Welcome to this yoga nidra practice,
The return.
Consider this practice a space to return to yourself.
A place to return to a way of being that you might be longing for.
It may be a return to stillness,
A return to heart coherence,
A return to whatever is calling you.
Take the time to do all that you need to let the body feel comforted,
Rested and supported.
Lay yourself on the floor or a bed.
You may have the hands at the side or the palms facing upwards.
Or you may wish to make contact with the body,
Perhaps a hand on the heart,
A hand on the belly.
Be sure that you're warm.
Place an eye pillow or perhaps a sleeve over your eyes if that allows you to retreat into your inner world more easily.
And welcome yourself to this time.
A carved out space where you can be set free from the clock.
Released from the notion of time moving slowly or quickly,
From waiting hours,
From waiting minutes.
Simply being in this place.
A place you have chosen and a place that you know.
A place where your body is safe.
There is nothing to do.
Nowhere to be.
No one you need answer to or please.
Sense the touch of the earth beneath you,
The surface that holds you.
Scan all the places where your body makes contact with the solid ground below.
The back body releases into the earth and there is a sense of arriving even more fully to your physical form.
Rest back into this return.
Take a long inhale through the nose.
Letting it exit gently through the mouth.
Take another breath in.
And a long exhale.
As you breathe witness the perfection of each inhalation.
Each one a unique blueprint making its individual way through your body.
Arriving and leaving.
Signpost the breath to the chest now noticing how the chest rises and falls.
And then direct the breath to the belly.
Allowing an expansion and soft contraction.
Notice this union of the breath chest to belly,
Belly to chest.
The connection.
The ripples.
And surrender to the certainty of your breath.
The certainty that it will do what it needs to do.
Letting it be just as it is.
And from here witness your emotional frequency.
Assign this frequency with a word or colour or a representation that makes itself known to you.
Honour all that you have lived through this week,
This cycle.
Without becoming too embroiled in the story.
And it is from here that your sankalpa can arrive.
A sacred intention for this practice.
The thing that you desire right now.
The desire of the soul.
Imagine using it in a sentence.
Placing it in the present moment as if it were here in the now.
An example could be,
I am enough.
Or,
I am here.
Repeat this to yourself three times with meaning.
And let this statement permeate within.
And it is now that we begin the practice of yoga nidra.
Bring awareness to the exact point between your eyebrows.
The third eye.
The depth of your intuition.
Soften any tension in the skin of the forehead.
With a gentle relaxing from brow to brow.
Trace your awareness down the contour of your nose.
The indentation between lip and nostrils.
The form of the upper lip.
The lower lip.
And the mouth.
Loosen the tongue and relax the jaw.
Place awareness on the right ear.
The earlobe.
The whirl of the ear shape and the tiny bones within.
Move awareness to your left ear.
Tracing its patterns,
The shape of the ear.
And the inner delicate bones that sit here.
Be aware now of the head.
The weight of the head.
And arrive back now to the third eye.
Move your awareness to the base of the throat.
The place of your voice.
Trace awareness from the throat to the heart.
Moving awareness now to the solar plexus.
Your sacral bone.
And the pelvic bowl.
All your chakras aligned and in perfect balance.
Be aware now of the right hand.
And the geography of the fingers.
The back of the hand and your palm.
Place awareness onto the right wrist.
The forearm.
The right upper arm.
Your right shoulder.
Your right armpit.
The curve of your right waist.
Your hip.
The thigh.
The knee.
The right calf.
The right ankle bone.
The right heel.
The sole of your right foot.
The top of the foot.
The right big toe.
The second toe.
Third toe,
Fourth and fifth.
And the whole of the right side.
Placing awareness from here onto the left hand.
The shape of the hand.
The back.
The palm.
Move awareness to the left wrist.
The left forearm.
The left elbow.
The left upper arm.
The left shoulder.
The left armpit.
The curve of the left waist.
The hip.
The knee.
The left calf.
The left ankle.
The heel.
The sole of the left foot.
The top of the foot.
The left big toe.
Second toe.
Third toe.
Fourth toe and fifth.
The whole of the left side.
The whole body.
Lying in stillness.
Lying in wholeness.
Perceive now in your mind's eye a white cloud.
A sunset over the ocean.
A cool drink on a hot day.
A peacock feather.
A thatched roof.
A clean white page.
A boat's sail.
A crowded room.
The sound inside a shell.
A cobbled path.
A tree in winter.
A bubble floating on the breeze.
Rainbow light in a waterfall.
A clear clearing.
Visualise the clearing more deeply.
Imagine the landscape it resides in.
The plants.
The earth.
The colours.
The time of year.
And through the clearing ahead in the trees you see a welcoming fire.
And you walk towards it.
And you see a campfire with seating for four.
All set out exactly as you would like it to be for comfort.
Picture it now.
Around the fire are four places to sit.
And you take a seat.
And a warm sense of belonging starts to wash through you.
You feel the warmth of the fire.
You hear the crackle.
You smell the smoke.
And spend some time now imagining three women who you'd like to be with you in this fire circle.
Women of wisdom.
And women who you feel deeply safe with.
Women that would care for you unconditionally.
And they may be women that you know.
Or women you know of.
Or unknown characters that appear now in your vision.
Let them arrive.
All of them are there for your highest good and with deep respect and love for you.
And as you sit in circle with these women,
Feel the community of it.
The welcoming.
The warmth.
And the wood smoke on the air.
You feel exactly where you are meant to be.
And as you sit here by the fire.
Let any messages of support and guidance that these women have for you arrive.
Take these messages in.
Let them land.
And you thank the circle.
Before walking back.
Back towards the clearing you came from.
With a sense of completeness.
And as you walk through the clearing.
The scenery slowly begins to melt away.
And you are returned seamlessly into the room that you lie in now.
Notice your body.
Held by the earth.
Softened.
Rested.
Begin to bring some motion to the fingers.
And the toes.
As the practice of yoga nidra is now complete.
You take a luxurious stretch of your physical body.
Maybe you give yourself an embrace.
As you slowly roll over onto your side.
You may choose to keep lying down.
Bring yourself to a seat.
You can write down anything that has come up for you.
Anything that you want to keep hold of from this.
Yogic sleep.
Write it in your pages,
Your journal.
And as you step back into the next piece of your day.
Take this sense of return along with you.
And remember as you walk back into 24 hour time.
That it is just time.
And it will pass.
Stay with the breath.
As your anchor.
Stay with the sankalpa that you set in this practice.
Know that you are loved.
Thank you for practicing with me today.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
