Yoga Nidra: Embracing Privacy
Yoga Nidra to address your emotional need for Privacy as you enter the dreamtime of the Winter Solstice. A time to consolidate and reflect. It is a time to go on an inward journey and connect with your inner being. A nonsleep deep rest practice to bring emotional balance at the time of the darkness of midwinter. A time to embrace the darkness with the light of awareness.
Transcript
Welcome to this yoga nidra practice on privacy and entering the dreamtime with the winter solstice.
My name is Anne-Marie and I will be your guide today.
As your guide,
Let my voice gently become your voice as you drift into the depths of your inner landscape,
Into your sacred heart space and the fire of your heart bringing light to the darkness of the midwinter.
Great mystery,
Teach me how to trust my heart,
My mind,
My intuition,
My inner knowing,
The senses of my body,
The blessings of my spirit.
Teach me to trust these things so that I may enter my sacred space and love beyond my fear and thus walk in balance with the passing of each glorious sun.
Lakota prayer.
According to certain traditions,
The sacred space is the space between exhalation and inhalation.
To walk in balance is to have heaven,
Spirituality and earth,
Physicality in harmony.
You can bring this walk of balance into your being with your breath.
I'm bringing harmony to heaven,
Spirituality and earth,
Physicality and connect with the sacred space,
The inhale and exhale.
At the core of this timeless wisdom is the word trust.
When did we stop trusting ourselves?
When did we start giving that trust,
That power away?
Can you trust yourself to rest now,
To surrender to the deep wisdom of the dream time that the winter solstice offers you?
As you make yourself comfortable in your sacred space,
Wherever that may be for you,
Lying your body down,
Ensuring you have everything you need to go on an inward journey to the place within that holds all the wisdom of your heart and soul,
Connecting with the surface beneath you as you sink further,
Becoming aware of the space around you as you drop deeper,
Allowing all sounds drift away and bringing your attention to the sound of your breath,
Your sacred breath and the sacred space between the inhalation and the exhalation,
The connection to heaven and earth,
Spirituality and physicality.
The practice of Yoga Nidra now begins as you set your Sankalpa,
Your intention for your practice,
Your truth vow,
The timeless wisdom that you can trust to bring your power back.
If you are working with a Sankalpa,
You can continue to use that one or if you would like one specifically for this practice,
You could use,
I am open to the wisdom within.
Feel your Sankalpa with all your heart,
Trusting that the power of your Sankalpa will become your truth in the future and then when you are ready,
Speak your Sankalpa three times and then allow the breeze of the wind from the north,
The winter,
The darkness,
Where your ancestors dwell,
Blow it into the ether to be entrusted by your ancestors,
Your wise elders.
It is said that the veil is thin at the time of the winter solstice and we can feel our ancestors breath if we listen closely.
Connect now with the breath of your ancestors as the air you breathe has been breathed many times before.
We live off the breath of our ancestors through our bodies breathing and connecting deeply with the land of our ancestors.
You may like to invite one of your ancestors to journey with you in this Dreamtime Yoga Nidra.
They can become a guide for your practice along with my voice.
Now take a long deep breath in through your nose and a long deep cleansing breath out through your mouth,
Releasing all the stuckness that has built up throughout your day.
Take a couple more cleansing breaths like that.
Imagining everything that no longer serves you is being released with each cleansing out breath.
Blowing the old ways,
The limiting beliefs,
The old patterns,
Everything into the north wind where your ancestors will transform them and use them to create new beliefs,
New ways and new patterns.
Continue with this breathing practice in through your nose and out through your mouth as I guide you through a rotation of consciousness.
As I mention a body part you may like to imagine the light from your heart connecting with that body part and send your love and light there.
The color you could imagine lighting up the body part is the glow of a fire on a dark night bringing warmth to each body part.
Begin on the right side of your body,
Bring awareness to your right thumb,
Index finger,
Middle finger,
Ring finger,
Little finger,
Palm of your hand,
Back of your hand,
Wrist,
Forearm,
Elbow,
Upper arm,
Shoulder,
Underarm,
Right side of your rib cage and low,
Waistline,
Thigh,
Knee,
Lower leg,
Ankle,
Top of the right foot,
Sole of the right foot,
Big toe,
Second toe,
Third toe,
Fourth toe and little toe.
