Yoga Nidra
Yoga Nidra, meaning yoga sleep, is an ancient technique derived from the tantras where the practitioner is guided to a deep state of conscious relaxation. It is a systematic method of moving awareness inwards, away from external experiences, to induce complete physical, mental, and emotional relaxation. Though the practitioner may look like they are sleeping, their consciousness is working at a deeper level of awareness, which can help improve memory and increase knowledge and creativity.
Transcript
Get ready for yoga nidra.
Lie down on the floor in relaxation pose.
Make yourself as comfortable as possible.
In this position,
The body should be straight from head to toe,
The legs slightly apart and the arms a little away from your body.
With the palms of the hands turned upwards,
Adjust everything.
Adjust your body position and your clothes until you're completely comfortable.
During yoga nidra,
There should be no physical movement.
Keep your eyes closed and keep them strictly closed until the end of the practice.
Take a deep breath and as you breathe out,
Feel the cares and worries of the day flow out of you.
In the practice that follows,
You're going to develop a feeling of relaxation in the body.
It's not necessary to make movements or deliberately relax your muscles.
Simply develop a feeling of relaxation.
It's like the feeling you have just before sleep.
When relaxation becomes deep,
Sleep does come,
But you should try to keep yourself completely awake.
This is very important.
Make a resolution to yourself now that I will not sleep.
I will remain awake throughout the entire practice.
During yoga nidra,
You're functioning on the levels of hearing and awareness.
So the only important thing is to follow the directions.
Simply follow the instructions with total attention and feeling.
And if thoughts come from time to time,
Simply return to the practice.
Allow yourself to become calm and steady.
Become aware of your body and relax yourself completely.
Make yourself physically calm and steady.
Feel that the legs are relaxed,
The trunk,
The head,
The arms,
And the hands.
Develop awareness of the body right from the top of the head to the tips of the toes.
Complete awareness of the whole body.
Relax your whole body mentally.
Relax yourself by breathing normally and becoming aware of the breath as it moves between the navel and the throat.
Awareness of your natural breathing.
No forcing,
Just navel to throat breathing.
Go on with this awareness and feel yourself becoming more relaxed.
Navel to throat breathing.
Now leave your breathing and become aware that you are going to practice yoga nidra.
Yoga nidra begins now.
This is the time to make your resolve a simple resolve.
Please state your resolve clearly with feeling and awareness three times.
We now begin the rotation of consciousness,
Rotation of awareness by taking a trip through the different parts of the body.
As quickly as possible,
The awareness is to go from part to part.
Repeat the part in your mind and simultaneously become aware of that part of your body.
Keep yourself alert,
But do not concentrate too intensely.
Become aware of the right hand,
Right thumb,
Second finger,
Third finger,
Fourth finger,
Fifth finger,
Palm of the hand.
Become aware of your palm,
Back of the hand,
The wrist,
The lower arm,
The elbow,
The upper arm,
The shoulder,
The armpit,
The right waist,
The right hip,
The right thigh,
The kneecap,
The calf muscle,
The ankle,
The heel,
The sole of the right foot,
The top of the foot,
The big toe,
Second toe,
Third toe,
Fourth toe,
Fifth toe.
Become aware of the left hand,
Left thumb,
Second finger,
Third finger,
Fourth finger,
Fifth finger,
Palm of the hand,
Back of the hand,
The wrist,
The lower arm,
The elbow,
The upper arm,
The shoulder,
The armpit,
The left waist,
The left hip,
The left thigh,
The kneecap,
The calf muscle,
The ankle,
The heel,
The sole of the left foot,
The top of the foot,
The big toe,
Second toe,
Third toe,
Fourth toe,
Fifth toe.
Now to the back,
Become aware of the right shoulder blade,
The left shoulder blade,
The right buttock,
The left buttock,
The spine,
The whole back together.
