Begin your practice of yoga nidra in a comfortable position,
Reclining or seated.
Adjust yourself to be even more comfortable as you close your eyes and filter your attention inward.
Begin to notice the support of the surface beneath you.
Give in to that support,
That feeling of being held by the earth,
Being fully anchored as if your bones were becoming heavy,
Grounded.
And as you feel the support,
Let your nervous system know that it's safe and it's okay to let go now.
Invite your sense stores to open wide,
Noticing sound around you,
Moving from one sound to the next,
Being open to hearing.
Swallow gently and hear the sound within your own body,
Noticing the taste and sensing the tactile quality of the skin and your clothing.
Bringing your attention to your heart space now,
Setting your intention for today's practice,
What it is that you'd most like to receive from this practice.
We stated in present tense could be I intend or I am or I choose such as I am peaceful and at ease.
I am calm and grounded.
I intend to have clarity around a certain issue.
Whatever it is that comes to you,
State it to yourself now.
As we move our attention through the physical body,
Allow my words to guide you as we rotate attention through the body.
Allow yourself to give each body part a sense of love and kindness.
This is not a conscious effort.
Your heart knows how to do this.
Begin to bring your attention to the two lips touching.
Slip your attention between your lips and into your mouth,
Feeling the domed roof of the mouth,
The gums and teeth.
Sensing all of the sensations within the tongue and invite the tongue to fall down into the floor of the mouth,
Relaxing and letting go.
Using the inner side walls of the mouth,
Left and right.
Inviting the attention into the jaws,
Inviting the hinges of the jaws to release.
Feeling the whole mouth as sensation.
Bringing your attention now into the inner ear canals.
And from the inner ears,
Move outward toward the outer structures of the ears,
The folds and valleys.
All the way down to the earlobes.
The left ear,
Right ear,
And both ears as sensation.
Feeling between the ears and into the cheeks.
Invite the cheeks to soften and become hollow.
Moving the attention all the way to the nose as you sense the flow of breath in and out of the nostrils.
Breath moving in and out.
Just witnessing that gentle sweep of the breath in and out.
Good now directing your attention into the eye area,
Into both eyes,
Into the eyelids,
To all the muscles around the eyes,
Inviting them to soften and sink downward in their sockets.
Eyes are looking downward toward the heart.
Hidden out now to the temples.
And then move into the forehead,
Taking time to unfurl your brow and sense that area between the eyebrows.
Invite it to soften.
Moving the attention into the hairline and into the scalp as if you were massaging the scalp with your hands.
Let the attention drop all the way down to the base of the skull.
Feel your attention massage around the backs of the ears and the base of the skull.
Good and let that attention drop down into the column of the neck,
Sensing the throat and inviting any release there.
As you move your awareness into the shoulders,
Invite the shoulders to let go.
Let the awareness flow down both arms into the upper arms to the elbows and flow into the forearms to the wrists and right into the palms of the hands,
Really sensing the palms of the hands begin to tingle.
As you bring your awareness into the thumbs,
Index fingers,
Middle fingers,
Ring fingers,
Pinky fingers,
The whole line of energy that you sense from the neck down each shoulder to the arms and hands.
As you return your attention to the shoulders now,
Let your awareness drop into your chest with a sense of opening,
Widening across the chest,
Feeling from the collarbones down to the breastbone and from armpit to armpit.
Drop over the back of the body as well,
Sensing the muscles along the spine and down into the shoulder blades,
Inviting the whole area of the heart space to open.
Note if you can sense the rhythm of your own heart.
Good,
Let your attention descend downward into the middle part of the torso,
The low ribs,
The solar plexus and the middle back body.
Wrap around this whole area with a sense of opening,
A sense of releasing.
Keep that same sense of releasing and relaxing as you drift your attention down into the navel,
Into the waist,
Down all the way down into the pelvic bowl to the floor of the pelvis and down into the small of the back,
The sacrum to the tailbone.
That's the whole torso percolating with a sense of love and kindness,
But openness.
Let your attention flow into your hips and your buttocks and let yourself slip down into the big muscles in the thighs,
From the inner groins all the way down to the knees.
As you reach the knees,
Feel the kneecaps and wrap around to the backs of the knees,
Inviting them to soften.
Let your awareness drift into the forelegs,
The shins,
The calves,
All the way down to the ankles with a sense of letting go,
Letting go.
Move right down into the tops of the feet,
To the soles of the feet,
And to the toes,
Feeling that sense of release from the hips all the way down through the legs and feet,
Letting go.
Feel the whole body now and notice what is in your awareness now.
Perhaps yourself as the one who is aware,
The observer.
Now begin to notice where you sense the body breathing.
Perhaps you notice it at the nostrils.
Perhaps you can sense it in the throat or the chest.
Drop the awareness down to the abdomen and sense the breath,
That natural breath rising and releasing at the abdomen.
Just watching.
Rise and release the body breathing for you.
Good.
Now breath counting.
Rising releasing seven.
Rising releasing six.
Continue at your own count until you reach zero.
Rising releasing count.
Breath awareness.
If you lose track,
Simply return to the number seven.
With each exhalation,
You're going deeper and deeper into a state of releasing.
Good now breath counting just slipping away.
No need to return to zero.
Notice the whole of the body,
The whole of the body and sensations within the body.
Invite your body to invoke a feeling of heaviness,
Heaviness within the body,
The whole body heavy,
Solid,
Grounded,
Whole body heavy,
Like steel,
Grounded to this spot,
To this moment.
Sense it.
Perhaps inviting in that sense of the opposite of heavy,
Lightness within the body.
Can you invite lightness within your body,
Body becoming very light,
Free floating,
Soft like clouds,
Floating,
Even lighter like a helium balloon floating,
Drifting.
Bringing part of your awareness back to that grounding connection,
Heavy.
Sense part of your awareness light,
Open,
Free flowing.
Part of you connected to the earth,
Anchored.
And from this space,
I invite you to come into your heart space.
Allow yourself just to open into a sense of awareness.
This of this energetic field around you,
The body and the energy around the body.
Allow yourself to experience it to the right of the body,
To the left of the body,
Above the head,
Below your feet.
Sense behind the body as if you were falling back behind yourself,
Above the body,
Above the chest.
And as you sense the spacious openness,
I invite you just to keep opening,
Keep opening,
Keep widening.
Notice the part of you that is aware.
And I invite you just to open into a peaceful state of being united,
Feeling that great universal connection.
