Welcome,
And thank you for joining me in the practice of Yoga Nidra today.
Please find yourself in a location where distractions are minimized.
Allow the body,
Whether seated,
Standing,
Or lying on the floor,
To find its most relaxed and comfortable state.
If it's helpful,
Let's take a breath in,
Hold at the top,
And then let it out.
We'll do that one more time.
Take a breath in,
Hold,
And then let it out.
During our practice today,
When you notice that you've become distracted or that you've moved away from the practice,
Then simply let my voice bring you back,
Rejoining the practice when you're ready.
Before we progress in the practice today,
Let's create a safe haven.
So take a moment and remember a time in which you felt very safe.
This could be long ago,
Or you may have encountered this feeling in a movie or reading a book.
So allow your senses to help you relive the moment,
Recalling the temperature of the air on your skin,
Whether you were indoors or outdoors,
Noticing if you were with pets or by yourself.
And let yourself feel the effect of recalling the safe haven.
As we move into our practice of yoga nidra,
Know that this safe haven is available to you at any time,
And you may choose to simply experience the safe haven.
When you feel ready,
You'll rejoin the practice at whatever point we're at.
From here,
Let's set an intention.
Notice what brought you to the practice today,
That pulsation or motivation.
If this arises into words,
Then let the words be stated in the present as though it's already an accomplished fact,
Perhaps repeating the words three times to yourself.
I am health itself.
I move toward an experience of peace every day.
I am perfect,
Just as I am.
In whatever way the intention shows up,
Let it sink deeply into your bones.
When you feel ready,
Take your attention to the inside of your mouth.
Notice the different structures inside the mouth,
The upper teeth,
The lower teeth.
Recognize the inside of your cheeks,
Recognizing the tongue,
The tip of the tongue,
The root of your tongue,
The top of the tongue,
And the underbelly of the tongue.
Recognizing the whole tongue,
Recognizing the insides of the cheeks,
Feeling into the tubes that move up through the ear canals,
Into the ears themselves,
Recognizing the contours of your ears,
And noticing,
Are you thinking about or are you experiencing the ears?
Letting your attention move inward once more and let it travel up to the eyes,
The eyes as sensation,
Feeling the quality of energy that is the eyes,
Recognizing the eyelids that drape over the eyes.
And notice the difference between thinking about the eyelids versus experiencing them,
Feeling them.
Take your attention to your forehead,
Top of your head,
The back of the head,
Attention to the neck,
The throat,
Perhaps swallowing,
Attention to the right arm,
Experiencing the right shoulder,
Elbow,
Wrist,
Palm of the right hand,
Connecting with the experience of the right thumb,
Right pointer finger,
Right middle finger,
Right ring finger,
Right little finger,
Experiencing all the different fingers on the right hand,
The palm of your hand,
Wrist,
Elbow,
Shoulder,
Armpit,
The whole right arm.
Taking attention to the left arm,
Left shoulder,
Elbow,
Wrist,
Palm of the left hand,
Feeling into the left hand thumb,
Pointer finger,
Middle finger,
Ring finger,
Little finger,
Feeling all the different fingers on the left hand,
The palm of your left hand,
Wrist,
Elbow,
Shoulder,
Armpit,
The whole left arm,
Recognizing both arms,
Left and right,
As energy,
As sensation,
Bringing attention to the little divot at the base of your throat.
And allow a pool of sensation to gather when enough sensation is present.
Let's simply feel the sensation traveling downward through the torso,
Through the upper chest,
Into the mid-torso,
Feeling the inside of the body,
Into the lower torso,
Connecting with the region below the belly button,
Into the pelvic bowl,
Feeling from the inside the front of the pelvic bowl,
The sides left and right,
And feeling the back of the pelvic bowl from the inside.
Streaming sensation down into the right leg,
Feeling into the right hip,
Knee,
Ankle,
Sole of the right foot,
Top of the foot,
Recognizing the right big toe,
Second toe,
Third toe,
Fourth toe,
And little toe,
Recognizing all the different toes on the right foot,
The sole of the foot,
The top of the foot,
The ankle,
Knee,
Hip,
The whole right leg,
Feeling this right leg as sensation.
Streaming sensation across the pelvic bowl into the left leg,
Recognizing the left hip,
Left knee,
Left ankle,
Sole of the foot,
Top of the foot,
Feeling into the left big toe,
Second toe,
Third toe,
Fourth toe,
And little toe,
Recognizing all the different toes on the left foot,
Feeling as sensation the whole left foot,
Ankle,
Knee,
Hip,
The whole left leg,
Allowing the energy that is the left leg to merge with the energy that is the right leg and feeling both legs together at the same time.
Inviting the energy of the torso,
Lower,
Middle,
Upper torso,
The feeling of the arms,
Left and right arm.
