Yoga Nidra Grounding Practice

Yoga Nidra, aka Yogic Sleep, is a way of moving into a meditative state where the body emerges into deep relaxation while the mind stays awake and aware, thus bringing your brain into a theta brain wave state. This is the dream state where you experience complete rest and healing while still observing the mind. It is said that 30 minutes of Yoga Nidra equates to two hours of deep REM sleep.

This Nidra brings you a sense of grounding/safety/security/home/connection to Earth as you rest & relax.

Transcript

Hi yogis and welcome to your yoga nidra practice.

Throughout this practice we are going to be focusing on really grounding ourselves,

Finding a way to find security,

Stability,

Safety,

And a home within ourselves.

So as you're ready,

Just gently start to come into whatever position you would like for this yoga nidra practice.

Starting to relax your body,

Just gently become aware of your breath and notice with each exhale that you soften the body a little bit more,

Allowing the exhale to gently release any tension in the big muscle groups,

Softening the jaw,

Softening the fingers,

The glutes,

The thighs,

The toes.

And as you continue to breathe like this,

Just notice that you slowly and gently start to come in towards stillness.

And when you're ready,

Just gently say to yourself in your mind,

I'm ready to begin my yoga nidra practice.

And as we begin,

We'll start by creating our sankalpa,

Which is a specific intention that we set at the beginning of a yoga nidra practice to really plant the seed for what we wish to grow and flourish in our lives.

So if you came to this meditation for grounding,

For security,

For safety,

For stability,

Or anything else of that sort,

You can set your sankalpa by stating one of these phrases in a positive present tense statement that starts with I am.

Your sankalpa might start as I am safe.

I am grounded.

I am home.

I am loved.

I am enough.

I am rooted.

I am stable.

Or feel free to set any other intention that you wish,

Allowing yourself a few moments to breathe and hear if anything comes in from your heart.

Really listening deeply to your truth and your needs.

And once you've created your sankalpa,

Just gently say it to yourself in your mind three times,

Stating it as if it is already true.

And after you've finished stating your sankalpa to yourself,

Just gently send it away with gratitude and come back to bring your attention to your breath.

As you breathe,

Again gently just start to feel your system slowly starting to relax,

Letting the exhale really calm the body.

Letting the breath be soft and easy.

No need to make the breath do anything special.

But just bring gentle awareness to each inhale and exhale.

And as you breathe,

With this gentle consciousness of your breath,

Just allow yourself ten breaths,

Ten inhales and ten exhales,

To really start to calm the body,

Calm the mind.

Focusing stillness and that single point of focus to the breath.

And as you breathe,

With this gentle consciousness of your breath,

Just allow yourself ten breaths,

Ten inhales and ten exhales,

To really start to calm the body,

Calm the mind.

And whatever breath you're on,

Just gently release the count of the breath and starting to bring your awareness over to the right hand as we begin the rotation of consciousness through the body.

As I name each body part,

Just gently bring your awareness and focus to that part of the body and as quickly as I say the next body part,

Just follow along.

So starting with the right hand,

Bring your attention to the right thumb,

Right pointer finger,

Middle finger,

Ring finger,

And pinky finger,

Awareness to the palm and the top of the hand,

The wrist,

Forearm,

Right elbow,

The upper arm,

Right shoulder,

And armpit,

Down to the right ribs,

And the waistline,

Right hip,

Thigh,

Knee,

Shin,

Right ankle,

And heel,

Awareness to the sole of the right foot and the top of the right foot,

And bringing your awareness to the toes,

The right big toe,

Second toe,

Third toe,

Fourth toe,

And baby toe.

And then starting to feel your right foot connected to the right leg,

Noticing this connection up the right side of the body,

Connected to the right arm,

Feeling fully connected to the right side of your body.

And now gently starting to bring your awareness over to the left hand,

Starting to focus your attention to the left thumb,

Left pointer finger,

Middle finger,

Ring finger,

Left pinky finger,

Awareness to the palm and the top of the hand,

Left wrist,

Forearm,

Elbow,

Left upper arm,

And shoulder,

Armpit,

Down to the left ribs,

Awareness to the left hip,

Thigh,

Knee,

Left shin,

And awareness to the ankle,

Left heel,

And sole of the left foot and the top of the foot,

And awareness on all of the toes,

Bringing your attention to the left big toe,

Second toe,

Third toe,

Fourth toe,

And baby toe.

And starting to feel the connection of the entire left foot,

Connecting up to the entire left leg,

Feeling the left side body connected,

And bringing in the connection of the left arm,

Feel fully connected to the left side of your body.

