Welcome to this yoga nidra practice to help you soften into sleep.
Thank you so much for sharing this space with me today.
Whenever you're ready,
Begin to settle into the practice.
Get as comfy as you can be today,
However you need to.
Allow this space to be your soft landing,
Where you can embrace rest and ease.
Notice your body landing in this moment.
Become aware of the quality of your mind.
Your mind may be busy,
Your body may be tense,
And that's okay.
Just notice what you notice.
You may have experienced a lot lately and now it is time for you to land softly into this moment.
Take a deep breath in through the nose and exhale slowly through pursed lips.
There's nothing you need to do,
There's nothing more you need to think about.
Inhale deeply again in through your nose and exhale back out through pursed lips,
Allowing the friction to slow down your breath.
One more time,
Breathe in through the nose,
Exhaling slowly through pursed lips.
Notice how this breath is slowing the pace down in your mind and your body and allow yourself to surrender to the peace and ease that is innate within you now.
Allow any expectations of how this practice should feel to drop away,
Almost like you're shedding your cloak and just surrender to the ease of what is.
You're simply here to experience what you experience with gentle awareness,
There's nothing to achieve.
Simply rest here into pure awareness.
Allow yourself to experience the wisdom of just being as you are.
Experiencing this moment as an observer,
Just noticing the thoughts that come up in your mind,
All the sensations in your body,
Just noticing without changing a thing.
And now place your awareness at the centre of your forehead and as you rest in your awareness here,
Ask yourself what has my heart been desiring lately?
What has my heart been desiring lately?
It may be more rest,
Peace or ease.
This is your heart's seed of intention.
In your mind's eye,
Translate this into an I or an I am statement.
This is your heart's desire.
And if nothing's come to you yet,
That's okay,
You may feel inspired to use this one.
I am radiating peace and renewal.
With your awareness back at your mind's eye centre,
In this vast open space,
Place your intention here,
However your intuition guides you to do.
Allow this vast space to accept your intention as true in this moment.
With your awareness still at the centre of your forehead,
Your mind's eye centre,
Imagine that you could place a pinpoint of cleansing starlight here at your third eye or mind's eye centre.
Imagining this light to be the energy of your intention.
Just imagining.
Place this pinpoint of starlight at each part of the body that I name,
Allowing the starlight to bring softness and ease to each point.
Place your pinpoint of starlight at the top of your head,
The left side of your forehead,
Right side of your forehead,
Your right eye and eyebrow together,
Softening your expression here,
Your left ear,
All the way through to the ear canal.
Imagine that you could place a pinpoint of light between the ears,
The inside of your right ear,
The hole of your right ear,
The tip of your nose,
The space just above your top lip,
Placing your pinpoint of starlight here,
Your left cheek,
Right cheek,
The inside of the mouth,
The tip of your tongue.
Place your pinpoint of light at the base of the tongue,
The centre of the throat,
The pit of the throat,
The centre of your chest,
Placing this pinpoint of softening light in your heart space at the centre of your chest,
Your left shoulder,
Upper arm,
Lower arm,
The palm of your hand,
Placing this pinpoint of light at the palm of your hand,
The back of your hand.
Place your starlight at the tip of each finger,
Imagining each finger shining brightly with your starlight softening,
The navel centre,
The solar plexus,
The heart centre,
Your right shoulder,
Lower arm,
The palm of your hand,
The back of your hand.
Placing your pinpoint of light on the tip of each of your fingers on the right hand,
Allowing them to glow with the energy of starlight,
The navel centre,
The pelvic centre,
The left of your pelvis,
Upper thigh,
Left knee,
Calf and shin,
Ankle,
Top of your foot.
Place the pinpoint of light at the bottom of your foot.
Imagine you could place the pinpoint of light on each toe on your left foot,
Each toe shimmering in this energy of your starlight.
Bring your awareness back to the centre of the pelvis,
The right side of your pelvis,
Upper thigh,
Right knee,
Shin and calf,
The top of your foot,
The sole of your right foot.
Feel the shimmering energy as you place your starlight on each toe on your right foot.
Bring your awareness to your navel centre and now place your starlight at the base of the spine and with your natural breath,
Without changing anything,
Draw a tube of starlight up through the spine as you breathe in,
Up to the top of the spine and then exhale out through your heart centre,
Imagining the starlight dispersing as you exhale out your heart centre.
Breathe in up the spine,
Imagining your spine can light up like a tube and then exhale out through your heart centre,
Allowing the energy to disperse.
Inhale from the base of your spine with your natural breath up to the top of your spine,
The base of your neck and then exhale out through your heart space.
Continue breathing this way at your own pace and now rest your awareness down at the base of your spine,
The lower back,
Mid back,
Upper back.
Now place a pinpoint of light at the base of the neck,
The back of the head,
The top of your head and now imagine just above the top of your head is a star.
Imagine this star is showering you with glistening,
Cleansing energy that feels like a warm bath for the body.
Feel your whole body resting in this shimmering starlight.
Notice your body on an energetic level,
You may notice tingling,
Buzzing,
Vibrations or stillness.
Just allow yourself to bask in whatever experience you're having here,
Allowing the sensations to be just as they are as you observe.
Rest here as you feel into each cell responding to the starlight shower of your gentle awareness,
Just noticing how it's responding and watching with awe from your mind's eye.
And now imagine the outline of your body dissolving into tiny particles of light,
Almost as if it's dissolving into stardust.
Feel the edges of your body soften as the starlight disperses and drifts.
On your next exhale,
Imagine the stardust outline expanding out,
Allowing your body to take up more space,
Almost as if your outline is independent,
With no fixed form,
No boundaries,
Just movement and possibility,
And on your next inhale,
Imagine your outline contracting back into shape as if all these tiny fragments could organise again and settle back into a grounded shape.
Once again,
Exhale,
Allowing the stardust to expand,
With a natural,
Easy exhale,
And then inhale again,
Allowing your outline to settle back into shape.
Exhale expansion,
Inhale groundedness and settling.
And now release all that and just allow yourself to rest here just as you are,
Basking in this experience that you have created for yourself.
You might gently sense into the feeling of gratitude in your body,
This may feel like a quiet sensation,
Almost contented as you feel into gratitude for yourself,
For allowing yourself to spend this short amount of time recharging and re-energising.
Notice how it feels to sense into this deep gratitude for yourself.
And now retrieve your intention,
Allowing it to float back into your mind,
And repeat it in your mind's eye once more,
I am radiating peace and renewal.
And as you do this,
Allow gratitude to infuse your intention,
However your intuition guides you to do this.
It may be a feeling,
It may be visualisation,
Just notice how you could infuse your intention with gratitude here.
Deep gratitude for yourself.
Bask in this experience that you are creating for yourself as you rest deeper and deeper.
