Summer Yoga Nidra - Recharge And Energise

Yoga Nidra can be translated as yogic sleep and this practice has a summer theme to help recharge and energise. This yoga nidra consists of breath awareness, body awareness, opposite feelings, and visualisation. A great practice for an afternoon.

Transcript

So,

Welcome to summer yoga nidra.

Make sure you're comfortable in a reclined seated or lying down position.

Make sure your body is supported where it needs to have support,

Maybe something for your head,

For your knees,

For your back.

And make sure you're warm enough,

As we're lying still for a while or sitting still for a while,

Our body will cool down,

So make sure you have a blanket or have enough layers on to stay warm.

I'll give you a few moments here to come into a nice position for yourself,

Maybe lying down in shavasana,

With your legs a little bit apart,

Or if you prefer you can have your knees bent in that case,

Bring your feet quite wide so your knees can fall in towards each other and bring a little bit of length in the back,

Lifting the head up and then releasing it back down,

Noticing where your shoulders are,

Can you drop them down a little bit more maybe,

Closing your eyes if that's comfortable for you or stare up at a point on the ceiling or sky if you're lucky to practice outside.

If you want to you can connect your thumb and index finger together,

Creating an energy circuit within ourselves,

Palms facing up,

Inviting the day in,

Inviting summer in,

Or if you're practicing in the evening,

Palms facing down,

Closing the day.

Make any last adjustments for yourself,

And during this practice try to stay as still as you can.

If you need to move,

Of course move,

But if you want to move but don't really need to then try to stay in a still position.

Now mentally repeat three times the sentence,

I will not sleep.

I will not sleep.

I will not sleep.

Completely relax your whole body.

Become aware of your normal breathing,

Feel the air flowing into your body and flowing out of your body.

Let your breathing become slow and a little bit deeper,

Draw the breath into the body so the abdomen expands,

Bring that breath up,

Inhaling into the chest,

Exhaling chest and abdomen,

Yogic breath,

So keep practicing like that here for a few more moments,

Inhaling into the lower part of the lungs so the abdomen expands and bringing that inhalation up into the chest,

Exhale chest and exhale abdomen,

And as you're breathing in feel that your body is expanding in every cell,

Every muscle,

Your whole body expands,

And when exhaling feel your body relaxing,

Deflating,

Every cell,

Every muscle,

The whole body relaxing on the exhale.

Try to be completely aware of that rhythmical process,

Inhaling expanding,

Exhaling relaxing,

Keep practicing like this,

Inhaling the breath fully,

Expanding,

Exhaling relaxing,

And now bring your awareness up to the mind space at eyebrow center level and mentally set an intention for yourself or repeat your Sankalpa.

A short sentence set in the present tense,

Something positive for yourself that's maybe not there yet or something that you want to reinstate could be anything from I accept myself fully to experience joy every day,

So take a moment here to think of an intention that you would like to set for summertime,

For the next few months,

Or if you have a Sankalpa start to invoke those feelings into yourself and when you have that sentence and that feeling that comes with that intention with your Sankalpa then mentally repeat it over and over again and repeat it with feeling,

