Yoga Nidra For Collaboration
This 40-minute yoga Nidra meditation was specially created for exploring your relationship with collaboration. Find a quiet place to lie down and fall into the liminal space. How do you feel about working with others? Are you quick to judge opinions that do not align with yours, or do you easily conform to group consensus? Part of creating in groups is finding healthy connections and kinship despite divergent personalities and experiences.
Transcript
Welcome to this Yoga Nidra for collaboration.
I welcome you to gather all that you need to be extremely comfortable for the next 30 to 45 minutes.
If this is your first time doing Yoga Nidra,
Find yourself lying on the floor or in your bed,
Perhaps surround yourself with pillows and blankets,
Maybe even grab an eye covering.
The goal at this moment is to make sure that the body is as comfortable as possible.
So come into lying flat on the back,
Arms relaxed just slightly away from the body with the palms of the hands facing up,
Settling into your breath and letting the feet naturally fall apart.
Feel into the spine and make sure that it feels like it's in one straight line from the head all the way to the torso,
Elongating the neck and evening the weight across both sides of the body.
Please take these next few moments to notice if the body could be even 5% more comfortable and make any other final adjustments in the next few moments to ensure that you feel fully arrived.
Next,
Close the eyes and the mouth gently and settle in.
Feel into the contact that the back body makes with the ground below,
Whether that is at the heels,
Maybe it's at the calf muscles,
Moving up to the shoulder blades,
The head and the arms,
And then moving awareness to all of the contact points at the front of the body that touch,
Clothing,
Blankets,
Pillows.
This could be the toes,
The chest,
The front of the legs.
And now we craft your sankalpa.
This is a personal resolve you make for yourself and we'll revisit it toward the end of this practice.
You can format the sankalpa to be precise,
Positive and clear around something you wish to have,
Change or achieve.
Make sure that there is a feeling associated with your sankalpa.
Take these next few moments to create your sankalpa,
Making sure it's in the present tense and repeat it to yourself to recall later.
And now begin to move your awareness to the sounds around you.
Starting with sounds outside of the room,
Guide your awareness further away from yourself,
Finding and noticing all sounds outside of the room that you're in.
They can be loud sounds,
They can be soft sounds,
Close sounds or sounds in the distance.
Continue to move your awareness from sound to sound,
Always listening for a new one.
No need to analyze these sounds,
Only hear them.
Keep moving from sound to sound.
Now bringing your awareness to sounds right outside of your room.
Finding and noticing all of the sounds right outside of the room.
And now bringing your awareness to the sounds within the room,
Finding and noticing all of the subtle sounds within the room.
And now letting go of this.
Let go now of the sound awareness,
Let it go.
And move your awareness to the body,
The whole body lying across your space.
I will now ask you to rotate awareness around parts of the body.
And as I name each part,
Visualize a golden light.
Keep following my voice with full awareness throughout.
We'll begin with the right hand thumb,
Index finger,
Middle finger,
Ring finger,
Little finger,
Right palm of the hand,
Right back of the hand,
Wrist,
Lower arm,
Elbow,
Upper arm,
Armpit,
Shoulder,
Collarbone,
Right side of the chest,
Right upper abdomen,
Navel center,
Right lower abdomen,
The hip bone,
The right front of the thigh,
The kneecap,
Shin,
Ankle,
Heel,
Sole of the foot,
Top of the foot,
Right big toe,
Second toe,
Third toe,
Fourth toe,
Little toe.
Making sure to follow my voice with full awareness.
Moving to the left hand thumb,
Index finger,
Middle finger,
Ring finger,
Little finger,
Palm of the hands,
Back of the hand,
The left wrist,
Lower arm,
Elbow,
Upper arm,
Armpit,
Shoulder,
Collarbone,
Left side of the chest,
Left upper abdomen,
Navel center,
Left lower abdomen,
Hip bone,
Front of the thigh,
Kneecap,
Shin,
Ankle,
Heel,
Sole of the foot,
Top of the foot,
Left big toe,
Second toe,
Third toe,
Fourth toe,
Little toe.
Feel into both heels as they press into the floor,
Feeling both calf muscles,
The backs of the knees,
The backs of the thighs,
Buttocks,
Lower back,
Middle of the back,
Upper back,
The entire spine,
From the tailbone all the way to the top of the head between the ears,
Right shoulder blade,
Left shoulder blade,
Space between shoulder blades,
The back of the neck,
Back of the head,
Crown of the head,
The forehead,
The right temple,
Left temple,
Right ear,
Left ear,
Right eyebrow,
Left eyebrow,
Middle of the eyebrows,
The eyebrow center,
Right eye,
Left eye,
Bridge of the nose,
Tip of the nose,
The right nostril,
The left nostril,
The right cheek,
The left cheek,
The upper lip,
The lower lip,
The chin,
Jaw,
The whole head,
The whole torso,
The whole body,
The whole body,
The whole body.
