Yoga Nidra - Sanctuary Within

Return to a sense of feeling safe within yourself. Find your way back to a sense of sanctuary when the world feels overwhelming or threatening. This is a powerful grounding tool for settling the nervous system to manage anxiety.

Transcript

Welcome to the practice of yoga nidra.

To get ready for the practice of yoga nidra,

Just find yourself resting down on your back on the floor,

Maybe supporting the back of your head with a folded blanket or pillow,

Or maybe you'd like to also place a pillow or a bolster behind the backs of your knees.

During yoga nidra we try to keep the body completely still and at rest,

But at any point if you need to move you're welcome to do so.

During the practice of yoga nidra we're exploring the boundary between consciousness and sleep.

So you might find yourself drifting away at times and then coming back,

And this is also completely normal and part of the practice.

So let's get ready.

Find yourself lying comfortably on the floor,

Hands by your side,

Feet flopping over to the outside edges of your mat or onto the bed.

Maybe take a moment to draw your chin down towards your throat as a way of lengthening out the back of your neck and then soften the chin to find ease all along the spine.

Find connection to your breath as you lie on your back,

Allowing your eyes to close.

Just take a moment to feel all the spaces where your body is resting,

Into the floor or into your bed.

And noticing how your breath moves in your chest and your belly and seeing if you can soften the belly to find more spaciousness and ease in the breath.

Feel everything consciously soften on your exhalation.

And then allow all of your awareness to gather to your ears and allowing yourself to hear all the sounds around you in this space.

So allow your awareness to make big circles like the light of a lighthouse circling all around,

Noticing all the sounds in the distance and seeing what is the most distant sound that you can hear.

Keep moving from sound to sound,

Not getting fixated or stuck on any particular sound,

But just moving through all the sounds that are present.

And then seeing if you can hug your awareness in closer so that you only begin to listen for sounds inside this room,

Inside these walls where you find yourself.

So if something draws your awareness out beyond these walls,

Just gently guide it back and keep circling your sense of hearing within the walls of this room.

From here we invite our sense of hearing to become even more specific and focused.

And I invite you to see if you can listen only for the sound of your own breath.

So no need to breathe louder,

Just allow the sound of your breath to gently reach into your awareness and letting your awareness attune to the soft subtle sound of your breath as it moves in and out through the nose.

Allow the breath to stay steady.

And then on the next inhalation,

Follow the sound of your breath down into your chest and feel your chest open and expand with every inhalation and full and soften on the exhalation.

Resting in the energetic heart space,

Flowing and moving with your breath.

I invite you to open in this space access to your sankalpa,

Your intention,

And allowing your intention to arise here in your awareness within the energetic heart space three times.

So inviting the intention in and then feeling how the sankalpa ripples through your energy,

Feeling how it lands in the body and the mind and repeating your intention to yourself two more times and each time just giving a little bit of space for it to find a home within.

And now we begin with the practice of yoga nidra by taking our awareness throughout the body.

I'll name different body parts for you and all you have to do is allow your awareness to travel with no need to move the body,

Just the internal awareness shifting as I name different parts.

