Yoga Nidra - Extended Body Scan

Melt away your physical tightness and pain with this 20-minute extended body scan yoga nidra. Release your body and sink into a peaceful state of consciousness. Allow the body to rest as it floats away, leaving your other layers of being to recharge and explore your deeper truth. Great to listen to before sleep. This practice can also help you to find stillness whenever you are feeling overstimulated or overwhelmed.

Transcript

Getting yourself into Shavasana,

Corpse pose.

Laying flat on a bed or on the floor.

Legs straight out.

Feet turning outwards.

Arms by your side.

Hands palms up.

Finding total stillness in your body.

In your body is a bag of muddy water in order for the water to become clean.

The bag must be very still.

And the dirt separates from the water.

Leaving clear,

Clean water.

Let the eyes close.

Eyelids relax.

Shiva Nidra is a deeply restorative practice.

Your body can rest while your mind,

Your spirit,

And your consciousness can explore your inner truth and experience your own wisdom.

The rest that you get in Yoga Nidra is deeply healing.

Don't force anything.

Allow your Yoga Nidra to unfold the way that it needs to today.

The practice of Yoga Nidra begins now.

Yoga Nidra means yogic sleep.

You will start the Yoga Nidra scanning the room you are in for any sound.

Scanning the entire radius around you.

Scan far away.

Try to hear the tiniest,

Quietest sounds in your vicinity.

Imagine there was a little mouse outside your door squeaking.

Imagine that you could hear that mouse.

Try to hear the sound of a leaf on a tree nearby growing slowly.

What would that sound like?

Bring your awareness to all of the sounds in your body.

Try to hear yourself.

Hear your breath.

Hear every cell in your body doing all of its work.

Hearing your heartbeat.

Hearing the rustling of your hair as you breathe.

We are beginning this Nidra with your sankalpa,

Your powerful seed of transformation.

Your sankalpa is a way of being you want to cultivate in your life.

It's a positive,

Present tense statement beginning with the words,

I am.

You're encouraged to stick to the same sankalpa if you already have one.

If you already have one,

Please repeat it to yourself quietly,

Internally,

Three times.

Imagine the best place to feel your sankalpa.

For instance,

If you feel anxiety and your sankalpa is,

I am calm,

Perhaps feeling the sankalpa in your heart space,

In your chest,

Really resonates with that way of being you wish to cultivate.

Or if you're feeling lonely and your sankalpa is,

I am connected.

Maybe feeling the sankalpa in your hands.

Imagining being connected,

Holding another's hand or touching another.

Imagine your sankalpa the best place for you where you wish to feel it.

And repeat it to yourself three more times.

And then let it go.

We now begin with the rotation of consciousness through our physical body,

The physical layer of being.

Listen to the cues in my voice.

Move your consciousness from one body part to the next.

If your mind wanders,

That's fine.

Simply rejoin once you become aware that your mind has wandered.

Try to observe your mind as it wanders and bring it back.

We are going to begin on the left side of the body,

Starting with your left thumb.

Imagine your left thumb and all of the tissue and blood,

All of the nerves.

Move your awareness to your left thumb.

Plant it there.

Imagine your entire body is only in your left thumb.

And now move your awareness to your left index finger.

Feel your heart beating in your left index finger,

In your left middle finger,

Your left ring finger,

In your left pinky finger,

The back of the hand,

The palm of the hand,

Feeling the entire hand relaxing and releasing.

Relaxing the wrist,

The forearm,

The elbow,

The shoulder,

The back of the shoulder,

And the upper back.

Relaxing the entire left arm,

Letting it all melt down into the ground.

Relaxing your left waist,

Left upper back,

Middle back,

And lower back,

Loose and heavy.

Relaxing your left glute,

The left hip,

Upper thigh,

Middle thigh,

Back of the thigh,

The front of your knee,

Back of your knee,

Relaxing the whole knee,

The front of the shin,

Calf muscle,

Left ankle,

Left heel,

Left sole of the foot.

Relaxing the whole left leg,

Falling apart,

Becoming heavy.

Relaxing the left big toe,

Next toe,

Middle toe,

Next toe,

Relaxing the pinky toe.

The front of the foot,

So relaxed,

Becoming heavy,

Melting down.

The back of the foot,

Melting down.

Relaxing the whole foot,

The whole leg.

No tension in the whole left side of the body,

Heavier and heavier,

Sinking into the bed,

Falling apart.

Now we move to the right side of the body.

Move your concentration now and bring all of your awareness to your right thumb.

Bring in every cell,

All of the energy to your right thumb.

Right index finger,

Right middle finger,

Ring finger,

Pinky finger,

Back of the hand,

Palm of the hand,

The whole right hand,

Right wrist,

Forearm,

Elbow,

Shoulder,

Upper arm,

And the whole right arm.

Back of the shoulder,

Upper back,

Middle back,

Right waist,

Lower back.

No tension,

Let all the tension just melt away from your right back.

Then your right glute,

Melting down into the bed,

Becoming liquid.

