Yoga Nidrā - Four Streams

Inspired by my training in the four main lineages of Yoga Nidrā (Swami Satyananda, Amrit Desai, Richard Miller, Swami Rama), this is a fusion highlighting some of the tools and language from each approach interwoven into one, seamless experience. My intention is not to dilute or compromise any of the methods, but to honor their potency and uniqueness in a “collaborative” and unified form revealing the intersection where these four streams of wisdom meet, in the very heart of Yoga Nidrā itself.

Transcript

Take a few moments to prepare your environment and body for the practice of Yoga Nidra.

It is helpful to reduce the possibility of external distractions so that you can feel held in a secure and quiet space,

Supportive for entering a state of deep rest.

It is ideal to be lying comfortably on your back with a light blanket over your body and a thin cushion under your head.

Allow your arms to rest alongside your body with your palms facing upward.

Complete any final adjustments to your position or props so that the body can now settle completely to a point of stillness.

If it's comfortable,

Allow your eyes to close or at least your gaze to grow steady and soften.

And notice how the pool of the world loosens its grip and how your attention naturally starts to flow inward.

In Yoga Nidra,

You're temporarily relieved from all of the external activities of the body and the responsibilities of the world.

As you fully embrace this time for you,

Notice the natural inclination toward entering a restful state.

With each exhale,

Follow that inclination,

Led by the body's innate intelligence,

As it effortlessly remembers how to fully relax and let go.

Not by any doing on your part,

But the natural and spontaneous undoing of tension through the release of effort.

Now breathe in fully and exhale with a deep sigh.

Repeat this again and this time let go even more.

Feel a profound and comprehensive sense of settling and a feeling of deep contentment emerging from within.

As we progress through this ancient and quite natural process into Yoga Nidra,

We temporarily suspend all of our agendas or the need to change or gain anything from experience.

During the practice,

We simply rest back as though merely an observer to the ever-changing contents of experience.

Whether those contents are happening externally or internally,

We silently watch and feel,

Without reaction,

As though we were sitting on the banks of a slow moving river,

Just watching it all flow by.

Any potential distractions then can become vehicles for dropping more fully into this observer state.

As the mind is withdrawn from the world of doing,

We discover the realm of being,

Which exists as the ever-present backdrop to all experience.

Holding the intention to remain aware throughout the entire process enables us to drift within toward the very heart of all yogic teachings.

As an observer,

Notice all surrounding sounds.

Feel the surface beneath your body,

Temperature of the room,

The feeling of stillness within and surrounding the body,

And the presence of sensation in the body.

The river of experience flows,

And you simply watch.

Now amidst this subtle current of experience,

Ignite the realm of possibility by bringing to mind asankhoppa,

An intention,

Something helpful or supportive that you wish to manifest in your life.

This intention can function like a compass,

Aligning will,

Choice,

And action with a deep,

Heartfelt desire.

Construct your statement of intent as an affirmation that declares it to already be true and alive in this very moment.

Recite your affirmation three times,

Letting the words wash over the mind and body to become a direct and felt experience.

Now recall the feeling of well-being,

An inner feeling of okayness or of being okay,

Perhaps a sense of security,

Safety,

Ease,

Groundedness or stability,

Calm or peace.

It may be helpful to remember the presence of a certain person or an environment that helped support or nourish these feelings,

The recollection of a moment or place in the feeling of simply being okay.

Connect to this sense of well-being as a feeling in the body.

Allow space for it to spontaneously grow or become even more present.

Feel free to return to this place of comfort as a refuge at any time during this practice or in day-to-day life.

Help awareness of your entire body,

The whole body at once.

Feel the natural breath flowing in and out.

Continue to breathe slowly and gently through your nostrils,

And now as you inhale,

Let the lungs fill more completely,

But without any strain.

Hold your breath for a brief moment at the top,

Up to three seconds,

Sensing your whole body.

Now,

Exhale the breath and feel as though every cell in the body is releasing and letting go.

Continue for a few more rounds,

Filling the lungs gently,

Pausing at the top to feel the whole body at once,

And sensing the whole body release the exhale through a long and steady unbroken stream.

With each exhale,

You feel the body is letting go more completely,

And the deepest layers of physical tension are slowly melting away.

Now,

Let your breath return to normal,

Soft and effortless.

Observe as the breath becomes progressively quieter and more still,

Until it's almost impossible to detect.

