Welcome to your practice today.
My name is Em and I will be guiding you through some yoga nidra meditation techniques that bring your body-mind into a state of deep restorative rest.
Move your body into a comfortable position.
You may have found that your body temperature drops during yoga nidra practice so you may find it supportive to bring blankets to your practice today.
Slowly feel your body melting into the support below,
Almost as if your body could become liquid,
Like candle wax supported by the earth as it melts down.
In your mind,
Switch off any effort in your shoulders and your arms.
Notice how you're holding your hands.
Are they clenched or holding on?
If so,
Just allow them to comfortably open and mentally switch off any effort in your hips,
Back,
Knees and ankles.
Lift your head a couple of times to release any tight spots from the back of your neck.
Notice if you feel any part of your body that hasn't yet melted into the support below you.
And with your mind,
Imagine that part of your body is like candle wax and allow it to just liquefy into the support beneath you,
Knowing that the earth is cradling your body and there's no need to hold on to any effort here.
Take a deep breath in through your nose,
And as you exhale through your mouth in an audible sigh,
Imagine releasing all the expectations on you today with your exhale.
One more time,
Breathe in through your nose,
And audibly exhale through your mouth.
Feel your body becoming lighter with each exhale.
And remind yourself that it's okay for this practice to feel completely free from how things should be or how you should or could feel during or after the practice.
Simply allow yourself to release all these expectations on yourself.
Allow your mind and body to experience whatever it is it's experiencing as you rest back deeper.
Place your awareness on your third eye center between the brows.
Take a moment to allow your attention to fully permeate this space and reflect here on the reason that you would like to quiet or declutter your mind.
You may wish to stop identifying with your anxious thoughts,
You may wish to experience more peace and contentment or less self-judgment.
Simply allow your intuition to guide you to what feels right for today.
Whatever has come up is your heart-led reason for practicing your Sankalpa.
So take a moment to allow your Sankalpa to take form as an I or I am statement.
A Sankalpa that may resonate with you today is I observe my thoughts with compassion and let them go.
Repeat your Sankalpa in your mind's eye and with your awareness still on your third eye center,
Allow your intention to integrate here at this space however your intuition is guiding you to do this.
Simply watch as it integrates.
And now drift your awareness from your third eye and place the awareness onto your breath.
Notice the natural rhythm of breath flowing through your body.
And as you do this,
Notice where you feel most drawn to experiencing the breath.
Maybe your nostrils,
Deep in your belly or even your throat.
And on your next inhale,
In your mind's eye,
Whisper the mantra here and on your exhale,
Mentally whisper and now.
Inhale here,
Exhale and now.
Maintain the here and now mantra in your mind as you breathe naturally,
Without changing the breath.
Here and now.
Allow your body to rest further into the earth beneath you when you exhale and now.
Allowing yourself to rest deeper and deeper.
As you inhale here,
Exhale and now.
And now drift your attention to your right hand thumb and feel the sensations.
Anything you feel at your right hand thumb,
Your second finger,
Third finger,
Fourth finger and your fifth finger.
The palm of your right hand,
Back of the hand and any sensation you feel here at the back of your hand.
The wrist,
Lower arm,
Right elbow,
Shoulder,
The right side of the waist,
Right side of the hip,
Right thigh,
The calf muscle,
The sole of the foot,
The right big toe and any sensations you feel the right big toe,
Second toe,
Third toe,
Fourth toe,
Fifth toe.
And now drift your awareness to the left side of your body with your left hand thumb,
Second finger,
Third finger,
Fourth finger,
Fifth finger,
The palm of the left hand,
Back of the hand,
Wrist,
Lower arm,
Any sensation you feel at your shoulder,
The armpit,
The left side of the waist,
The hip,
The left thigh,
Knee,
Calf muscle,
Ankle,
The heel,
The sole of the left foot,
The top of the foot,
The left big toe,
Second toe,
Third toe,
Fourth toe and your fifth toe.
Now drift your awareness to the back of your right shoulder,
Left shoulder,
Right shoulder,
All the way down your back and the spine.
Imagine your awareness could cascade down from the top of your spine all the way down to the base of your spine and now sense into the whole of the back together as one.
And now the whole front of your body,
Sensing any sensation as you feel the whole of the front of your torso as one.
And now bring your awareness to your heart centre,
The pit of the throat,
Middle of the throat,
The inside of the mouth,
The tongue and the tongue position.
