Welcome to your yoga nidra practice.
This time is for you.
This time is for your physical body to rejuvenate through deep rest and your mental and emotional body to find relaxation and ease.
The deep rest experienced in all layers of your body is the gateway to a form of wisdom that emerges from deep within.
A wisdom that has the voice of your heart and the voice of your higher self.
A truth that stems from a genuine authentic source expressed through the layers of your body.
This yoga nidra is dedicated to let your heart speak.
To open yourself to deep relaxation and inner voices of wisdom,
I invite you now to make yourself as comfortable as you possibly can.
You may want to lay on a yoga mat or a comfortable couch.
You may support your head and neck with a thin cushion and place a soothing blanket over your body.
Take note of the light in the room and see whether it needs adjustment.
And also make sure that notifications on your phone are turned off.
In general,
Make sure that you will not be disturbed for the duration of the practice so that you can fully give yourself the nourishing rest of your nervous system and your entire being.
Once you feel settled,
Give yourself permission to drop into the practice.
Allow me to guide you and trust that you will experience exactly the kind of practice that you will need today.
Allow your bones to become heavy.
Let go of any holding of the bones through the muscles.
When we are stressed or vigilant,
We tend to cling the muscles to the bones.
However,
This is a safe space now.
You do not need to be in any state of vigilance and you can simply let go.
Allow all the sensory particles on your skin to soften into the skin.
Let your eyes fall back into the warm and soft space of the sockets.
And let any tension in your forehead,
In your temples or in your jaw be washed away.
Take a moment here also to set the intention to remain still in your body for the duration of the practice.
This will help your system to enter a state of deep rejuvenation and will support your mind to calm down as well.
Make any last adjustments if you need to and then relax into receiving the healing,
The soothing and the transformational potential of Yoga Nidra.
The practice of Yoga Nidra begins now.
Every Yoga Nidra practice contains the element of Sankalpa.
Sankalpa is a heartfelt wish,
A desire,
An intention you set for the practice.
So to let your intention for today emerge,
Bring your focus gently to your breath.
Notice the life-giving oxygen entering your nostrils.
Observe it flowing down the throat all the way into the lungs and chest area.
And then notice how warm air flows the other way,
Merging into the outer world as it leaves your nostrils.
Stay with the breath and let your mind rest on the breath.
Then gather your awareness and bring focused attention to land softly in the middle of the chest.
Let your awareness rest in the heart center in the middle of the chest.
Breathing in and breathing out of the heart center,
The heart chakra.
Breathing from the nostrils to the heart center and back.
And rest into and invite the heart chakra to open a little bit more with every breath.
And now reverse the flow of your breath.
Imagine as if the heart chakra in the middle of your chest is breathing instead of the nostrils taking in the breath.
The inhale is now taken in by the heart chakra and it is the heart chakra that releases the exhale as well.
There's a sweet flow of breath in and out of the heart chakra.
Relaxing and opening.
Stay with this breath from your heart chakra and continue to open the heart center.
And then begin to listen also to the heart center.
Invite your heart center to express itself.
To let it speak your intention for today's practice.
Maybe there's a wish,
A longing.
What is your heart center yearning for?
And notice what comes up first.
The initial impulse may be a good pointer.
And if nothing arises,
Trust that the silence is your pointer today.
And that is okay too.
If something emerged for you,
Bring it now into the words of a sankalpa.
Your sankalpa is a short,
Concise intention starting with the words I am in the present tense.
For example,
I am love.
Or I am the true expression of my heart.
And if your heart space remains silent today,
Your sankalpa could be simply I am.
Now take a deep breath in and repeat your sankalpa three times on the inhale.
Inviting it in.
And on the exhale,
Imagine the echoes and ripple effects of your sankalpa to be washed and spread into your entire body.
Three times,
Your sankalpa on the inhale.
The echoes into the body on the exhale.
Beautiful.
And then let that go.
We will now move into Annamayya Kosha,
The physical body.
And let your consciousness rotate through your physical manifestation.
There is nothing you need to do for this.
Simply allow yourself to be guided.
Remain relaxed and also awake.
If you wish to support your wakefulness and focus throughout this body scan,
You can repeat the body parts mentioned silently in your mind as they are said.
Let's begin on the right side with the right hand thumb.
Let all of your awareness be collected in the right hand thumb.
And as your awareness begins to settle and rest in your right hand thumb,
All of your right hand thumb,
The muscles,
Bones,
The blood,
The tendons,
Everything begins to settle and relax.
And your tension is washed away.
Now continue with the very same process in your second finger,
Third finger,
Fourth finger,
Pinky finger,
Palm of the right hand,
Back of the right hand and your entire hand.
Wrist,
Forearm,
Elbow,
Upper arm,
Right shoulder.
And then let your awareness travel down the right side of the body to the chest,
Waist,
Hip,
Thigh,
Knee,
Lower leg,
Ankle,
Heel,
Arch of the right foot,
Top of the right foot.
