Yoga Nidra: Moon Energy

This Yoga Nidra session, also known as "yogic sleep," is a deep relaxation technique that (when practiced regularly) helps manage anxiety and stress in everyday life, increase feelings of calm and peacefulness, and strengthen your ability to manage difficult emotions and thoughts.
In this session we take a guided journey from the body to the breath and then to the moon and back, adding our personal resolution (Sankalpah) when the subconscious is most fertile and receptive.

Transcript

Welcome to this practice of Yoga Nidra,

Our psychic sleep,

Yogic sleep,

Conscious sleep.

We'll start by finding all of your props,

Your pillows,

Your cushions,

Your blanket,

Your headphones,

Your eye cover,

Whatever it is that you need to get extremely comfortable for the practice.

Lying down on your back,

Ideally on the floor,

On a soft rug or a yoga mat,

But you can also use your bed as long as it doesn't make you too comfortable that you'll want to fall asleep,

Because our goal is to stay awake and alert during the practice.

As the body releases tension and relaxes completely,

The mind stays lucid and follows the directions.

So take the next minute or so to position yourself on your back in a shavasana,

Corpse pose position.

Arms and legs away from the body,

Rolling outwards,

Palms facing up,

Perhaps some cushioning under the knees,

Under the neck or the back of the head or the wrists.

Cover yourself with a light blanket.

Make sure that you can't feel the edges of the blanket and that your hands or legs are not touching any objects around you.

Another goal of the practice is to lose body sensation,

Lose the perceptual sensation of the body.

This is why we lie down on the back to get as comfortable and as deeply relaxed as possible.

As you're finishing positioning yourself,

Finding a relaxing,

Calm space for this practice,

I want you to think about a sankalpa,

A personal resolution or resolve.

If you've already created one,

That's perfect,

And we'll use that one moving forward.

If you haven't created one,

Go ahead and think about a simple and concise positive affirmation that's set in the present moment.

And this should be something that you feel very strongly about,

Something that you're passionate about changing,

Shifting,

Or transforming in your life.

Make it simple so that it's easy to remember and easy to implant into the subconscious.

And once you've decided on the perfect resolve or sankalpa,

Or if you have one already,

Just remind yourself of it.

Recite it once mentally so that it's awakened there behind the forehead.

And then notice as the body starts to sink down,

Already relaxing,

Already releasing,

Automatically letting go.

Notice how the more the body relaxes down to the ground or the mat,

The more the ground rises up to support it.

And now notice your breath.

Perhaps it's beginning to slow down by itself.

And bring all of your awareness to the movement of this breath at the very tip of your nostrils.

Rest the awareness at the tip of the nostrils.

Now move your awareness down further to the center of the chest.

Notice the breath rising and falling there.

Rest your awareness on the breath at the center of the chest.

And now move your awareness down lower to the abdomen,

Resting your focus there on the breath in the abdomen.

Now notice the whole breath traveling from the nostrils down to the belly and back up and out.

Awareness riding the wave of the entire breath now.

Now begin to count these entire breaths,

Counting up from one,

Inhaling one,

Exhaling one,

And so on.

Continue to count these breaths,

And if you lose track of the number,

Just start over at one,

Simply observing the breath go by.

Continue with counting the breaths in the background.

And remember that during this practice of yoga nidra,

You will remain awake,

Awakened.

The conscious attention will follow the sound of my voice and follow the instructions.

The body remains completely still.

Next time that you exhale,

Release the counting of the breath.

Leave the breath alone.

Recite to yourself mentally the next phrase three times.

I will remain alert during the practice.

Now move your attention to the left hand and focus all of your attention into the left thumb.

Only the left thumb exists.

The left index finger,

Middle finger,

Ring finger,

And pinky finger.

Left palm,

Back of the left hand,

Left forearm,

Elbow joint,

Upper arm,

Left shoulder joint,

And armpit region.

The left chest,

Ribcage,

And left side of the torso.

Move your concentrated awareness now to the left hip and buttocks region.

Left hip and buttocks,

Left thigh,

Knee,

Lower leg,

Ankle,

Heel,

Sole of the left foot,

Top of the left foot,

Left big toe,

Second toe,

Third toe,

Fourth toe,

And little toe.

And now the whole of the left side of the body.

The whole left side of the body.

Shift the attention to the right thumb.

Right thumb containing every ounce of your attention.

And now the index finger of the right hand,

Middle finger,

Ring finger,

And pinky finger,

Palm of the right hand,

Back of the right hand,

The forearm region,

Elbow joint,

Right upper arm,

And shoulder joint,

Right armpit region,

Right side of the chest,

Ribcage,

Right torso,

The right hip and buttocks,

Right thigh,

Knee,

And lower leg,

Ankle joint,

Heel,

Sole of the right foot,

Top of the right foot,

Right big toe,

Second toe,

Third toe,

Fourth toe,

And little toe of the right foot.

Now the entire right side of the body.

Whole right side of the body.