Feel the quality inside your mouth,
The temperature and the textures,
Both cheeks,
Both nostrils,
Both eyes and any sensation you can feel at the muscle of the eyes,
The forehead centre,
The top of the head.
And now imagine you could feel the whole of the body resting,
Resting deeper as you sense into the whole of your body together as one.
Imagine you could breathe in from the top of your head,
Drawing your inhale from the top of your head and as you're inhaling,
Feel the breath drawing down to your navel centre.
And then imagine you could exhale the breath out of your navel centre.
As you're inhaling,
Draw the breath from the top of your head,
Inhaling all the way down to your navel centre and then exhale the breath out of your navel centre.
There's no need to change the breath here,
Just use your natural breath as you're resting.
It may take a few inhales to connect to the sensation of drawing the air down through your body on the inhale and exhaling out through your navel centre.
Again,
Inhale through the point at the top of your head,
Imagining you're drawing nourishment down into your body and then exhaling anything that doesn't serve you out through your navel centre into the air taken away with the breeze.
Remember,
However you're experiencing this is exactly what your body needs right now.
Draw the air in through the top of your head,
Exhaling through your navel centre.
Continue breathing in this way in your own time as you deepen your rest.
Maintain your current breathing pattern with the inhale being drawn down to your navel centre and the exhale exhaling out of your navel centre,
But this time bring back the mantra here and now.
As you draw the inhale through the top of your head,
Repeat the mantra here and as you exhale through your navel centre,
Repeating your mind and now.
Inhaling here,
Exhaling and now.
Inhaling here,
Exhaling and now.
Continue this in your own time as you breathe naturally here and now.
Release the awareness on your breath and take this moment now to bask in the presence that you have created for yourself here.
Be aware of the connection you have with yourself in this moment and all that is as you rest here deeply.
Sense the deep connection with every layer of your being as you rest here in your true nature here and now.
Without the story,
Without the chatter or the striving,
You are simply here to be as you are in this moment.
Fill up with the quiet gratitude for yourself for taking this time to be present,
To be still and to reset your thoughts.
Connect to the sensation of just being,
The presence of deep rest.
And now remind yourself of the sankalpa you set for today at the start of the practice.
I observe my thoughts with compassion and let them go.
Allow this reminder of your intention to guide you in your waking life.
You may wish to remind yourself of your intention throughout the day as a way of providing pause or recentering yourself and allowing your thoughts to settle.
Begin to expand your awareness out from your mind and body and back into your surroundings.
With your eyes still closed,
Take a mental note of where you are in relation to your surroundings.
In your mind whisper,
I am practicing yoga nidra.
Notice the weight of your body on the support beneath you and sense into any sounds around you and my voice.
And whenever you're ready make some slow movements that feel soothing but also wakeful.
And whenever you're ready you can open your eyes but maintain some small movements until you're fully adjusted back to your waking state.
Your brainwaves remain slow for a short time after practicing yoga nidra so now is a great time to reflect on any insights that you have gathered from this practice today.
Reflect on your awareness of your thoughts.
Did it feel like you had lots of thoughts whirring in your mind throughout the practice?
At some point,
Did your mind settle significantly?
Or not?
Reflect on your experience without judgment.
And each time you practice your experience will be different.
If your mind has a lot to process,
You may naturally sense more thoughts.
But the great thing is you have provided the space today for your mind to process.
And you may wish to journal on this experience to see if there are any more insights from your subconscious that you would wish to become consciously aware of.
You might be surprised at what you find.
And your challenge today to take with you in your waking life is to take a mental reset when you feel your mind is becoming loaded with chatter.
And in this reset,
Take just a moment to repeat the mantra here and now.
You may find it supportive to follow the breathing pattern as we have in this practice and just repeat a few times.
You only need to do this reset for a minute or so and then return to your activities.
This can be done really easily if you're out and about,
At work or in the house just taking a moment.
You only need to do this for a minute or so each time.
If you commit to doing it too long each time it may start feeling like a burden or something else to schedule.
The idea is that this practice,
This here and now is kept light and kept as a supportive tool that you can use any time.
The more you practice the more neural connections are built that make it easier and easier to release that mental chatter that builds throughout your day.
So you may wish to return to today's practice to strengthen those neural connections.
And if you have any questions from this practice or anything you'd like to share with the community please leave a comment below and I will get back to you.
And whenever you're ready to practice next,
I'll be here.
Take care.
