Welcome to this yoga nidra practice for gratitude.
This practice of unconditional gratitude can be really healing mentally,
Physically for your bodily sensations,
And also for relating more compassionately to yourself.
Emotions produce chemical reactions in the body,
So practicing gratitude whilst in a state of yogic sleep elevates the experience in your body as your mind is more receptive and open to deeply experiencing these emotions associated with gratitude.
Before we start this beautiful practice,
I would like to invite you to subscribe so that you get early access to my brand new yoga nidra practices which I share regularly on this channel.
So to begin,
Make yourself comfortable and take a few moments to move into a position that feels restful and cosy.
You could use blankets,
Supports for your joints,
Or even an eye pillow to get as comfortable as you can be.
Feel into any discomfort that you may be accepting in this moment,
And take a moment to try to release that discomfort as much as you can.
And now close your eyes,
Or take a soft gaze,
And ask yourself,
Without judgement or changing anything,
How am I feeling?
How am I feeling?
There is no need to change anything,
Just allow any residual emotion or feeling to move into your frame of consciousness.
If you are not yet accustomed to asking yourself these intuitive questions,
You may not get a clear answer here today,
And that is absolutely okay.
Whatever is coming up for you,
In your own words,
Speak to the feeling and tell the feeling I am here and I will hold you with compassion and unconditional kind regard.
If these words don't resonate,
You can use your own words to comfort and show support to whatever feeling is coming up.
Take a moment to invite in a cocooning feeling of support for yourself,
And allow this feeling to enable you to relax down,
Knowing that you are being held by self-compassion and this cocooning feeling of safety.
Now let go of that,
And rest back.
Take a moment to feel the shape of your breath,
Without changing anything.
Following a slow deep inhale,
On the exhale,
Exhale the breath in three gentle parts.
With each part,
Imagine you're releasing the breath first from your upper chest,
Then your ribcage and then your abdomen.
Repeat this a few times in your own time,
Inhale slowly,
And exhale in three parts,
Upper chest,
Ribs,
Abdomen.
This breath pattern invites calm and regulation into your nervous system.
On your next three part exhale,
As the breath moves through each part,
Say thank you in your mind for that part of your breathing system.
Inhale and exhale from your upper chest,
Thank you,
Ribcage,
Thank you,
Abdomen,
Thank you.
Release any judgement or expectation for how you feel each part of your breathing system should be performing,
That doesn't matter here.
Simply say thank you,
Unconditionally,
To your chest,
Your lungs and your diaphragm.
Release that now and place your attention at your heart centre in the middle of your chest,
Your energetic connection to your inner source of unconditional gratitude.
You may wish to gently place your hand on your chest to deepen the connection you feel here.
With part of your attention still on your heart centre,
Reflect on what brought you to this practice today.
With part of your attention on your heart centre,
Reflect on what brought you to this practice today.
This is your sankalpa,
Your reason for practicing.
Translate it into a supportive I or I am statement such as I am grateful for all that I am,
And I am thankful for all that I have.
Imagine placing this intention at your heart space,
Allow your intuition to guide you on how to do this,
And rest in the knowledge that your heart space has accepted your sankalpa today.
Imagine your sankalpa is a comforting light radiating from your heart centre.
Take a moment to reflect on the properties of this comforting,
Warming light of gratitude.
The colour that brings comfort to you,
A soothing texture.
Trust whatever your intuition guides you to do.
If you find it difficult to visualise in images,
That is okay,
You can focus on the feelings of comfort and soothing placed at your heart space by this light as it supports you.
Once you have the properties of this comforting,
Soothing light,
Watch in your mind's eye as this supportive light takes the form of an even more supportive and soothing symbol.
This symbol,
In a calming way,
Brings with it a sense of calm knowing,
A deep knowing of gratitude.
Trust your intuition on what symbol it's guiding you towards,
It may be a letter of the alphabet,
A simple symbol such as the infinity symbol,
Or a living thing such as a flower or an animal.
And if you're not visual,
See if you can hear your intuition suggesting the words of a symbol.
