Hello,
My name is Kathy.
Welcome to your non-sleep deep rest practice or yoga nidra.
This is a 20-minute practice where we spend the bulk of our time rotating our consciousness on different parts or areas of our body.
Start by settling into a comfortable place lying on your back.
You can have your knees supported or have them bent with them knocking against each other.
Take your time to make any adjustments to your body or props so that you can be fully comfortable and at ease during this practice.
Let's begin by arriving into our body,
Arriving into this practice.
Take a couple of moments to feel into the weight of your body on the floor.
Feel into the areas in which the body makes contact with the earth.
I'd like to invite you now to connect with your breath.
Long and deep inhalations and exhalations.
On the next exhalation,
I invite you to extend it a little more.
Each exhalation a little longer than the last.
Allowing your heart rate to slow down and queuing our parasympathetic nervous system.
To engage our parasympathetic nervous system even more,
I now invite you to breathe and yawn for the next couple of moments.
Even if you don't feel like yawning,
Imagine you are doing so.
Sometimes that can be a little difficult.
Sometimes that can trigger the brain to do so.
Try opening your mouth,
Squeezing the eyes shut and stretching your hands and legs out.
Yawning is a great way to get oxygen into our body in a very short time.
So keep going.
Yawning.
Feel free to articulate that yawn.
Keep breathing and yawning until your tear ducts get triggered.
We're almost there.
A few more breaths with successive yawning.
Now let's release that practice,
Observing how your body is feeling now.
Reconnecting with your breath once more,
Allow the breath to be your anchor during our practice together.
You might notice in parts of the practice you drift in and out of complete slumber.
But the goal of the practice is to reach and sustain the state of consciousness between wakefulness and sleep.
As much as you can,
Follow my voice.
And if you feel yourself drifting away,
Come back to the sound of my voice.
As you lie on your back,
Begin to notice any sounds around you.
As you lie on your back,
Begin to notice any sounds around you.
The sound of my voice,
The sound of gentle music in the background,
The sounds around you,
Sounds in this room.
Are there any other ambient sounds around you?
And can you expand your listening to the sounds outside of the room,
The more distant sounds,
And allow yourself to follow these sounds for a couple more moments.
Do you notice any sounds arising from your body?
The sound of your own breath,
Body,
The sound of your own breath,
Of each inhale and exhale.
Following the rhythm and the sound of your breath without feeling the need to change it.
Feeling into the fullness of the inhalation and the surrender of each exhalation.
Now I'd like to invite you to set an intention for your practice,
A simple intention,
Or a positive affirmation for yourself.
Allow yourself to take three breaths and recite it in your mind three times.
Now let's take a journey through the different parts of your physical body.
As you hear the different parts mentioned,
Recite it in your mind and move your awareness to that part of the body.
Notice the movement from one part to the next,
Keeping yourself aware of the sensations as they arise.
Bringing your awareness to the right side of your body,
Starting with your right hand thumb,
First finger,
Second finger,
Third finger,
Fourth finger,
Palm of the hand,
Back of the hand,
Wrist,
Forearm,
Elbow,
Upper arm,
Right shoulder,
Armpit,
Chest,
Waist,
Hip,
Right groin,
Buttock,
Thigh,
Right knee,
Calf,
Ankle,
Heel,
Sole of the foot,
Top of the foot,
Right big toe,
Second toe,
Third toe,
Fourth toe,
Fifth toe.
Noticing the whole right side of your body.
Move your awareness to the left side of your body,
Starting with the left hand thumb,
First finger,
Second finger,
Third finger,
Fourth finger,
Palm of the hand,
Back of the hand,
Wrist,
Forearm,
Elbow,
Upper arm,
Left shoulder,
Armpit,
Chest,
Waist,
Hip,
Left groin,
Buttock,
Thigh,
Left knee,
Calf,
Ankle,
Heel,
Sole of the foot,
Top of the foot,
Left big toe,
Second toe,
Third toe,
Fourth toe,
Fifth toe.
Notice the whole left side of your body together.
Move your awareness to the top of the head,
Forehead,
Right temple,
Left temple,
Right ear,
Left ear,
Right cheek,
Left cheek,
Right eyebrow,
Left eyebrow,
Eyebrow,
Center,
Right eye,
Left eye,
Left eye,
Right nostril,
Left nostril,
Your whole nose together.
Upper lip,
Lower lip,
Chin,
Jaw,
Throat,
Right collarbone,
Left collarbone,
Right chest,
Left chest,
Heart center,
Upper abdomen,
Navel,
Lower abdomen,
Right groin,
Left groin,
Your pelvic floor,
Tailbone,
Sacrum,
Right buttock,
Left buttock,
The entire spine,
From your tail to your head,
Right shoulder blade,
Left shoulder blade,
Back of the neck,
Back of the head,
Crown of the head.