And your right hip,

The upper thigh,

Your right hamstring,

Middle thigh,

Lower thigh,

Front of the knee,

In the back of the knee,

Front of the shin,

Calf muscle,

Your ankle,

Heavy,

Loose.

No tension.

Feel the bones becoming heavier and heavier.

The right ankle,

Front of the right foot,

Back of the foot,

The heel,

Your right big toe,

The next toe,

Middle toe,

Next toe,

Little toe,

The whole right foot.

Falling apart,

Imagine your whole right leg drifting away from your body,

The whole right side of your body.

Feel the bones in your whole right side of your body,

Heavy bones.

Imagine everything just falling apart,

No tension in the face,

The jaw,

The mouth,

The tongue.

Relax the nose,

The left eye,

The left eyelid,

Relax the right eye and eyelid.

Relax both eyes,

Relax both eyelids.

Feeling the bones in your head becoming heavy,

The back of your head and your sitting bones leaning down to the bed,

Collarbone,

Chest,

Your heart,

Relax your lungs,

Abdomen,

Stomach.

Relax the liver,

The pancreas,

The intestines,

The colon,

The bladder,

All the reproductive organs.

Relax.

All the digestive organs,

Relax.

All of the muscles in your legs,

Relax.

All the connective tissue in your body,

Relax.

All of the tissue in your whole body,

Relax.

Relax every cell in your whole body.

Every part,

Free of tension,

The whole body.

Move your awareness to your body floating away from you.

Feeling falling apart,

Floating away.

Bringing your attention to your breath.

Feel how your blood moves through you.

Feel your energy,

Life pulsing through you as you float away from your body.

Moving into all the way to the sitting bones,

Filling up the lower belly,

Filling up the chest,

Filling up the back with breath.

Opening a circle,

Tracing your ribs and that circle growing as you inhale and then shrinking as you exhale,

Exhaling out of the back,

The chest and the sitting bones and the belly.

Breathing from the base of your spine to the crown of your head,

Exhaling from the crown of your head to the base of your spine.

Feel your breath in and out,

The three breaths.

Inhaling for one,

Exhaling for one.

Inhaling for two,

Exhaling for two.

Inhaling for three,

Exhaling for three.

Your breath is your fingerprint.

Notice the natural rhythm of your breath.

Imagine how it would feel right now in your body becoming extremely cold.

Imagine your body is on Mount Everest.

You're laying down on ice,

So cold.

You're shivering.

Your skin starts to turn blue.

You're shaking.

Steam coming out as you breathe.

How does it feel to be cold?

What happens in your body when you sense the cold?

Now imagine Mount Everest starts slowly morphing into a beach in Hawaii.

You feel very warm and hot.

The sun is shining on you,

Your skin,

Feeling the warmth all over you,

Feeling the sweat.

How does it feel in your body to be hot,

To be sweating on the beach in Hawaii?

And now let yourself come to a very comfortable room temperature.

Notice that comfortable temperature.

Floating away from your body.

Your mind's eye,

Imagine there's a television screen or a cinema screen behind your forehead.

And on that screen,

You see a cute little girl jumping on a mountain,

Giggling.

And now see on your television screen a campfire and all the colors of the fire,

Flames.

Now imagine there's a place.

A place that for you is complete perfection.

The perfect environment,

The perfect weather,

Beautiful flowers and trees,

Beautiful sky and clouds.

Feeling the perfect ocean,

Total peace and calm and quiet.

Imagine it's just you in this blissful place.

What is there for you?

What for you is bliss,

Is comfort.

Imagine your favorite thing to do,

Your favorite experience.

You can do that here anytime you want.

It could be a beautiful swimming pool under the moonlight or perhaps imagining yourself flying like a bird,

Like an eagle.

Through the sky without any boundaries,

Feeling the wind underneath your wings,

Feeling the heat of the sun,

The rays closer to you.

And your inner resource,

Your subconscious escape.

Focus to it,

Absorb it,

Allow it to wash over you in this place,

In this inner resource.

Your sankalpa is everywhere.

You are experiencing your sankalpa.

Repeat your sankalpa to yourself once again as you take in the bliss of your inner resource,

Of your escape.

Remain in this place of observation,

Giving yourself the space to witness your own inner consciousness.

This is deep space,

The space before thought taking form.

The space where old patterns that don't serve you become a little softer,

Start to have cracks and then totally dissolve.

In this space,

There's infinite possibility.

This space is beyond.

It's beyond doing,

Beyond thinking,

Beyond feeling.

The space is where new creation is birthed.

Imagine yourself as a big balloon floating away from your body,

Growing and inflating,

Expanding further away.

All this empty space in your balloon.

Your ability to witness yourself and to witness all around you is where your power lies.

The practice of yoga nidra is now complete.

Reviews

Trying to overcome overwhelm this Yoga Nidra was a great resource. Lovely slow pace, no background music. Just what I needed 🙏

This is powerful and so soothing. Will do again for sure 👌🏻 thank you 🙏🏻🤍

Kari, thanks so very much for your nidra practice. Love the long body scan and it put me right in to a deep sleep.

Wonderful! Really nice pacing and simple wording. It was very easy to slip into “yoga nidra” space.