Welcome to this short yoga nidra somatic rest practice.
The techniques in this practice will help enable you to feel your feelings and then release them leaving you in a regulated nervous system state with more clarity than you had before.
Now make yourself comfortable and enjoy the practice.
Allow your body to feel heavy against the support beneath your body.
Become aware of any tension or discomfort that you may be holding.
If you need to,
Gently adjust your position to ease discomfort.
Allow yourself this extra moment to settle in to a more comfortable position.
It will enable you to relax deeper during this practice.
Now take a deep inhale through your nose and as you inhale scrunch up all the muscles in your face and tighten the muscles in your shoulders and upper arms.
You may feel it's supportive to make fists or squeeze your palms together.
And on the exhale consciously release all this tension that you've just created.
One more time on the inhale tense your muscles in your shoulders,
Arms,
Hands and scrunch the face.
And when you're ready exhale and release all the tension in your body.
Do this one more time at your own pace.
This is a somatic release technique that you can use at any time of the day to release some of the emotional and physical tension caused by stress.
You can now relax back in stillness for the remainder of the practice and as you settle back ask yourself,
What has led me to practicing today?
What has led me to practicing today?
The answer is your sankalpa or intention for the practice.
Allow this intention to be translated into words of positive intention in the form of an I or I am statement.
You might resonate with this intention.
I allow my body the space to process and release the stress of the day.
Allow another moment for your intention to form.
And imagine that you could place this intention at your heart space.
Really feel into your intention being accepted by your heart.
And drift your awareness from your heart space to move around your body.
Without changing anything,
Simply notice how your body is feeling.
You may notice some fluttering in the stomach or the rhythmic drum of your heartbeat.
Notice where you're feeling sensation in your body and simply watch with curiosity.
Notice which sensation is drawing most of your attention and gently place your attention there wherever you feel the sensation.
Imagining that your intention is feather-like,
You're not getting completely dragged into the sensation but simply floating,
Watching as the observer.
Notice if the sensation has a color and a property.
For example,
Stomach flutters may feel like yellow ribbons flitting around your abdomen.
Allow your intuition to guide you to whatever imagery it needs.
This is the way your brain and body process sensation together.
So resist the urge to edit and allow the color and property of the sensation to reveal itself to you.
If you start thinking about the why or what of the sensation,
This is normal.
It's normal to want to create a narrative.
But simply drift your attention back onto the sensation,
Allowing yourself to honor this sensation,
Which is here for a reason.
Your body is simply trying to work through whatever it needs to,
And this sensation may be an expression of that.
Drift your attention away from the feeling now and notice instead where you feel the breath in your body.
Without changing anything,
Just notice and rest here with the sensation of your body being breathed as you allow the sensation to move you deeper and deeper into a state of deep rest.
If your attention has wandered,
Simply notice and consciously move back to watching the breath as you rest here deeper and deeper.
As you rotate your awareness around each energy center,
Notice the sensations and the energy charge that you experience in each area.
Without changing anything,
Simply allow yourself to rest back in the experience of your body.
Place your open awareness at the crown of your head,
Noticing any energy here at the crown of your head.
Third eye center in the center of your forehead.
Right eyebrow.
The space between your eyebrows.
Left eyebrow.
Right eye.
Left eye.
The outside of your right ear,
Spiraling your attention all the way through to your inner ear,
And now the space between your ears.
And move your awareness from the space between your ears to the inner ear of your left ear,
And all the way out to the folds in your ear.
Both nostrils together.
Feeling the breath moving in and out of each nostril without changing the breath.
Both cheeks.
The upper lip.
Lower lip.
Space between the lips.
The chin.
The inside of the mouth.
Feeling the temperature of the inside of your mouth.
Allowing your jaw to part.
Comfortably relaxing your jaw and neck muscles as you move your attention down to the middle of your jaw.
The middle of the throat.
The pit of the throat.
The pit of the throat.
The heart center.
Notice the rhythmic drumbeat of energy,
Pumping renewal throughout your entire body,
As you rest here deeply and still.
The left shoulder.
Upper arm.
Elbow.
Lower arm.
The palm of the hand.
The thumb.
And all four fingers on your left hand.
The navel center.
Noticing the energy at your navel center,
And deeply rest here in the energy of your navel center.
Right shoulder.
Upper arm.
Elbow.
Lower arm.
Palm of the hand.
The thumb.
And all four fingers together on your right hand.