And now take your awareness to the natural flow of your breath as it enters and leaves through the nostrils.
As you breathe in,
Feel the whole body expand.
And as you breathe out,
Feel the whole body relax.
Continue this on your own,
Breathing in and feeling the whole body expand,
Breathing out to feel the whole body relaxing.
Continuing to breathe in to feel the whole body expand while breathing out,
Feeling the whole body relax.
I will now walk you through some feelings and sensations.
As I name each one,
Feel it throughout the whole body and then let it go.
First,
Feeling the sensation of coldness throughout the whole body,
Feeling coldness throughout the body,
Coldness.
Next,
Feeling the sensation of warmth throughout the whole body,
Feeling warmth throughout the whole body,
Warmth.
And now bringing in the sensation of judgment throughout the whole body,
Feeling judgment throughout the whole body,
Judgment.
Now feeling acceptance throughout the whole body,
Feeling acceptance throughout the whole body,
Acceptance.
Bring on the sensation of uniqueness throughout the whole body,
Feeling uniqueness throughout the whole body,
Uniqueness.
Next,
Bringing in the sensation of conformity throughout the whole body,
Feeling conformity throughout the whole body,
Conformity.
Bringing in now the sensation of division throughout the whole body,
Feeling division throughout the whole body,
Division.
Now bringing in the sensation of unity throughout the whole body,
Feeling unity throughout the whole body,
Unity.
Bring in now the sensation of disconnection throughout the whole body,
Feeling disconnection throughout the whole body,
Disconnection.
Next,
Bringing in the sensation of kinship throughout the whole body,
Feeling kinship throughout the whole body,
Kinship.
Now bring in the sensation of defiance throughout the whole body,
Feeling defiance throughout the whole body,
Defiance.
Bringing in now the sensation of collaboration throughout the whole body,
Feeling collaboration throughout the whole body,
Collaboration.
I will now go on and name some symbols.
As I name each symbol,
Picture it in the mind and then listen for the next symbol.
A colorful garden,
A colorful garden,
A colorful garden.
Food on a table,
Food on a table,
Food on a table.
The sound of laughter,
The sound of laughter,
The sound of laughter.
A group of people talking,
A group of people talking,
A group of people talking.
Stars in the night sky,
Stars in the night sky,
Stars in the night sky.
And now letting go of the symbols,
Letting them go.
And start to visualize yourself at the scene of rolling purple hills that are filled with lavender shrubs.
Blue skies extend as far as the eye can see.
The afternoon sun is above,
Joined by several clouds that soften the light just a little bit.
You pause to take in the view,
And then you notice a narrow path that curves smoothly back and forth among the foliage.
You find the start of the path and begin to hear the sound of pollinator bees at work.
Winding through the bountiful and fragrant shrubs,
You eventually come upon a small opening where you join a group of laughing people gathered around a fire.
You spend a moment just listening to their stories and being in their presence,
Silently acknowledging them before moving on,
Continuing to follow the pathway as it makes its way up a hillside.
At the peak of the knoll is another grassy opening,
And in the center of this opening sits an old oak tree rooted into the soil.
You explore this opening,
Feeling the energy of this natural space before making your way back to the oak tree.
You notice there's a cushion at its base,
And you sit upon it,
Feeling the soft and welcoming support beneath you.
As you rest here,
You close your eyes,
Becoming fully aware of the warmth of the sun's rays and the gentle touch of the breeze on your face.
As the breeze turns into a calm wind,
You begin to open the eyes.
The sun has moved in the sky,
And you take that as a cue to make your way up off the cushion.
Slowly,
You step back out toward the edge of the vast lavender field.
From this place,
You can see the lush hillsides,
The fertile fields,
The pollinator bees buzzing all around,
And the blue sky expanding endlessly in all directions.
And now,
Let go of this visualization.
Let it go,
Bringing your awareness now up to the mind space,
This deep,
Dark,
Infinite space of the mind behind the forehead.
This space is known as Chittakash in yoga,
The deep,
Infinite space of the mind.
Look deeply into this space now,
Observing any thoughts,
Feelings,
Colors,
Patterns,
Or pictures,
Just remaining as a witness,
Viewing it as if it was a movie.
And now,
Withdrawing your awareness from the mind space.
Withdraw from the mind space.
Keep withdrawing your awareness from the mind space and bring your awareness back to the breath.
Feel the breath on the nostrils while deepening the breath a little bit.
This is the time where we bring to mind the sankalpa that you crafted at the beginning.
Take this and repeat it to yourself three times.
And now,
Bring your awareness back to the body,
The whole body,
The whole physical body,
Making sure that you're aware of your whole physical body and your surroundings as you bring movement back into the body by moving the fingers,
Maybe the toes,
And stretching your arms above your head.
Yoga Nidra is now complete.
When you're ready,
Come back up to a seated position.
