Yoga Nidra For Exploring Cycles

Explore the many cycles within and around you with another original Yoga Nidra by Garry Appel. We find cycles everywhere, from our physical presence to our breath, our sensations, emotions and thoughts. We explore these cycles in this Yoga Nidra practice. There is also the great cycle of birth and death, a difficult one to confront for many people. However, by exploring this grand cycle in Yoga Nidra, we come to accept its inevitability and find joy in its truth.

Transcript

Welcome.

My name is Gary,

And thank you for joining me for Yoganidra.

Let's begin our practice now.

So allow yourself to settle into Shavasana.

Lay down on your back,

And flip your palms so they face up.

Let your toes flop out a bit.

Take a moment to feel your body settling into your mat.

Now draw a deep breath in,

And then exhale and let the breath go.

Do that again.

Draw another deep breath in,

And exhale and let the breath go.

One more time.

Deep breath in,

And let it go.

Release the breath.

Let yourself,

Your whole body settle even more profoundly into your mat.

We're going to practice now a tension release technique that is used mostly in the Amrit method of Yoganidra.

And I borrow it from that lineage.

So bring your awareness to your fists,

And make a fist with both hands,

And then squeeze the fist really tightly.

Now tighten your forearms too,

And keep the fists clenched as well.

Now tighten your shoulders.

So the shoulders,

The upper arms,

The lower arms,

And the wrists are all tightly clenched.

Now,

Clench them even more and even tighter,

And then exhale and just let it go.

Release everything and feel the flood of energy into the arms.

Now tense the feet.

Flex the feet on both legs.

Now bring that tightness,

That tension into the calves,

And to the shins,

And the knees,

And the thighs.

Now squeeze,

Squeeze tighter,

Tighter still.

Now take a deep breath in and then exhale and just let the breath go.

Feel the flood of energy moving into the legs.

Now the whole body.

I want you to tense every single muscle that you can.

The fists,

The feet,

The arms,

The legs,

The shoulders,

The torso,

Your butt,

Everything.

Squeeze it,

Squeeze it as tight as you can.

Tighter still,

Even a little more.

Now take a deep breath in and as you exhale,

Release it all.

Let everything go and just feel the energy flooding into your whole body.

Let it all settle down.

Let's begin now with an intention for this practice.

In Sanskrit,

We call this a sankalpa.

And if you have an intention that you want to work with,

Feel free to use it.

If you'd like a suggestion for an intention,

My suggestion would be,

I see and accept all the cycles in the world.

Again,

I see and accept all the cycles in the world.

Now take a moment and then repeat your intention for this practice to yourself three times using either your own intention or the one I suggested if you want.

You don't want to adopt an intention for this practice,

Feel free not to.

Let's begin now with the rotation of consciousness.

Bring your awareness to the thumb on your right hand and let your awareness move to the first finger on the right hand.

And to the second finger,

Third finger,

And the little finger on the right hand.

Let your attention flow now to the palm of the right hand and around the back to the back of the right hand.

Touch your awareness,

Move to the wrist,

The elbow,

The right shoulder,

The right armpit,

Hip on the right side,

The right armpit,

Hip on the right side,

The right knee,

Back of the right knee,

Right ankle,

Top of the right foot,

Heel,

Instep,

Ball of the right foot.

Bring your awareness now to the big toe on the right foot,

The second toe,

The third toe,

Fourth toe,

And the little toe on the right foot.

Thumb on the left hand,

First finger,

Second finger,

Third finger,

The fourth finger on the left hand,

Fourth finger on the left hand,

Palm,

Back of the hand,

Wrist,

Elbow,

Shoulder,

Left armpit,

Hip on the left side,

The left knee,

Ankle on the left foot,

Top of the left foot,

The left heel,

Instep,

Ball of the left foot,

Left big toe,

Second toe,

Third toe,

Fourth toe,

Little toe on the left foot,

The very top of the hip,

Now the whole forehead,

Right eyebrow,

Left eyebrow,

The space between the eyebrows,

Eyebrow center,

Right eye,

Left eye,

Right cheek,

Left cheek,

Right ear,

Left ear,

Tip of the nose,

The right nostril,

Left nostril,

Upper lip,

Lower lip,

Chin,

Throat,

Heart,

Solar plexus,

Navel,

Pubic bone.

