Welcome dear one,
Welcome to this practice of Yoganidra for stress relief.
So before we dive into the practice,
Before we lay down and get super cozy,
I want to invite you to join me for a short shaking practice to release some stress and tension from the body.
So for that I want to invite you to come to a standing position and once you are on your two feet,
Taking a moment here to connect with the earth through your feet,
To feel really grounded through your feet into the earth,
Bending your knees slightly and perhaps taking a deep breath to land in this moment.
And then I'm going to invite you to start shaking your body.
You can start with your knees bent from your feet upwards,
Gently just rocking the body in tiny movements back and forth.
It doesn't have to look like anything,
It's just an invitation for the body to let go,
To release tension that you might have been holding for a while.
And also an invitation to the nervous system to relax,
To let go,
To unwind,
To release.
So keep shaking your body from your feet upwards,
Your legs,
And then also feeling heavy in your pelvis as you are shaking,
Releasing any tension in your pelvis down towards the earth.
And gently also rocking your torso,
Shaking your torso,
Your arms,
Your hands,
And your head.
Again,
If you feel a little unsure how to do this,
You can't do this wrong,
You can't do this right,
It's just an invitation to bring some ease into the body through shaking.
And if it feels good,
You can let the shaking movement become a little bigger,
Expanding in your body,
Expanding into areas that have not experienced a movement yet,
Inviting a bigger movement of shaking the body.
And if it feels good,
You can also make a face and make a funky sound,
Breathe,
Releasing,
Letting go on the exhale.
And if that feels good and you want to continue,
You can pause the recording.
And if you feel like,
Oh that already helped,
I'm ready to come to stillness and slowly release,
Let go of the movement,
Bringing your body into a still position.
And then from here we're going to transition into the yoga nidra practice.
So it is time now to settle yourself in the position of shavasana,
Laying on your back with your legs and feet falling slightly to the sides,
The arms on the side of your body with the palms facing upward.
And perhaps you want to put a thin cushion under your head for support and a blanket over your body to keep yourself warm.
So once you are in your position,
Take a deep breath in,
Open the mouth and exhale with a sigh.
Two more deep breath in and exhale with a sigh.
Last one,
Deep breath in and exhale with a sigh.
So to begin the practice and to start releasing a little more stress from your entire system,
I want to invite you for a short progressive relaxation practice.
And for this we will tense the muscles of the body and release them with the exhale.
So let's begin with the feet.
Tighten up the muscles in your feet,
Pull in the toes,
Tighten it up even a little more until everything feels as rigid as a stone.
And then with the exhale,
Release and let it go.
Now the same thing with the legs.
Tighten up your muscles along the legs,
The calves,
The thighs,
Your hamstrings,
All tightens up even a little more.
Then let it go with the exhale.
Now come to your pelvis,
To your belly,
Lower back and abdomen.
Pull the belly in,
Tighten the muscles on the inside of your hip bones,
Tighten the muscles of the anus.
Hold,
Hold,
Hold and then let go with the exhale.
Then move up the torso,
Bring your attention to the muscles around the ribs in your chest,
Lungs,
On the inside of the shoulder blades.
Pull everything in and tighten it up,
Tighten it up and when you can't go any further,
Release with the exhale.
Then to the arms,
Pull your fingers in,
Tighten all the muscles along the lower and upper arm,
Even into the shoulder.
Tighten it up a little more,
A little more and then release with the exhale.
And then last but not least,
The head and the throat.
Let your throat become very tight.
Include the neck and then all the muscles of the face.
Make the weirdest face ever by tightening it all up.
Nobody is seeing you.
A few more seconds and then release with the exhale.
And then one more time,
The entire body.
Tighten up the entire body from toes to top of head.
Give all you can until your body is rigid and tight and no more movement is possible.
Three,
Two,
One and then release with the exhale.
Beautiful,
Great job.
And then release yourself into the practice of Yoga Nidra.
So for this practice,
I want to invite you to set an intention to not move and also to not sleep to the best of your abilities.
