Take some time to settle your body into the most comfortable position possible.
Look for the sweet spot where you feel your muscles begin to let go and surrender their holding.
Release thinking,
Release planning,
Release your brain from reflection and sink into sensing,
Feeling,
Being and breathing.
Let your breath flow like water.
Let your breath wash over your body like the gentlest waves at the edge of a warm sandy beach.
Feel it swell and ebb like the tide.
Inhale and exhale sweeping through your body like the tide.
Each breath a little different,
Each phase bringing something new,
Like the tide.
Offer your body the same wonder that you would a vast ocean,
Its rolling fathoms beckoning beneath a surface of sparkling sunlight.
Know that you can trust in your own depths and that there are untold treasures down there.
Surrender as much as possible to your own mysteries,
There is no need to solve them right now.
Take a soft inhale and allow the exhale to form a quietly contented sigh as you lean into a sense of carefree summer holiday self.
Nowhere to be but here,
Nothing to do but soften and sink into whatever is supporting you as the sea sinks into the sand.
Now take a moment to set your intention for your yoga nidra,
Anything that you would like to invite more of into your life.
Trust that whatever comes is perfect for right now.
Know also that you can simply relax in the comfort of no intention.
Frame your intention if you have one in the present tense and repeat it to yourself three times.
Colour it in,
Give it life,
Allow it to vibrate and take form in your head.
Then give thanks and let it go,
Give it over to the intuitive wisdom of your resting self,
Lifting on the warmth of a gentle breeze.
Breathe into your scalp,
Skin like good sweet earth,
The networks of blood vessels,
Follicles and nerves spreading like mycelium just under the surface,
This vast web endlessly offering you nourishment,
Kindness,
Support.
Let your awareness soak now into the hollow of your collarbones,
Soft rain on grateful ground,
Spreading outwards to soften shoulders,
Armpits,
Shoulder blades.
Find a little delight in your toes,
The gentlest wriggle of bare feet on warm grass.
Feel your own energetic roots spreading out to meet the earth and all her bounty.
Allow them to intermingle with the great web of life.
Smooth the space between your eyebrows,
The skin of your forehead and the many miraculous muscles around your eyes.
There is no reason to squint,
Strain or frown right now.
Sensation of cheeks,
Cheekbones,
Temples,
Lips,
Chin,
The slowing flow of air in and out of your nose.
Soften your jaw,
Feeling gums,
Teeth,
Tongue,
Whole face sensation,
Whole face setting like the sun.
Begin to notice how the ecosystem of your body is mirrored in the natural world,
How your body and yourself is irrevocably of the earth,
Our cycles,
Our breath,
Our lives intimately linked to the cycles of the day,
The season,
The year.
Feel the branches of your arms,
Sturdy enough to bear all kinds of fruit,
Supple enough to sway with life's breezes and weather life's storms.
Lay them down,
Let them rest,
Arms heavy.
Notice the shoots of your fingers and thumbs,
Like tender new leaves seeking sunlight.
Bathe fingers and thumbs in the warmth of your awareness,
Notice how they begin to soften on their own,
Curling gently in towards your palms with just a little attention,
Just a little kindness.
No need to think right now,
Just feel,
Just breathe,
Just be.
Breathe into the fullness of your torso,
Front and back planes of the body,
Moving with the flow of air,
Sides of the body,
Ribs gently rolling with your breath,
Body changing shape slowly in all directions.
Allow it to spread and expand with every inhale,
Allow it to release down with every exhale.
Each in-breath a reminder of your strength,
Each out-breath a mirror of your tenderness.
Give thanks for your resilience and your vitality and remind yourself that there is no need to hold onto them right now.
Make space for yourself to simply be.
Imagine your belly as a soft,
Perfectly ripe peach,
Exquisite,
Skin lightly covered with the softest fuzz.
Take a moment to appreciate how beautiful and fragrant it is,
The miracle of your own ripeness,
The abundance of this body.
Feel your body's radiance reflected in the miracle of nature,
And nature's generosity mirrored in your own flesh.
Open and release your hips and down the length of your thighs,
Summer holiday legs,
Nowhere to rush to,
Nowhere to be but here.
Let them melt just a little,
Breathing into the spaces behind your knees,
Sweeping the gentle breeze of your attention down your shin bones,
Your calves,
Into your ankles,
Heels,
The spaces between the very many bones of your feet.
Relax the soles of your feet as though they were sinking into warm sand.
Whole body sensation.
Whole body at rest.
Warm.
Comfortable.
Easeful.
Releasing all that does not serve us in this moment.
And returning to your essential nature.
Returning to peace.
Ripples spreading out,
Overlapping,
Hidden currents of peace,
On and on,
Deeper and down,
Like the sea.
