Yoga Nidra: Awaken To Your True Nature

This yoga nidra was recorded live at a new year workshop with the intention of connecting to your heartfelt desire and intention (sankalpa). This practice is a powerful portal for awakening to your true nature and connecting you with your innate quality of being that is already whole and complete.

Derived from the tantric tradition, yoga nidra is a very practical meditation which systematically relaxes the body-mind, inducing deep rest it guides us into a place of expansive awareness.

Transcript

So welcome to this practice of yoga nidra.

Practice of awakening to your true nature.

Practice of yoga nidra where the intention is to connect with our sankalpa,

Our heartfelt desire or intention.

Through this practice of awareness which is yoga nidra,

We're invited to awaken to our essential nature.

So as you're ready I invite you to close your eyes if you haven't already done so.

We begin to cultivate pratyahara,

Withdrawal of the senses,

Shifting the awareness from our external landscape to our internal landscape.

And as we settle into this practice,

The concept of santosha,

Of contentment,

Is very central.

So please take a moment to find your most comfortable position.

And as you're ready,

Inviting the whole body to surrender into stillness,

Knowing that there is nothing else you need to do,

Nowhere else to be.

To simply be here as enough,

Grounded in this body,

In this safe and supported space of stillness and belonging.

Inviting into your awareness now any sounds,

Any sounds inside the room,

Outside the room,

Welcoming all sounds,

Considering no sound to be a distraction but simply part of what is.

Now listening for the sounds of the breath as you settle deeper into relaxation,

Maybe you enjoy a little yawn or maybe a sigh,

Feeling of letting go.

Becoming aware now of touch sensation,

Feeling the contact with the ground,

The texture of the clothes,

Blankets,

Eye pillow against your skin.

Touch of the breath moving in and out of the body.

Breathing into your awareness now any smell and taste sensations.

In this practice of yoga nidra,

Seeing yourself lying in your resting pose,

Picturing yourself resting with blankets,

Props,

Resting on this earth.

Seeing yourself resting in this sacred space of awareness which is yoga nidra.

Inviting now the mind to form a single stream of consciousness which is simply I am practicing yoga nidra.

I am practicing yoga nidra.

I am practicing yoga nidra.

My next invitation to you now is to connect with the organic rhythm of your breath.

On the next exhale,

Breathing down as if the breath can enter into the space of the heart.

The space behind the centre of the breastbone.

Evoking here in the space of the heart a felt sense of gratitude.

Cultivating an attitude of gratitude for simply being here.

For being able to offer yourself this time of reconnection.

Allowing this felt sense of gratitude to permeate your whole body,

Your whole being.

Continuing to rest your awareness at the heart space.

Here I invite you to invoke your sankalpa,

Your heartfelt desire or intention.

Here we plant the seed of sankalpa into the fertile soil of the heart.

Embodying now the words of your sankalpa three times in the present tense.

Exhaling your sankalpa as a heartfelt reality,

Fulfilled embodied truth.

As you inhale,

Breathing in the atmosphere of your fulfilled embodied realised sankalpa.

Then as you exhale,

Create more space for your sankalpa to take seat,

For it to take root in the landscape of your heart.

Then as you're ready you can invite your sankalpa to rest back into its home ground of being,

Back into the heart.

Little by little we turn inwards.

To help you with this process,

I invite you on a journey around the sacred land of your body.

Planting our consciousness through the whole body.

Bringing attention to the crown of your head.

Visualising here a seed at the crown of your head.

Awareness at the space between the eyebrows and planting a seed there.

Awareness at the base of the throat,

Centre of the collarbone.

Cross to the right shoulder.

Visualising a seed on the right shoulder.

Right elbow,

Right wrist.

Tiny little seeds on each of the fingers.

The right thumb,

Index finger,

Middle finger,

Ring finger and little finger.

Back to the space of the right wrist.

Elbow,

Right shoulder.

Centre of the collarbones.

Across to the left shoulder.

Awareness on the left shoulder.

Visualising a seed.

Left elbow,

Wrist.

Tiny little seeds each on the left thumb,

Index finger,

Middle finger,

Ring finger and little finger.

Back to the space of the wrist.

Elbow,

Shoulder.

Centre of the collarbones.

Visualising now the awareness to journey down to the centre of the chest.

Cross to the right ribs.

Back to centre.

And the left ribs.

Centre of the breastbone.

Notice travelling down to the navel centre,

Visualising a seed at the navel centre.

Centre of the pelvis.

Across to the right hip.

Visualising a seed at the right hip.

Right knee.

Right ankle.

Right big toe.

Second toe.

Third toe.

Fourth toe.

Fifth toe.