Hold the entire right side of your body in your awareness,
Your whole right side.
Fill your right side with your awareness now,
Then move your awareness to your left hand,
Your left thumb,
Index finger,
Middle finger,
Ring finger,
Little finger,
Palm of your hand,
Back of your hand,
Wrist,
Forearm,
Elbow,
Upper arm,
Shoulder,
Underarm,
Left side of the rib cage and low,
Waistline,
Thigh,
Kneecap,
Shin,
Ankle,
Top of the left foot,
Sole of the left foot,
Big toe,
Second toe,
Third toe,
Fourth toe and little toe.
Wash the entire left side of your body with your awareness,
The whole left side.
Feel the entire left side of your body now.
Now to explore the back of your body,
Moving from right to left fairly quickly.
Feel the sole of your right foot,
The sole of your left foot,
The soles of both of your feet together,
The back of your right heel,
The back of your left heel,
Both heels together,
The right calf,
The left calf,
Both calves together,
The back of your right knee,
The back of your left knee,
The backs of both knees simultaneously,
Right hamstrings,
Left hamstrings,
Both sets of hamstrings together,
Right buttocks,
Left buttocks,
Both sides of your buttocks,
Back of your pelvis,
Lower back,
Middle back,
Upper back.
Feel your right shoulder blade,
Your left shoulder blade,
Both shoulder blades together,
Your right arm,
Your left arm,
Both arms together,
Back of your neck,
The back of your head,
The crown of your head,
Feel your entire back body.
Now to the crown of your head,
Forehead,
Your right eyebrow,
Your left eyebrow,
Both brows together,
Your brow centre,
Your right eyelid,
Your left eyelid,
Both eyelids together,
Your right eyeball,
Your left eyeball,
Both eyes together,
Your right nostril,
Your left nostril,
Both nostrils together,
Bridge of your nose,
Tip of your nose,
Your whole entire nose,
Feel your upper lip,
Your lower lip,
Both lips together.
Feel your chin,
Feel the right side of your jaw,
The left side of your jaw and feel both sides of your jaw together.
Then feel your whole face,
Feel the right side of your head,
The left side of your head.
Now feel both sides of your head together.
Feel the right side of your throat,
The left side of your throat and feel your whole neck and throat together.
Feel your right collarbone,
Your left collarbone and both collarbones together,
The right side of your chest,
The left side of your chest,
Both sides of your chest together,
Your whole chest all together.
Feel the area of your abdomen from your ribs to your belly button,
Your low belly,
Pelvis,
Root of your pelvic floor,
Both thighs,
Both kneecaps,
Both shins,
Both ankles,
Tops of both of your feet.
Feel your right leg from your toes to your hip,
Feel your left leg from your toes to your hip,
Feel the entirety of both of your legs together.
Feel your right arm from your fingertips to your shoulder,
Your left arm from fingertips to shoulder.
Now feel both arms together.
Keep your arms and your legs in your awareness and add your entire torso and your head to your feeling experience now.
Feel and sense your entire body,
Your whole body.
Feel your whole body together simultaneously right now.
Whole body awareness.
Now bring your awareness back to your heart centre,
The cauldron of your heart centre and the glow of the embers of fire illuminating and warming your heart centre.
Holding your heart centre in your awareness,
Remember a time of busyness now and how that makes you feel.
Perhaps this busyness was today,
The going,
The doing and then the stopping and remembering a time of rest,
The being,
The allowing,
The present.
Then holding both in your awareness,
The busyness,
The going,
The doing,
The stopping,
The rest,
The being,
The allowing.
Being present to it all,
Bringing a balance to it all as you balance being with doing and hold both deep in your heart centre and the warmth of your fire burning brightly.
Now bring a time of laughter and fun into your awareness.
The last time you had a really good belly laugh where your belly ached with the laughter,
Remember how good that felt.
Now let that feeling go and bring a time of crying and sadness to your awareness where your heart ached with pain and sadness and the tears just would not stop.