Draw in the feelings that you want to experience that come with that sentence,

Breathe it into your whole being,

Keep repeating that sentence over and over again and now let that go,

Let go of that sentence,

I will repeat body parts,

Mentally repeat that in your mind or feel into that body part that I'm naming,

Starting with the right hand thumb,

Index finger,

Middle finger,

Ring finger,

Little finger,

Palm of the right hand,

Wrist,

Right lower arm,

Elbow,

Upper arm,

Shoulder,

Armpit,

Right side of the waist,

Right hip,

Right buttock,

Right thigh,

Knee,

Calf,

Ankle,

Heel of the right foot,

Sole,

Top of the foot,

Big toe,

Second toe,

Third toe,

Fourth toe,

Fifth toe,

Keep following the sound of my voice,

No sleeping,

Left hand thumb,

Index finger,

Middle finger,

Ring finger,

Little finger,

Palm of the left hand,

Left wrist,

Lower arm,

Elbow,

Upper arm,

Shoulder,

Left armpit,

Left side of the waist,

Left hip,

Left buttock,

Left thigh,

Knee,

Calf,

Ankle,

Heel,

Sole of the left foot,

Top of the foot,

Left big toe,

Second toe,

Third toe,

Fourth toe,

Fifth toe,

Keep following the sound of my voice,

Forehead,

Right eyebrow,

Left eyebrow,

Eyebrow centre,

Right eye,

Left eye,

Right cheek,

Left cheek,

Right nostril,

Tip of the nose,

Left nostril,

Upper lip,

Tongue,

Lower lip,

Chin,

Throat,

Right side of chest,

Left side of the chest,

Navel,

Right side of the abdomen,

Left side of the abdomen,

Right thigh,

Left thigh,

Right knee,

Left knee,

Right ankle,

Left ankle,

Toes of the right foot,

Toes of the left foot,

Right sole of the foot,

Sole of the left foot,

Right heel,

Left heel,

Right ankle,

Left ankle right calf,

Left calf,

Back of the right knee,

Back of the left knee,

Back of the right thigh,

Back of the left thigh,

Right buttock,

Left buttock right hip,

Left hip,

Right shoulder blade,

Left shoulder blade,

Spine from bottom to top,

The whole back the back of the head,

The top of the head,

The whole right leg,

The whole left leg,

Both legs right arm,

Left arm,

Both arms,

The whole front of the body,

The whole back of the body,

The whole body,

The whole body your whole body Letting go of that.

I will be naming feelings.

And when I name them,

Bring that feeling into you.

Feel it without attaching any emotion to it.

Simply feel.

Start to feel cool.

Feeling cool.

The whole body feeling cool.

And feeling warm.

Start to feel warm.

The whole body feeling warm.

And start to feel light.

The body feeling light.

The whole body feeling light.

Now start to feel heavy.

The body feeling heavy.

The whole body feeling heavy.

Letting that go.

Now start to feel tired.

Feel tired.

Your whole self feeling tired.

Start to feel energized.

Feeling energized.

Your whole being feeling energized.

Letting go of those feelings.

Fully let go.

Bringing awareness to the mind space.

It's just a kash.

The space at eyebrow center level all around you.

I will be naming objects and try to visualize them in that space.

If visualization is tricky,

Simply listen to the words.

Strawberry fields.

A bright warm sun.

Tall grass.

Sunflowers.

A massive tree.

Bees.

Now imagine that it's early in the morning and you're out in a strawberry field.

You're walking along a path that's been mowed and that bends through the field.

It's early morning and you can see the dew drops on the leaves.

You take a moment to look at the bright colors of the plants and the fruits.

Some of the fruit is ripe.

Some have been eaten by insects or slugs.

And some are still green.

You take a moment to pick a few.

You eat one and really savor the taste.

You can taste the sunshine in the strawberry.

You stand up and follow the path out of the field and into tall grass.

The path keeps flowing through.

Someone has mowed it for you.

And as you're walking,

Sunflowers are starting to pop up through the tall grass.

And you notice that the grass slowly is replaced by sunflowers.

There is nothing else to see besides sunflowers and the massive tree in the distance.

You hear buzzing bees.

You feel the warmth on your skin from the sun.

And you smell the scent of the flowers.

You keep walking.

Making your way towards the tree.

Fully aware of the flowers around you.

The touch of the sun.

And the sound of the insects.

It's quite warm and as you reach the tree,

You stop in its shade.

You sit down.

And eat the strawberries that you picked before.

You lie down in the shade of the tree.

You close your eyes.

Feeling safe.

Feeling warm.

Feeling happy.

Taking a moment to absorb the summer vibe.

Taking a moment to feel abundant and joyous.

And letting go of this visualization.

Stay aware of the chittakash,

The mind space at eyebrow center level.

And start to repeat the intention that you set at the start of this practice.

Or your sankalpa.

And as you start repeating that sentence.

Say it with feeling.

Draw in the feelings.

And keep repeating that sentence mentally.

And letting that all go.

Become aware of your breath.

Notice the air flowing in through the nostrils and flowing out.

Become aware again of your whole body.

Your whole body.

Your whole physical body.

Hari Om Tat Sat.

Yoga Nidra is now complete.

Bring some movement in your fingers,

In your toes.

Maybe you want to bring your arms overhead for a full stretch.

Or maybe you want to bring your knees in towards you and give yourself a hug.

Bring some movement in your body,

Whatever feels good.

If you're lying down,

Roll onto your right side and take three breaths there.

If you're in a reclined seated position,

You might want to come back up into sitting and roll your shoulders a few times.

And when you're ready,

Coming back up into a fully seated position.

And I will finish with three oms.

Inhaling.

Exhaling.

Om.

Om.

Om.