Big toe,
Second toe,
Third toe,
Fourth toe,
Fifth toe.
Now the entire foot and the entire leg,
The entire torso and arm.
Now your awareness flows freely in the whole right side of the body.
The whole right side of the body.
Now bring your awareness to the left hand thumb.
Let all of your awareness be collected in the left hand thumb.
And also here as your awareness begins to settle and rest,
Let everything rest in your left hand thumb.
The muscles,
The bones,
The blood,
The tendons,
Everything settles and relaxes.
And your tension is washed away.
Then continue the process in your second finger,
Third finger,
Fourth finger,
Pinky finger,
Palm of the left hand,
Back of the left hand,
Your entire hand.
Awareness and relaxation in your entire left hand,
Wrist,
Forearm,
Elbow,
Upper arm,
Left shoulder.
And let your awareness travel down the left side to the chest,
Waist,
Hip,
Thigh,
Knee,
Lower leg,
Ankle,
Heel,
Arch of the left foot,
Top of the left foot,
Big toe,
Second toe,
Third toe,
Fourth toe,
Fifth toe.
Then the entire foot,
The entire leg,
The entire torso and arm.
And then let your awareness flow freely in the whole left side of the body,
In the whole left side of the body at once.
From here bring your awareness to the back side of the body and all the contact points with the floor.
Let your awareness flow from your heels up the back all the way up to your head.
And let your back body deeply relax as if it was sinking deeper into the holding arms of the earth.
With every exhale letting the body weight drop a little deeper as you feel deeply held.
Now let your awareness travel to the top of your head.
Let it rest for a moment at your crown chakra.
Then come to your face,
Rest the eyes,
Eyelids,
Eyebrows,
The space between the eyebrows.
Rest the ears,
The tiny muscles in the ears and the space between the ears.
The nose and nostrils,
Lips,
The entire mouth,
Chin,
Jaw and throat.
From here travel again back upwards to the center of your head to the pineal gland located in the center of the brain between the two hemispheres of the brain.
You can silently say pineal gland and your inner wisdom will guide you there.
Notice your pineal gland.
Let it relax.
Then move down to your throat and the energy center in the middle of the throat.
Let it broaden,
Let it relax,
Let it express itself.
Then move to the middle of the chest,
Your energetic heart center.
Rest here for a moment.
Then move to the navel,
The energy center of determination and fire.
Then move to the space between navel and pubic bone,
The energy center of creation.
And last move to the energy center at the bottom of the pelvis.
Feeling rooted,
Feeling safe.
Now become aware of a free flow of energy flowing between the energy centers at the bottom of your pelvis and the crown center on top of your head.
Notice the central channel of energy as it is flowing softly yet clearly through the center of your body.
Then broaden your awareness again to your entire body.
Include the sides of your torso,
Arms and hands.
And then the legs,
Feet,
The toes.
On that your awareness rests in the entire body,
The entire body.
Your physical manifestation is resting at ease,
Awake.
You are practicing yoga nidra.
Let your body rest deeply.
Then begin to tune into pranamayakosha,
The energy body.
Bring awareness to your breath,
To the inhale and exhale.
As we did at the beginning of this practice,
Notice your breath at the tip of the nostril.
A few breaths here.
Notice the sweet flow like someone playing the violin in a very harmonious way.
Then switch your awareness to your heart center in the middle of the chest,
Staying with your attention on your breath.
And notice the breath flowing in and out of the heart center.
Let it flow gently,
Softly.
No pressure,
No effort,
With loving kindness.
And as you let your awareness rest here in the middle of the chest,
We will now start to count the breath backwards from 17 to 1.
You can silently follow the breath by saying internally,
Inhale heart space 17,
Exhale heart space 17,
Inhale heart space 16,
Exhale heart space 16 and so on.
Continue in your own pace.
And should you lose count,
Just begin with 17 again.
Counting the breath.
And let go of the counting.
Let your breath flow naturally in the entire body and tune into any echoes of giving dedicated attention to your heart space in a somatic way.
And notice any sensations.
Feeling at rest and at ease,
Awake and receptive,
You are practicing yoga nidra.
From here we now continue with the mental emotional body,
Mano maya kosha.
Mano maya kosha offers us the opportunity to increase a sense of homeostasis,
A state of harmony in our mental and emotional system.
This state of homeostasis is invited through the active experience of opposite frequencies in the body.
We begin with the frequency of dullness,
A sense of feeling cloudy,
Foggy and unclear.
A sense of not really feeling the entire body,
Maybe parts have become numb.
There's a sluggishness spreading in your entire system.
Invite that experience now.
The body feels gray,
Like a big soup of fog on a winter's day.
Now leave any judgments or associations you may have aside and allow yourself to feel this dullness in your body.
Notice how it arises in your consciousness.
Then switch to the opposite.
Invite the frequency of clarity,
Of aliveness,
A sense of bubbliness in your entire system.
Parts that have felt dormant awaken to a new aliveness,
The blood is flowing and pumping and you feel your heartbeat tuning into the infinite possibilities of life.
