Embody Earth Nidra

This is a soothing Nidra practice to connect to Earth and her seasons through your resting body. Sink back and fall open onto the ground of being. You belong here, exactly as you are.

With gratitude to my teachers Jeannie Zandi, Judith Blackstone and Jana Roemer.

Transcript

Hi,

I'm Cathy French and this is a yoga nidra practice to embody the earth.

Slow down and move with intention as you set yourself up.

Support your head if you prefer and ensure warmth and comfort.

Pull a blanket up over your chest and shoulders so that you feel wrapped up and tucked in.

Settle.

Once you feel secure and comfortable,

Sink back and open up.

With your heels hip-width distance,

Allow your feet to fall outward.

Your hands can be resting by your sides,

Palms facing up or elbows slightly bent and hands resting on either side of your belly.

Become aware of your hands now.

Notice their temperature,

Whether they're stiff or relaxed,

Hot or cold.

Now inhabit your hands,

Enter into them.

Presence inside your hands.

And enter into your feet.

Stay in your feet now as you continue to breathe.

A subtle deepening of the breath right down into your feet.

Slow down your exhale.

Stretch its duration by just a beat.

And notice your inhale enriched in response to this deepening,

Intentional breath.

And start to hold a stillness and balance in your mind as you perceive the movement of your breath deeper and deeper into your body.

The practice of Yoganitra begins now.

Lie back and fall open.

Become quiet and grounded in your earth,

Your body.

Notice the season and how this time of year affects you.

As a culture,

We are preoccupied with the spring and summer phases of the life cycle.

We celebrate youth,

Vitality,

Aliveness,

Growth,

Fruiting and flowering.

Our human population has tripled in 60 years.

We've advanced agriculture and construction faster and faster,

Unbridled growth,

Fundamentally altering our home,

Our planet.

We tend to dishonor the inward movement of life energy that slows us down and takes us into peace and rest and quiet.

The stillness of the earth in winter,

The seed burrowing down.

The orange,

Red and yellow of autumn leaves and flowers disintegrating and returning their nutrients back to the soil.

We repress our tiredness,

The cycles of winter and fall in our own bodies.

We override our health and our feelings to push through and propel forward.

Our earth relies on balance and so do we.

Summer and winter,

Life and death are inseparable.

Fall softly back into the ground of your existence.

Gather all the stray energies moving out beyond your body and drop.

Soften your breath.

Here you're creating space for beingness.

Just for a short while,

You're stepping away from the outward world of doing and action.

Sink and fall back into wordless,

Actionless being.

And you're lying down on earth here.

No matter what level of the building you're on,

The planet is directly below your body.

So sense earth beneath you.

Sense the season,

The textures,

The effect of today's weather,

Dry or humid,

Warm or cold.

And your earth body fabricated from the same six elements that exist beneath you.

Your breath,

Cooling forest air.

Your lungs as green trees,

Purifying your breath,

Circulating oxygen and carbon.

And moving through your earth body to the weight of your structure.

Your geology of bones,

Mountains,

Valleys,

Ridges that hold earth in perfect formation.

Rest in the weight.

In the center of this structure,

Your heartbeat matched with the pulse of the center of the earth's core.

Effortless rivers of blood and lymph carrying,

Cleansing,

Nourishing your earth body.

And be with your belly,

Loosen and soften.

Perceive digestive cycles,

The infinite sequence of energy production down in your belly.

And recognize the potentiality of life that exists within you and in the earth around you.

Alive with systems that you can't see,

But nonetheless can't live without.

And seeing back deeper and deeper.

And sense your body landing,

Returning back to this earth,

An integral component.

Resting back into this four billion year old legacy of life,

Bequeathed by the earth.

Sense the quiet and stable cycles of renewal in the earth,

In your body.

An engine of linkage,

Everything inseparable and connected.

Resting back into this.

Your sankalpa can arise from here.

A positive short I am statement that you dream of embodying in this life on earth.

Do you desire courage,

Peace or acceptance?

State your highest intention or sankalpa three times now,

Your I am statement.

Feel your body and the earth beneath you hum with acknowledgement as it receives the potency of this statement of truth about you.

And start to accompany my voice through your body now.

Stay engaged and permeate the body part I mentioned with your awareness without needing to move or touch that part.

Your right hand thumb,

Second finger,

Third,

Fourth,

Fifth.