The right of the pelvic bowl.
And all the way over to the left.
Your pelvic bowl.
Move your attention just to the tip of your tailbone at the base of your spine.
And now the left thigh.
Top of the foot.
Base of the foot.
All toes on your left foot,
Together as one.
Drift your attention to the right thigh.
The knee.
The top of your right foot.
Base of the foot.
And all toes together.
On your right foot.
Notice now the back of your legs,
All the way up to the base of your spine.
Feeling into the sensations in the back of your legs.
Walk your attention up your spine,
Noticing each individual vertebrae.
Almost like you're floating up steps.
Notice the base of your neck.
And the back of your arms together.
Sensing into the energy in the back of your arms as you rest here,
Allowing your body to restore itself.
The back of your torso.
And now the back of the neck.
And all the way up to the crown of your head.
At the crown of the head,
Imagine that you could feel into the space that surrounds you here as you rest deeper and deeper.
Allow the sensations to come into your frame of awareness as you feel into the space that surrounds your body as you rest here.
And now bring into your frame of consciousness the sense of an opening lotus flower.
Resist the urge to edit or change the image as you imagine an opening lotus flower.
Now build the sense of a cleansing breeze brushing your face.
Invite the whole sensory experience of a cleansing breeze washing over your body,
Especially your face.
And now release that and bring to your awareness the ebb and flow of a gentle lake.
Now visualize the lake at night with a full moon peacefully reflecting onto the water.
Feel into the sense of tranquility and spaciousness that looking up at this moon really brings to you.
And now imagine a message in a bottle washing on the shore.
As you rest here,
Bring in the experience of opening the bottle with the message in.
Imagine the sense of the cork as it pops open.
And lift out a folded piece of paper.
The message written on the paper is a supportive message that you need today.
What does this supportive message say?
Allow your subconscious to reveal this message to you now as you continue to rest in deep awareness.
If nothing comes to mind or it's a feeling that lifts off the paper and saturates your body,
That is okay too.
Trust in the timing of your subconscious and rest back,
Allowing whatever comes to your mind to be there.
And relax back in deep rest and gratitude for your subconscious mind and all it has revealed to you in this practice.
Each day,
This practice of opening a message in a bottle may give different results,
But simply rest in the gratitude for the message that you have received here today.
You might find it supportive to mentally whisper thank you.
Thank you for the guidance.
Place your attention at your heart space and bring back your intention for the practice as you rest here deeply.
Notice how your body responds to your intention.
Notice any sensations that feel comfortable in your body.
If you can't find comfortable,
Try finding a neutral sensation.
Whenever you're ready,
With your eyes still closed,
Begin to bring in the sense of the environment around you and allow yourself to focus back in on my voice as you become attuned to the external world.
Bring one of your fingers to your thumb on whichever hand and gently or rhythmically tap your finger and thumb together.
As you're doing this,
Focus in on the bodily sensation of comfort or the neutral sensation and allow yourself to become aware of this relaxed state that you have created for yourself as you tap rhythmically your finger and thumb together.
This action is an anchor that rewires your brain to bring in this state of relaxation whenever you tap your finger and thumb together.
This may require a few sessions to rewire the neurons in your brain that associate the tapping motion with regulation,
But once it is connected in your mind,
You can use this anchor to bring in this state of regulation and ease whenever you need in your waking life.
Begin to focus in on the sounds around you now,
And begin to gently move the rest of your body in whatever way feels wakeful to you.
You may wish to stretch,
But whatever you do,
Make sure you do it slowly and lightly.
If you begin finding yourself rushing,
Simply allow yourself to slow down.
The practice is now complete,
So in your own time,
Open your eyes and adjust back to being awake and present.
I hope that you have enjoyed this practice today.
In this somatic rest yoga nidra practice,
You connected your mind and body in a way that supports the rewiring of neural connections,
Whilst also allowing you to process the stress of the day without a story and without judgement.
This reprocessing can enable you to come back to balance,
And with it,
The balance of energy in your body can be restored,
Releasing the stress and the tension as you honour these sensations in your body.
Take a moment to reflect as well on how you feel now compared with how you began.
With this practice,
Your mind will become more accustomed to the rewiring that comes with somatic rest.
And if you have found this practice valuable today,
Please share with me what messages and insights have come up for you in the comments.
I am really looking forward to reading about all of your experiences,
And thank you so much for sharing this space with me.
