So,
Before we start with the practice of yoga nidra,
I want to invite you for a short moment of connecting with touch to your own body,
So that your body gets the message that it's nurtured and your nervous system may settle down.
When we gently touch and hold ourselves,
Our brains will release the hormone of oxytocin,
And this hormone has a deeply relaxing and restoring effect.
Now come sit in a comfortable position and start by placing your hands over your face.
Very gently stroke yourself all the way from your face over the top of your head,
The back and your neck.
You may close your eyes so that your attention moves inwardly.
Repeat this at your own pace.
See if you can slow it down even more.
And if it feels good,
You can allow yourself to make some sound when you breathe out.
Now hold your both arms and gently strike from your shoulders all the way down to the hands.
Repeat this for a few times at your own pace.
Really follow the touch of your hands.
Now I would like to read a poem for you,
And you can sit still with your eyes closed if that feels good,
While you are holding yourself.
I let the words of this poem touch you like an invisible cloak of love.
And because we are entering the phase of the full moon,
I wanted to share this poem,
Called Moon,
By an unknown author.
And just like the moon,
You shall go through phases of light,
Of dark,
And of everything in between.
And though you may not always appear with the same brightness,
You are always,
Always whole.
Now you may open your eyes and slowly transition into the practice of yoga nidra.
Because our bodies know that we are truly resting when we lay down,
I want to invite you to lay down on your back.
So please take a few moments to settle down into a comfortable position.
And you might place a cushion underneath your knees and a blanket over your body.
So do what you can in this moment to make it as comfortable as possible for yourself.
To leave the body still and undisturbed for the duration of this practice.
And as soon as you are ready,
The first thing to do is to begin to close your eyes.
Let your attention move to the sounds around you.
Notice the sounds outside of the room,
Coming and going.
Sounds within the room,
Coming and going.
And now begin to turn your attention fully and deeply towards your inner world for a few moments.
And if it's helpful,
You can even allow the words that I use to become your own and say them to yourself in your own inner voice.
It's okay to stop.
I have permission to rest.
For the duration of this practice,
I can leave everything alone.
Now take a moment to notice your inner response.
How does your body feel about those words?
And how does your mind receive those words?
As we have turned our attention towards the mind and body,
Start to notice them a little more.
Now notice in particular the sensations of your body resting into its surroundings.
Not thinking about it,
But feeling it for a few moments.
Feel all of the heaviness and contact with the surface below.
The different places that your body touches into the ground.
If you notice that your attention is moving towards the stream of thoughts,
Know that you are not doing anything wrong.
It's okay.
It's just a part of being human.
I would like to invite you into a new perspective,
A new possibility,
Which is not to try and stop the mind,
Or to do anything about those thoughts,
But instead to begin to leave them alone.
You can do this by beginning to take distance.
And if it's helpful,
You might see your thoughts,
Or the images that it creates,
In front of you through your mind's eye.
And then,
Once again,
Feel back and down into the body,
Where the body touches the surface below.
Feel the support of the surface underneath you.
That you are held by the earth.
Allow yourself to really sink in to the supportive grace of gravity.
It has your back.
Now I want to invite you to try to make a gentle agreement with yourself,
To stay with this felt sense of the body for the next few minutes.
You can use your inner voice to repeat these words to yourself.
I will try to stay with the felt sense of my body.
So really invite your attention to be curious and maybe even fascinated about what's here to feel as sensations.
Now notice sensations inside the mouth.
Feel the tip of the tongue,
The right side of the tongue,
The left side of the tongue.
How the tongue connects to the floor of the mouth.
Feel the roof of the mouth,
The upper lip,
Lower lip.
Feel the jaw.
Does it feel tight,
Relaxed?
No need to judge or fix your experience,
Simply meeting what's here.
And now drop back into feeling the whole mouth.
The inside of the cheeks.
The space inside the mouth.
Going back and up in the sinuses and nose.
Feel the left nostril,
The right nostril.
And now follow the sensations back through the nose and down into the throat.
Feel into the front,
The back and the sides of the throat.
As a way of deepening this practice,
Take a moment now of welcoming.
Welcoming ourselves just as we are and welcoming the moment as it is.
No need to change anything,
Nothing to get rid of.
Even welcoming any attempts to adjust or get rid of parts of your experience.
Just leave everything alone for a few moments to be as it is.
Emotions,
Mood,
Images,
The outer and inner world simply as they are.
No need to adjust them or make them different for a few moments.
And now begin to reflect on an intention that will support your practice of Yoga Nidra.
Perhaps to stay alert and attentive through the practice or to take this as an opportunity to deeply rest and restore your energy levels.
An intention might be to explore a particular emotion,
Thought or belief.
These are just suggestions.
Do take some moments now to let your mind play over the possibilities.
It's okay to not know and to just be curious.
You may consider what it is that drew you to this practice today.
If you don't know and feel stuck,
An intention might be,
I am finding my intention for the practice of Yoga Nidra.
Once you have a sense of your intention,
Affirm it to yourself as a positive statement.
Rather than focusing on the challenge,
Such as,
I am judging myself,
Reflect on the outcome you want.
I am kind and understanding towards myself.
Take some moments now to affirm to yourself your own desired outcome using the inner voice.
If your intention feels unrealistic or out of reach,
Make it more believable.
I am becoming kind and understanding towards myself.
And now,
Allow all of the thinking to drop away and just come into the felt sense of your body.
How does your intention land with you physically?
How does it feel?
And if your body feels at ease and harmonious,
You may stay with this felt sense in the body.
But if there is something that feels uncomfortable or off,
You might like to take a moment to reframe your intention in some way so that it feels harmonious and supportive as a felt sense.
