So welcome,
Welcome,
Welcome,
Welcome to you.
Every single incredible,
Amazing part of you is so welcome.
The bits that you're proud of,
The bits that you're not proud of,
All of it,
Every single part of you is valuable,
Worthy and so welcome here.
So whether your babies are on you or around you,
Trust in the knowledge that they're safe and that you're connected by that invisible thread from you to them.
And if you need to attend to them at any time during this practice,
Obviously you can.
Move and be with them however you need to be.
But feel now in this moment that you're fully comfortable and that all is well.
I'm going to take a short practice of yoga nidra together and the most amazing thing about this practice is there is nothing to do here.
There's nothing to achieve.
It is simply to be,
To breathe,
To notice is enough.
Being here is enough.
We start by finding ourselves in space,
Finding that sense of welcome as the earth calls to us.
It's inviting us to settle in.
It's inviting us to take support and we can tune into that invitation by gliding down the length of our exhale.
So just let the light of your awareness now just slide down the length of the exhale.
And just feel that as each exhale passes,
Feel a little more willing and a little more ready to let the ground hold you more and more completely.
Whole body held.
Back of the head in the earth held.
Back of the shoulders,
Arms,
Maybe the hands held.
The back,
The left and the right side of the back and the spine itself held.
Back of the pelvis,
Backs of the legs and the heels or the soles of the feet held.
The whole body held,
Welcome at ease.
And inside this incredible body of yours,
However it is,
Can you find the breath and resist the temptation to do your breath.
Just simply notice the rise and the fall of that effortless breath.
And on the next inhale as the breath rises and moves up into the upper chest expanding the heart,
Can you use the exhale to drop the light of your attention deep into the heart space behind the breastbone?
And can you be here for a moment?
And don't worry if that's hard.
Just keep coming back to the invitation of your awareness to be in your heart space,
Centre of your upper chest and just sense the vastness of this space.
And then I invite you in that space to create an essence of love,
Maybe by way of a picture or a smell or a word,
A deep sense of love.
And then imagine that love directed to you,
That essence,
That powerful essence of love directed to you,
How amazing it would feel to feel such love for all of you in your heart.
And then we carry that essence on a journey around the body.
And as we mentioned a part of the body,
We plant that essence firmly in that space,
Letting the light of your attention now take that essence of love towards you into your right hand thumb,
Tip of your forearm,
Tip of your first finger,
Second finger,
Third finger,
Little finger,
Palm of the hand,
Back of the hand,
Wrist,
Lower arm,
Elbow,
Upper arm,
Shoulder,
Right armpit,
Waist,
Hip,
Buttock,
Foot,
Thigh,
Knee,
Back of the knee,
Shin,
Calf,
Ankle,
Heel,
Top of the foot,
Sole of the foot,
Right big toe,
Tip of the first toe,
Second toe,
Third toe,
Little toe,
That essence of love moving into the left side now,
Left hand thumb,
Tip of the first finger,
Second finger,
Third finger,
Little finger,
Palm of the hand,
Back of the hand,
Wrist,
Lower arm,
Elbow,
Upper arm,
Shoulder,
Left armpit,
Waist,
Hip,
Buttock,
Thigh,
Knee,
Back of the knee,
Shin,
Calf,
Ankle,
Heel,
Top of the foot,
Sole of the foot,
Left big toe,
Tip of the first toe,
Second toe,
Third toe,
Little toe,
Then imagine the whole of the right side of your body,
Imagine the whole right side bathed in an essence of love,
The whole right side,
And imagine the whole of the left side,
The whole of the left side of the body bathed in an essence of love,
Then imagine the whole of the front of the body from the crown of the head to the tips of your toes,
The whole of the front of the body bathed in an essence of love,
Imagine the whole of the back of the body,
From the back of the head to the heels,
The whole of the back of the body bathed in an essence of love,
And then imagine your whole body,
Your whole body,
Imagine your whole body deeply loved,
And then come to let the light of your attention settle once again in the heart,
Space behind the breastbone,
Centre of the upper chest,
There's so much space inside the heart,
Limitless,
Bountiful,
And see here either a light or a ball of energy,
Or the shape of a heart itself,
See it there holding that potent love,
And as you breathe,
Come to imagine that image pulsating with the strength of that love for you,
Inhaling that image grows brighter and wider and bigger,
And exhaling it softens,
The image pulsating with the breath,
And then let your awareness move from that image into the space beyond it,
And sense for a moment the darkness,
A comfortable sense of darkness around that glowing,
Bright,
Vibrant image of love,
Sense the space and the darkness around it for a moment,
And then come back to the vibrant image and sense the brightness and vibrancy of the image,
Sense the darkness around it for a moment,
That spaciousness,
The infinity of that space,
And then sense the image again vibrant and bright,
And then can you see the two things together at the same time,
The space,
Dark,
Vast,
And the image bright and potent at the same time,
How would that be?
And then imagine how amazing it would feel once again in your body,
How amazing it would feel to know that deep essence of love in every single cell,
And then know that to be true,
That every cell in your body is received that vibrant essence of love.
And then now as you breathe,
I want you to see the brightness of that image become almost so bright that it's going to burst beyond the heart into the entirety of your form,
And as it does so,
It's like this reawakening back into the moment.
As that light shines so bright and moves out down through the legs and into the feet and the toes and out through the arms into the fingertips and up through the neck into the head,
So that with each in-breath that you take now that spreads that vibrant light,
It's like a reawakening and a calling back into the body,
Back onto the mat,
Back into the moment.
And as that breath deepens,
That inhale deepens and the body reawakens,
We hold on to that essence of love,
But we begin to move more into the form,
Maybe with a yawn or a wriggle or a stretch,
However feels good.
No rush at all,
Deep full inhalations,
Long easy exhalations,
Noticing how you feel,
Knowing that this nidra has now come to an end.
