Welcome to this 45 minute yoga nature practice.
Before we begin,
Please lie down on your back in a comfortable position.
Grabbing a blanket or any other props you need to make yourself feel comfortable and relaxed.
As you move into Shavasana.
Lie down with your arms slightly away from the body with your eyes closed.
Allow your eyes to close gently and let them stay closed for the entirety of this practice.
You do not need to open them again.
Until you are invited to do so.
Please take a moment to acknowledge.
That you have arrived here.
Whatever you carried in with you.
The weight of the day.
The thoughts still moving through your mind.
The things yet undone.
You can set them all down.
Not forever.
Just for now.
You can pick it all back up again.
Once we are finished.
If you choose to do so.
But for the next 45 minutes,
There's nothing required of you.
Nothing to fix,
Nothing to plan,
Nothing to understand.
You are simply here to rest.
Begin by noticing the surface beneath you.
Feel the floor,
The mat.
The blanket.
Pressing back against the weight of your body.
Let that pressure hold you.
You do not need to hold yourself up.
The earth is holding you completely.
Bring your attention to your feet.
Simply notice them.
The soles of your feet.
The tops of your feet.
The spaces between your toes.
Not moving them,
Just knowing that they are there.
Become aware of your legs resting heavy on the floor.
Your calves.
The backs of your knees.
Your thighs,
Heavy and still.
Allow your hips to soften.
Often we carry tension here without realizing it.
And a long day of sitting.
A kind of bracing.
Of readiness.
Let that go now.
Let your hips fall a little wider.
A little heavier.
Surrendering their weight completely to the floor.
Your lower back.
The middle of your back.
Your upper back between the shoulder blades.
Feel the curve of your spine against the mat.
Each vertebra release.
Each muscle along either side of your spine,
Letting go.
Your shoulders.
Let them fall away from your ears.
A little further.
A little more as they relax.
Allow them to melt into the floor beneath you.
Happy.
And why?
Her arms lie quietly at your sides.
Your upper arms.
The bend of your elbows.
Your forearms and wrists.
Your hands resting open or slightly closed,
Whichever feels most natural for you.
Your arms.
Bring awareness to your chest.
Notice how it rises with each breath in.
And falls with each breath out.
You're not controlling the breath,
You're simply observing it.
Like watching waves move across the surface of a still lake.
Your abdomen,
The soft,
Found rise of it as you inhale.
The gentle falling as you exhale.
Nothing to hold in here.
Nothing to protect.
Simply softening and relaxing.
Your neck.
The long column of your throat.
The back of your neck,
Resting on the mat or on your blanket.
Let the muscles of your neck become loose,
Long.
Easy.
Your jaw.
This is where so many of us carry the day.
Let your teeth part slightly.
Your tongue falls away from the roof of your mouth.
Your lips become soft.
Your cheeks,
Release.
The space around your eyes so often tightly held even when resting.
Let those muscles become utterly smooth and still.
Your eyelids are heavy.
Effortlessly closed.
Your forehead,
That space between the eyebrows where thinking so often lodges itself.
Let it become wide and smooth as if the skin is releasing outward in every direction.
Nothing to figure out.
Nothing to understand.
Simply space.
And the crown of your head at the very top.
A gentle softening.
Opening upwards.
Take one long slow breath in through your nose.
Feeling your belly,
Your chest,
The very tops of your lungs.
And releasing it completely with a long,
Slow exhale through the mouth.
Let that breath carry away anything still holding on.
And now let your breath return to its natural effortless rhythm.
You are deeply relaxed.
You are our way.
Now take a moment to bring your sankalpa,
Your resolve,
Your intention to mind.
Allow it to form clearly and simply in your awareness.
Your sankalpa should be short and simple,
Present tense and positive.
Such as I am calm,
I am at peace.
I am whole.
Feel the words rather than think them.
Offer your sankalpa once more with complete sincerity and trust and then let it go like a seed dropped into the deep fertile soil.
How let's move our awareness through our bodies,
Point by point.
As each part is named,
Simply bring your awareness to it for a moment.
You do not need to move it,
Visualize it,
Or consciously relax it.
Just know it.
Touching it with your awareness and passing on.
Stay awake.
If you feel yourself drifting towards sleep,
Allow a faint resolve to arise.