Follow my guidance to move attention through different parts of the body.

Feel as though the penetrating power of awareness can instantly dissolve any blockages or contraction as you move through these different areas of the body.

As awareness rests in each part,

You may feel a subtle sensation of expansion or release,

Or just an underlying quality of stillness.

As I guide you from point to point,

Remain in non-doing,

Silent awareness.

Now bring your undivided attention to the point between your eyebrows.

Pit of the throat,

Right shoulder,

Right elbow,

Wrist,

Tip of the right thumb,

Tip of the first finger,

Tip of the second finger,

Tip of the third finger,

Tip of the fourth,

Again the wrist,

Elbow,

Shoulder,

Throat,

Left shoulder,

Elbow,

Wrist,

Tip of the left thumb,

Right thumb,

Tip of the first finger,

Tip of the second,

Third finger,

Fourth finger,

Wrist,

Elbow,

Shoulder,

Throat,

Center of the chest,

Right side of the chest,

Center,

Left side of the chest,

Center,

Pit of the throat,

And again bring your awareness to rest in the eyebrow center.

Think into that silent space where all doing stops.

Sense again the whole body.

Feel into the waves of breath as a gentle rising and falling.

Bring your attention to the soles of your feet.

Sense the skin on the soles of your feet,

From the heels to the very tips of the toes.

Bring your attention to the crown of the head,

Sensing the uppermost part of the skull.

Begin to feel that the inhale moves as a directional wave that begins at the crown and then slowly descends through the entire body to the feet.

The exhale then flows from the feet through the body back up to the crown.

Continue to follow this movement,

The inhale moving downward and the exhale moving upward.

Waves of breath and attention flowing together,

Effortlessly and silently.

Feel this sweeping movement of breath passing through all of the layers of the body,

Physical and subtle,

Creating a fluid movement of energies that flows uniformly and harmoniously.

Feel all patterns of disturbance becoming integrated into this unified current of breath,

Sensation and attention.

Now rest your attention in the eyebrow center.

Feel the stillness in the body and the silence in the mind.

Now feel even deeper into the body and notice if there's a dominant sensation present.

It may be the feeling of heaviness or warmth,

Perhaps density or spaciousness.

Without any need to express preference for or against it,

Just allow yourself to simply feel it.

Is this sensation more potent or concentrated in any specific area of the body?

Does the sensation increase as you're aware of it?

If it's helpful,

Now invite the experience of an opposite sensation.

If the sensation has no opposite,

What might the absence of this sensation feel like?

Where do you most feel that sensation?

And how does it unfold in your experience?

Now return to the original sensation.

And again experience its opposite,

Perhaps moving back and forth between them at your own rhythm.

Can you experience both sensations at the same time?

What impact does this have on the mind?

Can you sense both as a polarity of complementary experiences,

Each of which are transient phenomena moving through a field of awareness?

Sense how everything is a movement through awareness.

And now sinking back as awareness,

The field in which all of these sensations are coming and going.

Watching,

Uninvolved,

Welcoming and allowing.

Perhaps returning to that inner sense of okayness or place of inner calm and well-being.

Even feeling as though well-being emerges from the unchanging backdrop of awareness.

Feeling secure,

Grounded,

Easeful,

Spacious.

Bring your attention back to the eyebrow center and drop into the deepest level of inner silence.

Let attention expand into the space beyond your forehead.

The space where the unknown content of the mind becomes known as a flow of impressions,

Subtle shapes or forms.

Resting in witness awareness,

Allow the following images to appear either as a visual experience or perhaps a feeling.

Judging nothing,

Remain unconditionally open and present to all that passes through the field of awareness.

See a luminous eye shining inward.

Cold droplets of moonlight as nectar.

A tiny flame from an oil lamp surrounded by vast darkness.

A small circular pool of water into which four streams converge.

This pool represents the source of timeless wisdom.

The well of universal knowledge from which all saints and sages drank.

An ever-present reservoir of healing,

Self-discovery and truth.

Kneeling at the edge of this pool,

Gaze into its deep reflective waters.

The stirring from the convergent streams creates a dance of light and color that forms a window into the waking state.

A state that appears to reveal a multiplicity of separate and distinct forms.

From this pool in the eyebrow center,

A single crystal clear stream flows down into the throat,

Forming a second pool.

