Welcome to this Yoga Nidra deep rest practice for improving your sleep quality to achieve a blissful state of deep and restorative rest to recharge your body and your mind.
I am your guide and I will shortly be taking you through a sequence that can be practiced either before you intend to go to sleep or even in the day as you will still receive the benefits to your sleep from this practice even when it's practiced earlier in the day.
Your subconscious mind stores memory of deep rest and it will allow you to access this deeper more restorative sleep at night.
If you wake up in the night you may feel drawn to bring some elements of this practice back into that moment to help you fall back asleep with ease and softness.
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Make yourself comfortable now and take a few moments to relax and become completely comfortable in a position that feels cosy to you.
If you haven't already close down the eyes and drop your attention from the busyness of your mind into your body,
Listening to my voice and the noises around you.
Gently feel your body in the space that you're currently in.
As you sense your body on the surface below,
Notice if there is any part of your body that is holding tension or hasn't fully softened into the support yet.
Imagine that you could soften that part with just your mind.
Something might feel supportive for you to say to the part you can soften now.
Feel into any other part of your body that might need to soften even just 5% more into the support below.
Relax it down with just your mind.
You might even say again to that part that you can soften now or it's okay to soften.
Now draw your attention to your imagination and imagine that you're sat by a slow river,
Holding in your hand a beautiful bowl made of metal.
As you hold this bowl in your hands,
Take a moment to sense into any belief or feeling you may be holding onto about how things should be,
Or even how your practice should unfold today.
You may notice words coming to your mind such as,
I should relax,
Or even just a sense of how you believe things should be.
Feel into deep compassion for these expectations.
They are simply reflections of your desire for things to be a certain way.
See these expectations floating around you,
Like bubbles glistening in the light.
Now,
For each bubble of expectation,
Hold up your bowl and gently guide it into the bowl,
And as they touch the base of the beautiful metal bowl in your hands,
Imagine each bubble of expectation transforming into a silvery liquid.
Watch all the expectations watching them transform into the silvery liquid.
Now approach the slow and calm river,
And with intention imagine that you could pour the contents of this bowl into the river,
And as you're pouring the silvery liquid out into the river,
Feel into the sense of lightness and freedom wash over you as your expectations get gently swept away.
Feel the release of your expectations and your attachments to a specific outcome.
Feel into the surrender of the present moment.
Take a comfortably deep breath in through your nose,
And on the exhale,
Gently release into an audible sigh.
Try this one more time,
Deep breath in through your nose,
And an audible sigh out through your mouth,
Feeling the freedom of being free from attachments.
You don't need to do anything more in this moment.
You are simply being with your authentic self and resting deeply,
Supported and held by the earth below you.
Take a moment now to consider what brought you here to this practice today.
A word may be coming to your mind,
Or simply a sense of knowing why you are here today and what brought you here to this practice.
This is your intention,
Your sankalpa for the practice today.
Let your attention now move your sankalpa from your mind all the way down to your heart centre.
Imagine that it's a golden seed being placed in your heart centre,
And in whichever way you know best your intention guides you,
Feel it planting deeply into your heart,
Trusting your intuition is guiding you on how to do this.
Without changing the current shape or pace of your breath,
Visualise with each breath in and out that the air,
The life force,
Prana energy is supporting the seed and allowing it to sprout beautiful golden roots out beyond your heart centre.
Breathing in and out,
Feeling the roots of your intention spreading through your entire being,
Beyond even your physical body.
Relax that now and feel into the sensations that each body part that I name is offering you,
Allowing the energy in each part to just be how it is,
Observing with curiosity.