I will remain awake.
Not with effort,
But a gentle intention to stay at the threshold.
Let us begin.
Right thumb.
The first finger of the right hand.
Second finger.
Third thinker.
Fourth vector.
The palm of the right hand.
The back of the right hand.
The right wrist.
The right forearm.
The right elbow.
The upper right arm.
The right shoulder.
The right side of the chest.
The right side of the waist.
The right hip.
The right side.
The right page.
The right shin.
The right calf.
The right ankle.
The right heel.
The sole of the right foot.
The right big tip.
Second toe.
Third toe.
Fourth toe.
Death to all.
Left thumb.
The first finger of the left hand.
Second thinker.
Third finger.
Fourth finger.
The palm of the left hand.
The back of the left hand.
The left wrist.
The left forearm.
The left elbow.
The upper left arm.
The left shoulder.
The left side of the chest.
The left side of the waist.
The left hip.
The front of the left thigh.
The left knee.
The left shin.
The left calf.
The left ankle.
The left heel.
The sole of the left foot.
The left big toe.
Second toe.
Third toe.
Fourth toe.
Yes,
Ciao.
The right side of the back.
The left side of the back.
The right shoulder blade.
The left shoulder blade.
The right buttocks.
The left button.
The base of the spine.
The right heel.
The left heel.
The back of the right knee.
The back of the left knee.
The back of the right thigh.
The back of the left thigh.
The right buttock.
The left bottom.
The navel.
The solar plexus.
The stardom,
The center of the chest.
The throat.
The right collarbone.
The left collarbone.
The right side of the jaw.
The left side of the jaw.
The right ear.
A left ear.
The right temple.
The left temple.
The right eye.
The wasp died.
The right eyebrow.
The left eyebrow.
The space between the eyebrows.
The right nostril.
The left nostril.
The upper lip.
The lower lip.
The chin.
The throat.
The center of the chest.
The navel.
The center of the lower abdomen.
The whole right arm.
The whole left arm.
The whole right leg.
The whole left leg.
The whole back of the body.
The whole front of the body.
The whole face.
The whole head.
Now the entire body from the crown of the head to the tips of the toes,
The whole body resting,
Whole,
Complete,
At rest.
Bring your attention now to the natural movement of your breath.
You're not changing it,
Not deepening it or slowing it,
Simply observing.
Like watching clouds move across an open sky.
You're not the clouds.
You're the sky.
Notice the breath entering the nostrils,
The slight coolness of the incoming air.
The gentle warmth of the exhale.
Feel the tiny paws at the top of the inhale.
The brief stillness at the bottom of the exhale.
These thresholds,
These moments of pure suspension.
We will count the breaths together now,
Backwards from 27.
Each time you exhale,
Silently note the number.
Inhale.
Exhale.
27.
Inhale.
Exhale.
26 Continue in this way silently with complete attention.
If you lose count,
Simply return to 27 and begin again.
There is no failure here.
Only return.
Letting go of the count now,
Simply rest in the awareness of the breath,
This faithful,
Tireless companion that has been with you since your birth and will remain until you're lost.
Now we enter a practice of opposites.
As each sensation is named,
Simply allow your body and mind to call forth the felt experience of it as visibly as you can.
Hold it for a moment,
Then release it entirely before the next one arrives.
This is not imagination.
This is felt experience.
Feel the sensation of heaviness.
Your body heavy.
Pressing down,
Sinking into the earth.
Happy.
Happy.
Very heavy.
Now release that completely and feel its opposite lightness.
Your body is light,
Airy,
Barely touching the floor.
Light as a feather,
Floating.
Weightless.
And release.
Feel the sensation of warmth.
A gentle spreading warmth moving through your body from your core outward to your fingertips and toes.
Comfortable heat.
Now release and feel coolness,
A freshness on your skin,
A cool breeze moving across your face,
The backs of your hands,
Cool and refreshed.
And release.
Feel the sensation of pleasure,
A pleasant sensation somewhere in the body.
Allow it to expand,
To spread,
To fill you completely.
And release.
Now invite the sensation of pain or discomfort,
Something dull,
Unpleasant,
Perhaps an old age.
You are not creating suffering,
You are simply knowing it the way you know the weather,
Observing it without becoming it.
And release.
Let it dissolve completely.