Let these distinct parts come together as a felt sense,
Inviting the neck and the throat,
The head,
The scalp,
The facial muscles,
The brow,
The cheeks,
The chin,
The eyes,
Even the tongue,
Let all these different parts come together as an orb of sensation,
The whole body,
The whole body,
The whole body.
Realizing the body as one felt sense,
Taking your attention to the center of this felt sense,
Finding the center of the body.
And from the center,
Exploring,
Taking your attention from the center of the body to the periphery,
Feeling for the edge where the physical body ends and the space around your body begins.
And once more,
Feeling for the center of the body and then feeling toward the edges,
Finding the periphery of your body.
Notice how far out do you move to find the periphery of the body.
Is there a boundary that you can perceive?
Or does the space around the body intermingle with the edges of your physical body?
Recognizing the breath,
Not needing to change or alter the rhythm of your breath,
Simply experience your breath in this moment as it arises,
As it dissolves,
Moment to moment.
Recognizing the different components of the breath,
The inhale,
The exhale,
And the pauses between,
Not trying to change the breath and yet acknowledging the shifting patterns of breath as they arise.
So allowing the breath to continue to flow in whatever fashion,
Simply attune and be with the breath in its fullness.
Stay with the breath as the inhale occurs between the pauses and remain with the breath as the exhale happens.
Just flow with the rhythm of your own breath,
Moment to moment.
And notice if you've become distracted,
Simply return to an awareness of breath,
Once more recognizing the rhythm,
The flow of your own breath.
Notice how the breath moves like a pendulum or a bow on a cello.
As the breath moves in one direction,
As the breath pauses and then takes the opposite direction.
And today it might be that you continue to flow with the breath or you may feel an invitation to step into one of these pauses as the breath transitions.
The breath continues to flow,
But what is it like to experience the pause between the breath?
What qualities are present?
How would you describe it?
Put yourself,
Feel into the pause.
Notice what it's like.
Stepping out of the pause into the flow of breath,
Notice what it's like to be in the flow of breath.
And then stepping into the pause and experiencing that.
Moving between these two experiences,
Experiencing the pause and then moving with the flow,
Moment to moment,
Allowing for this aspect of our practice to begin to fade,
Once more recognizing the body as it rests,
Allowing your attention to scan your physical body,
Perhaps choosing to begin from the feet upwards as you just sweep your attention over the different parts of your physical body.
Notice what's present.
What feels natural?
What feels nice when you place your attention there?
It's the feeling.
And notice if there are aspects of your physical body that feel foreign or far away or perhaps just seem heavy.
You may even encounter tension or resistance.
Can the experience be just as it is?
Pleasant,
Unpleasant?
Meaning that you have a choice and you may choose to experience the safe haven where you can continue your investigation as you move and scan through the different parts of the body,
Recognizing the experience,
Recognizing the heaviness of your physical body,
Healing into the different parts of the body and recognizing where in the body heaviness resides.
Just still feel the heaviness.
Then take a moment to recognize lightness,
Begin to scan the physical body,
Finding where lightness resides,
This feeling of light as a feather,
And experience lightness.
Continue to move between these two pairs of opposites,
Experiencing lightness and then heaviness.
At your command,
Move between the pairs,
Back and forth,
Fully experiencing one and then its opposite.
Then allow for the experience of both pairs to come into awareness simultaneously.
Allow both of these experiences to unfold.
Is it possible to hold both these experiences at the same time?
Allowing this aspect of our practice to fade,
Recognizing once more the feeling of the body,
The feeling of breath,
And recognizing whatever else is present in this moment.
So roll out the red carpet and welcome all that is,
Just as it is,
Healing into the background and recognizing the movement of sensation or thought,
Noticing how sensation and thought exists and noticing the background in which sensations,
Thoughts have been arising.
And notice how you can experience sensations,
Thoughts,
The body,
And how you can experience the background in which the body exists,
Thoughts exist,
Feelings exist.
Moving between these two aspects,
The background itself and the content within the changing circumstances,
Experiencing one and then the other.
Not needing to fix,
Adjust,
Or change anything at all,
Simply recognizing what is,
Just as it is.
Letting go of the effort,
The trying,
Of the doing.
Can it be,
Just as it is?
Once more,
Recognizing the feeling of the body,
Recognizing the breath.
And as you connect with the different parts of the body,
The feet,
The legs,
The arms,
The head,
Begin to allow the senses to awaken.
Notice the taste in your mouth,
Feeling of the air on your skin.
Allow your own intention for the practice to arise once more,
Giving yourself a chance to receive any new insights or understandings.
As you feel ready,
Fully awakening,
Recognizing that the body is here,
In this place,
At this time,
Recognizing the breath and perhaps letting it deepen.
Using this practice of Yoga Nidra to come to a conclusion.
As you feel ready,
Awaken the body,
Perhaps moving the fingers and toes,
And eventually rolling to one side if you're lying on the floor,
Or moving the limbs so that you are fully present,
Allowing this practice of Yoga Nidra to end.
Thank you for joining me in the practice.
Namaste.
