Hello,
I'm Kathy French and welcome to this seasonal yoga nidra practice to harmonize your energy body to the rhythms of the Celtic wheel of the year.
Take a moment to make yourself really cozy and comfortable and to gather all the things you need for this practice.
Before you resume the position of shavasana,
Pull a blanket up over your shoulders,
Maybe put a thin pillow underneath your head and something to cover your eyes,
Anything at all,
Even a sleeve or a sock,
Especially if your space is particularly bright today.
And then as you settle into a lying down position,
Allow your limbs to become heavy and gradually still,
And shed a layer of tension and soften with each exhale.
The Celtic wheel is a natural and accessible map of the human condition.
It attunes us holistically to a deeper awareness of the generational wisdom that precedes us.
And it also positions us in our belonging to the ebb and flow of the natural seasons and cycles of earth.
Our earth-loving Celtic ancestors lived in direct communion with earth and sky,
Animals and herbs,
And water and weather.
They recognized their humble status as dependent guests in the ecosystem of the planet.
When we are pulled by ancestral longing to live in open-hearted harmony with the wheel,
We allow nature to guide us on our own true path.
We can weave ourselves into a very physical and multidimensional relationship to the land our feet are planted on and to our own ancestry.
The wheel flows through our very being in a reciprocity of listening and responding to the elemental power from below.
The wheel delivers us back to our ancestral wisdom so that we may walk through this journey feeling a little bit more sure-footed in the healthy flow of our life and ignited by love and creativity.
The wheel never stops turning,
But for these precious moments you can allow yourself to pause in the fragile drama of your existence and just soak up the creative energies of this exact moment in the year.
So spread your arms away from your body,
Palms facing up,
And you can press your elbows into the floor to gently move your shoulder blades towards one another and down to invite openness and vulnerability across your heart.
As you encourage your tailbone down toward your heels now,
Start to feel into your energetic system as it roots into your own creative origins and to the physical world beneath you.
And then let your feet soften and spread outward,
Allowing your breathing to become more embodied as it grows softer.
Your whole body breathes in,
Your whole body breathes out.
Your body is relaxing for the duration of this practice,
Breath flowing in and around you as you sink and deepen into earth.
In our first language here in Ireland,
Which is Irish or Gaeilge,
When we're asking a person where they live,
We form the question Cá bhfuil tú i dhé conaí?
Which translates directly as,
Where in do you live?
The lyricism of our language recognises that we live not on but in the world.
We're an expression of our place of belonging,
There is no separation between this place and our body.
To belong to a place is to be embedded in it as an outgrowth of earth herself.
Her struggles can cause discord in our own body,
Her harvest is our own wealth.
We're alive because of her,
And fastened to her as she spins,
Nurturing,
Sustaining and claiming us as her own through her gravitational embrace.
So wherever you are,
Be here completely,
Give yourself back to the sacred hands of this part of the planet.
You might like to mentally repeat,
I am,
And your first and second names.
I am here in,
And the name of the place where you lie.
I am alive.
And before you close your eyes for this practice,
Just look up and out from where you lie,
Visualize the landscape that surrounds you outside the building,
Taking in the topography,
The plant and animal life,
The closest source of water to where you lie.
And then as you settle,
Make a ritual of landing here on this sacred grove of land in this specific part of the ball of the planet.
Imagine the sky above your building,
The quality of earth below.
And you can even call in the energies of your own places of sacred significance to where you lie now.
Allow your nervous system to co-regulate with earth beneath your body and feel your frequency come into harmony with that of this land.
And close your eyes now,
And be here where you are,
But even more fully.
Start to extend your exhales by a beat or two.
And imagine the stimuli of your day so far floating in a field above and around your body,
This mass of thoughts and feelings and energy just passing over and through you and the field around you.
And on your next inhale,
Imagine clear,
Clean water washing over you from your feet to the radiant crown of your head.
And when you reach the peak,
Sip in a little bit more breath and hold.
When we exhale,
We'll do so in three parts to let it all pour through your back body as you release the grip of any experience of tension,
Exhale,
Good,
Continuing like that for two more rounds to inhale to capacity,
Washing your energetic field and holding it at the top to drink in a little bit more breath,
Pause and exhale for three.
This last round,
Cleansing with pure,
Clear water as you feel to the brim,
Pull in some more hold at the top.
And when you exhale for three,
Drain the tension out of your back body and let it soak into earth.
And you can let that go now.
Return to a natural breath and circulate your inner landscape through breath awareness.
Track the sensations of settling across your whole back body with your awareness.
And as you arrive to a state of stillness and your voluntary movement comes to a pause,
You can remain aware and awake now for the rest of the practice as your body moves towards the quietude of rest.
And I'm keeping time for us.
So allow yourself to let go and drop into the feeling of timelessness in this container.
Connect to the feeling of plenty of time and all your needs met.
Quieting all seeking to drop deeper as we now begin the practice of yoga nidra.
Descend into the soft sensations of your breath.
Allow your body to become the banks of the river of your experience.
