This is a short NSDR meditation.
NSDR stands for Non-Sleep-Deep-Rest and is often known as Yoga Nidra.
It's designed to leave you feeling calm,
Centred and refreshed.
To begin,
Lie down and find your most comfortable position.
I'd suggest using headphones.
You might like a cushion underneath your head,
A warm blanket on top of you and perhaps something to cover your eyes.
Make sure you feel warm,
Comfortable and cosy.
Could you make yourself feel even a tiny bit more comfortable,
Feeling cradled and held by the support of the surface beneath you?
Now take a big inhale.
Let it out with a sigh,
Allowing any tension to just drain from the body.
Now let's start settling the body down,
Releasing tension from those areas that tend to hold a lot of tension.
Relax your eyes,
All the little muscles around your eyes.
Relax your jaws and your shoulders.
Let the whole body soften with every exhalation.
You might even imagine softening the muscle of your mind,
Almost like releasing a clenched fist,
Unclenching your mind,
Softening,
Letting go.
So let's shift down a little deeper as the body rests more and more.
Now draw your attention to all of the sounds outside of your room,
Just noticing them one by one.
No thinking or analysing,
Just noticing and listening.
Draw your awareness closer now to all of the sounds inside your room.
Now draw that awareness deeper inside yourself,
And drop that awareness into the area around your heart,
Your heart space.
Allow yourself to feel into your heart space.
Now call on your sankalpa or heartfelt intention if you're working with one.
If you're not working with a specific intention,
You might welcome the intention,
I rest deeply within myself.
Now internally whisper your intention to yourself three times,
And as you say it,
Feel it through your whole being as if it's already happening.
We will now begin to rotate our awareness through different parts of the body.
Just relax and listen to my voice,
Allowing your attention to glide from one point to the next,
Simply noticing any sensation,
And creating a cascade of relaxation throughout your whole body.
As your attention moves,
Your body remains completely still.
So let's begin.
Let your attention gravitate to the tip of your tongue,
Now all the way to the root of your tongue.
Sense the teeth and the gums,
The roof of your mouth,
And inside both cheeks.
Sense the lower lip,
The upper lip,
The tip of your nose,
To the bridge of your nose,
And now the centre of your forehead,
Your entire scalp,
Your right eye,
And all of the little muscles behind the eye,
Softening and releasing.
The right cheek,
Temple,
Ear,
And inside the right ear,
Listening.
Now to the centre of your forehead,
Noticing any sensations,
The left eye,
And all the little muscles behind the eye,
The left cheek,
Temple,
Ear,
Inside the left ear,
Listening.
A sense of the whole face and scalp brimming with sensations.
Now shifting your attention to the centre of the truth,
The pit of the throat,
To your heart space,
Looking for sensations in the right shoulder,
Elbow,
Wrist,
Palm,
Your right thumb,
First finger,
Second,
Third,
And little finger.
A sense of the whole hand and arm brimming with sensations,
The right waist,
Hip,
Knee,
Ankle,
The sole of your right foot,
The big toe,
The second,
Third,
Fourth,
And little toe.
A sense of the whole foot and leg brimming with sensation.
And now expanding,
Sensing the whole right hemisphere of your body,
The whole right hemisphere of your body brimming with sensation and awareness.
The heart space,
The left shoulder,
Elbow,
Wrist,
Palm,
Left thumb,
First finger,
Second,
Third,
And little finger.
A sense of the whole left hand and arm tingling with sensation.
Now allowing your attention to drift to the left waist,
Hip,
Knee,
Ankle,
The sole of the left foot,
The big toe,
The second,
Third,
Fourth,
And little toe.
A sense of your whole left foot and leg full of sensations.
Now expanding to notice the whole left hemisphere of your body full of sensations and awareness.
Now sensing the whole of the back body,
Sensing the whole of the back of your body.
Now the whole of your front body,
From the crown of your head all the way down to the tips of your toes tingling with sensation.
Now expanding your awareness to notice your whole body as one,
Feeling your whole body as one,
Resting deeply,
Effortlessly,
But with your mind awake and alert.
Now feel the natural rhythm of your breath.
Sense the expansion as you inhale,
Emptying out as you exhale,
And as you notice your natural breath,
Count the breath down from 10 to 1 with every count,
Feeling your body relaxing deeper and deeper.
So the breath rises for 10,
It falls for 9.
It rises for 9,
It falls for 8.
It rises for 8,
It falls for 7.
So continue to 1 on your own count.
Now let the counting go and just allow yourself to rest here,
Feeling completely relaxed,
At ease,
At peace,
The whole of you resting.
Now bring your awareness back to your sankalpa,
To that heartfelt intention that you set at the beginning of the practice,
And again,
Silently repeat it to yourself 3 times.
And as you say it,
Feel it through your whole being as though it's already happening.
Now begin again to sense the support of the earth beneath you,
The room around you,
And slowly begin to awaken the body,
Perhaps starting to make little movements of the fingers,
The wrists,
The toes,
And the ankles.
And when it feels right for you,
You might like to open your eyes,
Give yourself a really nice big stretch,
And then,
Resting here for a moment,
Tune back into your body,
Into your mind,
And notice how you feel.
Notice any benefits you might have cultivated within yourself during this short practice.
Just simmer,
Bask in these feelings for another few breaths,
Perhaps setting an intention to carry any of these benefits with you into the rest of your day.
Thank you very much for practicing with me today.
Have a lovely day.