Even though Yoga Nidra refers to sleep,
We aim in this practice to stay awake,
To remain aware when we enter deeper layers of consciousness.
So you can say to yourself,
I will not sleep and not move until the end.
Then bring your attention to your senses.
Allow all your senses to rest.
Give them the command to find ease and release tension.
Let your eyes fall back into the sockets and allow them to a break from all the external stimuli they take in all day long.
Let your sense of taste in the mouth come to a rest.
Relax your sense of smell in your nostrils and also release any surplus of input in your sense of touch.
Apart from your sense of hearing which remains open to my voice,
Let all your senses come to a sense of ease,
Of restful being as you let go of external stimuli.
It is now time to decide on your Sankalpa.
And Sankalpa simply means deep resolve or intention.
It is a statement related to a heart's desire you have at this moment in time.
So take a moment here and breathe into your heart space.
Notice what is there.
What is your heart longing for in this moment?
And once that is clear,
I invite you to formulate a short,
Concise,
Positive statement starting with the words I am.
So if your Sankalpa is clear to you,
Then go ahead with it.
If you are not sure and in spirit of the theme of this Yoga Nidra,
I want to suggest the Sankalpa I am at ease.
So take your Sankalpa now and repeat it three times silently in your mind.
We will now circulate your awareness through your physical body.
For this remain relaxed and at ease.
There's nothing you need to do here.
Just keep your ears open to the sound of my voice.
Your awareness will travel through your body and with this allow any energies of stress to release and leave your body.
As your awareness reaches different parts of the body,
Imagine any tension that is there to dissolve like foam of soap dissolving into water or a little bit of snow melting in your hand.
So let's begin with the right hand thumb.
As you bring your awareness to your right hand thumb,
Any sensation of stress experiences a lessening of tension and is melting out of the body.
From here continue with all five fingers.
All five fingers on the right side.
Any stress or tension is melting out of the fingers.
Then up your right arm to your shoulder.
Sensations of stress are leaving the body.
Down the right side of the body through the right side of the chest down to the hip.
Sensations of stress are leaving the body.
The belly,
The pelvis,
Tensions are washed away.
Down the right leg into the right foot.
Sensations of stress are melting and floating away.
Then all five toes.
Spaciousness and ease in the toes.
And now the entire right side of the body is gifted with your awareness and a sense of relaxation.
Now bring your awareness to the left hand thumb.
And again as you bring your awareness to your left hand thumb,
Any sensation of stress is leaving the left hand thumb.
Continue with all five fingers.
All five fingers on the left side.
Up your left arm to your shoulder.
Sensations of stress are releasing.
Down the left side of the body through the left side of the chest down to the hip.
The belly,
The pelvis,
Tensions are washed away.
Down the left leg into the left foot.
Sensations of stress are leaving the body.
And all five toes.
Spaciousness and ease.
Then the entire left side of the body is gifted with your awareness and a sense of relaxation.
From here bring your awareness to your back body.
Move from your heels up,
Your legs,
Your back towards the back of the head.
And any tension in the back body along the lines where it is touching the surface underneath you is released and offered to the earth.
And bring your awareness to the top of your head and to your face.
All the muscles,
The fascia in your face is experiencing a release of tension,
As small as that might be.
Any leftovers of stress in your forehead,
Behind the eyes,
Temples and jaw are flowing out of your face and dissolving into the space around you.
Your face is now free of tension.
It has released anything that is not necessary.
An awareness is flowing freely through your face,
Through your arms and hands,
Through your upper body,
Through your legs and your feet.
The entire body,
The entire body.
Awareness and rest in the entire body.
And we will now continue with the energy body and your breath.
So bring your attention to your breath,
To the air flowing in and out of your nostrils.
Let the breath be as it is.
Let it flow naturally.
Simply observe your breath,
The breath,
Your life force that is with you all day and all night.
And now we want to count the breath from 17 backwards to 1.
And as you do this,
See if you can extend the length of the exhale so it becomes a little longer than the inhale.
