TheSurolith Hello and welcome to a special yoga hijna from the Forest Family Foundation.
Yogunidya in short is a practice of deep relaxation coupled with the profound awareness that is proven to tremendously assist us in the alleviation of stress and anxiety and carve out new channels in our brain for insight,
Learning and creativity.
All you need to know is to set aside 20 minutes of your time to be undistracted,
Uncluttered,
Undisturbed and fully present,
To be guided through a systematic series of cues designed to bring you to a state of consciousness that is meditative but not meditation,
That is aware but somehow not quite fully awake.
A state that is as deep as sleep,
But it is not sleep.
Swami Satyananda Saraswati,
Who is largely responsible for the modern Yogunidya practice,
He says that for relaxation to be truly effective,
We need awareness,
It is necessary.
So as best as you can,
Follow along each step with your full attention.
If you do fall asleep,
Don't worry,
Because you're still benefiting,
It will be helpful to come back to this short session again and again until you can maintain a relaxed concentration throughout the practice.
Are you ready?
Let's begin.
We begin the process and practice of Yogunidya by lying down on our back in a comfortable position,
Just like your most juiciest Shavasana or that place of sweet surrender at the end of a yoga class.
You may like a pillow under your head or an extra pillow under your knees to alleviate any discomfort in the lower back.
It may also be appropriate to use a blanket and an eye mask is always a nice addition.
Now,
Spread your feet a little wider than your hips,
Open your palms effortlessly to the sky and relax your arms.
Feel the ground underneath your heels,
Under the backs of your hands and behind your head.
And let the ground take the weight of your body.
Just simply let the ground take the weight of your body.
You can see if you could just give 10% more of your weight right now to the ground.
Just like that.
Let the front of the body in turn soften like snow melting in the warmth of the sun.
And say to yourself mentally,
I am beginning the practice of Yogunidra.
I am relaxed.
I am awake.
I am aware.
Place your attention now on the breath.
Become aware of the quality of your breathing.
And from the tips of your toes all the way to your waist,
We will now breathe in slowly from the toes moving up the legs to the waist.
And as we exhale,
Slowly move down,
Down the legs,
Back to the toes.
This time up to the chest breathing in.
And from the chest exhaling all the way down to the toes.
The breath is long,
Slow and even,
Breathing in this time up to your nose.
And exhaling,
Breathing out from your nose all the way down,
Down to the toes.
And this time breathe in from the soles of your feet all the way to the crown of the head.
And exhaling from the crown on down.
Once more just like this,
Breathing in.
And breathing out.
This time place your attention in the center of the chest and we will breathe in from there and expand in a full circle all directions to the extremities,
The hands,
The fingers.
All the way to the toes,
The back of the body.
And as you exhale from this radius coming inward contracting,
Everything coming to relax.
Again from the midline of the body breathing in like you're filling up a balloon.
And releasing that balloon slowly,
Carefully,
Evenly,
Drawing the breath out long.
As you breathe in now taking a full breath and at the top of that inhale pause and let go of the control of the breath and allow the exhale just to happen by itself.
And at the end of that exhale do the same thing,
Practice letting go of the control as the inhale naturally comes all by itself.
And as the inhale and the exhale take care of themselves we enter into a completely natural breath.
And with the completely natural breath feel as if your whole body were now breathing.
An important part to this exercise is what we call Sankalpa.
It means a resolve or resolution or maybe intention if you like.
It is a short positive statement that is used to plant just like a seed into the garden of our relaxed subconscious mind.
It is a good idea to come up with your own and one that is meaningful to you and use it in other sessions.
However,
For this session we'll use a collective statement aimed to bring us all into a vibration of acceptance,
Of wholeness,
Of harmony with ourselves and with our environment,
With our world.
Coming home.
So mentally repeat after me.
I am at home in this body.
I am at home in this mind.
I am at home in this world.
I am at home in this body.
I am at home in this mind.
I am at home in this world.
I am at home in this body.
I am at home in this mind.
I am at home in this world.
Now with loving attention follow each instruction as we rotate the awareness through different parts of the body.
We begin with the right hand thumb,
The thumb of the right hand,
And then the index finger,
The middle finger,
Ring finger,
And little finger,
The palm of the right hand,
And the back of the right hand,
The right wrist and forearm,
Elbow and upper arm,
Right shoulder,
And right side of the chest,
The rib cage,
The whole torso,
The waist and the groin,
The hip and the thigh,
The back of the thigh,
The knee,
The right shin and calf muscle,
Ankle,
Heel,
Sole of the right foot,
Top of the right foot,
The big toe,
The second toe,
Third toe,
Fourth toe,
And fifth toe,
All of the toes,
All of the toes all the way to the fingertips,
The whole right side of the body.