Starting with right hand thumb,

Second finger,

Third finger,

Fourth finger,

Fifth finger,

Palm of the hand,

The wrist,

The lower arm,

The elbow,

The upper arm,

The shoulder,

Right side of the chest,

The waist,

The hip,

The thigh,

The knee,

The lower leg,

The ankle,

The foot,

Right big toe,

Second toe,

Third toe,

Fourth toe,

Fifth toe,

Left hand thumb,

Second finger,

Third finger,

Fourth finger,

Fifth finger,

Palm of the hand,

The wrist,

The lower arm,

Elbow,

Upper arm,

Shoulder,

Left side of the chest,

The waist,

The hip,

The thigh,

The knee,

The lower leg,

The ankle,

The foot,

Left big toe,

Second toe,

Third toe,

Fourth toe,

Fifth toe,

Both of the feet together,

Both of the ankles together,

Both of the shins,

The knees,

The thighs,

Both of the legs together,

Back of the hips,

Left and right,

The lower back,

The middle back,

The upper back,

The left arm,

Left hand,

And then right arm,

Right hand,

Both of the arms together,

The whole of the upper body and the arms together,

Back of the neck,

Back of the head,

Crown of the head,

The forehead,

The eyebrows,

The eyebrow center,

The right eye,

The left eye,

The right cheek,

The left cheek,

The right ear,

The left ear,

Right side of the jaw,

Left side of the jaw,

The nose,

The right nostril,

The left nostril,

Tip of the nose,

The upper lip,

The lower lip,

And the chin,

The tongue,

The throat,

The right collarbone,

The left collarbone,

And the center of the chest,

Feeling the whole front of the body lift with the breath,

And exhale feeling the whole back of the body sink with the breath,

Inhale front of the body rises,

And exhale back of the body sinks into the floor,

Inhale front body rises,

And exhale back body softens out,

Feeling the front,

Feeling the back,

And then feeling the whole of the body together resting comfortably on the ground,

Feel the breath moving in and out of the chest,

And from here we'll take a moment to count our breaths by counting them backwards from 29,

So I'll count the first few breaths with you,

And then you can just carry on keeping the breath or keep counting the breath by yourself,

If you find that you drift off or you lose track you always just come back to the beginning and start over,

So finding your exhalation and then counting the breath as follows,

Inhale 29,

Exhale 29,

Exhale 28,

Exhale 28,

Inhale 27,

Exhale 27,

Inhale 26,

And exhale 26,

Keep counting your breath at your own pace,

Counting the breath backwards,

Allowing the breath to be slow,

Allowing the body to be at ease,

Feel the mind molding itself onto the texture of your breath,

Feel yourself come home to sanctuary as you count the breaths moving in and out,

Body resting on the floor,

And breath moving with ease.

One.

Gently release the counting of the breath and feel yourself resting in the quiet space behind your closed eyelids,

Awareness rolling with the breath in the chest.

I invite you to visualize a door at the center of the chest and allow yourself to view this entry,

This entrance into the heart.

Take notice of any details.

Is it smooth?

Is it made from wood?

Does it look more like the entrance of a cave?

How do you visualize this door,

This passage that leads into the sanctuary of your breath and your heart?

Allow yourself to take a deep breath in and then as you exhale visualize yourself fitting to the size of this door or this passage and slowly either hopping in or walking in,

Making your way in through the front of the chest until you find yourself deep within the cave or the sanctuary of the chest.

As you look out ahead you still see the entrance through which you came and there is still light coming in through the space but you find yourself very comfortably resting within the sanctuary of the heart and the breath,

The space deep within you at the center of your being.

And here you really have the sense that you can take off all the layers,

All the masks,

All the things you carry.

So allowing yourself to shed anything that you no longer need and feeling yourself become light as a feather as you rest into the space,

Finding stillness and quiet,

Finding peace,

Allowing yourself to find utter and complete rest where the face is soft,

The arms and the legs and the belly are soft.

And in the soft warm spaciousness you allow yourself to curl into a tiny ball.

So almost curl up in fetal position or any comfortable position resting within the heart space,

Closing your eyes and feeling like you are completely at peace.

Feel the breath moving in and around the body,

Feeling the safety of your sanctuary.

And in this safety get a sense of appreciation and compassion for this essence,

This core of your being at rest here in this moment.

Appreciation for the space,

Appreciation for the stillness,

Appreciation for the rest and appreciation for the important role it plays as part of living a healthy balanced life.

Take a moment of compassion for any tiredness,

Fatigue or weariness that you have been carrying.

And allow this appreciation and allow this compassion to gently vibrate through every piece of your being,

Touching into every aspect of your wholeness and allowing it to bring a gentle smile into the corners of your mouth.

In this space once again recall your sankalpa or your intention,

Repeating it to yourself three times with deep emphasis and feeling.

Allow those words to sink deep into the core of your being,

Folding around this truth of who you are.

When you are ready allow yourself to gently connect back to the breath as it comes in through your nose.

And exhale maybe let it out gently through the lips.

And then slowly move your fingers and your toes as you come back to waking.

Taking your time before you move if you need to get up or maybe simply turning over and getting ready to go to sleep.

The practice of yoga and hydra is now complete.

Reviews

Beautiful, gentle guidance by a grounded and trusted guide. Thank you.