Yoga Nidra 20 Minutes

Yoga Nidra is a powerful relaxation and meditation technique derived from ancient tantra and developed by Swami Satyananda of the Bihar School of Yoga. This technique induces deep body-mind relaxation with the ultimate goal of increasing self-awareness. The Yoga Nidra technique enables you to remain aware while you enter into the dream and sleeping states of consciousness. The state of Yoga Nidra occurs when you can remain conscious during the deep sleep state. Please enjoy this session.

Transcript

Hi,

My name is Emma Queen and I'm going to take you on a journey through a four-stage yoga nidra.

So just make yourself very comfortable.

Preparing now for the practice of yoga nidra,

Make sure that you're comfortable,

Preferably lying down upon your bed or on the floor.

Make sure your phone is turned off or on silent and you won't be disturbed for the next 20 or so minutes.

Preferably lying in a position of savasana,

Your feet are hip width apart and your palms are facing up.

You can use a pillow or a bolster underneath your knees or perhaps a small pillow or blanket underneath your neck to support your head.

Make sure you're laying comfortably and that you'll be warm enough as your body temperature can often drop during this practice.

And if you haven't already perhaps cover yourself with a shawl or a blanket,

Making sure that you'll remain warm enough for the duration of this practice.

As you feel yourself laying on that floor just start bringing awareness now to your breath.

Notice that you're breathing,

Taking a few gentle inhales and exhales.

And now from wherever you are fully exhale the breath letting it all go and take a full deep inhale.

When the breath is full seal the lips and hold the breath.

Now open your mouth and release the breath with an ahhh.

Then again take a full breath in,

Seal your lips,

Hold the breath,

This time squeezing all the muscles of your entire body.

Clench the fists,

Curl the toes,

All the muscles in the arms and the legs.

Activate the core muscles,

The abdomen,

The chest.

Scrunch up your face,

Squeeze all the muscles and open your mouth and let it go.

And again full breath in,

Seal the lips,

Squeeze all the muscles,

Hands,

Arms,

Feet,

Legs,

Core,

Chest,

All the muscles of your back,

The neck muscles.

Scrunch up the face and then let it all go.

Gently breathing now,

Not holding the breath.

Yet with each exhale continue to relax,

Letting go of tension and imagining that your body is like a pool of water expanding out towards the floor.

Inhale fully and as you exhale feel the plane of contact between your back body and the floor is slowly expanding.

Bringing your awareness now to the dimension of sound.

Activate your sense of hearing and send your awareness outwards,

Outside as far as you can hear,

Listening for the sounds of the loudest and possibly the furthest away.

Notice each sound and bear witness for a moment and let it go.

Gently move on and find another sound.

Again when you hear it bear witness and let it go.

In this way the awareness moves,

Exploring the outer space,

Moving steadily and consistently from sound to sound.

There's no need to interpret the sounds,

To even decide if it's a pleasant or unpleasant sound.

This is a practice of pure listening.

Just hear the sound,

That's enough.

Bringing your awareness closer towards yourself,

Tuning your attention towards the more subtle sounds,

Seeking to discover some of your personal sounds.

Perhaps you can hear the sound of gentle ringing in your ears,

Perhaps you can hear the sound of your heart beating and imagine you can hear the sound of blood moving through your veins.

Perhaps you can hear the sound of your own breath resting the attention there.

Bring full attention now towards the sound of your own breath.

Just laying there feeling your body relax even more as you go deeper and deeper into relaxation,

Noticing your breath,

Noticing your body touching the ground,

Breathing in and out with nowhere to go,

Nowhere to be,

Just letting it all go.

At this stage in the practice the attention will move through the physical body.

Different body parts will be named in as they are.

Bring full awareness to that part and visualise it if possible and mentally repeat the name of the part.

