams.

I will recognize my dreams as dreams.

Let go of the intention for a while.

Without repeating it,

Allow this aspiration to pervade your entire body and your mind,

Settling deeply.

And now we will generate this aspiration three times more.

I will recognize my dreams as dreams.

Now relax.

Simply rest in awareness.

Abide lucidly.

Deeper yet than our dreams is our dreamless sleep,

Which still has some awareness in it and holds even greater promise for mental transformation,

If we manage to harness its energy.

To build new habits around dreamless sleep,

We gently bring our awareness to the level of our heart,

The center of the chest,

And imagine an orb of blue light in the center of the chest.

An orb of blue light as a symbol of our lucidity and dreamless sleep.

And here we also generate a very gentle intention for the future.

There will be awareness in the sleeping state.

Now simply let go.

All of these seeds of lucidity will bear fruit in due time,

And what's important right now is to enjoy a rest.

So we gently bring our awareness to our breathing process,

And notice how the sensations associated with the breath spread throughout the body like waves.

These waves of breathing are gently rocking us to sleep.

We are surrounded by comforting,

Protecting energy,

And we are relaxing deeper and deeper with these waves of breathing,

Back and forth,

Deeper and deeper,

With each in-breath and out-breath.

So we are relaxing deeply and deeply with these waves of breathing,

Back and forth,

Deep and deep,

With each in-breath and out-breath.

Sinking deeper into profound relaxation,

And yet being very gently aware,

Not losing the awareness entirely.

So we are relaxing deeply and deeply with each wave of breathing,

Back and forth,

Deep and deep,

With each in-breath and out-breath.

Trusting our awareness and our breath allowing our awareness and our breath to take care of us dropping deep and completely relaxing as we sleep Dr.

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Reviews

Always fall asleep! Listened to it a few times and I've not heard the end yet
😴😊🙏🏼

A powerful meditation. With much thanks and gratitude to you Michael.

It’s hard to find the rigt voice and soothing meditation for sleep. This a good one.

This is a way to practice effectively intentional lucid dreaming. Very effective if practice continues over time.

I found this deeply relaxing and transcendent and I loved the pace of it as well. thank you!

I enjoyed the different, slower pace of this nidra. And clear focus on being aware. I did it first thing in the morning and since there is a bell at the end, it probably won’t be a good choice for me at bedtime because I fall asleep quickly but I’m easily woken up, and then it’s hard to get back to sleep. I will do this again and see how it goes.

Lovely to return to❣️🕉❤️
Thank you so kindly🌟🌙
Namaste 🙏🏼✨️🌜🌚⭐️

The style of this Nidra is a bit different than I’m used to, much slower, and it actually woke me up after I fell asleep once, BUT I almost had a lucid dream! I felt it almost happening, like I remember considering making a change to a dream but not seeing the outcome of the change, I’ll keep working at it. Thank you!

Can honestly say that when I wake up in the morning after listening to youŕr nidra that I am fresher, more positive and awake to new possibilities!

Thank you so much. Your voice, pace, words were all extremely calming.

Was wonderful. The pauses relaxed me and gave me a moment to reflect. I slept wonderfully

🙏🏻🤍🙏🏻

💤

Wow. I love the method and pace of this meditation.

Fell asleep during body scan. It was really nice. I had a dream but as soon as I grabbed my phone to log it... I forgot. Which is fine. The mains goal I had was to fall asleep. I love the body scan. I think I made it to my left shoulder. Lol I remember doing the right. After, that I don’t remember anymore of the section. Very nice!

Very informative gives context & soothes the soul 🌟🙏🏻

Very relaxing...

I had some good dreams and wrote about them

Using this daily is improving sleep and waking presence! Thank you!

Thank you very much. It is a beautiful practice 🍃🙏🏽🍃