So just make sure that you're comfortable now and find whatever position it is that you want to practice in today.
So you can do it lying on your back,
But if you know that you're not going to be able to lie comfortably on your back for a long time,
Then come into another position.
You can lie on your side,
You could do this sitting.
You can support yourself in any way that feels good.
Once you're starting to feel settled,
Just send your awareness down into your feet.
And just feel all of the muscles in your feet relaxing.
Feel any tension releasing from the feet.
Just let the feet completely let go and surrender.
And now move the awareness into the ankles and feel any tension releasing from the ankles.
Feel the ankles releasing,
Relaxing and letting go.
Move to the calves and feel the calf muscles releasing and relaxing.
Feel the muscles around the knees relaxing.
The muscles in the thighs relaxing.
And just feel the legs and the feet relaxing completely,
Just completely letting go into the surface beneath you,
Ready for your practice.
Now move the awareness to the back.
Feel tension unwinding from the lower back,
From the upper back and the spine.
Feel the shoulders relaxing.
Tension easing away from the back.
Move the awareness into the arms and feel the upper arms relaxing.
The elbows,
The lower arms,
The wrists,
The hands and the fingers.
All completely relaxed,
Letting go.
And feel the head becoming heavy against the surface beneath you,
The face softening,
The jaw relaxing.
Notice how with every breath the whole of the body becomes more relaxed.
The whole of the body becomes ready to surrender into deep relaxation.
And now bring the awareness to the breath.
Watch the natural flow of the breath.
Follow the air as it flows in and as it flows out again.
And as you breathe,
Imagine that the breath is flowing over the whole of your body like a wave.
As you breathe in,
The wave flows from the feet up to the top of your head.
And as you breathe out,
It flows from the top of your head back down to your feet.
And with every exhalation,
Just feel that wave carrying away anything that you don't need to bring with you into your practice.
Any thoughts or concerns or worries from the day,
Anything that you've got to do later or anything that's happened this morning.
Just let that wave gently carry any of those things away.
Leaving your mind clear and free to relax into the practice.
And now send your awareness outwards to the sounds that you can hear in your environment.
And just become aware of the different sounds that are there.
Let the awareness jump from sound to sound.
Without getting too involved in any one thing,
Just acknowledge that those sounds are there.
And know that none of the sounds are going to disturb you as you practice.
They can only help to encourage you into deeper levels of relaxation.
And just take a moment to acknowledge that this is your time for you,
For your rest,
For your healing,
For your self-exploration.
And there is no way to get the practice wrong.
You can continue to follow my voice for as long as that's useful for you.
But you're also free to drift away and ignore me.
And if you do fall asleep,
It just means that your body needs to sleep and is taking advantage of the rest that it's receiving.
So knowing that you can't get this wrong,
Just give yourself permission now to surrender into the practice and to receive all of the benefits that the practice has for you today.
And now picture yourself in a quiet,
Peaceful,
Safe place in nature.
Somewhere that fills you with feelings of calmness,
Of belonging.
So you might like to remember a place where you feel very safe,
Very calm,
Very secure.
You might like to imagine somewhere that has everything that you need to feel safe and secure.
And just welcome that feeling of peace,
Safety and belonging that you feel as you rest into this place in nature.
And if there's anything else that you can bring into that environment,
Anything that can help you feel even more safe,
Even more peaceful,
Even more at ease,
Invite those things into your environment.
Feel into your body and notice where you feel this feeling of safety and peace and security and belonging inside your body.
And intensify that feeling.
Feel the feeling inside your body as vividly as you can.
Safety,
Security,
Peace and well-being.
This is your feeling.
You can return to at any time if you need to.
Absolute peace,
Safety,
Security,
Well-being and belonging.
And if you have a personal intention for your practice today,
Just take a moment to bring that intention into your awareness.
Whatever it is that inspired you to practice today.
Perhaps to receive deep rest and rejuvenation.
Perhaps for healing,
For renewal,
New beginnings.
Perhaps to experience a deeper level of self-compassion.
Whatever your reason for practicing,
Just bring that into your awareness and take a moment to acknowledge it.
And if you have a sankalpa,
Now is the time to recall your sankalpa.
This is a deep vow or prayer from the heart for something that you wish to experience or achieve in your life.
And there's no need to force the sankalpa.
It's going to come by itself if it wants to come.
Perhaps as a short positive statement.
Perhaps as an image or perhaps as a feeling or a very subtle sense of knowing.
So just allow the sankalpa to arise if it's going to come.
Take a moment to acknowledge it.
And if you don't have one,
That's okay too.
Just bring the awareness to the heart center and observe what's happening at the heart center.
Just watch.
We're going to take the awareness around the body.
So just rest the awareness at each body part as I name it.
We'll begin at the tip of the tongue.
Bring the awareness to rest at the tip of the tongue.
And the whole of the tongue.
Bring the awareness to the whole of the tongue.
To the roof of the mouth.
The bottom of the mouth.
The teeth.
The gums.
The upper lip.
The lower lip.
The chin.
The jaw.
The right cheek.
The left cheek.
The right ear.
The left ear.
The nose.
The right eye and the left eye.
The right temple.
The left temple.
The right eyebrow.
The left eyebrow.
The eyebrow center.
The forehead.
The forehead.
The top of the head.
The back of the head.
The back of the neck.
The right shoulder.
The right upper arm.
The right elbow.
The right lower arm.
The right wrist.
