Yoga Nidra For Twixmas

This is a calming, grounding and restful Yoga Nidra practice for the period inbetween Christmas and New Year's: Twixmas! If you either had a busy few days and weeks or a relaxed Christmas, this practice will help you to find a calming balance again to start the new year with clarity.

Background music by Amber Glow (the track is bought by me on Epidemic Sound)

Transcript

Welcome to this yoga nidra made for the period in between Christmas and New Year's,

Called Twixmas.

This is a beautiful period of time to rest,

Relax and reflect before the New Year begins.

Maybe the past few days have been filled with many festive activities or maybe you took it slow.

Either way,

This yoga nidra will help you to slow down a bit more and find deep rest and restoration.

As the days are short in the middle of winter and our bodies are biologically in hibernation mode,

It is extra important to take enough time for yourself and your body to rest.

This time is just for you to be.

Now let's take a moment to find your most comfortable position for your yoga nidra practice.

Grab a cozy blanket,

A soft pillow under your head and perhaps a bolster cushion under your knees to support your lower back.

Maybe you have an eye pillow for your eyes,

To allow your eyes to soften a little more.

Feel in which position your arms feel comfortable.

You can rest them gently next to your body,

With the palms up to the sky if you would like to receive some energy.

You can place the palms down to the ground if you would like to ground yourself down a little.

The hand can also rest on your lower belly if that feels comfortable.

When you have found your most comfortable position,

We'll take a moment to arrive here into this moment.

Maybe you notice that as you arrive here,

Your mind is still processing the last few busy days or even weeks,

Which is completely normal.

See if you can be loving and gentle with yourself and not push any thoughts away.

Observe which thoughts are moving through you and start to take on the role of the observer.

As the observer,

You take a step back from your mind and observe the thoughts that are coming up.

There is no need to push any thoughts away or judge yourself for getting distracted by the mind.

Just take a moment to notice what is going on in your mind right now.

Slowly start to visualize the thoughts as little clouds in the sky that are coming and going.

See if you can let go of identifying yourself with the thoughts.

Because you can observe your thoughts,

You can realize that you are actually not your thoughts.

You are the awareness behind them.

This also means you can let these clouds pass by again.

Whenever you notice you get distracted during this practice by your mind,

See if you can take on the role of the observer again and allow these clouds to come and go without judgment.

You can softly bring yourself back to my voice.

Now as you notice the state of your mind,

Let's take a moment to tune into our physical body.

Feel how the body is laying down on the ground,

On a yoga mat or maybe even in your bed.

Start with observing the feet.

Notice which parts of your feet are touching the ground.

Maybe you feel the feet being covered by the blanket.

Now move your awareness up to the calves,

The back of the knees,

The back of the thighs,

The buttocks,

The lower back,

The middle back,

The upper back,

The shoulders,

The arms and the back of your head.

Feel the whole back of the body in connection to the surface underneath you.

Now notice the front side of your body,

Starting with the face.

See if you can relax your forehead,

Your eyebrows,

Your eyes and your jaw as you gently open your mouth a little bit to let go of any tension in your jaw.

Feel the neck,

The chest,

The belly and your feet.

If there is a blanket on top of you,

Feel how the blanket is gently resting like a comfortable hug.

Notice the whole physical body now and see if you can relax all of your muscles into the surface underneath you.

This surface is steady,

Is not moving and it's here to hold you during this practice.

Now bring your awareness to your breath.

Notice how the breath is flowing in and out through your body without trying to change anything about the breath.

See if you can observe your breath as it is right now.

Feel the air flow into your body through your nostrils,

Down to your throat,

Towards your lungs and into your belly.

Now as you feel an out-breath coming,

Notice how the air is flowing up again in your body until it flows out through your nostrils,

In through the nostrils,

Down into your body and out through your nostrils as air flows up.

Now take a moment to become aware of the temperature of the air flowing in and out through your nostrils.

Notice how the air that flows into your nostrils is a little colder than the air flowing out.

In,

Cold.

Out,

Warm.

All the way down into your lower belly as you breathe in.

And allow it to flow all the way up and through your nostrils again when you breathe out.