Now go to the top of the head,
The top of the head,
The forehead,
Both sides of the head,
The right eyebrow,
The left eyebrow,
The space between the eyebrows,
The right eyelid,
The left eyelid,
The right eye,
The left eye,
The right ear,
The left ear,
The right cheek,
The left cheek,
The nose,
The tip of the nose,
The upper lip,
Lower lip,
The chin,
Throat,
The right side of the chest,
The left side of the chest,
The middle of the chest,
The navel,
The abdomen,
The whole of the right leg,
The whole of the left leg,
Both legs together,
The whole of the right arm,
The whole of the left arm,
Both arms together,
The whole back,
Buttocks,
Spine,
Shoulder blades,
The whole of the front,
Abdomen,
The chest,
The whole back and front together,
The whole head,
The whole body together,
The whole body together,
The whole body together.
Become aware of the meeting points between your body and the floor.
Feel the meeting points between your body and the floor,
Sharp meeting points,
Body and floor.
Feel the floor holding you like a baby in someone's arms.
Now concentrate on your body as if seeing from the outside,
Look on your body as an object,
See your head,
Your clothes,
Your whole body from top to bottom lying on the floor of this room.
See your body as an object,
A reflection in an imaginary mirror.
You are looking at your own reflection in the mirror and you see yourself lying on the floor,
Your feet,
Legs,
Abdomen,
Chest,
Arms,
Hands,
Clothing,
Nose,
Closed eyes,
Forehead,
Hair,
Everything,
Everything reflected in that mirror.
Notice of your body as an object,
Make sure you are not sleeping.
Bring your attention to the natural breath.
Become aware that you are breathing quietly and slowly.
Become conscious of your breathing,
Nothing else.
Concentrate now on the flow of the breath between the navel and the throat.
Feel the breath moving along this passage.
As you inhale,
The air rises from the navel to the throat and as you exhale,
It goes from the throat to the navel.
Become aware of this.
Become aware of the breath through the nostrils,
The natural breath flowing through both nostrils,
Meeting at the top to form a triangle.
Think of the breaths as starting separately from a distance,
Drawing near and uniting at the eyebrow center.
Now concentrate on each breath.
Try to determine its temperature.
Move back and forth and compare the temperatures.
The breath through the left nostril is cooler,
The right breath is warmer.
Continue your awareness of breathing but imagine now that you're breathing with alternate nostrils,
In through one and out the other,
Up and down the sides of the triangle and again.
Keep this awareness and start counting each breath with full attention.
54,
Inhale left,
54,
Exhale right,
53,
Inhale right,
53,
Exhale left,
52,
Inhale left,
52,
Exhale right and so on.
Continue counting till zero,
Total awareness of counting and breathing.
If you make a mistake or reach zero,
Start again from 54.
Continue counting.
Now stop your counting and remain aware of the breath only.
Breathing evenly through both nostrils,
Exhaling evenly through both nostrils.
Total awareness,
No sleeping,
No sleeping please.
Awaken the feeling of heaviness in the body now.
Awaken a feeling of heaviness.
Become aware of heaviness in every single part of the body.
You are feeling so heavy that you are sinking into the floor.
Awareness of heaviness,
Awareness of heaviness.
Now awaken the feeling of lightness.
Awaken a feeling of lightness,
A sensation of lightness and weightlessness in all parts of the body.
The body is so light it seems to be floating away from the floor.
Awareness of lightness.
Recollect the feeling of coldness.
Just like walking on a cold tile floor on a winter's day.
Remember this feeling.
Relive it.
Make it vivid.
Awaken the feeling of coldness.
Now recall the feeling of warmth.
Warmth like sitting by a fire or feeling the sun across your face.
Warmth.
Check to make sure you're still awake.
Are you drowsy or sleepy?
Make sure that you are not sleeping.
Say to yourself mentally,
I am awake.
Think of an ocean.
Think of a dark blue ocean and become aware of the waves.
That ocean lies within the inner space and the rolling waves represent sleep.
The manifesting unconscious state of your mind.