Kneeling by this pool,

You see tiny ripples from the current reveal a new landscape.

The dreaming state.

The appearance of ephemeral forms abstracted into a continuous flow of spontaneous imagery.

These waters flow from the throat into a third pool deep in the center of your chest.

The surface of the pool appears like a sheet of glass,

Undisturbed and still.

Kneeling at the edge of this pool,

You're able to perceive the realm of deep sleep.

A latent ground of mental inertia.

On the surface of this pool,

Nothing is reflected,

Like a window into emptiness.

You reach through the glass-like surface and then step inside,

Into the emptiness,

Entering a realm beyond all forms.

A place where even the subtlest forms of thought,

Desire and sensation are absorbed into a soft ocean of vast,

Unbounded awareness.

Focus yourself in this unchanging part of your being.

Let go into the experience so completely that there is just being.

Remaining in this deep state of silent awareness,

Allow yourself to receive these words as though they were your own.

I am the seer,

The field of unchanging awareness,

The witness of all that is in perpetual change.

I am the peace that precedes disturbance,

Endures as the backdrop in the presence of disturbance and the peace that remains untouched when disturbance dissolves.

In this expansive stillness,

Your intentions and affirmations are fulfilled with effortless ease.

Once again,

Ignite the potency of your sankopa,

Repeating your affirmation mentally three times with a deep sense of feeling and purpose.

Establish it at the altar of your heart.

Let the potency of your attention reside in the center of your chest.

Shift your attention to rest in the throat.

Once again,

Let your attention rest in the eyebrow center.

From this place of deep stillness,

Feel a natural emerging into wakeful awareness,

The outer world slowly reappearing to the senses.

Within the stillness of the physical body,

Sense the undercurrent of subtle sensations.

In that current,

Feel the rise and fall of your breath.

Begin to feel the edges of your body and the surface supporting it from beneath.

As the time feels right,

Invite a deeper breath and initiate small movements throughout the body.

Bend your knees,

Roll gently to your side,

And continue to rest behind closed eyelids.

Let the profound stillness of yoga nidra continue to saturate your experience.

Slowly begin to sit up with your eyes closed.

Join your palms together and rub them in order to generate heat.

Rest them over your eyes and feel the transfer of heat into your eyes,

Awakening the mind and enlivening the senses.

Open your eyes inside of your palms and then slowly release your hands,

For a moment remaining still and present.

Bring this freshness and calm with you as you move back out into the world.

Rather than feeling that the practice of yoga nidra is complete,

Feel that the practice continues as you remain supported by the very source of peace within.

Reviews

Beautiful
One of the best guidances and voices I’ve experienced
Thank you Jeremy!🙏

Thank you, a beautifully constructed and presented no nonsense Yoga Nidra to relax and heal.

I drifted off quickly listening to your calm voice🙏🏻

Very restful yoga nidra practice by one with a wonderful diction, voice and manner. Thank you for sharing it with us.

Jeremy, beautiful resonant voice of your and a wonderful practice. All my thanks

Impressive! Inspiring. Glad I found your practices. Thank you!

Wow, probably the best yoga nidra I have done. Many many thanks 🙏

I loved the combination of the different steams!

I played this at 5:00 am. Nice quiet background. Thumb and four fingers. Noticing a feeling already present and finding an opposite. Fell asleep. Woke again after it was finished feeling apprehensive. I’ll try this again another day.

I did this Yoga Nidra practice first thing in the morning after suffering several sleepless nights. It helped me recover lost energy to the point where I felt human again. Incredible. Thank You so much.

One of my favourite tracks on Insight Timer - beautifully eloquent.

Jeremy is one of the best teachers on this platform.

Excellent! ✨✨✨✨✨
So much wisdom 🙏🏾
Beautiful voice 💙

Amazing guidance. A profound moment revisiting my sanculpa (not sure how to spell that) the at the end. Thank you for this. It was a gift at this point in my life. The quote poignant. namaste

Thank you 😊

Wonderful

Wow, what a treasure to behold! Your gift of words is immense! Thank you for such a healing experience. 🙏🏻

I enjoyed very much so, thank uou kindly for that nidra practice , beautiful ❤🌠
Namaste 🙏🏼🌸🌱❤🌿

I like the pace and the blend of these traditions. Jeremy, you have a rich and grounding voice.

Exceptionally peaceful—thank you so much, Jeremy 🙏🏻❤️