Feel joy,
A simple,
Uncomplicated happiness.
Perhaps the memory of a beautiful moment,
An embrace,
A perfect afternoon,
The sound of laughter.
Allow joy to rise in your chest,
Your throat,
Even the corners of your eyes.
And release.
Now sadness,
A soft,
Tender grief.
Let it be there without resistance,
Without adding to it or pushing it away.
Simply no.
And release.
Let both move through you like weather across a bast of sky.
Stillness,
Absolute stillness,
Every cell quiet.
And then movement,
A light tingling aliveness,
Energy humming through every tissue,
Stillness.
Perfect.
Peace,
Vitality,
Both equally welcome.
Both equally huge.
Allow your mind to become like a screen.
Receptive,
Open.
Whatever images arise now,
Simply allow them to appear and dissolve.
You're the witness effortlessly present.
A candle flame burning steadily in a dark room.
It's golden light casting long shadows on an ancient stone wall.
The open ocean at dawn,
Calm and silver stretching to the horizon.
The smell of salt.
The faint sound of waves.
A single white lotus floating perfectly still on the surface of dark water.
A forest at dusk,
Your walk in care,
Barefoot,
Along the path of soft earth and fallen leaves.
The trees are tall and still.
Through the canopy above,
The last light of evening filters down in long golden shafts.
You are completely safe.
Completely alone and completely at home.
Follow the path as it descends gently to the edge of the lake.
Waters dark and perfectly still.
You stand at the water's edge and look out across the surface.
The reflection of the sky,
Deepening now into violet,
Into blue,
Shimmers in the water.
Somewhere across the lake a single light glows.
You sit at the edge of this lake and rest.
There is nothing to do here.
Nowhere to be.
We are simply present,
Watching the surface of the water,
Feeling the cool,
Soft earth beneath you,
Listening to the absolute silence of this place.
A path of moonlight across the water,
Being away and away into the distance.
The sky overhead opening,
Star by star,
Until the whole dome of the night is alight with them.
Thousands of stars.
Millions.
You lie back on the soft earth and look up at them.
And for a moment,
You feel their great age.
Their silence.
The unimaginable distances between them.
And at the same time,
You feel somehow close to it all.
As if you and the stars are made of the same something.
A golden temple on a hillside,
Its doors open to the morning,
Stone steps leading up through the garden of white flowers.
Something ancient and familiar about it,
As if you have always known this place was here waiting.
The image of your own face,
Peaceful,
Open,
At rest,
Completely yourself.
Add all images now to solve.
The screen of your mind becomes clear,
Empty,
Luminous.
Return now to your sankalpa,
Your resolve,
Your intention.
Bring it gently to the surface of your awareness.
The mind is in its most receptive state as it can be.
What you plant here reaches the deepest layers of your being.
Offer your self-help now.
Three times with complete faith,
With a certainty that is already unfolding.
Trust that it has been received.
You do not need to hold on to it.
The seed has been planted.
Their roots will grow in their own time,
In their own way.
Very gently now begin to return.
Without hurrying,
There's no need to rush.
Begin to become aware of your physical body once more.
The weight of it resting on the floor.
The surface beneath you solid and supportive.
Become aware of the room around you.
The temperature of the air.
Any sounds from outside.
Traffic.
Birds,
This distant world continuing its life.
These sounds are no longer intrusions.
They are simply the texture of this moment.
Begin to deepen your breath.
A slow,
Full inhale.
Let this breath reach down into your belly.
And a long,
Complete exhale.
And again.
Bringing life and energy back into the body.
Wiggle your fingers,
Your toes.
Feeling sensation returning to your hands and feet.
Moving up through your limbs.
Take your time.
Stretch your arms over your head,
A long luxurious stretch,
The full length of your body.
And release.
Roll slowly onto one side,
Whichever side calls to you.
Bring your knees in toward your chest.
Resting a moment in this fetal position,
This posture of beginning.
Let the practice settle into you.
Using your arms to support you,
Press yourself slowly up to a seated position.
Keeping your eyes closed for just a moment longer.
Feeling yourself upright,
Grounded,
Present.
When you are ready,
Allow your eyes to open.
Let them open softly,
Not forcing them.
Let the light return gradually.
Thank you for joining me in this yoga nidra practice.
Namaste.