Starting with your right hand thumb,

Index finger,

Middle finger,

Ring finger,

Little finger,

Palm of the hand,

Back of the hand,

Wrist,

Lower arm,

Elbow,

Upper arm,

Shoulder,

Armpit,

Right side of chest,

Waist,

Right hip,

Thigh,

Knee,

Shin,

Ankle,

Sole of the right foot,

Top of the right foot,

Right big toe,

Second toe,

Third toe,

Fourth toe,

Fifth toe,

Whole right side of the body,

Whole right leg and foot,

Whole right arm and hand,

Moving to the left side,

The left hand thumb,

Index finger,

Middle finger,

Ring finger,

Little finger,

Palm of the hand,

Back of the hand,

Wrist,

Lower arm,

Elbow,

Upper arm,

Shoulder,

Armpit,

Left side of chest,

Waist,

Left hip,

Thigh,

Knee,

Shin,

Ankle,

Sole of the left foot,

Top of the foot,

Left big toe,

Second toe,

Third toe,

Fourth toe,

Fifth toe,

Whole side of the body,

Whole left leg and foot,

Whole left arm and hand,

Focus on your right side,

Right hand thumb,

Index finger,

Middle finger,

Ring finger,

Little finger,

Palm of the hand,

Back of the hand,

The wrist,

Lower arm,

Elbow,

Upper arm,

Shoulder,

Armpit,

Right side of chest,

Waist,

Right hip,

Thigh,

Knee,

Shin,

Ankle,

Sole of the right foot,

Top of the foot,

Right big toe,

Second toe,

Third toe,

Fourth toe,

Fifth toe,

Whole right side of the body,

Focusing now on the left side,

Left hand thumb,

Index finger,

Middle finger,

Ring finger,

Little finger,

Palm of the hand,

Back of the hand,

Wrist,

Lower arm,

Elbow,

Upper arm,

Shoulder,

Armpit,

Left side of chest,

Waist,

Left hip,

Thigh,

Knee,

Shin,

Ankle,

Sole of the left foot,

Top of the foot,

Left big toe,

Second toe,

Third toe,

Fourth toe,

Fifth toe,

Whole left side of the body,

Whole right leg and foot,

Whole left leg and foot,

Both legs together,

Both feet together,

Whole right arm and hand,

Whole left arm and hand,

Both arms and hands together,

Whole torso,

The neck and head,

The torso,

Neck and head together,

Whole right side,

Whole left side,

Whole back,

Whole front,

Whole body together,

Whole body together,

Whole body together,

Directing the awareness now towards the observation of the breath in the abdomen,

Watching as the belly rises and falls within each inhalation and exhalation.

We're not going to add a count to this practice,

Counting the breath from 20 down to zero.

We can begin together with a full exhalation from wherever you are,

Then inhaling the belly button rising for 20,

Exhale,

The belly button falls for 20,

Inhaling,

The belly button rises for 19,

Exhaling,

The belly button falls for 19,

Inhale,

Belly button rises for 18,

Exhale,

Belly button falls 18,

Continuing in this way,

Watching the rise and fall of the belly button with the inhale and exhale from the count from 20 down to zero.

Staying awake,

Staying committed to the practice,

Observing the fall and rise of breath of the belly button and the count from 20 towards zero.

If you lose track of the count,

Return back to 20 or if you get to zero,

Return back to 20.

Wherever you are now with this practice,

Let go of the count and guide your attention now towards the nostrils,

Observing the breath firstly at the tip of the nostrils,

Noticing that subtle touch as the breath enters and exits at the tip of the nostrils.

Perhaps you can notice a slight variance between the temperature of the inhale and the exhale.

Now bringing a count to this practice,

Counting the breath in the nostrils from 10 down to zero.

Again,

Let's start together with the full exhalation and then observe the inhalation for the count of 10 and exhale for 10.

Inhale the breath at the nostrils for 9,

Exhale for 9,

Continuing in this way,

Observing the inhale and the exhale of the breath at the nostrils and the count from 10 towards zero.

Trying to stay awake,

Staying committed to the practice,

Observing the inhale and exhale of the breath at the nostrils and the count of 10 towards zero.

If you lose track of the count,

Return back to 10 or if you get to zero,

Return back to 10.

Now wherever you are with this count,

Letting go of the practice,

Letting go of the count and any effort with the breath,

Keeping the awareness internal,

Allowing the mind to be at rest with your inner peace.

There is nothing to do.

Allow your awareness to rest.

Gently bringing the attention back towards the breath now,

Observing the touch of the inhale and exhale,

Sensing if you can feel the sensation of air upon the skin of your face and upon any other exposed parts of your skin.

Feel now the weight of your body upon the floor.

Feel the weight of the coverings upon you.

Trace a line around the perimeter of your body,

Becoming more aware of the outline of your body and the position of your body in the room.

Hear now if you can hear the sound of your own breath and see if you can hear any other sounds within the room.

Become aware of sounds outside the room,

The sounds of the day.

Know what is making those sounds,

Remembering where you are,

Remembering what time it is.

Know that you've been practicing Yoga Nidra and that practice is now coming to an end.

Bring awareness to your breath and take a deep inhale,

Breathing awareness into your arms and legs and hands and feet,

Fingers and toes.

The next time that you breathe,

Invite some small movement.

Wiggle the fingers and toes.

When you're ready,

Perhaps have a little stretch and gently roll onto your right side.

Taking as long as you need and when you're ready,

Slowly sitting up.

The practice of Yoga Nidra is complete.

Hurry up and tap sat.