If you allow the exhale to flow out of you a little longer into the silent pause after the exhale,
This will do.
So for the counting you can silently say to yourself inhale 17,
Exhale 17,
Inhale 16,
Exhale 16,
Inhale 15,
Exhale 15 and so on.
So continue in your own rhythm until you get to 1.
And if you lose count or are not sure where you are,
You can return back to 17 and start again.
You can begin now.
Then let go of the counting,
Let go of any focus on the breath.
And we will now continue by inviting opposite sensations into the body.
Remain relaxed and at ease and listen to the sound of my voice.
You are relaxed and awake.
You are practicing yoga nidra.
So first invite sensations of heaviness into your body.
Your legs,
Your arms,
Your entire body is becoming very very heavy.
All the heaviness of muscles and bones and all the heaviness of life is spreading in your body.
You feel like lead laying down without any possibility to move.
And now invite the opposite.
Invite lightness into your body.
The same body that felt so heavy a moment ago is now becoming very very light.
All the inner space is opening up.
All the cells and the spaces in between are opening up.
The body is becoming spacious,
Floaty,
Almost transparent.
There is a lightness of being.
You are having an experience of lightness in your body.
Then invite sensations of feeling tense,
Stressed,
Overly active and busy in your body.
Notice your body sensations when you return to this experience and just notice.
Be the observer,
Witness.
Let sensations of being tense and stressed be there without becoming them.
Then switch to a sense of ease.
Notice how sensations of tension are slowly fading again and leaving your body and increasingly a sense of ease is coming in.
If you struggle to experience such sensations,
Come back to a memory that evokes a situation,
A moment,
A landscape that brings you a tremendous amount of ease and bathe in these sensations.
Really take it in.
Receive it in your entire body.
Take a snapshot to remember in your mind and in your body how a state of easefulness arises in your awareness.
Then evoke both tension and ease.
Tension and ease at the same time.
Yes,
That is possible.
Release any thoughts about it and replace thinking for feeling.
Tension and ease at the same time.
Become aware how these seemingly opposites have the space and possibility to be there at the very same moment in your body.
And then let go of these sensations.
Let everything dissolve into a space of silence,
Of deep inner stillness.
We will now continue with the wisdom body and I will mention several images that I want you to see on an imaginary screen in front of your inner eye.
Take a moment here to connect with your pineal gland in the middle of your head.
And from the middle of the head imagine the wide screen and the following images.
A meadow at sunrise.
A flickering candle.
The roots of a tree.
Your favorite childhood memory.
A hammock.
The hand of someone you love.
An eagle gliding in the sky.
People sitting around a fire.
Lavender fields.
A vast mountain.
A riverbed flowing into the ocean.
Buddha sitting in deep meditation.
Buddha sitting in deep meditation.
Buddha sitting in deep meditation.
Now let go of any visuals and allow yourself to drop into a state of meditation.
Meditation and a deep rest inside.
Peacefulness and ease.
And be with that for a moment.
Allow yourself to drop into the silence,
Into a space of simple being.
And then slowly,
Slowly coming back to my voice.
Coming back to my voice.
Yet before you fully come back,
Remain for a moment here in this simplicity of being and drop in your Sankalpa.
The same statement you formulated at the beginning of this practice.
Maybe it was I am at ease or something else.
So again repeat your Sankalpa three times silently in your mind.
And then let it go for its work is done.
And slowly,
Slowly come back to your individual form.
Notice your body deeply at rest and ease.
Notice your breath as it flows freely in and out of your body.
Become aware of your body in the room you are in and any sensations in your environment.
Perhaps there is a sense of temperature,
A noise near or far.
And then once you're ready start to move your fingers and your toes,
Your ankles,
Your wrists.
Perhaps stretch your arms overhead and take a moment to fully soak up this beautiful feeling of ease and relaxation where you are in harmony and where stress has left your body.
And with this the practice of Yoga Nidra is now complete.
Hari Om Tat Sat