Now feel the whole right arm together,
The whole left arm together,
Both arms together,
The whole right leg together,
The whole left leg together,
Both legs together,
The entire torso,
The face,
The head,
The head,
The body,
The whole body,
Your entire body.
Notice your whole body together.
Moving our awareness back to the right side of our body,
Starting with your right hand thumb,
First finger,
Second finger,
Third finger,
Fourth finger,
Palm of the hand,
Back of the hand,
Wrist,
Forearm,
Elbow,
Upper arm,
Right shoulder,
Armpit,
Chest,
Waist,
Hip,
Right groin,
Buttock,
Thigh,
Right knee,
Calf,
Ankle,
Heel,
Sole of the foot,
Top of the foot,
Right big toe,
Second toe,
Third toe,
Fourth toe,
Fifth toe,
Noticing the whole right side of your body.
Move your awareness to the left side of your body,
Starting with the left hand thumb,
First finger,
Second finger,
Third finger,
Fourth finger,
Palm of the hand,
Back of the hand,
Wrist,
Forearm,
Elbow,
Upper arm,
Left shoulder,
Armpit,
Chest,
Waist,
Hip,
Left groin,
Buttock,
Thigh,
Left knee,
Calf,
Ankle,
Heel,
Sole of the foot,
Top of the foot,
Left big toe,
Second toe,
Third toe,
Fourth toe,
Fifth toe,
Notice the whole left side of your body together.
Move your awareness to the top of the head,
Forehead,
Right temple,
Left temple,
Right ear,
Left ear,
Right cheek,
Left cheek,
Right eyebrow,
Left eyebrow,
Eyebrow,
Center,
Right eye,
Left eye,
Right nostril,
Left nostril,
Your whole nose together,
Upper lip,
Lower lip,
Chin,
Jaw,
Throat,
Right collarbone,
Left collarbone,
Right chest,
Left chest,
Heart center,
Upper abdomen,
Upper abdomen,
Navel,
Lower abdomen,
Right groin,
Left groin,
Your pelvic floor,
Tailbone,
Sacrum,
Right buttock,
Left buttock,
The entire spine from your tail to your head,
Right shoulder blade,
Left shoulder blade,
Back of the neck,
Back of the head,
Crown of the head.
Now feel the whole right arm together,
The whole left arm together,
Both arms together,
The whole right leg together,
The whole left leg together,
Both legs together,
The entire torso,
The face,
The head,
The body,
The whole body,
Your entire body.
Notice your whole body together.
Continue to feel the entire body.
Begin to notice the body feeling heavy,
Grounded into the earth,
Your whole body feeling heavy,
The arms heavy,
The legs heavy,
Head,
Back,
Heavy.
The body is feeling very heavy on the floor as if you're sinking or melting into the floor.
Allow the body to feel heavy as it continues to sink into the floor all the way down into the core of the earth.
Now invite the body to become light and buoyant,
A floating weightless sensation.
In your whole body,
Allow the arms to feel light,
The legs to feel light,
The head,
The torso,
Light.
The body is feeling feather light.
It's almost as if you are floating towards the ceiling,
Towards the sky.
Return to the sensations of your body resting in peace and comfort and safety in our practice together.
Now let's return to our intention or the affirmation that you set at the start of our practice.
Allow yourself to take three big breaths and recite it in your mind and heart.
Gently guide your awareness back to your physical body lying on this earth.
Begin to listen in to the different sounds that you might hear in this moment.
Can you hear the sound of your breath moving in and out of your nostrils?
Become aware of your body as it breathes in and out.
Without opening your eyes,
Become aware of your surroundings.
Visualizing your body on the floor and visualizing the objects in the room and become aware of the time of day.
As your awareness comes back,
Invite your breath to deepen.
As your awareness comes back,
Invite your breath to deepen.
When you're ready,
Stretch your arms long overhead.
Extend your legs,
Point your toes and take a full body stretch.
Slowly roll into fetal position on your right side.
Take a moment here,
Still having your eyes closed.
Whenever you're ready,
Gently press up into a comfortable seat.
In your seat,
Take a couple of moments to breathe in,
Breathe out.
Noticing any thoughts,
Noticing any thoughts,
Emotions,
Sensations.
Gently lifting the corners of your mouth into a little smile.
See if you can allow the sensation of that inner smile to cascade through the rest of your body.
Thank you for taking the time to practice together.
I hope you enjoyed it.