Bring the awareness to the left thumb,
Thumb of the left hand,
Index finger,
Middle finger,
Ring finger,
And little finger,
The palm of the left hand,
The back of the left hand,
The wrist and forearm,
Elbow and upper arm,
The shoulder and the left side of the chest.
Moving down the rib cage,
Torso,
Hip,
Groin,
Abdomen,
The left thigh and the back of the left thigh,
The knee,
Shin,
And calf muscle,
Ankle,
Heel,
Sole of the left foot,
Top of the left foot,
The big toe,
The second toe,
Third toe,
Fourth toe,
And fifth toe,
And from the toes to the fingers,
The whole left side of the body.
Bring the awareness now to the whole right side of the body,
And both sides together.
Awareness now to the back of the body,
Beginning with the seat,
The buttocks,
The right side,
And the left side,
The lower back,
The mid back,
The rassic region,
And the upper back.
Visualize and take your awareness along the entire spinal column,
In the back of the neck,
Back of the head,
And the crown of the head,
The forehead,
Your right eyebrow,
And your left eyebrow,
Your right eye,
And your left eye,
The right cheek,
And the left cheek,
The nose,
Lips,
Teeth,
And tongue,
And the whole palate of the mouth,
The jaw.
And from the temples all the way to the toes and everywhere in between,
Become aware now of the whole body,
A whole body awareness,
Awareness of the whole body.
Next we allow the mind to generate sensations and their opposites.
Start to feel the weight of the body,
A tremendous heaviness.
Experience the sensation of heaviness.
So heavy are your arms and legs that you could not lift them even if you tried.
Dense,
Thick,
Weight drawing you down into the earth,
Into the ground.
Experience now the sensation of heaviness.
And now become light,
Light as a feather,
Light as a sheet of paper,
So light that if a breeze came you would blow away.
Experience,
Imagine,
And feel through your whole body the sensation of lightness.
And allow the body to rest again at its natural weight.
Experience now the sensation of cold,
Shivering,
Icy,
Coolness,
A chilly breeze,
A winter's night,
Snow falling,
Teeth chattering.
Allow the sensation of cold to permeate the body.
Now call to mind the image of fire,
Heat,
Bright blistering sun on a hot summer's day,
So hot that you could actually sweat and perspire.
Allow the full sensation of heat to permeate the body.
And allow the body to return to its natural temperature.
Moving to our emotional temperament,
Allow and call to mind an experience of sadness,
A grief,
Heavy-hearted,
A time when the world looked bleak,
And without fixing or changing just experience in the body a heavy emotional feeling that is like sadness.
Uncultivating its opposite now call to mind and experience a feeling,
A sensation of joy,
Joyfulness,
Light-heartedness.
Call to mind a time when the world was carefree,
Innocent like a child,
Full of play and mirth and laughter,
Smiling,
Smiling.
Call to mind and experience now with your whole body and your whole mind the sensation and emotion of joy,
True joy.
And allow the emotional temperament to normalize,
Just like that.
Emotion is the next part of the process.
Your task is simply to allow the mind and the senses to unfold the words that I will say.
First,
Call to mind visualize a yellow flower,
A yellow flower,
A black bird,
A black feathered bird,
A green forest,
A green forest,
The smile of a child,
The smile of a child,
A starry night sky,
A starry night sky.
A sunrise over the ocean,
An orange sunrise over the ocean,
A delightful waterfall,
A delightful waterfall cascading down on top of rocks into a small stream.
And bring all of your senses to this waterfall,
Hear the sound of the spraying water,
The roar of the waterfall.
Smell the damp air,
Taste the moisture,
And feel the penetrating effect of the presence of the waterfall.
And now in your mind's eye,
Call to mind an open field,
An open field.
In the center of that field there is a solitary tree,
A single tree.
Go towards that tree now.
As you come in front of that tree,
You sit down to take rest and relax your back upon its thick trunk and close your eyes to relax,
To go inwards.
And here we call to mind the sun kalpa.
So mentally repeat with me.
I am at home in my body.
I am at home in this body.
I am at home in my mind.
I am at home in this world.
I am at home in this mind.
I am at home in this mind.
I am at home in this world.
I am at home in this body.
I am at home in this mind.
I am at home in this world.
I am at home.
I am home.
I am home.
Awakening our awareness.
The practice of Yoga Nidra is complete.
Slowly take your time to externalize your senses to your surroundings,
Your fingers,
Your feet,
Your toes,
Your mind.
And wake yourself as gently as you would a sleeping baby.
Thank you for practicing with me today.
Namaste.
