So come into a comfortable place for meditation that might be sitting,
Might be lying down.
And as you get settled,
Scan your body from head to toes.
Notice your forehead,
Eyebrows,
And eyes.
Just generally the muscles in your face.
Even if they feel relaxed,
See if you can relax them 10% more.
Let yourself be aware of thoughts that are in your mind.
You might be thinking about something that happened five minutes ago or five years ago.
All kinds of things are happening in our minds.
Resolve to stay with this practice as much as possible.
And if you notice you've wandered off into something else,
Just gently come back with compassion and kindness.
Now notice your mouth and jaw.
Let your jaw relax.
Your tongue soften.
Your throat soften.
Notice the sides of your neck down through your shoulders,
Through down to your arms and hands.
Letting wave after wave of softness come down through the sides of your neck and shoulders,
Down through your arms,
Through your hands,
Fingers,
Fingertips.
If you're supported through your back,
Notice that you're supported through your back.
Let yourself settle into that support.
Notice the large muscles of the upper back from the neck through the upper back and behind your heart center,
Your mid and lower back,
Down to the back of your arms and legs.
Let your body be supported.
Relax into that support and come back to the top of your head,
Through your face,
Mouth,
Jaw,
Neck,
Into the front of your chest.
Large muscles from the collarbones over the front of your ribcage,
Down into your lower ribs as well.
Now just notice the rhythm of your breath and how your body moves with your breath.
Notice if it's comfortable to focus on your breath for a moment at your stomach area.
Soften as you breathe out.
Notice the front of your arms and hands,
Front of your legs and feet,
Soles of your feet,
Up through your whole body,
Up,
Up,
Up to the crown of your head.
Be aware of your whole body from head to toes,
Toes to head.
Part of what we're doing in a practice like this is we're bringing attention away from the surface layers and coming into the deeper layers of the mind and the stillness.
So bringing your attention away from other times and places,
Become aware of your being.
Let your mind be aware of being,
Of your deeper layers.
Then it can be nice to set an intention for the practice of sankalpa.
Let it be simple,
Positive.
Like I am going to get excellent rest from this yoga nidra practice or whatever it may be.
So bring that sankalpa forward.
Repeat it in your mind.
Let yourself be aware,
This is my intention,
My sankalpa.
Let yourself feel that.
Then bring your attention into your eyebrow center,
Your ajna chakra,
Behind the forehead.
It may help to visualize a candleless flame,
Just the flame in the ajna chakra,
The forehead or eyebrow center.
Let your attention rest there.
No thought,
Just that visual of the flame.
Small white flame in the eyebrow center.
Be aware a little bit of your breath.
Let yourself become more aware of the stillness than the activity.
Use that flame as a focus of concentration.
Small white flame in the eyebrow center.
Bring your awareness to your throat center.
Visualize a brilliant white full moon at the throat center.
Breathe in and out through the vishuddhi chakra,
The throat center,
Through the brilliant white light of the full moon.
Continue to let your mind go towards stillness.
There are thoughts in the mind,
That's okay.
Let them be in the background.
Focus all your attention on the throat center and breathing in and out through the light of that white full moon.
Let your mind be still and then bring your attention into your heart center.
Let your mind be still there.
Let go visuals,
A candleless flame in the eyebrow center,
The full moon in the throat center.
As you come into the heart chakra,
Anahata chakra,
Let your mind move into the deep layers of stillness.
No thoughts,
Not even awareness of the breath.
Sometimes our attention is drawn towards movement again and that's okay.
It's normal.
Notice the layers and layers and layers.
We have the thought layer,
The layer of the physical body,
Sensations,
And that's a surface layer to the stillness.
Without arguing with anything,
Withdraw your attention from all of the other layers.
Rest in the stillness in your heart.
No thoughts,
Nothing to figure out.
As we move our attention away from thoughts,
Become aware of the consciousness being,
Aware of awareness itself of your being.
Not to think about it,
To bring it into your awareness.
The world is happening in me,
In consciousness.
Resting in stillness in the heart center.
If you get distracted,
Relax your body.
Come back to your breath.
Back to the eyebrow center,
Your throat center,
And heart center.
Quickly establishing yourself back in the awareness of stillness.
Keep bringing your awareness into the deeper layers,
Into the stillness.
Notice the brain doesn't have anything to figure out.
We're simply resting,
Letting the brain become still.
As we're preparing to come out of the practice,
We're coming back into awareness of these other layers without losing awareness of the stillness in the heart center and the stillness and the deep layers of the mind.
Bring your awareness back to your throat center in that bright full moon.
Bringing your breath awareness back.
Aware that you're breathing in and out through that full moon in the Vishuddhi chakra.
Bring your awareness to your Ajna chakra,
The eyebrow center behind the forehead,
To that small candleless flame.
Awareness of breath in the eyebrow center.
Then begin to let your awareness flow from the eyebrow center through the throat center and to the heart center and then back.
Notice the flow of breath in your nostrils.
Let your awareness flow from your eyebrow center to the base of the nose and back.
Even as you're bringing in that movement of the breath,
Maintain awareness of the stillness.
Let all of that dissolve again.
Bring back your sankalpa,
Your intention,
Your resolve.
You don't have to do anything with intention.
Just bring it back to mind.
Slowly,
When you're ready,
You can start to bring small movements back into the physical layer of the body.
Take your time.
Coming back into awareness of the surface you're laying on,
The room.
When you're ready,
Open your eyes.
