The following was recorded live during my meditation class that was held on March 14,
2026 at the Harvard Gulch Rec Center in Denver,
Colorado.
Why don't we begin now our practice of yoga nidra.
You can lay down on your back,
On your mat,
Or if you have a blanket,
You can rest on a blanket.
Let your eyes close down and start to bring awareness just to what it feels like to rest on your back.
For many people,
Bringing your arms out,
Flipping your palms so they face up so there's not a lot of tactile sensation in the fingertips can feel pretty good.
And just settle in to the back body.
Then begin to bring awareness to your breath.
Notice your body breathing in and breathing out.
Now,
Feel the breath moving through the still body.
Now make any final adjustments to your arms and your legs and your head and torso until you finally come to a place where you feel like you won't need to move for the full duration of our yoga nidra practice.
And now say silently to yourself,
I am going to practice yoga nidra.
I will not move.
I will not sleep.
Now we begin the phase of yoga nidra called rotation of consciousness.
Here,
I'll name parts of the body and invite you to bring your awareness,
Your focus to the part named,
And to let your awareness rest there until you're invited to move the focus somewhere else.
Let's begin with the thumb of the index finger.
On the right hand,
Bring all of your awareness to the thumb on the right hand.
Focused on the right thumb.
Learn whatever you can about the thumb on the right hand just by focusing your awareness there.
Shift your focus now to the index finger on the right hand.
Notice everything you can about the index finger on the right hand.
Now shift the focus to the middle finger on the right hand.
Right index finger.
Ring finger.
Little finger on the right hand.
Now focus on the palm of the right hand.
Let your awareness rest there for a time.
Now bring awareness to the back of the right hand.
Right wrist.
Right elbow.
Now shift the focus to the right shoulder.
Now broaden your focus.
Notice the whole right arm.
From the tips of the fingers on the right hand to the right shoulder.
Focus on the right arm.
Now shift the focus to the hip on the right side.
Focus on the right hip.
Right knee.
Right ankle.
Now become aware of the top of the right foot.
Shift the focus to the bottom of the right foot.
Now focus on the right big toe.
Concentrate on the big toe on the right foot.
Now narrow your focus to just the tip of the big toe.
On the right foot.
Broaden the focus to the whole right leg.
From the tips of the toes on the right foot to the right hip.
Become aware all at once of the whole right leg.
Now broaden the awareness even more and become aware of the whole right side of the body.
From the tips of the toes on the right foot to the very top of the head.
Focus on the whole right side of the body.
Shift the focus now to the thumb on the left hand.
Bring all of your awareness to the thumb on the left hand.
Shift the focus now to the left index finger.
Left middle finger.
Ring finger on the left hand.
Now concentrate on the pinky finger on the left hand.
Left palm.
Left palm.
Back of the left hand.
Left wrist.
Left elbow.
Now become aware of the left shoulder.
Broaden your awareness now and become aware of the whole left arm.
From the tips of the fingers on the left hand to the left shoulder.
Focus on the left arm.
Now become aware of the left hip.
Left knee.
Left ankle.
Now,
Top of the left foot.
Bottom of the left foot.
Narrow your focus to the big toe on the left foot.
Concentrate on the left big toe only.
Let everything else go.
Narrow the focus even more now to the tip of the left big toe.
Focus just on the tip of the toe.
Now broaden the awareness again and become aware of the whole left leg.
From the tips of the toes on the left foot to the left hip.
Notice the whole left leg.
Broaden the awareness again and focus on the whole left side of the body.
From the tips of the toes on the left foot to the crown of the head.
Notice the whole left side of the body.
Now bring awareness to the right eye.
Focus on the right eye under closed lid.
The right eye.
Shift the focus to the left eye.
Right ear.
Left ear.
Right nostril.
Left nostril.
Now bring awareness to the mouth.
Chin.
Navel.
Pubic bone at the base of the spine.
Now draw the awareness up the back of the spine.
Come up to the middle part of the back.
Draw your awareness up even more to the spine between the shoulder blades.
Come up the back of the neck.
And pause for a moment.
Pause at the top of the spine where the spine connects to the skull.
Feel into the space there.
Now draw the awareness up to the top of the head.