Palm,

Wrist,

Elbow,

Shoulder,

Armpit,

Hip,

Thigh,

Kneecap,

Calf muscle,

Ankle,

Heel,

Sole,

Big toe,

Second toe,

Third,

Fourth,

Fifth,

The whole right side,

Whole right side.

And your left hand thumb,

Second finger,

Third,

Fourth,

Fifth.

Palm,

Wrist,

Elbow,

Shoulder,

Armpit,

Hip,

Thigh,

Kneecap,

Calf muscle,

Ankle,

Heel,

Sole,

Big toe,

Second,

Third,

Fourth,

Fifth,

Whole left side.

The back side of the body,

Your right shoulder blade,

Left shoulder blade,

Right side of buttocks,

Left side of buttocks,

Right heel,

Left heel,

Front of the body,

Top of the head,

Forehead,

Right eye,

Left eye,

Space between the eyebrows,

Right ear,

Left ear,

Right cheek,

Left cheek,

Right nostril,

Left nostril,

Upper lip,

Lower lips,

Both lips together.

Chin,

Throat,

Right side of your chest,

Left side of your chest,

Your whole chest,

Navel,

Abdomen,

Right leg,

Left leg,

Right arm,

Left arm,

Both legs together,

Both arms together,

Abdomen,

Chest,

Whole back,

The head,

Whole body,

Whole body,

Whole body resting on earth,

Earth and your body connected at certain points,

Right heel touches earth,

Left heel touches earth,

Right calf touches earth,

Left calf touches earth,

Right buttocks touch earth,

Left buttocks touch earth,

Back touches earth,

Head touches earth,

Your whole body,

Body as a whole,

Whole body,

Your whole body.

Breath explores the qualities of your whole body.

Breath to the root of your spinal cord,

Be in the internal space of your hips,

Breath into the quality of connection to quiet ground,

The root of your body and travel up your spinal cord,

Notice the quality of your pelvis,

Breath into your sexual nature,

Your creativity,

Your gender and ascend to the midsection of your body,

Observe the natural power here,

The power of an ocean wave,

Watch the breath wave,

Watch it inhabit your chest,

Move up inside the chest,

Enter into the chest and with great presence perceive the quality of love and tenderness here in your chest,

Settle into this quality of love,

Compassion and then moving up to your neck and throat and feel the quality of your true voice without needing to speak,

Resting into the head,

Behind your forehead,

Allow the brain to soften,

Your whole face,

Eyes,

Cheekbones,

Nose,

Jaw,

Mouth,

Lips and chin,

Inside your ears,

Make contact with the internal space inside your brain and sense the quality of your own intelligence without thinking,

The quality of understanding without seeing,

Nurturing your brain with your breath,

Internal consciousness with your body as a whole,

Dissolving the imaginary barrier between inner and outer experience,

Your whole body at once,

Rest here in the true nature of being,

Unified,

Pure,

Unmodified consciousness,

Conscious everywhere in your whole body,

Your whole being,

In this wholeness,

Disentangled from the content of life experience,

In this stillness,

Thoughts and emotions and physical sensations and perceptions move fluidly through you like water over earth,

And from here,

Beyond what is good and what is bad,

You will reveal what is real,

Open your senses to experience what is described here,

Using relaxed awareness,

Start to explore your sensitivities to the following experiences,

Stay present and relaxed as you allow these experiences to occur in your body without any story,

Awaken survival,

Use your senses to remember how it feels to survive,

To survive,

Just bring that feeling up,

Breathe as you allow any associations that you make with the word survival to be awakened in you,

Survival,

And now awakening,

Flourishing,

How do your cells respond to the word flourishing,

To the feeling of flourishing and thriving,

Flourishing,

And return to survival,

Can you feel the temperature of survival in your body,

Where in your body does the energy of survival uncover itself the most,

Without any attachment feel where survival is located in your body,

And flourishing,

Can you sense any subtle changes to your energy or your musculature,

What does flourishing feel like in your body as a sensation,

Stay and breathe in the feeling of flourishing now,

And now allow the feeling of surviving and flourishing to be held together in your body at once,