Slowly we will now shift our awareness to different parts of our body to guide ourselves into a deeper state of relaxation and land into a more restful state of being.

First take a moment to feel the whole physical body resting down onto the surface underneath you.

See if you can let go of any lost physical tension in your body.

Allow the gravity to completely hold you here.

Now slowly start to feel your right thumb,

Index finger,

Middle finger,

Ring finger.

Feel the space in between the fingers of your right hand.

The back of the hand.

The right wrist.

Lower arm.

Elbow.

Shoulder.

The right side of the chest.

The right waist.

Right side of the lower belly.

The sole of the right foot.

And top of the right foot.

Feel all the toes on the right side of your body.

Now feel the whole right side of your body resting down into the ground.

Notice how the right side of your body is becoming heavier and heavier.

Feel the space in between the fingers of the left hand and the tips of your fingers.

Notice the palm of the left hand and the back of the hand.

Left wrist.

Shoulder.

Left side of the chest.

Left waist.

Left side of the belly.

Left hip.

Left upper leg.

Heel.

Sole of the left foot.

And top of the left foot.

Feeling all the toes on the left side of your body.

The whole left side of your body resting down.

Allow the whole left side to become heavier and heavier as it's grounding down.

Now bring your awareness to the chin,

Tip of your nose,

The space in between your eyebrows,

The forehead.

Now feel the whole body resting down.

Head to the tips of your toes.

To become heavier and heavier.

Completely resting into the arms of the gravity.

Allowing yourself to sink into your space of rest.

Into the space where there's nothing you have to do but just being here.

Allow yourself to just be.

Now bring your awareness to that space in between your eyebrows again.

And slowly you can visualize this small ball of light appearing.

Each time you breathe in,

This small ball of light starts to become a little bigger in between your eyebrows.

And as it becomes bigger and bigger,

Notice which color this light has.

And which shape.

And slowly this little ball of light starts to spread over your face.

This light and soft energy flowing through the whole face as it's allowing your brain and your whole head to soften a little more.

Notice how this ball of light is starting to move down through the throat,

The shoulders and the arms.

Until it reaches your fingertips.

Allow this ball to slowly move down towards the belly.

Until it reaches all the way down to your toes.

Notice how this ball of light is covering your whole body now.

Each time you breathe in,

This light expands a little more within you.

Each time you breathe in,

You feel a little lighter.

Now when you breathe out,

You start to feel a little heavier.

In,

Feeling light covering your whole body.

And breathing out.

Now as you still feel that light in your whole body,

You start to bring your awareness to the sitting bones.

As each time you breathe out,

These little small roots start to grow from the sitting bones.

Visualize that with each out-breath,

Now your heart starts to grow.

Still feeling those roots from the sitting bones.

Grounding.

And the heart space grows to that space in between your eyebrows again.

From this space,

Noticing that with each out-breath,

That space in between the eyebrows starts to grow roots down.

Now notice the roots from the sitting bones,

The heart and that space in between your eyebrows at the same time.

Notice how the roots are grounding you down.

Now start to feel the light as you breathe in.

And the grounding roots as you breathe out.

Feeling the light as you breathe in.

And the roots growing down as you breathe out.

Now can you feel this light and this grounding roots at the same time.

Feeling a lightness and a groundedness at the same time.

As now you start to feel completely balanced,

Evenly light and grounded.

As you feel this balance within the whole body.

Allow yourself to rest here for a little while.

Can you allow yourself to just be here.

Here.

Within balance.

As there's nothing you have to do.

Start to bring your awareness.

You're going to bring yourself back into your room by slowly moving the toes.

Very gently moving the toes up and down.

As you very slowly start to wake the body up again.

From this practice of deep rest.

Now allow the fingers to make some small movements as well.

Maybe at some point you'd like to circle the wrists and the ankles.

And if it feels comfortable,

You can start to give yourself a big stretch out through the whole body.

Maybe a big yawn comes up here.

Like you're just waking up.

With the eyes still closed,

If that feels comfortable,

You can start to roll yourself towards your favorite side.

And take your hands as you push yourself into a comfortable seated position.

To practice on being here.