Whatever comes to your mind,
Simply allow it,
There is no right or wrong way to do this.
The symbol is simply a soothing,
Gratitude filled symbol.
Now place this symbol on each of the energy centres that I name,
Allowing the symbol to become a container that holds the energy in each area,
Starting with the third eye centre between the eyebrows,
Place your symbol at the third eye centre and feel the energy here,
The pit of the throat,
Experiencing the energy here as you place your symbol at the pit of your throat,
The heart centre,
The navel centre,
Move your awareness to your lower abdomen,
Just beyond the tip of your tailbone at the base of the spine,
Moving back up to the lower abdomen,
Navel centre,
Feel the energy allowing your symbol to be a container to hold this energy here at your navel centre,
Heart centre,
The hollow pit of the throat,
The eyebrow centre,
Your third eye centre,
The crown of the head,
Imagine that you could feel the energy just above the crown of your head,
Place your symbol here above the crown and see what energy you can sense here,
Let that go and rest your attention at your third eye centre for a moment,
Allowing the experience of your energy channels to integrate with gratitude,
You don't need to do anything here,
Simply allow your attention to rest at your third eye centre,
Allowing yourself to rest deeply here,
Invite into your frame of consciousness something vast and natural that brings you joy,
This could be a river,
A forest or mountains or something else,
There is no need to refine,
Just simply allow whatever comes to your mind like you're watching it on TV,
Non-judgmentally,
Release that and now invite into your awareness a sensation that makes you feel at ease,
Like a hug or a cooling breeze on a warm day,
Whatever it is that puts you at ease,
This is the feeling of gratitude,
And if you're not yet accustomed to feeling gratitude in your body,
You may not feel it really strongly yet and that is okay and normal,
With practice you will feel it stronger and this is your gratitude resource,
Each thing that you've brought into your consciousness whilst you're in this state of deep rest are experiences that bring you to a state of mindful gratitude,
Rest here deeply knowing that this resource is always available to you,
You can access your gratitude resource whenever you wish in your waking life,
Feel yourself resting deeply here surrounded by the energy of gratitude that you have created for yourself,
And now bring back your sankalpa and repeat it in your mind's eye,
I am grateful for all that I am,
And I am thankful for all that I have,
Extend some gratitude to yourself for practicing this yoga nidra today,
Thank yourself for taking the time to practice and know that by simply practicing deep rest,
The benefits of this can extend to everybody and the world around you,
Your friends,
Family or colleagues and community and the world,
So extend some gratitude for yourself,
And now in your mind's eye whisper,
I am practicing yoga nidra,
And with your eyes still closed feel the texture of the support beneath you,
Sense into the depth of the property of the support,
You could use your palms to sense the texture,
Or allow your back body to sense the support beneath you,
And focus in on the sounds around you or my voice,
Slowly allowing yourself to become aware of your surroundings again,
And whenever you're ready,
Begin to move in whatever way feels wakeful,
Slowly and lightly,
If you feel the urge to move quicker,
Consciously slow down even more,
Your body and mind need time to adjust back into waking light,
And whenever you're ready open your eyes allowing yourself to adjust back to being awake and present,
I hope that you have enjoyed this practice today,
With practice over time the sensation of gratitude becomes more noticeable as your limbic system in your brain is rewired to notice gratitude,
If you feel drawn to sharing what you're grateful for today,
Share in the comments,
I really enjoy reading each unique experience of these practices,
And if you're interested in further rewiring your subconscious to effortlessly experience more gratitude in your life,
I have created an extended length version of this practice,
With deeper techniques that include advanced breath work,
An immersive somatic 5 sensations of gratitude practice,
More time to integrate,
And a journal prompt to reflect on whilst your brainwaves are slow and open to providing you with insights from your subconscious,
And these insights are otherwise unavailable to you outside of sleep,
So if you're interested the extended length version is available on my website which I will link in the description,
And downloading these practices allows you to own them on your device and use them offline when travelling,
Or even as your morning alarm,
I do this and it really wakes me up gently.
Thank you so much to each and every one of you for practicing with me today here on the wellness words.