The fluid current of your breath bringing you into an exact and generous relationship with this current moment.
Your heart glows in the center of this clear,
Unobstructed channel of breath and energy flowing along your spine.
And from here,
You can allow your intention to bubble up from the periphery of your awareness.
There are limitless directions with which your mind can move.
Your sankalpa or intention crystallizes your highest truth and focuses your attention.
Sankalpa is a wisdom teaching.
Using the code I am,
Attach an attribute or quality you are longing for to form a vow of truth.
Choose a word that lifts you above the heartbreaking weight of your most limiting belief.
Rather than using your intellect,
Allow this word to arise from your heart.
Feel your sankalpa,
Your I am statement emerge from your heart and consolidate into a word.
Feel I am and your unique word ripple out and absorb through the systems of your body with each exhale.
Observe your breath become quieter and quieter.
And settle deeper into your physical form,
Anamaya Kosha,
Deepening relaxation of the dense matter of your body.
Feeling as supported and open as though you were held in warm water.
Allow for the feeling of unfurling as you would if you were floating in a warm bath.
Land on the seams of your closed eyelids and follow the feeling of warm water softening outward across the sockets,
Your temples,
The surface of your scalp,
Down the nape of your neck,
Your eyeballs,
Teeth and jawbone weighted and sinking downward.
Invite a swallow across the root of your tongue and track the reflex into the soft pit of your throat and further down until your awareness rests in your heart.
Widen your attention to take in the spaciousness around your heart.
Have a direct experience of the sheer expanse of your heart and acknowledge the sensation of its vastness as your body sinks back into the support of warm water.
On either side of your heart your lungs fill and empty with the unbroken stream of your breath wave.
Stay tethered to my guidance as we move on an interceptive journey through your body.
Notice how the clear stream of your breath coupled with your awareness dissolves all blockages as you move through your body.
Bring your undivided attention to the vast space of your heart,
Pit of your throat,
Your right shoulder,
Right elbow,
Wrist,
Center of your palm,
Tip of your right thumb,
Tip of your first finger,
Second finger,
Third finger,
Fourth finger and again your wrist,
Elbow,
Shoulder and throat.
Then the left shoulder,
Left elbow,
Wrist,
Center of your palm,
Tip of your left thumb,
First finger,
Second finger,
Third finger,
Fourth finger.
Again the wrist,
Elbow,
Shoulder,
Throat,
Center of your chest and the vast space of your heart.
The right side of your chest,
Ribs and side waist,
The vast space of your heart,
The left side of your chest,
Ribs and side waist,
The vast space of your heart.
Root of your right hip,
Thigh,
Kneecap,
Shin,
Ankle,
Heel,
Top of your right foot,
Tip of your big toe,
Tip of your second toe,
Tip of your third toe,
Tip of your fourth toe.
The root of the left hip,
Thigh,
Kneecap,
Shin,
Ankle,
Heel,
The top of your left foot,
Tip of your big toe,
Tip of your second toe,
Tip of your third toe,
Tip of your fourth toe.
Right heel and calf,
Left heel and calf,
The backs of both legs,
Your right sit bone,
Left sit bone,
Sacral plate,
The length of your spine.
The vast space at the back of your heart,
Your right shoulder blade,
Left shoulder blade,
Back of your head,
The crown of your head.
Sensing your whole body,
Whole right arm,
Whole left arm,
Whole right leg,
Whole left leg.
Legs and arms merging with your torso,
Face,
Head and neck,
Your whole body at once.
Basking here in total balance and equilibrium,
Resting in this soft and silent space of non-doing.
This wholeness reflected in your frequency as balance is restored to all the systems in your body.
You are whole,
Belonging to the planet like a tree or a rock or a river,
A being of aliveness and nature,
Balanced,
Whole and free.
You sense your outline,
Your body here in stillness.
You feel your wholeness vibrate in harmony with the frequency of earth.
The space inside and outside your body begins to merge into the same space.
You become porous.
Inside your body is the same continuous space as the season outside.
And in this stillness on the river of your breath,
Thoughts,
Emotions and physical sensations move fluidly through you like water over earth.
Follow your breath back down into the root of your body and up and down the length of your spine.
Feel its fluid nature up and down,
Resting here in non-doing awareness and inner silence.
And as you sense the outline of your body softening deeper into the warm current of unified breath and sensation,
Your body exists here as a field of energy.
Settle deeper into awareness of the energy of your whole body at once.
Awareness of the effortless breath connecting you to the space surrounding your body.
Simply observing this breath without interfering.
Witness your body being breathed as though you're watching this breath for the first time.
Noticing every single breath as if it's your first.
Remembering the newness,
The freshness of the life cycle.
Breath sweeping up and down effortlessly through the layers of your body in an undisturbed current.
And from this creative state of wholeness and oneness,
Let your awareness stream into the center of your brows and the space beyond your forehead.
And using relaxed awareness,
Start to explore your sensitivities to the experience of the most dominant sensation in your body.
Scan your body for the biggest,
Loudest sensation that commands the most attention.