And now starting to bring your concentration to the back side of the body,

Bring your focus and attention now down to both bottoms of the feet,

Bringing awareness to both heels,

Both ankles,

Both calves,

And the backs of the knees,

Noticing the hamstrings and the glutes starting to move up to notice the low back,

The sacrum,

The middle back,

Feeling the upper back,

Right shoulder blade,

Left shoulder blade,

And bringing the awareness up to the back of the neck and the back of the head,

And finally to the top of the head,

Feeling the crown of your head,

And gently starting to move your awareness down to your forehead,

Bringing attention to your temples,

Right temple,

Left temple,

Bringing your attention to the right side of the head,

The left side of the head,

Right ear,

Left ear,

Right eyebrow,

Left eyebrow,

And the space between the eyebrows,

Third eye center,

Starting to bring awareness to the right eyeball and the left eyeball,

And the right eyelashes and the left eyelashes,

Noticing the bridge of your nose and the tip of your nose,

Right nostril,

Left nostril,

Right cheekbone,

Left cheekbone,

Right cheek,

Left cheek,

And the corners of your mouth,

Moving your upper lip and your bottom lip,

Moving inside the mouth,

Bringing awareness to the upper teeth and the lower teeth,

Any sensations in the gums,

And noticing your tongue and the back of the throat,

Awareness to the jaws,

The chin,

Bring your focus to underneath your chin,

And the front of your neck,

Right side of your neck,

Left side of your neck,

Right collarbone,

Left collarbone,

The right chest,

Left chest,

And your heart center at the sternum,

Moving your awareness down to the solar plexus and the belly,

Noticing the navel point and moving down lower to the bottom abdomen,

Noticing the hip flexors,

And finally bringing your attention down to the root,

The very base,

The bottom,

Where the root chakra lies,

Where you find complete grounding,

Complete security,

Safety,

Connection,

And as you focus on the root,

Start to notice if maybe you can visualize the color red sitting at the root.

Notice now,

As you breathe and see this color red,

Or just imagine this red color or red light sitting at the root,

Start to pull upward toward the crown of your head as you inhale fully,

Lighting your entire spine up until it reaches the top of the head,

And as you exhale,

Feel this red energy,

This red light start to coat your entire body from head to toe,

Starting to cover you and wash you with a gentle,

Warm,

Red color,

Inhaling and seeing this light rise up from the root to the crown of the head,

And as you exhale,

Feel that this color just starts to coat you completely as if it's like water,

Fountaining out from the crown of your head,

Covering you fully with this root chakra engaged,

Balancing,

And finding that the breath is gentle,

This energy is warm,

And you start to notice how you feel within this breath and within this red light,

And as you continue to breathe,

Washing yourself and coating yourself completely within this red light,

Notice within your next exhale that you start to move this light not only from you,

But this light starts to shine down in toward the earth,

Starting to grow down into the ground like roots,

As if your roots are growing down and deep so that you find this sense of grounding as you breathe,

Seeing how this red light connects you with your whole body and also to Mama Earth.

As you continue to breathe this red light through the body connected to the earth,

You can start to add in some affirmations if you choose.

If any affirmation comes up for you organically,

Just allow yourself to say it to yourself with each breath,

Or simply start to feel and embody these affirmations.

I am safe.

I am grounded.

I am connected.

I am connected.

I am connected.

I am secure.

I am secure.

I am secured.

I am centered.

I am centered.

I am centered.

I am home.

I am home.

I am home.

I am grateful for Mama Earth.

I am grateful for Mama Earth.

I am grateful for Mama Earth.

I belong exactly as I am.

I belong exactly as I am.

I belong exactly as I am.

I am worthy of love.

I am worthy of love.

I am worthy of love.

I am resilient in any environment.

I am resilient in any environment.

I am resilient in any environment.

I have everything I need inside of me.

I have everything I need inside of me.

I have everything I need inside of me.

Now gently release any affirmations that you still have with you and see if you can come back to your sankalpa that you set at the beginning of practice.

Bring your sankalpa back in and again state it to yourself three times,

Planting that seed in that ground that we filled with the bright red light.

And once you state your sankalpa to yourself three times,

Simply come back to the concentration of your gentle breath moving in and out of your body.

And once you state your sankalpa to yourself three times,

Simply come back to the concentration of your gentle breath moving in and out of your body.

Allow yourself here a moment of gratitude.

Gratitude for this practice,

For your intention,

Your sankalpa,

And for this time,

Space,

And energy that we have shared together.

And this now concludes our yoga nidra practice.

If you're staying here to sleep,

I wish you the best night's rest.

Otherwise if you're gently waking up,

Just move slowly,

Listen to your body.

And I thank you so much for sharing this practice with me.

Sat Nam.

Namaste.

Reviews

Lovely nidra practice ❣️
Thank you so kindly!°•☮️♾️☯️
🙏🏼 ✨️🫶🏽 ✨️°•☆°•♡~

Spectacular TY 🙏🏻

Amazing

Wonderful!! Thankyou kindly 🙏🌷💜

Thank you 🙏

I loved this experience. Thank you.

ThankyouandBless

Beautiful thank you Hannah, namaste ✨

Loved it, thank you!

very nice. Good pacing with well spaced grounding strategies.

Thank you! What a wonderful grounding practice! I especially like the affirmations you offer; they really solidified the intentions of this practice. Thanks ❤️

Thankyou Hannah. That was a great yoga nidra. What an excellent way to start my day.

Thank you! So peaceful.