Continue to hold both of these sensations in your body simultaneously,

Surviving and flourishing,

Coexisting in your body while you lie there safe and relaxed,

Conscious of surviving and flourishing everywhere in your body,

Your whole being,

And settle back onto the ground of unified stillness again,

Wholeness pervades your whole body and coherence permeates everything around us,

The basis of our oneness,

Gaze up at the sky of your internal vision,

And become visual and generate vivid imagery,

Perceive a red rose,

A man with his face in his hands,

The warmth of the sun on your back,

The warmth of the sun on your back,

The warmth of the sun on your back,

The number 33,

Belly laughing with a good friend,

The sea mixed with sun,

A dragonfly and a butterfly together,

A baby wailing,

A galloping black mare,

Floating naked downstream in a river,

Smooth stones underneath your feet,

A white light of limitless potential,

White light of limitless potential,

White light of limitless potential,

Lying in a summer garden now,

See a version of yourself,

Sit up and survey abundance and wildness,

All around you trees and plants are heavy with ripe fruit and berries,

The air on your skin is warm and fragrant with blossoms,

Alive,

Everything so vibrant and your senses open up like portals,

And you merge with the garden,

Your body and your breath blend with the bright red rose petals,

The aromatic air,

The soft grass underneath the soles of your feet,

Butterflies,

Birdsong,

Raw beauty,

You watch as time advances quickly forward in the garden,

Fruit soon spills to the earth and decays,

And you decide to lie back down and absorb this change to red,

Yellow,

Orange and magenta,

And finally above you brown leaves shrivel and shake off in the wind,

And you're cozy and safe bundled up under your blanket,

You rest back into the darkness of winter,

You sense your body dropping into hibernation,

Deep rest,

Incubating and restoring in the unified ground of being,

And you continue to observe as winter dies and then the earth is reborn again,

You sense spring move in the air above you and through the earth beneath you,

Sun awakens the garden and you remember the words of your new belief of your sankalpa,

You smile,

Enjoying spring,

Repeating your sankalpa three times,

Breathing in the fresh spring air,

Softly,

And with your eyes still closed find the space just beyond the perimeter of your skin,

Just outside your body and inside the garden,

And feel that space inside and outside your body as the same space,

You're permeable,

Outside your body is the same continuous space,

You are the garden.

And from this deeply rested state,

Seeing the gradual natural return of manifestation of action by repeating your sankalpa again,

Watch this germinate into your body through tiny movements,

First of your fingers,

Maybe your toes,

Then through the channels of your arms and legs until eventually you uncurl into a full copious spinal stretch,

The practice of yoga nidra is now complete,

Roll over onto your side into the fetal position,

And rest the weight of your head on your bent elbow,

And then the flat of the opposite palm,

Place it onto the earth or onto the space beside your body,

Imagining earth or soil or sand or water beneath your hand,

And just reconnect for a moment to the earth,

And then rise from here to a seat,

Continuing to feel rooted and connected to our earth beneath you,

And when you gradually open your eyes do so really slowly,

And see if you can continue to inhabit your own body,

You're in your body now and you're permeable,

Made of the same consciousness that suffuses the earth itself.

Thank you for practicing with me today.

Hari Om Tat Sat.

Namaste.

Reviews

Amazing….thank you

They was brilliant. Thank you so much

This was a lovely experience, and resonated on a deep level ~ thank you 🤲🏼🌸

Absolutely brilliant, so powerful and meaningful - thank you

Beautiful, soft, nourishing, deeply relaxing. Thank you.

I dozed of briefly somewhere in the middle. But I liked everything I heard. Will do again and see if I hear more. I feel rested.

Loved this. Really relaxing and stimulating simultaneously.

What a beautiful meditative experience. Always leaves me energised, calm and centred 🙏

A beautiful journey trough nature and seasons as well as around my body, thank you 🙏

Excellent mo chara, looking forward to repeating. Namaste 🙏

Beautiful imagery and voice. Namaste

This is a wonderful yoga nidra. Thank you.

A very beautiful way to connect with the earth and appreciate our seasons. Thank you so much. I feel warm, nurtured and grounded, which was just what I was after. 💗

A gentle and richly guided, evocative Yoga Nidra. Thank you🙏

I've been trying out so many versions of yoga nidra in the last months and this one is the first that resonated so completely with me in ages. Eloquent and powerful. My new favourite. Thank you so much. Love it!

Thank you for a wonderful experience 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

What a blissful and amazing Nidra. I took me so deep. Your imagery is beautiful Cathy. Thank you. Namaste 🙏🏼

I love this nidra. Your voice is so soothing.

Beautiful earth embodiment Yoga Nidra. Soothing voice; lovely.

Beautiful voice, sensitive and skillful guiding, amazing wording. Thank you.