Back to the space of the right ankle.

Knee.

Hip.

Centre of the pelvis.

Awareness to the left hip.

Visualising a seed on the left hip.

Left knee.

Ankle.

Tiny little seeds each on the left big toe.

Second toe.

Third toe.

Fourth toe.

Fifth toe.

Awareness back to the left ankle.

Left knee.

Right knee.

Right knee.

Left hip.

Centre of the pelvis.

Guiding the awareness back up through the navel centre.

Through the centre of the breastbone.

Base of the collarbones.

Base of the throat.

Eyebrow centre.

Crown of your head.

Whole body totally relaxed.

Visualising now in the mind's eye that these seeds at each point of the body could grow into a web of tiny rootlets.

A web of interconnected roots that spread through the whole landscape of your body.

And imagining how it is for these roots to be growing down into the earth.

Cultivating a felt sense of being grounded in this space.

Of being held and supported by the earth.

These roots reaching for fertile sources of nourishment and inspiration.

And then imagining that the roots grow up and out.

As if each of the points on the web of the body is growing upwards into space.

Each point of the body with its own shoot.

Imagining the web of roots reaching down into the earth.

The web of shoots reaching up into space.

Being aware of the whole network of roots and shoots.

Simultaneously holding this space for rooting and rising.

Awareness resting on the cycles of your breath.

And with your exhale inviting any dense energy to be released through these roots into the earth.

On the in-breath drawing from the earth into the web of your body.

Bright and refined energy.

With the exhale we release and cleanse the body of anything that doesn't serve.

Releasing any disordered energy with the out-breath.

Inhaling drawing in the light's pure refined energy from the earth into the landscape of your body.

Exhaling this light radiant energy to infuse your energy body.

And this light refined pure energy.

Offering us courage to commit to our heartfelt desire.

Offering us courage to follow our path of truth.

Offering us courage to pursue our deepest callings in life.

And with your exhale we release and cleanse the body of anything that doesn't serve.

Awareness on the breath.

And we'll count the breath to ten.

Breathing in for one.

Breathing out for one.

Inhaling for two.

Exhaling two.

Continuing to count in your own time all the way to ten.

Breathing in to 16 and 17.

Full awareness on the breath and countingLAIRI letting go of any count of the breath with your next exhale settle the awareness back on the deep heart's core awareness behind the centre of the breastbone and in this practice of yoga nidra coming home to yourself simply being in the space of the heart welcoming back in a felt sense of gratitude gratitude for the opportunity to be here today to carve out this time to reconnect to self to offer yourself deep rest and relaxation and as you're ready re-invoking your sun kalpa your heartfelt desire or intention hearing the words of your sun kalpa three times in the present tense taking time to nurture the seed that you planted at the beginning of your nidra practice taking time to feel how it is to embody the reality of your intention with your inhale breathing in this atmosphere of your fulfilled sun kalpa with your exhale drawing in more space for your sun kalpa to take seed in the space of the heart connecting here with your sun kalpa connecting with your quality of being that is already whole and complete and as you're ready we invite the sun kalpa to settle back into the heart space back into its home ground of being as this practice of yoga nidra draws towards a close we take a moment to check back in with space and time to again in the mind's eye visualize your physical body resting resting with the support of your bolsters blankets eye pillows welcoming back in any touch and taste sensations welcoming in any sounds within the room any sounds outside the studio welcoming back in the sound of your breath as we begin to transition into more waking consciousness we take a moment to linger in this very liminal space between waking and sleep i share with you a poem from lauren rosh from the radiant sutras called a place in the heart the one who is at play everywhere said there is a place in the heart where everything meets go there if you want to find me mind senses soul eternity all are there are you there enter the welcoming vastness of the heart give yourself to it with total abandon quiet ecstasy is there and a steady regal sense of resting in a perfect spot once you know the way the nature of attention will call you to return again and again and be saturated with knowing i belong here i am at home here answer that call so so so and as you're ready starting to invite some movement back into the body and here in this space listening to the body's intelligence listening for any calls of movement that might feel most nourishing as you start to awaken maybe wiggling fingers or toes maybe touching the thumb to the tip of each finger can be particularly grounding or maybe you take a full body stretch so slowly coming back into this space,

Back into some Saturday afternoon let's practice,

So if yoga nidra is now complete,

Adiyon tat sat

Reviews

Nice live Yoga Nidra. It was very relaxing on a "busy" day 🙏

Beautiful meditation. I'm glad the description noted it was live so the few background noises were not distracting. Very calming voice and paced well. Thank you for sharing.

Excellent pace and articulate as well. Very well done.

Deeply peaceful and grounding. Highly recommended. Thanks. Namaste.