Become aware of this state and try to visualize this state of unconsciousness within you like waves on an ocean.
Above is a beautiful blue sky and below is a vast ocean with infinite waves.
The manifesting process of unconsciousness.
Now you're going to travel into your past in the same way that you have traveled from the past to the present,
Retracing your steps of memory and consciousness backwards in time.
The past is part of time and time is a part of your mind.
Normally you walk forward in time.
But this time,
Try and walk backwards.
By remembering your past,
You are going into deeper recesses of your consciousness.
Try to remember what happened from the present time to the time you got up this morning.
You have to go back in time as if you were watching a film running in reverse.
If not a film,
Think of maybe a series of slides.
Remember back to the start of the yoga nidra.
And then recall what you were doing in the half hour before that.
Remember important objects and feelings in that time.
And then proceed on in half hour or one hour stages to when you woke up.
Stage by stage with full awareness.
Visualize and recall what you were doing,
Thinking,
Feeling.
When you have finished,
Bring your mind directly back to the present.
Bring your awareness to the present and make sure you are not sleeping.
No sleeping,
Please.
I'm going to name a few objects and you should try to visualize them on the levels of feeling,
Awareness,
Emotion,
And imagination as best as you can.
As fast as I go,
So fast you should move,
Jumping your mind from image to image.
Don't waste your time concentrating on any one image.
Just keep moving.
Flickering candle.
Weeping willow tree.
Palm tree.
Car moving on a road.
Colored clouds gathering.
Yellow clouds.
Blue clouds.
Starlit night.
Full moon.
Elephant moving.
Dog standing.
Horse racing.
Sun setting.
Sun rising.
Ocean with waves.
A big pond with clear water.
Blue lotus.
White lotus.
Pink lotus.
Golden spider web.
Sandy bank of a wide river.
Boat sailing on a water.
See the ripples.
Yourself lying down.
A golden cord expanding from your navel to the sky.
Chimney smoke rising from an old house.
A cold winter.
A fire burning in the house.
Dawn of day.
Temple bell ringing.
A yogi sitting in deep meditation.
Intensify your awareness.
Intensify your awareness and go to an infinite ocean.
Calm and quiet.
And try to discover a sound there.
There is a sound.
An infinite ocean.
Dark green jungles on the shore.
All the animals living in friendliness.
From the shore a path leads to a lonely cottage in the jungle.
And a yogi is sitting outside in lotus pose.
There is a fire and a smell of incense.
The fragrance of flowers.
An atmosphere of tranquility.
All around can be heard the sound of the waves.
All around can be heard the sounds of the waves of the infinite ocean.
Become a witness of your awareness.
Not the body.
Not the senses.
Not the mind.
Nothing but the different awareness.
Become aware that you are observing yourself.
Look within and try to be aware of the one who is looking.
Who is aware of what you have been doing so far.
Go into the dark space in the front of the eyes.
Go into the cave of the mind.
Within that cave there is a flaming light.
Find that light.
Find that light and find a small golden egg in the center of that light.
A small golden egg.
Very bright.
Very bright.
With light all around.
Now is the time to repeat your resolve.
Repeat the same resolve that you made at the beginning of the practice.
One and the same.
Do not change it.
Repeat the same resolve three times with full awareness and feeling.
Become aware of your breathing.
Become aware of your natural breathing.
Awareness of breathing and awareness of relaxation.
Develop awareness of your physical existence.
Become aware of your arms and legs and your body lying stretched out on the floor.
Become aware of the meeting points between your body and the floor.
Develop an awareness of the room,
The walls,
Ceiling,
Noises in the room,
Noises outside.
Take your mind out.
Become completely external.
Lie quietly for a few moments and keep your eyes closed.
Start moving your body and stretching yourself.
Please take your time.
Do not hurry.
When you are sure that you are wide awake,
Sit up slowly,
Open your eyes.
The practice of Yoga Nidra is now complete.