The palm of the right hand.
The back of the right hand.
The right hand thumb.
The right index finger.
The right middle finger.
The right ring finger.
The right little finger.
Bring the awareness to the left shoulder.
The left upper arm.
The left elbow.
The lower arm.
The right elbow.
The right elbow.
The right elbow.
The right elbow.
The thumb.
Index finger.
Middle finger.
Ring finger.
Little finger.
Bring the awareness to the throat.
The center of the chest.
The left side of the chest.
The right side of the chest.
The navel.
The lower abdomen.
The right hip.
The right thigh.
The right knee.
The lower leg.
The right ankle.
The right heel.
The sole of the right foot.
The top of the right foot.
Each of the right toes.
One.
Two.
Three.
Four.
Five.
Six.
Eleven.
Thirteen.
Fourteen.
Fifteen.
The left heel.
The sole of the left foot.
The top of the left foot.
The left toes.
One.
Two.
Three.
Four.
Five.
Now we'll move the awareness up the back of the body.
Bring the awareness to the right heel.
The left heel.
The back of the right knee.
The back of the left knee.
The right buttock.
The left buttock.
The whole of the spine.
The right shoulder blade.
The right shoulder blade.
The left shoulder blade.
The back of the head.
The top of the head.
Moving down the front of the body,
Bring the awareness to the forehead.
The right temple.
The left temple.
The right eyebrow.
The left eyebrow.
The eyebrow centre.
The right eye.
The left eye.
The right ear.
The left ear.
The right cheek.
The left cheek.
The nose.
The tip of the nose.
The upper lip.
The lower lip.
The chin.
The jaw.
The right collarbone.
The left collarbone.
The space between the collarbones.
The right side of the chest.
The left side of the chest.
The centre of the chest.
The navel.
The lower abdomen.
The right hip.
The left hip.
The right knee.
The left knee.
The right ankle.
The right ankle.
The left ankle.
The right toes.
The left toes.
The whole of the right foot.
Bring the awareness to the whole of the right foot.
The whole of the right leg.
The whole of the right arm.
The whole of the right side of the body.
The whole of the left foot.
The whole of the left leg.
The whole of the left arm.
The whole of the left side of the body.
And the whole of the body together.
Awareness on the whole of the body together.
The whole of the body together.
Bring the awareness to the breath.
Watch the flow of the breath as the air comes in and flows out of your body.
As the air enters into your body and fills the lungs and carries fresh prana,
Life force energy into the body,
Vitalizing every cell of the body.
Welcome the new prana.
Welcome the vitality that enters into your body with every breath.
And with each exhalation the breath carries away any of the toxin,
Anything that you no longer need inside your body.
Welcome the pure fresh energy with every inhalation.
And feel the body letting go of everything that it no longer needs with every exhalation.
Every inhalation welcoming in the new.
Every exhalation letting go of the old.
Now picture yourself sitting beside a tall cascading waterfall.
Water flows down into a small pool and you step into the pool and walk towards the waterfall.
You stand beneath the water and feel the water flowing over your body cleansing your body cleansing your aura clearing away anything that you no longer need to carry forwards with you in your life.
You step away from the waterfall and come out of the pool You sit down next to the pool of water watching the waterfall continuing to cascade.
The warm sunlight beams down onto you warming your body.
You welcome the light of the sun into your body.
You sit peacefully in the sunlight welcoming the rejuvenating warm energy from the sun into every cell.
And as you rest in the warm sunlight invite a vision to arise in your mind of how you want your life to be as you progress forwards.
See yourself feeling the way that you most want to feel alive,
Joyful radiant filled with self-compassion.
See yourself doing the things that you most want to do with ease,
With joy.
See yourself navigating life's challenges gracefully and peacefully.
See yourself calm and content and just allow a vision of yourself living your best,
Happiest most compassionate life.
And if you have a sankalpa now is the time to recall your sankalpa and allow the sankalpa to arise naturally however it comes for you.
Perhaps as a short positive statement as a feeling as an intuitive sense of knowing and just take a moment to acknowledge it.
And if you don't have a sankalpa just take the awareness to the heart centre and observe whatever is happening at the heart centre.
And now come back to your peaceful,
Safe place in nature from the beginning of the practice.
Come back to your quiet,
Peaceful space where you're able to feel completely safe and secure where you have that feeling of calmness and belonging.
As you rest in your peaceful,
Natural space feel those feelings of peace and safety and security as they intensify inside your body.
This feeling is yours and you can always come back to it at any time if you need to in your practice and also in your life.
Complete safety security peace well-being and belonging.
And now very gently start to turn the awareness back outwards.
Become aware of the sounds that you can hear in your environment and just let the awareness jump from sound to sound without getting too involved in any one sound but just observe that the sounds are there acknowledge them and feel the feeling of the air against your skin the feeling of your clothing or your blanket against your skin the feeling of your body resting into the surface beneath you Begin to deepen the breath as you prepare to end the practice.
Watch the breath flowing into the chest the deep expansion of the chest on the inhalation and the contraption of the chest on the exhalation and feel the breath flowing into the whole of the body feel the breath animating the fingers and the toes as they slowly begin to move and reawaken and begin to circle the wrists and the ankles and when you feel ready give yourself a big stretch in any way that feels good for you so taking your time there's not any rush when you're feeling sure that you're feeling wide awake again slowly blink your eyes open and make your way back to sitting your practice of yoga nidra is now complete