And now,
Start moving your attention physically to the heart space.
You might take some breath here,
As if you can breathe in and out right there,
Through the heart itself.
You might like to offer a quality of compassion towards yourself,
A quality of loving kindness,
Which we may very easily extend out to others,
But less often give to ourselves.
So tap into a genuine felt sense of compassion and love for your own struggles,
Sorrows,
Difficulties and challenges.
Invite the heart space to open out to feeling.
And as you feel ready to,
You might then like to invite these questions.
What are my deeper desires?
What is my calling in this life?
What does my heart most long for?
What would I be doing if I knew I couldn't fail?
You might stay with these questions here,
Just open to asking without having to know an answer.
A response may come as a feeling of the heart,
Waking up as sensations.
Perhaps imagery,
Words,
Reflections.
Just allowing whatever does or doesn't come.
If there is a tendency to be in the head,
To be thinking,
Reflecting or in imagery,
Can you allow all of that now to fall away and just come back to the felt sense of not just the heart,
But the whole body.
Move your attention to your head and feel the whole outside of the head.
The back of your head.
The sides.
Top of the head.
The forehead.
Bring your attention at the crown of the head.
Notice what you experience here.
Now move your attention from your head,
Through the back of your neck,
Down into the shoulders.
The upper arms.
Inside of the elbows.
Forearms.
Wrists.
And hands.
Take some time here to tend to the sensations of the hands.
Feel the back of the hands.
The palms.
The thumb.
Index finger.
Middle finger.
Ring finger.
And little finger.
Feel the space or contact between each finger.
Move your attention back to the palms.
What do you notice here?
How does your palms feel?
Still or pulsing,
Heavy,
Light?
Stay with whatever you are experiencing here for a few moments.
Notice where the skin boundary of the palms end and where the space that surrounds them begins.
Can you find a beginning or an end here?
Move your attention back up through the arms.
The shoulders.
Into the chest.
Feel the front of the chest.
The sides.
The back.
And now the inside of the chest.
Feel the life force breathing the chest.
Now slowly move attention down into the belly.
Feel the front.
The back.
The sides.
The inside.
Bring the attention down into the pelvis.
Feel the front.
The back.
The sides.
And the pelvic floor.
Sense down into the legs.
The thighs.
The knee pit.
Calves.
Shins.
Ankles.
Feet.
Now return to the feeling of the whole body.
Feel into the whole back of the body.
Sense it resting into the surface below.
Feel into the front of the body.
The sensations of touch of the clothing.
Feel all the way through the left side.
All the way through the right side.
Notice the overall feeling of aliveness in the body.
There could be a whole kaleidoscope of sensations here.
Of heaviness.
Lightness.
Tingling.
Warmth.
Cold.
Numbness.
Sensations moving or static.
But there is one thing that is beyond analyzing.
Which is,
It's alive.
It's life expressing itself.
Through and as you.
There is no need to think about all this.
But plenty to feel.
And then pour all of your loving attention into the breath.
And notice how the body is breathing itself.
It doesn't need you to breathe it.
See if you can be very alert,
Very one-pointed with this experience of the breath for some moments.
How would it be to let go of being involved in the breath?
And simply watch this exquisite wisdom in its own ebb and flow.
And notice the inhalation and exhalation.
Which one is longer?
Follow the breathing in.
And notice where the in-breath is most felt in the body.
And the out-breath.
Now follow your next out-breath to its completion.
And begin at your own pace to count down through the breath.
Starting with number 5.
At the end of each breath,
Counting down to 4.
And on the next exhalation,
Number 3.
And so on.
All the way down to 1 at your own pace.
And if you made it to 1,
Let the counting go.
And just stay with that aliveness.
And now catching the wave of your breath again.
The next time you breathe out,
Breathe in again and feel through the back of the body.
Exhaling,
Move your attention through the front of the body.
As you breathe in,
Bring your attention back up to the front of the body.
And at the top of your in-breath,
You switch to the back of the body.
Breathing out,
Feeling down the back of the body.
So each time you take a new breath in,
Move your attention to the opposite side.
Continue moving your attention to the front and back of your body at your own pace.
Don't let the mind get too involved or think about whether you are doing this right or wrong.
Or how it should be.
Just feeling the front and then the back of the body with each breath.
However that works or happens for you.
And now let your attention become completely immersed in the whole breathing experience.
The feeling,
The sensations,
The rhythm and flow of each breath.
And as the body continues to breathe,
You can explore the spaces that appear between each breath.
There is a natural pause between the out-breath and in-breath.
That may reveal or give you a glimpse of an underlying stillness.
Or of a watchfulness in which the breath comes and goes.
So when the breath momentarily disappears,
Slows down or fades.
There is a recognition of something that isn't fading.
Of something that is not changing.
Something here that's stable and still.
Even as the breath continues to come and go.
And now it's time to begin to slowly return from this practice.
Start by noticing the sounds that surround you.
Feel how the body touches into the surrounds.
Take a moment to prepare yourself to slowly surface from this practice of deep rest.
When you feel ready,
Begin to gently move the feet.
The hands.
A soft little rock of the head from side to side.
Very slowly waking up the body at your own pace.
Now gently roll onto your left or your right side into a fetal position.
And as you stay there,
I want to recall the words of the poem for you.
And just like the moon,
You shall go through phases of light,
Of dark and of everything in between.
And though you may not always appear with the same brightness,
You are always,
Always whole.
Now begin to notice any insights or anything that feels important to you to acknowledge so that you can feel complete with this practice.
And know that you have some time now to slowly open your eyes and bring yourself gently up to sitting.
And thank you so much for sharing this practice with me this evening.
