An I-Rest Yoga Nidra practice designed to open our attention to opposites within our experience of life.
We often get caught within our own story of who we think we are,
Forgetting that what feels like our reality in one moment may be completely different in the next moment.
In this practice,
We will notice opposites of sensation,
Feeling,
And thoughts.
As we open to more than one possibility of what is true,
We may find a broader reality that is neither right nor wrong,
But is all-encompassing of all possibilities.
So take this time now to adjust the body,
To begin to settle in,
Whether you're seated in a chair or lying down.
There's no particular way your body needs to be positioned.
Feel free to move about,
To add props for comfort,
And to shift space between the supports that are holding you.
As you're adjusting the body for comfort and ease,
Notice the temperature of the room around you and any sounds in the room or out in the distance.
Without reaching out for these sounds,
Simply allow sounds to reach you.
And for this practice,
We'll open to an intention.
This is an intention of moment-to-moment wonder,
Welcoming each sensation,
Breath,
Feeling,
And thought as a messenger that arrives to be noticed,
Our whole presence here,
Now.
Notice how the body comes alive with vibrancy and the buzzing electricity of life that is living through you.
And for the next few moments,
Start to welcome a sense of peacefulness,
Comfort,
Safety.
However these qualities are noticed for you,
These words may bring about sensations of warmth or a softening of the breath.
They may evoke an image of a calm place or a person in your life that you feel at ease with.
And if attention is brought towards an opposite of these qualities,
Perhaps to an unpleasant sensation,
Thought,
Or feeling,
Simply acknowledge that this too is also present.
And as you welcome this messenger,
You might also inquire what feels like the opposite of this.
Feeling into this opposite,
Trusting that peacefulness,
Comfort,
And safety are also present.
Take some time to welcome all of the layers of this inner refuge,
Steeping in it so that you can always return to this at any point in the practice or your daily life when it feels useful to support you.
And as the layers of ease and peace,
Our suffusing sensation,
Begin to shift attention to the feeling of the hands,
Noting if attention is drawn more to one hand or the other.
Noticing this shift of attention as you notice sensations of the palms of each hand,
The backs of each hand,
And the sensation of each finger one at a time.
And as attention is roaming through hands and fingers,
Noting where the mind labels sensations of warmth or coolness,
Parts of hands or fingers that feel dull or vibrant,
Feelings that are liked or disliked,
Taking your time as attention meanders through the sensations of hands and fingers,
And then shifting attention to feel lower arms,
Upper arms,
Letting all of your attention suffuse one arm alive with sensation,
And then the other pure sensation,
And both arms field of sensation,
Welcoming the feeling of shoulders,
Collarbones,
And the hollow of the throat,
Drawing attention to the inner walls of the throat and breath that flows in and out,
Attention meeting the base of the tongue,
The roof of the mouth,
And the floor of the mouth,
As well as inner walls of the cheeks,
Noticing the surfaces of sensation inside the mouth,
As well as the spaces between surfaces,
Welcoming the hinge of the jaw,
The inner ears,
Noticing sensation of one ear,
And then feeling your way to the other ear,
Both ears,
Sensation,
The skin of the cheeks,
The temples,
The forehead,
Eyes resting in their sockets,
And feeling the nose and nostrils as breath moves in and out,
Notice how the whole head and skull is resting its weight on the surface beneath,
While deep inside the head,
The mind space is buzzing,
Humming,
With the sensation of thought,
Head resting,
And mind space buzzing,
Feeling back and forth,
Noticing both to be true,
Drifting attention to the face and down the frontal body,
Neck and shoulders,
Chest,
Belly,
The front of the hips,
Upper legs,
Lower legs,
Tops of the feet,
Feeling into the soles of the feet,
The surface of skin,
And the air that touches them,
The soles of the feet,
Sparkling into the spaces beyond,
Then moment to moment feeling up the back of the body,
Lower legs,
Upper legs,
The backs of the hips,
Lower back,
Middle back,
Upper back and shoulders,
Opening attention to the whole body as breath comes and goes,
Observing breath as sensation,
Moment to moment as feeling changes,
Shifts,
Noticing the vastness of breath in one moment,
And in another moment,
The interlude of stillness of the breath,
Welcoming the qualities of breath with wonder as they flow and change,
And then with the next in-breath,
Allowing attention to light up sensation on one side of the body,
The out-breath,
Attention lingering on the flow of feeling of this side,
With the next in-breath,
Attention shifting to the other side of the body,
Its sensations coming alive,
And this out-breath abiding in sensations here on this side,
Continuing to welcome each breath as pure sensation from side to side,
As each in-breath,
A new expanse of sensation arises,
Each out-breath softens into this side as sensation,
And each sensation coming and going,
Free within its own natural flow as attention shifts from one to the next,
Staying with the breath side to side,
Each breath alive with sensation,
And with the next in-breath,
Welcoming both sides in their vastness,
The out-breath,
Attention softening,
Touching back perhaps to the feeling of peacefulness,
Comfort,
Safety,
Setting attention free to linger either in the feeling of peacefulness or to explore what else is present,
Welcoming what wants to be noticed within the feeling heart,
Emotion that is present as the body is sensing,
And weaving in,
If emotion feels difficult,
The feeling of peacefulness,
Comfort,
Safety,
Finding refuge within this as an opposite to any difficult emotion that attention lands on,
Taking your time,
Giving the heart feeling time to bubble to the surface,
To be noticed,
And then letting it go as it dissolves,
Feeling the feeling,
Observing messengers,
And observing how these messengers land as sensation in the body,
And as emotion rises and falls,
Attention may be drawn towards an image,
A word,
Or cognition,
The mind's picture of this emotion,
And this picture becoming fully formed in the mind space,
And if helpful,
Also noting the picture in the mind of peacefulness,
Comfort,
And safety in your own time,
Allowing attention to drift from the picture,
The mind attention shifting as the body sensing into each picture,
Beginning to note both pictures are present,
Even as attention shifts picture to picture,
Both pictures and all sensations,
Taking time to step back,
Observing sensations and emotions,
Pictures of mind,
Shifting and changing waves of attention that come and go,
And dropping into the background,
A vast expanse of unchanging stillness,
Observing from the stillness,
Waves of attention converging,
Dissolving,
Dissolving back to the quietude as each wave free comes and goes,
The space around the waves opening,
Timeless,
Boundless,
Receptivity,
Each wave free coming and going,
The space around the waves opening,
Expanding,
Timeless,
Boundless,
Receptivity,
Resting in this,
Even as sensations of the body are noticed,
Field of attention,
Resting in this,
Even as breath flows in and out,
Resting in this as thoughts come and go within the mind space,
Resting in this and sensing all of this within this moment,
Acknowledging peacefulness,
Comfort,
And safety are also present and a sense of moment to moment wonder,
Awe,
Attention,
Being welcomed into each sensation,
Each breath,
Each feeling or thought,
Welcoming the body as sensation,
Awakening to the space around you,
Movements beginning small and expanding in your own time,
Whole presence here now as the body becomes alive with vibrancy,
The buzzing electricity of life living through you,
Even as you continue to transition to this space around you,
Noting the temperature and the air,
The sounds in the room and far and the distance,
Taking in the space from the whole and complete place within you and eventually making your way back to your fully wakeful state in this room around you,
This world around you.
May you know contentment,
Healthy and strong.
May you live peace and ease.