Let your awareness rest on the crown of the head.
Perhaps you feel a slight pressure there.
Now bring awareness to the forehead.
And then focus on eyebrow center,
The space between the eyebrows.
Feel your awareness resting gently at eyebrow center.
A gentle pressure,
The gentle weight of the awareness resting at eyebrow center.
Now bring awareness to the breath.
Notice the breath flowing in and flowing out.
The breath always moving,
Always flowing.
Focus on the breath for a time.
Feeling it flowing in and flowing out through the still body.
Stay focused on the breath.
Concentrate your awareness.
Now bring your awareness back to the space at eyebrow center.
At the same time,
Stay aware of the breath.
Begin now to imagine that the space at eyebrow center has become porous and that you are able to breathe in and breathe out through eyebrow center.
Follow the breath as it flows into the space.
In through eyebrow center,
Into the body.
Follow the breath as it flows out of eyebrow center.
Stay focused on the breath flowing in and out of eyebrow center for a time.
Bring your focus back to eyebrow center.
Let your awareness rest on the forehead.
Right between the eyebrows.
And now let the awareness drop below eyebrow center into a vast,
Limitless,
Completely dark void.
Let the awareness float in the void.
The void is completely dark.
There is no light at all.
There's no gravity in the void.
There's nothing in the void other than your awareness.
And the awareness can float anywhere it desires.
Feel the freedom of floating in the void.
Nothing to do there.
No goals to attain.
Nothing to accomplish.
Just the awareness floating freely in the void.
Allow yourself to feel that freedom.
Allow yourself to feel the joy of floating in the void.
Stay focused on the awareness,
The consciousness floating in the void.
Feel the vastness of the void.
The limitlessness of the void.
The freedom of the void.
The serenity of the void.
And now it's time for the awareness to exit the void.
Allow the awareness to rise back to the surface of the forehead.
Feel your awareness resting on the forehead,
Right between the eyebrows.
Now bring the awareness to the nostrils and focus on both nostrils at the same time.
Notice the breath flowing evenly through both nostrils.
Shift your focus now to the left nostril.
Concentrate 100% of your awareness on the left nostril.
Stay focused there for another couple of moments.
And now begin to notice that the breath is flowing in and out through the left nostril alone.
Stay focused there.
Feel the breath moving through the left nostril only.
Shift the focus now to the right nostril.
Focus 100% of your awareness on the right nostril alone.
And now begin to notice that the breath is flowing in and out through the right nostril only.
Let your awareness rest on the right nostril as you feel the breath flowing in and out.
Now bring the awareness to both nostrils at the same time.
Follow a couple of breaths in and out.
And notice that the breath has been restored evenly to both nostrils.
Now become aware of your whole body resting on the mat or on a blanket.
Feel your whole body at once.
Stay focused on the whole body.
Now begin to remember where you are.
See if you can bring up a memory of the room that you're in.
Remember any detail or details of the room.
Now remember where in the room you are laying.
And now as we begin the process of reawakening,
Invite gentle movement into the fingers of both hands.
Very subtle,
Very gentle at first.
Then you can begin to wiggle the toes.
You can start to move the hands at the wrists and the feet at the ankles.
And eventually bend your elbows.
And then bend your knees.
Now roll over to the left side and just pause for a moment.
Start to notice the transition that's taking place between the hands and the feet.
Between your practice of yoga nidra and the return to everyday life.
Now take a deep breath in.
And as you exhale,
Slowly bring yourself to a seat.
The eyes can stay closed as you bring your hands together at heart center.
Now start to rub the palms together,
Slowly at first.
Focus your awareness on the palms and see if you can begin to feel the energy you're generating at the palms just by rubbing the hands together.
That energy will be in the form of heat.
And the harder you rub and the faster the hands move,
The more the heat becomes really obvious.
Eventually,
Pause.
Open the hands like a book.
Then bring your hands up and cover your eyes with the hands.
Take a deep breath in.
As you exhale,
Open the eyes,
Looking into the hands.
Breathe in again.
Then on the exhale,
With the eyes open,
Release the hands down to the lap.
And that concludes our practice of yoga nidra.
Thank you all so much for being here.
Everybody take care.
Have a great rest of the day.