Nothing else exists for you except this feeling.
Allow it to be present in your awareness.
As your awareness touches this body part where the sensation exists most prominently.
Without attachment to the sensation itself or the reason for its presence.
Just allowing.
Maybe noticing the sensation increase with your awareness.
Stay present and relaxed as you allow this sensation to occur in your body without any story.
Let that go now.
Drop into the feeling of complete surrender as your breath runs naturally up and down the length of your spine.
Move gently away now to look for a part of your body that's having the opposite experience of the one you chose.
If that's not arising for you,
Then gravitate towards a body part that feels numb or has a lack of sensation altogether.
Use your inhale to amplify this location bigger.
Your breath like a bellows on a fire to add oxygen and aliveness.
Be with the sensation.
Allow it.
Then return to your first sensation,
The dominant one.
Hold it in your awareness.
Feeling your breath converge there.
Then return to its opposite.
Be with it and allow.
Feeling both sensations as they exist in your living body.
See how one implies the other.
You wouldn't recognize one without the other.
Then shift back into center,
Back to equilibrium and an open field of awareness.
Let go more through your back body.
Feel the earthy connection energize you from the inside out.
As your heels sink and soften through earth drawing you down through mud,
Soil,
Sand,
Water.
Your sacral bone heavy and dense.
Descending down from the back of your head,
The weight of your skull.
Gravity cradling your weight.
Your organism vibrates with the creative frequency of this moment of the year.
Your body unfurling like a fern.
Without changing anything,
You become attuned now to how you were affected by this season.
You feel yourself radiate in kaleidoscopic color in the same way the trees send out neon green shoots.
Vibrant and alive,
A version of you is walking along a country lane.
The color green amplifies in neon richness on this sunny day.
Grass bursts out through the center of the narrow lane and there's an abundance of foliage.
Dandelion nettle,
Wild irises surging out of the ditches.
The quality of the expanding light and the feeling of gradual warming of the soil beneath you.
You recognize this place as Ireland.
And the season is the passage of time between spring equinox and the summer solstice.
A sense of cellular familiarity moves through you,
A recognition of this exact place.
You recognize the transcendence of temporal boundaries here.
Timelessness and the liminal is available to you here.
The realm of timelessness is where your ancestors live and where your widest,
Highest,
Deepest self resides.
As you walk down the lane,
You end up in an ancient hillside graveyard.
See lopsided gravestones falling,
Moss growing and faded plastic flowers and trinkets left with love by the families of the ancestors who are buried here.
Abundant nature pushes through the cracked concrete between graves.
Daisies,
Bluebells and gorse bushes smell like coconut.
And at the bottom of the graveyard is a babbling stream with a simple bridge of wooden planks leading to an open field.
A crop of oats is growing in the field and the glow of brilliant green pushes through the rich brown soil in the field.
You walk over and sit on the bridge,
Your feet dangling over the edge,
The stream flowing underneath you,
The green field to your right,
The ancient graveyard to your left.
You bask in the scene,
Absorbing the contrast,
The presence of death and decomposition of remains in the graveyard and the field of brand new crops.
All the while you remain aware of the current of your breath,
Your life flowing through you.
When you sit here in stillness and contentment,
In solitude,
You close your eyes to imprint the beauty of the scene on your memory.
When this version of you blinks your eyes open,
You look over to your right and see a person who you've been really missing recently.
As they walk towards you across the green field,
You smile,
Look them in the eyes and beckon them to sit beside you.
They sit by your side,
Resting with one hand lightly on your back.
And from the graveyard,
A figure walks towards you who you recognize as an ancestor.
Someone sharing your genetic blueprint,
A person you may or may not have met in this lifetime,
But who understands the soul of your family.
And you smile at them as they come into clearer view and you beckon for them to join you on the bridge also.
When the three of you sit here together,
You feel their hands on the back of your heart,
Their presence.
You all smile,
Taking in the beauty around you.
And you are infused with their love.
The love surrounding you is all the unconditional love you've ever received.
When it's time for you to leave,
With great appreciation for your eternal experience together on the bridge,
You look into each other's eyes.
With no sense of absence,
You say goodbye and return to the outline of your body resting here as you are.
Resting in the field of sensation,
Traveling through the harmonious flow of your breath.
Mentally state your sankalpa into the receptive form of your body at rest here.
Tuning to this balance,
The length of your spine to your calm,
Peaceful mind.
Gently return to your breath,
The weight of your bones,
The curves of your spine and your physical form.
You feel the others who have gathered for this practice around a common emotional significance.
Anyone practicing this nidra can bond with the others who have chosen to practice today and celebrate the fact that we endure,
Survive and grow.
Inviting that appreciation for others who are practicing with you.
The shared spiritual energy of your tuha,
Your tribe,
Celtic ancestors.
The practice of yoga nidra is now complete.
Taking a deep breath in,
Bringing yourself into movement.
And I thank you for taking the time for practicing with me today.
When you're ready,
Roll over onto your side and push yourself up to a seat.
Hari Om Tat Sat.
Namaste.