Now become aware of your whole body.

Become aware of your whole body,

Awareness of the whole body.

Now become aware of the cycles that your body moves through,

Your physical presence.

Think about how you awaken in the morning,

How you move through your day,

And how you go to sleep at night.

The cycle,

Awakening,

Living the day,

And going to sleep at night.

Now think of a larger cycle,

The cycle your body moves through during the week.

Think about what you do daily,

And how that's different from day to day,

But similar from week to week.

Think about that larger cycle of seven days,

Through which your body moves during the week.

Now visualize a larger cycle,

The cycle of the seasons that you move through every year.

An image of your body in spring,

And summer,

And fall,

And winter.

Your body moves through this cycle every year.

Now begin to imagine a larger cycle,

The cycle of your lifetime.

Your birth,

How you grew,

How you became an adolescent,

Then an adult,

And then grew to maturity.

And then note either you have or will decline in a physical sense.

Now sense all these different cycles of your physical body,

And just let them all float around you.

Now let that go.

Bring your awareness back to the breath in your nostrils,

And begin to feel the cycle,

The flow of the breath,

As it moves in and out.

Follow the cyclical path of the breath,

In through the nostrils,

Moving through the throat,

And then the chest,

And then filling the whole abdomen.

And retrace those steps from the abdomen to the chest,

To the throat,

And out the nostrils.

Follow that flow again,

Beginning with awareness in the nostrils.

As you continue breathing in,

Feel the breath move into the throat,

And then the chest,

And then the belly.

And as you breathe out,

Feel the breath moving from the belly to the chest,

To the throat,

And out the nostrils.

Now deepen your awareness of this cycle of breath.

Let the cycle and the breath soften and slow.

Notice how the feeling,

The experience of this cycle shifts.

Follow the breath.

Notice the cycle of the breath.

Now notice how the exhale follows the inhale,

And the inhale follows the exhale,

Like a cat chasing its tail,

Turning round and round,

The inhale and the exhale,

The exhale and the inhale,

One following the other,

Over and over again.

Millions of times in the course of a lifetime.

Millions of cycles of breath,

All there for you to experience.

Now bring coolness to mind,

The sensation of coolness.

Cool like a gentle wind on a fall night.

Remember what coolness feels like.

Remember the sensation of coolness.

Just a little chilly.

Now bring to mind the sensation of warmth,

Like the pleasant warmth of a late summer afternoon.

Not hot or uncomfortable.

Just warm.

Now shift back to coolness,

And then shift back to warmth.

Now back to coolness,

And see that coolness exists only because of warmth.

Now shift to warmth.

See that it exists only because of coolness.

Cool and warm.

A continuous cycle,

Flowing from one to the other.

Cool and warm.

Now begin to call to mind the sensation of heaviness in the body.

Let your bones begin to feel heavy.

Heavy as though gravity were weighing down on the bones,

Allowing them to become heavier and heavier.

The sensation of heaviness.

Now feel lightness in the body.

Light like the air.

Floating.

Hovering.

Lightness.

Feel your body becoming light.

Light like a feather.

Now bring awareness back to the sensation of heaviness,

And then back to the sensation of lightness.

Now back to the sensation of heaviness,

And lightness,

And see heaviness and lightness as a continuous cycle from one to the other,

Shifting between heavy and light.

See that heavy does not exist without light,

And lightness does not exist without heaviness.

The cycle of heavy and light.

Remember now a time of deep sadness.

Let yourself feel the emotion of sadness that arose at that time.

Relive the emotion of sadness.

Remember what sadness felt like in the body.

Remember what sadness felt like in the mind.

Remember the feelings.

Deep,

Deep sadness.

Now remember a time when you felt great happiness.

Remember what it felt like to feel so happy,

Completely overjoyed,

Supreme happiness.

Relive the sensation,

The emotion,

The feeling of happiness.

Return now to the feeling of sadness,

And then back to the feeling of sadness.

Now feel both sad and happy as part of a cycle,

Not as independent emotions,

But as part of a whole.