Move the attention to the back,

The lower back,

Middle back,

And the upper back,

The abdomen,

Solar plexus,

And the whole of the chest,

The whole of the chest,

Including the heart center,

Tops of the shoulders,

Back of the neck,

The sides of the neck,

The throat region,

Thyroid gland at the base of the throat,

The chin,

Bottom lip,

Top lip,

Both lips together,

The bottom jaw,

Top jaw,

All of the teeth,

Tip of the tongue,

Top of the tongue,

Base of the tongue,

Underside of the tongue,

The whole of the tongue,

The whole tongue,

The space between the top lip and the nostrils,

Right nostril,

Left nostril,

Both nostrils together,

The tip of the nose,

The inner corners of the eyes,

The lower eyelids and the upper eyelids,

Left eyeball,

Right eyeball,

And both eyes together,

Left cheek,

Right cheek,

Left temple,

Right temple,

Left eyebrow,

Right eyebrow,

Both brows together,

The meeting point between the eyebrows,

Space between the eyebrows,

Remain awake and alert,

The forehead,

Entire forehead,

The left ear,

And the ear canal,

The right ear,

And ear canal,

Both ears,

Both ears at once,

The whole of the scalp,

The base of the skull,

The brain resting in the skull,

Spinal cord traveling down the spine,

The heart,

Lungs,

The stomach and spleen,

Kidneys,

Liver,

And all the rest,

Entire body dissolving,

Losing body sensation rapidly.

Now imagine that the physical body is getting extremely heavy,

As if it was a statue made of solid lead,

The force and weight pulling you down heavy,

Giving way to gravity,

Every ounce of the body being pulled down,

And now the body is getting lighter.

Imagine the body becoming lighter,

Almost weightless,

Barely pressing into the ground,

Almost like a cloud,

As if it was made of gas,

Airy,

Feathery light.

Watch the body as it begins to slowly lift up from the place it was resting,

Just like a feather floating on a breeze,

Inch by inch,

Rising up towards the ceiling,

Effervescent.

Notice the body traveling through the roof of the room that you're in,

Comfortably traveling up through the roof of the building that contained you moments before.

The air is fresh outside,

Floating upwards towards a dark sky,

Just partially lit by stars and the moon,

Continuing to float upwards at whatever pace feels comfortable to you,

Taking in the scenery,

The temperature of the air,

How it gets cooler as you rise up further,

The crispness,

A sensation of the body filling with oxygen,

The color of the stars,

The brightness,

The movement of the twinkles behind the moving clouds.

Notice if the clouds are moving slowly or quickly.

Are they thick and dense and puffy,

Or are they spread thin,

And what color are they?

Continue to rise upwards,

Getting closer to the full moon,

Starting to see all of the details,

Noticing the shape of the moon,

That you can see it more and more,

The etchings and outlines of craters in the moon,

And the aura,

The glow that extends out beyond it,

Feels like it's pulling you towards it.

Allow yourself to be drawn towards that light,

And if you like,

You can hover very close to it,

Noticing how the body of the moon becomes enormous compared to your human body,

And perhaps you can touch it in your mind,

Reach out and touch the moon.

See if you can gather some of this lunar energy from the surface or from the aura.

Imagine you can grab some of it with your hands and place it close to your heart,

Or close to your throat,

Or close to your third eye,

Or anywhere else in your body that needs it.

Continue to float,

Watching this energy,

This light,

This lunar medicine,

Sink into the physical body to be used for your own healing and transformation.

And now is the time to recall your sankalpa and repeat it mentally to yourself three times now,

Continuing for another minute or two to just float around,

To explore if you like,

Or to rest in this new sensation.

And now notice the sound of ringing bells in the distance,

In the far-off distance,

Gentle ringing bells.

And as the vibration enters deeper into your ears,

Your body automatically starts to descend slowly,

Making its way back the way that you came,

Floating down like a cloud through the atmosphere,

And back down towards your city,

Towards your neighborhood,

Towards your building,

Back through the roof,

Through the ceiling,

And back onto your floor or bed,

Without moving at all and without opening the eyes.

Start to perceive your surroundings again from this physical body,

Noticing any sounds in your environment,

And then noticing each and every point of contact that your body is making with the ground.

Notice the temperature of the air around you and on your skin and face.

Observe the breath at the tip of the nostrils.

Observe the breath at the center of the chest.

Observe the breath in the belly.

And begin to slowly take conscious control of your breath,

Deepening it slightly,

Slowly.

And imagine breathing in,

Sending that fresh air and prana down to your toes and feet,

Waking up every single cell,

And then breathing in,

Sending the air and prana down to the hands and fingers,

Enlivening every single bit.

And then breathing in through all of the pores of your skin,

And breathing out the same way.

Begin to make tiny movements,

Just starting to wiggle the fingers and the toes,

Circling the wrists,

The ankles,

And perhaps rocking the head gently right and left,

And making your movements and your stretches increasingly bigger and more energetic.

While the eyes are still closed,

The breath deepens,

The body stretches long,

And you can hug your knees in towards your chest and gently roll over to one side,

Staying extremely soft.

And with as little effort as possible,

Bring yourself up to find a seated position,

Leaving the eyes closed for now.

If you like,

You could take jnana mudra with your hands,

The thumbs and index tips touching lightly,

The tip of the tongue resting behind the top front teeth on the upper palate,

So the jaw stays soft.

Spine is effortlessly lifting upwards,

Awareness resting behind the forehead.

And we'll close the practice with the pranava om.

Aum.

And this concludes the practice of yoga nidra.