So place your attention now on the top of your head,
Forehead,
Right eyebrow,
Left eyebrow,
Left eyebrow centre,
Feel into the sensations here in your eyebrow centre,
Feel your right eye and all the muscles relaxing in your right eye,
Now drift your attention to your left eye,
Relaxing all the micromuscles in your eye,
Allowing both the eyes to simply relax back,
Right ear,
Space between your ears,
Your left ear,
Both cheeks together,
Your whole nose,
Move your attention now to your upper lip,
Lower lip,
Space between your lips,
Inside of your mouth,
Middle of the throat,
Base of the throat,
Middle of your chest,
See if you can visualise the golden seed in the middle of your chest,
Your heart centre,
Feel that seed of intention here just for a moment,
Left shoulder,
Left upper arm,
Elbow,
Lower left arm,
Your wrist,
Palm of your left hand and all the sensations that are being offered to you here by the palm of your left hand,
Feel into all of your fingers together on your left hand,
Drift your awareness now to your navel centre,
The left of your waist,
Hip bone,
Left knee,
Calf muscle,
Left ankle,
Heel,
The sole of your left foot,
Top of your foot,
Each toe together on your left foot,
Gently drift your attention now back up to your heart centre and your beautiful golden seed of intention and now drift your attention to your right shoulder,
Right upper arm,
Elbow,
Your lower right arm,
Your wrist,
The sensations in the palm of your right hand,
Each finger together on your right hand,
Drift your attention from your right hand over to your navel centre,
The right side of your hip bone,
Knee,
Sensations in your calf muscle on your right leg,
Right ankle,
Heel on your right foot,
Sole of your foot,
Top of your foot,
Feel all your toes together on your right foot,
Now sense into the whole of your right leg and keep your attention on your right leg and split your attention now partially to your left leg holding both legs separately in your awareness,
Release your whole attention now from your legs and drift it up to the whole of your right arm and now holding together the whole of your left arm and your right arm together,
Release your attention from your arms and drift it to the whole of your back and now feel into the whole of your back and the whole of your front together,
Now drift your attention to your face and the back of your head and feel it together with both arms,
Both legs and the front and back of your torso and now feel your whole body together,
All the sensations in your whole body all at once now,
Feel the shimmering radiance of the sensations of being in your physical body,
Lean into being in awe of all that your physical body is offering you,
Each sensation is the hard work of each individual nerve and each cell making up your entire being,
Feel in awe of all that your body does for you in order for you to live your intentions each day,
Allow yourself to bask here in the beauty of deep rest and move your attention to your heart centre,
Feeling deeply and restfully at ease,
Feel into the connection with the space that you're in and beyond,
You may feel drawn to visualise the tranquillity and restfulness of a particular part of the natural world that you feel drawn to,
Could be woodlands,
Beaches,
Mountain lakes,
Whatever you feel most drawn to,
As you hold these tranquil spaces in your mind,
Feel deeply connected,
Feel held by these spaces,
Feel a deep gratitude for the space that you're visualising and the nature that resides within that space,
Knowing that a part of the nature of that space resides within you here as you rest deeply and completely,
Rest here with your attention in your heart centre for just a moment more,
Now with your attention still on your heart centre,
Bring back your sankalpa intention for this practice and either whisper it in your minds eye or see it forming in the frame of your consciousness,
Feel deep gratitude for your intention here,
Knowing that it has been received and the wheels are in motion to make it happen,
All you need to do is rest as your authentic self and wait,
It will come,
Allow your intuition to guide you as you ask yourself this question,
Has your seed of intention within your heart space changed throughout this practice?
Trust whatever your intuition is sending you in this moment on how or if your golden seed of intention in your heart space has changed throughout this practice,
Now in your minds eye whisper,
I am practicing yoga nidra,
With your eyes still closed feel into the support beneath you and start to bring your awareness back into your senses,
Hearing the sounds around you,
My voice,
Take a breath through your nose and focus in on anything you might be able to smell and gently move now in whatever way feels wakeful to you,
Slowly gathering your attention back into your waking life,
Your yoga nidra practice is complete,
So when you're ready you can open your eyes and allow them to adjust back into the day,
Allowing yourself to be present,
And thank you so much for joining me on this practice today,
If you want to get better sleep and it feels good for you feel free to revisit this practice regularly,
I'm happy to create a variation if you're listening regularly for sleep improvements so that it keeps things fresh,
Simply leave a comment with the request and I'll happily make another one,
And I'd love to hear how you found this practice today,
And if you want more practices like this feel free to subscribe,
I'm looking forward to having you back on another practice here with the wellness words.