Allow your awareness to flow from sad to happy,

And from happy back to sad.

Experience the whole cycle at once.

Try not pausing on one pole or the other.

Just experience the whole cycle at one time.

Now release sensations,

Feelings,

And emotions,

And imagine in front of you a swiftly rushing river,

Flowing really,

Really fast.

Now follow the river in your mind as it empties into the ocean,

And see the river and the ocean as parts of a cycle,

The river flowing to the sea,

The water in the sea rising into clouds,

The clouds raining on the mountains,

The water collecting into the river and flowing back to the sea.

An endless cycle.

Now picture a jungle,

Lush and green,

Dark,

Now teeming with life.

Intensify your experience,

Your visualization of the jungle.

Now picture a stark desert,

Hot and dry.

Feel the desert too hot and too dry for life.

Nothing moving at all.

Now visualize the jungle slowly over many years turning into the desert.

And now picture the desert over time becoming lush and green and becoming a jungle.

Follow the flow in your mind's eye,

The change from jungle to desert and desert to jungle.

An endless cycle.

Now picture a roaring fire,

A fire like a campsite.

See the flames leaping 10 feet into the sky.

It's a huge fire.

Feel the heat of the roaring fire.

Feel its energy.

Feel its power.

Now picture the fire almost spent smoldering embers,

Giving off very little heat,

No flames at all.

The fire near its end.

Now return to the roaring fire.

And then back in your mind's eye to the smoldering embers.

Now visualize the roaring fire and keep watching as the flames get smaller and smaller and smaller until they're gone.

And all that remains are smoldering embers.

Now see it once the whole cycle from flames to embers.

Imagine now a newborn child.

See the newborn child as it comes into this world and takes its first breath.

Now look at the baby deeply and lovingly.

Imagine now an old person after a long life.

See that person taking their last breath,

Happy and content with no regrets.

Look deeply and lovingly at this person.

Now return to the baby.

And then gaze back at the elder.

Now see the cycle from the baby to the elder.

See your path.

See your cycle.

Now imagine the elder after the last breath.

See the physical presence pass away.

See over time the body decay into molecules and atoms.

See the molecules and atoms make their way out into the world and see as they become part of something else.

See this whole cycle of life.

See the whole flowing movement all at once.

Return now to your intention for this practice.

And call your intention to mind.

If you used my suggested intention,

It was I see and accept all the cycles in the world.

Now repeat your intention,

If you had one,

Three times.

Repeat it silently to yourself.

Now become aware of your body resting in Shavasana.

Begin to remember the room or the space where you are reclined.

If there are walls,

Remember them.

If there's a ceiling,

Remember it.

Wherever you are,

Bring that space back to mind.

Begin now to feel your body breathing in and breathing out.

As you breathe in,

Feel your body fill with breath.

And as you breathe out,

Feel the breath spilling out into the world.

When you're ready,

Begin to allow your fingers to move gently and the hands,

The wrists,

The toes and the feet and the ankles.

Feel as your consciousness returns to your physical body.

When you're ready,

Roll to your side.

Once you're on your side,

You can cradle your head and your arm and bend your knees,

Bringing them into your chest.

Keep your awareness on the breath flowing in and flowing out.

Now slowly bring yourself to a seat.

Keep your eyes closed as you rise into a seat.

Then we're going to complete our practice with a palming.

So bring the palms together and then slowly start to rub the palms together until you create a little bit of heat in the palms.

You can keep going here as long as you want,

But what you need to do is just create a little bit of heat.

And once you've done that,

Stop and open the palms and bring the palms to your eyes and then slowly open the eyes and release the hands down to the lap.

Let your breath go.

This completes our practice of yoga nidra.

But I'd like to offer you loving kindness.

Put your hands together if you would.

May you be happy and well and may you be safe.

May you be peaceful and may you be at ease.

Thank you so much for practicing with us today.

Namaste.

Reviews

This was lovely, I was so deeply relaxed! Definitely coming back to this. Really well structured and no annoying sound effects. Nice voice too, very reassuring.

Meditating on the cycles of life was so calming and peaceful. Thank you!