Now bring the remembrance of laughter to your awareness,
Then bring both together,
Holding both laughter and tears in your heart,
The tears of laughter and joy rather than pain and sorrow.
Then hold both in your heart,
Bringing a balance to both and knowing you need all of it to be a balanced human being,
Busyness,
Doing,
Going,
Rest,
Stopping,
Being.
Laughter,
Tears,
Joy,
Pain,
All the beauty of each experience making you the unique human being you are.
You are an ancestor in training as you breathe the air of your ancestors and feel the breath of wisdom entering your presence.
We will enter a journey of remembering now as you connect back to your heart centre and the cauldron of fire that keeps on burning brighter with each breath you take,
Inhaling the sacred space,
Exhaling the sacred space.
As you enter the fire and become one with the fire,
You find yourself in a cave with the fire in the centre.
As you approach the fire,
You see there is a wolf lying asleep by the fire,
Snoring gently.
You are not afraid,
You are comforted by her presence,
As nestled into her belly are her cubs,
Also sleeping soundly.
You nestle down on the back of the she-wolf and fall into a deep slumber,
Feeling the softness of the fur envelop your body,
The heartbeats of the cubs lulling you to sleep,
The feel of their breath on your face.
It feels calm,
It feels safe and it feels warm.
As you awaken from your slumber,
You find yourself on the back of the wolf,
Riding through the forest,
The cubs following you.
The moon is bright,
It is full and shining,
Her gentle glow down through the trees into the forest and lighting it up.
The animals of the night are out,
Foxes,
Stones,
Badgers,
Rabbits,
Hares,
Owls,
Wild cats,
All the animals you can imagine.
The wolf stops and lets you down.
As you continue your journey on foot,
As you take your leave from the wolf and her cubs,
The trees sparkle,
The magic of the fairies lighting up the leaves as they land and flitter and flutter around.
It is the most magical night in the forest.
A large owl swoops down and gathers you in his wings and flies you high up into the forest to the top of the trees where you can see the whole forest around you lit up by moonlight and fairy dust.
Connecting with heaven above where the moon shines brightly and earth below where the animals wander.
The owl is a wise owl,
As he holds you in his wings he whispers his wisdom to you.
It is like the fire in your heart has spoken and now you know exactly what you need to do to follow in the footsteps of your ancestors and continue the path they started.
If you have brought an ancestor with you,
They will continue to be your guide from here on in.
If you came alone,
The wise owl will continue to be your guide.
The bones of your body hold the wisdom.
The fire in your heart holds the wisdom.
The wisdom is within you and all around you,
Ready and waiting for you to connect to.
The wisdom of the dreamtime has spoken.
The owl gently glides back down to the ground and places you back safely in the forest where you find the wolf and her cubs again and they bring you back to their cave.
Once in the cave and cosy by the fire,
You close your eyes again and come back into your body,
Back into the space where you find yourself lying and here you stay in the stillness and the sacred space of the inhalation and exhalation.
For a few minutes of silence.
As you gently awaken from your slumber,
Your sankalpa emerges on the breath of your ancestors and the wind of the north,
The winter,
The dreamtime for you to repeat three times now.
And you offer it to your ancestors to protect it for you and transform it into reality at exactly the right time.
The practice of Yoga Nidra is now complete.
Slowly connecting back to your body lying in the room,
The space around you,
The sound of your breath,
The feel of your breath in your body,
Your body breathing as you gently bring some movement back into your body.
Wriggling your fingers,
Your toes,
Moving your head from side to side,
Stretching your legs,
Your arms over your head.
Whatever feels right for you,
Be gentle with yourself as you awaken.
Your body is a temple to be nurtured and minded and treated with tenderness.
Allow your body curl over to one side if that feels good for you and lie there for a few breaths.
Then slowly bring your body back up to sitting.
And only when you are sitting,
Open your eyes slowly and come back in to the room.
Thank you for your presence today and choosing to practice with me.
You are a divine being and you are deeply loved for who you are.
You deserve to take all the time you need to rest and nurture your divine being.
So go gently,
Beautiful self.
Hari Om Tat Sat.
Namaste.