Tune into this experience now.
To this experience of clarity,
Aliveness and feeling connected to a bigger field of possibilities.
Notice the sensations in your body.
Become aware how this arises in your consciousness.
Then invite both.
Invite a sense of dull and numbness and a sense of clarity and aliveness at the same time.
Move back and forth between the two until they merge into one experience,
Coexisting next to each other.
Dullness and aliveness,
Feeling numb and vibrating at the same time.
Let go of any preconceived ideas of the mind and surrender into this experience.
It is available.
And then let this go.
Let the experience and echoes dissolve into the wide field of open awareness.
Rest and be practicing Yoga Nidra.
We are now ready to tune into Vijnanamayakosha,
The wisdom body.
For this once more,
Connect your awareness deeply with your heart space in the middle of the chest.
Let the heart space breathe with the harmonious string of your breath.
Stay with your awareness in your heart center.
At the same time,
Bring your awareness to the third eye center in the middle of the forehead.
And from here,
Let your awareness drift backwards towards the middle of the head until it rests again in the pineal gland.
Now awareness is resting in your heart center and in your pineal gland.
Find harmony,
Balance and resonance between your heart center and your pineal gland.
Notice an emerging sense of coherence between the heart of wisdom and the entry point to your intuition.
Now staying with the sense of coherence between heart and pineal gland,
I invite you now to join me on a little imaginary journey.
Let the scenarios mentioned appear naturally in front of your inner eye and at the same time remain the witness of whatever arises as these pictures appear.
Imagine yourself walking through a beautiful forest.
It is a sunny day and the rays of the sun are shining through the branches.
The light is dancing as the leaves move with a slight breeze.
You are at ease.
You don't have any goal,
No place to reach.
It is just your time to enjoy the forest.
You walk a little further and at some point you come to a clearing,
A little open space in the middle of the forest.
And the sun is shining right into it.
You stop in the middle of the clearing,
You close your eyes and you take a few deep breaths,
Simply enjoying being here for a few moments.
As you gently open your eyes again,
You notice an object at the border of the clearing.
You are curious.
You start to approach the object.
It is a wooden box.
It's almost unnoticed as moss has started to grow on it.
An old wooden box that has found its place here.
You then notice that you can open the box and you go ahead and do so.
You look inside and what you can find there is a beautiful hand carved mirror.
You take the mirror in your hands and hold it in front of you.
And there in the mirror you can see you.
You can see your face,
You can see yourself,
You can see your smile.
And a stream of love starts to flow towards the mirrored image in front of you.
From your heart,
A stream of care,
Of compassion,
Of warm love towards yourself.
And as you continue to look at yourself in the mirror,
You notice how your heart,
In coherence with your higher self and intuition,
Is beginning to express itself.
It is almost as if the higher you is beginning a conversation with the wisdom of your heart.
What are they talking about?
What is your higher self saying to your heart?
Is there a message that your heart needs to hear?
And allow that message to arise by itself.
Allow it to emerge into a spacious space between your higher self,
Your intuition and your heart space.
Then take a moment to zoom in on your heart space.
What is your heart saying?
Is there a message your heart has for your higher self?
Take a moment and listen without any ideas or preconceptions.
And notice what arises first.
There may be an image,
A word or perhaps a need in how your heart desires to be taken care of.
And if there is just silence,
That is also fine.
Let arise what wants to arise.
Let rest what wants to rest.
And I will leave you here for a moment in silence to give you an opportunity to tune in.
Remain in a place of feeling and sensing.
Tune in with the energies and sensations.
And trust that what is spoken arises from a place of wisdom.
And then conclude the sensing and listening in.
And place the mirror gently back into the box.
You close the box with care and with reverence.
And you give your gratitude to what it has shown you.
You continue your journey through the forest.
And at some point you walk out of the forest,
Leaving any remaining visuals with the trees and the earth.
Any impressions dissolve.
Any trace of your experience turns back to its source of silence.
And take a few moments here and rest in the beauty of simply being.
Meditation.
Resting.
Being.
Your natural state.
San Khyber.
San Khyber.
San Khyber.
At this point return to your intention.
Your San Khyber.
Your I am statement.
And let it drop into the silent space.
Three times on the inhale.
The exhale carries the echoes into all parts of your existence.
And slowly slowly come back to your physical body.
Little by little let your awareness feel more present and more engaged in your body.
Become aware of your breathing,
Your natural flow of breath.
Before you get more active in your body,
Take your hands and bring them one last time to your heart space in the middle of the chest.
Place your left hand in the middle of the chest and your right hand on top.
And simply allow gratitude to flow into your heart space.
Give thanks for its guidance,
For its wisdom.
And also give thanks to the heartbeat offering you life and new possibilities in every single moment.
And with this the practice of Yoga Nidra is now complete.
Hari Om Tat Sat.
Hari Om Tat Sat.
Hari Om Tat Sat.
Hari Om Tat Sat.
Hari Om Tat Sat.
