Yoga Nidra For Sleep

Allow yourself to drift effortlessly into a deep, restorative slumber with this Yoga Nidra for sleep. This practice is a powerful tool for reducing stress, alleviating anxiety, and improving the quality of your sleep. By regularly engaging in Yoga Nidra, you'll nurture your mind, body and spirit. Embrace this opportunity to connect with your inner peace, letting go of the day's worries and welcoming a serene, rejuvenating rest. I hope you wake from this practice feeling refreshed and renewed, let me know how you find it in the comments & follow for more practices.

Transcript

Welcome to this unique yoga nidra practice for creating the conditions in your mind and body for deep,

Restorative sleep.

The techniques in this practice work by allowing you to access a slower brainwave state,

Allowing you to reach yogic sleep.

But before we start,

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.

To begin,

Make yourself comfortable and take a few moments to move into a position that feels restful and cosy.

Yoga nidra is traditionally practiced lying on the back in shavasana.

You may wish to use blankets,

Supports for your joints or an eye pillow to block out the light and get as comfortable as you can be in this moment.

Take a moment to sense into your body and notice if there is any area of discomfort that you are accepting in this moment.

Take a moment to release that discomfort by either providing a support or consciously relaxing it down with your mind.

And if you haven't already,

You can close down the eyes or take a soft gaze and ask yourself,

How does my body wish to be breathed in this moment?

Or,

What breath would my body be most receptive to here in this moment?

And for a few breaths,

Simply breathe in the way that you are guided to.

You may be drawn to a deep sigh,

An audible breath,

Or even humming or a mantra.

If you are not yet accustomed to asking intuitive questions,

You may not get a clear answer here and that is okay.

Simply trust that your intuition will reveal itself to you whenever it's ready.

And if nothing comes to you,

It may mean that you don't need to breathe any differently than you currently are.

Just take a few moments now to just notice the breath in whichever way your intuition is guiding you to breathe.

And now move your attention away from your breath and allow your attention to drift into your mind and bring to your mind your expectations for this practice and yourself or how you're day should have gone or should be going.

You may feel you expect to feel a certain way from this practice.

As you bring your expectations into your frame of consciousness,

You may notice some resistance or words like should,

Could,

Want.

Just notice without judgement what is coming up for you and allow these expectations to float into your frame of consciousness without changing anything about them.

With each expectation that you are noticing,

Imagine you could gather them up in your mind and place them in a jar,

Like collecting grains of sand from the beach.

Scoop up all of your expectations for yourself,

This practice,

Your sleep,

Scoop them up into this supportive jar.

Once you have all the expectations in your jar,

Imagine screwing the lid and release the jar in whatever way your intuition guides you to.

You may watch it bob away in the sea,

Or you may just pop it up on a shelf,

But whichever way you are guided to release these expectations,

Feel into the release in your body as you do this.

Feel the relief throughout your entire body as you release your expectations and on your next exhale,

Really deeply feel into the release of having no expectations for yourself for the duration of this practice.

Rest your attention on your heart space and imagine your heart space is cleared of any weight.

Sense into lightness or freedom here in your heart centre.

With your attention on your heart centre,

Take a moment to ponder on what brought you here today.

This is your sankalpa,

Your reason for practicing.

You may find it supportive to translate this sankalpa into a supportive I or I am statement such as I am creating the conditions in my body for a restful sleep.

Now imagine placing your attention at your heart space and allow this sankalpa to rest here for just a moment,

Being absorbed into your heart space.

Feel as your heart space is fully receptive to your reason,

Your sankalpa.

Drift your attention now to the sensations that you feel at the top of your head and imagine a pinpoint of light,

The light of attention,

Illuminating the sensations on the top of your head.

Now point this light of attention down to your forehead centre,

Feeling into the sensations here at the forehead centre or your third eye.

Both eyes and sense into the sensations here and any tiny muscle movements in your eyes.

Now drift the pinpoint of light of attention to your left ear,

The space between your ears,

Your right ear,

Your left nostril.

Feel into the breath as you inhale in through your left nostril.

And now your right nostril,

Sensing into the breath and the sensation of the breath in through your right nostril.

Both nostrils together,

The whole nose,

Both cheeks,

The inside of your mouth and any sensations here.

You may notice the temperature of the inside of your mouth,

Top row of teeth,

Bottom row of teeth,

Your tongue.

Notice your tongue position as you place the pinpoint light of attention here and allow your attention to relax it down.

Place the pinpoint light of attention on the sensations at the centre of your throat,

The base of the throat,

Your heart centre,

Left side of the chest,

Left shoulder,

Armpit,

Upper arm,

Elbow,

Lower arm,

Your left wrist,

The palm of your left hand,

Right in the centre as a pinpoint on the palm of your left hand.

All your fingers on your left hand together,

Imagining they each have a pinpoint light of attention placed on them all at once.

Now drift to your navel centre,

The left side of your waist,

Left hip bone,

Pelvis,

Thigh,

Left knee,

Calf muscle,

Left ankle,

Heel,

The sole of your left foot,

Top of the foot.

Each toe together,

Each one with a pinpoint light of attention placed upon them.

Bring your attention now back up to your heart centre.

Feel the sensations here at your heart centre.

