My name is Danielle and welcome to this yoga relaxation practice.
The intention of this practice is to calm your central nervous system and promote deep relaxation after a yoga practice or at the end of a busy day before you go to sleep at night.
Begin by finding a resting place,
A quiet space in your home,
On your bed or perhaps on your yoga mat with a prop under your knees and under your head.
Wherever you may be,
Be sure that you feel super comfortable,
No pain or discomfort at all.
If you feel any discomfort,
Simply shift,
Reset the body and become more comfortable.
Now let's begin our practice and close your eyes.
We'll start the practice by taking a few sighs out through the mouth,
Breathing out without force,
Allowing yourself to arrive in the practice.
Start to feel the ground beneath you,
The props that are holding you.
Feel your exhalation and feel the space beneath your body.
Allow yourself to start to let go.
Begin to feel the head,
The hands,
The heels,
The arms,
The legs and the spine all touching the ground,
Becoming heavier.
Begin to feel more grounded.
Begin to relax your tongue in your mouth,
Your jaw and moving upwards toward the edges of the eyes,
The eyebrows and the space above on the forehead.
As you start to soften these spaces,
Notice the breath out and feel how the breath out,
Your exhalation is long and relaxed.
Start to feel your body receiving the exhalation,
Receiving the letting go.
Continue down the face,
Along the cheeks,
Behind the ears,
Down the neck,
All the way to the shoulders.
Feel the shoulders getting heavy as you breathe out.
Move down to your elbows in the backs of the hands.
Feel the backs of the hands touching the ground.
Take a breath now in through the nose and feel the inhalation under your collarbone,
Across the chest and as you breathe out,
Soften the shoulders,
The biceps,
The elbows,
Forearms,
The hands and follow that awareness a few times feel the breath,
The inhalation come in through the nose,
Around the collarbone,
The back of the body,
Between the shoulder blades and exhaling down through the arms,
Shoulders,
Elbows,
Hands.
Do that at your own pace,
Simply breathing in and breathing out,
Beginning to let go of any tension you feel held in these spaces,
Beginning to receive the love that you're offering yourself at this moment.
Your arms and your upper back,
Your shoulders have worked so hard for you through the day.
Give them permission to rest right now.
Feel that deep softening all the way down into the palms of the hands.
Your hands are extensions from your heart,
Letting your limbs feel at ease.
Now move your awareness to the center of your chest,
Right between the lungs into your heart space.
You can visualize here a small light like a flicker on a candle.
As you breathe in,
Watch the light get larger and as you breathe out,
Guide the light across the collarbone and down through the arms.
Continuing to move through the body,
Move your awareness to the hip creases.
Start to feel the hip creases heavier and relaxing the thigh muscles down to the knees,
All the way down through the calves,
The ankles,
And into your feet.
Take a breath into your hips and receive the letting go all the way down the legs.
The bones are getting heavy,
The muscles more relaxed into both of your legs,
Hips,
Knees,
Ankles,
And all the spaces in between.
Once again,
Tell yourself it's okay to let go a little further,
A little deeper.
You're still welcome to breathe out through the mouth.
Then move your awareness back to your heart space.
Find your inner light at the center most part of your being.
See the light illuminate within and on your exhalation following the love through the legs,
The lower torso,
Down into the lower body.
Feel both of your legs getting heavier with each breath out,
Releasing all the hard work you did today,
Releasing any tension and fears that you feel held in your thighs and your hips.
And once again moving our awareness now to the belly right around the navel.
Watch the belly inhale and expand.
Exhale and descend and relax.
Deeply relax the belly.
Let there be no tension at all in the belly.
See if you can soften a little further in the belly.
At the same time relax the pelvic floor.
Now visualize your light once again at the center of your being in your heart space.
The light becomes larger and then begins to spread,
Moving the light down to the navel into the belly and the organs.
Inhale into the chest,
Exhale down into the belly letting go.
Now as you feel your belly relaxing,
Pay attention to the space after the exhale and observe if there is any stillness.
Feel your whole body still.
Feel your whole body letting go.
You can keep your gaze now into the heart space.
At this moment in time to the space between the lungs deep within your being,
Now look into the space as if you're looking into a calm calm lake or body of water.
As if the lake is reflecting the space around it.
As you look into this clear calm body of water,
Seeing your reflection,
Allowing your love,
Your patience,
Your understanding,
Your kindness,
Reflecting into your entire body.
Now stay here in complete stillness.
Preparing you for whatever you may have next.
And the trust in yourself to release and let go.
Now that your nervous system is at rest,
Your body is able to begin the healing process and balancing of all of the body systems.
Continue to be still,
Looking into your beautiful reflection.
Michael Jackson.
Now as you start to hear my voice once again,
Begin to move your awareness towards the edges of the body,
Bringing your awareness back to the surface,
Still with the eyes closed,
Start to notice the breath coming in and going out without control,
Just feeling and observing the breath.
Then you can start to let the body move with the breath,
Reminding yourself to move slowly,
Letting the movements reflect the stillness in the mind.
Little by little,
You start to move,
One breath,
One movement.
When you're ready,
Roll to your side and use your bottom arm to support your head.
Cover your eyes with your top hand and take a few moments here to feel any shifts that have taken place for you.
Does your mind feel clear?
Do you feel more at ease and connected?
Can you feel your breathing pattern is much slower?
Stay connected to the breath as you start to move again.
Let the eyes stay closed right till the very end.
Use your hands,
Start to push yourself upwards,
Letting your head drape to your heart.
Stay deeply rooted in your heart.
Then you can bring your fingers to your forehead and your thumbs to the cheeks,
Supporting the head in your hands.
Let the upper back purposely round as you lean the head into the hands and tuck the elbows into the ribs for support.
Take a few breaths out through the mouth here,
Softening once again into the belly.
Now with little to no effort,
Begin to lift the head upwards and release the hands,
Letting them trace the edges of your jaw,
Back of the skull,
Down the neck to the shoulders,
Letting the hands release onto the knees with your palms facing down,
Pressing into the sitting bones and up through the crown of the head.
Take a few breaths and feel your whole body once again receiving your beautiful gift of the breath.
Find yourself that you have the strength and the power to control your breath,
To control the state of your mind.
You have worked hard and all of that hard work is worth it.
Can bring your hands together to your heart space,
Thumbs to touch,
Fingertips together.
A small space in the palms of the hands into Anjali Mudra.
Let's bow our heads to our heart space.
May you leave your practice feeling more grounded and stable,
Moving confidently on your life's journey.
Namaste.
Thank you for joining this guided deep relaxation.
I hope that it has helped you find peace and calm.
I would love to hear from you in the comments below on how you feel or how the practice has affected you.
I wish you a beautiful day wherever you may be in this world.
Thank you.