Now to the right side of your chest,

Left side of your chest,

Your right shoulder,

Armpit,

Upper arm,

Elbow,

Lower arm,

Your right wrist,

The palm of your right hand and each finger together with a pinpoint of light at each finger,

Illuminating the sensations all at once.

Move the pinpoint of light now to your navel centre,

The right side of your waist,

The right side of your hip bone,

Pelvis,

Thigh,

Knee,

Calf muscle,

Ankle,

The right heel,

The sole of your right foot,

The pinpoint of attention right on the top of your right foot and now allowing individual pinpoints of attention to illuminate the sensations in each of your right toes together.

Drift your attention now back to your navel centre and imagine the pinpoint of light expanding into a supportive light in whichever colour feels supportive for you and whichever texture feels supportive and warming in a really comfortable,

Soothing way.

And allow this light to allow you to sense into the whole of your right leg together and now the whole of your left leg and both legs together now,

Illuminating both legs and all the sensations and any vibrations you can feel in both legs together.

Illuminate the sensations in the whole of your right arm and now the whole left arm.

Sense into the sensations in both arms together with this supportive cocooning light.

Allow this cocooning light to illuminate the sensations in the entire back body,

The back of your legs,

The glutes,

Your back torso,

Back of your neck and the back of your head all together as one.

And now drift your attention to the whole front body,

Illuminating and cocooning the front of your legs,

The front of your pelvis,

The torso and abdomen,

The throat and the face,

Feeling the sensations in the whole front body together.

And now sense into the whole body together cocooned by a supportive,

Comforting light,

The light of deep rest and rejuvenation.

And now as you rest here deeply,

Imagine the outline of your body is being gently erased,

Starting from your toes and imagining the outline is getting thinner or blurrier,

Blending into the support below,

Becoming one with your environment.

Trace the outline around your body in whichever way feels intuitive,

Imagining it getting blurrier and blurrier.

Imagine that as you have blurred with your surroundings and the support beneath you,

Your capacity has increased,

You are at one with your surroundings,

The air around you,

The nature beyond your body is now a part of your capacity,

You are part of this beautiful web of existence.

And now,

Simply by resting here deeply,

Recharging your battery,

Absorb this capacity of nature as your own,

And feel your capacity to rest and to relax,

Deepen,

Knowing that you are supported by all that exists around you,

Without changing anything about your breath,

As you breathe in through your nose,

Imagine breathing in this limitless connection and support that you have from your natural surroundings,

Available to you always.

As you breathe out,

Feel yourself resting deeper,

Sensing your body naturally absorbing the support and the environment that is enabling you to rest here,

Resting deeply,

Bask here in this restful condition that you have created for yourself,

And without moving or efforting in any way,

Just notice in your mind how it is to be in this state of deep rest you have created for yourself,

And know that this resource is always available to you whenever you need a reset,

Whenever you need connection and support,

And sense into your heart center,

Whichever way you feel invited to,

Send deep gratitude and thanks deep into your heart space for practicing today,

Allow whatever comes up to simply be,

There is no need to refine or judge,

You are allowing your subconscious mind the freedom to integrate this message in whichever way is needed,

Simply allow the gratitude to rest in your heart space,

With your attention still on your heart space,

Remind yourself of the reason for practicing today,

Your sankalpa,

I am creating the conditions in my body for a restful sleep,

And imagine that your reason for practicing has created a wave of prana,

Of energy throughout your body,

And inhale that wave up from the soles of your feet,

Inhale through the body to the top of your head,

And then exhale the wave back down from the top of your head out through the soles of your feet,

Inhale up through your body from the soles of your feet,

And exhale back down from the top of your head,

Feeling the wave moving through your body through the soles of your feet,

Repeat this again in your own rhythm and shape,

Sensing in to the energy exchange as the wave of prana moves up through your body,

And the energy moves back down and is released to the earth,

And now in your mind simply whisper and become aware of the words,

I am practicing yoga nidra,

I am practicing yoga nidra,

And with your eyes still closed begin to feel in to the texture of the support beneath you,

Feel in to the depth and the property of the support,

You may wish to use your palms to sense the texture,

Or allow your back body to do the sensing in to the support beneath you,

Focusing in on the sounds around you,

Or my voice,

Or my voice,

And become aware of your surroundings,

The room or environment that you are in,

Whenever you're ready begin to move in whatever way feels really wakeful to you,

Slowly and lightly,

If you get the urge to move quicker,

Consciously slow down even more.

Your yoga nidra practice is now complete,

So whenever you're ready,

Open your eyes and take a moment in stillness to just allow yourself to adjust to your waking life and presence.

I hope that you have enjoyed this practice today,

If you're practicing this at night your brainwaves will be in the perfect state to begin your night of restful sleep,

And if you're practicing this during the daytime you can use these slow relaxed brainwaves to move through your day more mindfully and with more mental clarity and nervous system regulation.

If you feel drawn to sharing your experience of this practice today,

You can leave a comment,

I really do experience deep joy from reading about each unique experience of these practices,

And if you have enjoyed this practice feel free to subscribe or even share so that we can bring these restful practices to more and more people all around the world to spread the life-changing experience and magic of deep rest to as many people as possible.

Thank you so much for practicing here with me today on the wellness words.