Yoga Nidra For Writing & Creativity

This Yoga Nidra practice is for writers and creatives seeking to nurture the fallow parts of the creative process: the deep nourishment of rest. In Yoga Nidra we probe the space between wakefulness and sleep, a fertile space for creativity and ideation. Includes gentle background music to accompany your journey within.

Transcript

Hello and welcome to this Yoga Nidra for writing.

My name is Allie Middleton and today's practice is one for nurturing your creative process by embracing an outward non-doing and cultivating trust in your ability to rest.

In the practice of Yoga Nidra we journey into the space between wakefulness and sleep beyond conscious thought which is a potent space for watering the soil of the imagination.

You can practice this Nidra before a writing session as a midday reset or perhaps before going to sleep to water the garden of your subconscious.

Please take some moments to set up an inviting and comfortable space for you to drop in.

Whether that's with pillows or blankets or both it's up to you whether you'd prefer to lie on your back or on your side or on your stomach or even remain seated upright.

Whatever you choose make sure to bring the ground up to meet you maybe placing a pillow behind the head or underneath the knees allowing the spaces between the body and the earth to feel supported and held.

In a few moments you'll hear some music begin which is there to help deepen your journey within.

Locate your body in space here by way of its contact points with the earth.

Your hips,

Your feet and if you're lying down maybe the back of your head.

Map your awareness to these points and see if you can heavy them just a little more down into the earth noticing how the ground holds and supports you here.

Heavy your hands to palms up if you're seeking inspiration or energy and palms down if you are in search of a little more grounding today.

Map your way to the crown of your head and invite some length into your spine arranging the vertebra of your spine like words in the string of a sentence so making sure that there's spaces between them to breathe.

And as you do all this welcome a felt sense as you settle of non-doing into your physical body by way of noticing how the breath just naturally breathes you here and the heart beats itself here without you having to intervene consciously.

Notice the natural rhythm of your breath.

Lengthen the exhale just a little bit longer like you're pouring water into the soil that's holding you right here.

Any busy thoughts or noise inside the mind or in your surrounding environment just notice them without the need to attach to or follow or attribute meaning to them.

Trust that your thoughts and your words and your ideas will be there for you upon your return but for now let's stay with the poetry of your breath.

Take a long and deep inhale through the nose like you're welcoming air in through an open window all the way up to the attic of your mind dusting off the cobwebs and exhale long and deep perhaps making with your breath the sound of water descending and cleansing.

Call in your next breath here and maybe you lengthen your next exhale just one count longer and as you do so allow any concerns or thoughts about your writing your work anything that is in process anything that is resisting form or sense just let it all seep into the ground beneath you for this moment with each exhale like compost into soil leaving space for the possibility that it may in fact nurture the growth of something else with space and with time.

In writing down the bones Natalie Goldberg writes about the creative practice of composting.

She says we collect experience and from the decomposition of the thrown out eggshells,

Spinach leaves,

Coffee grinds,

And old steak bones of our minds come nitrogen heat and very fertile soil.

Out of this fertile soil bloom are poems and stories but this does not all come at once.

It takes time.

Continue to turn over and over the organic details of your life until some of them fall through the garbage of discursive thoughts to the solid ground of black soil.

Here where you are with the poetry of your breath allow yourself in the practice of yoga nidra to decompose to compost to trust in the mystery of this fertile soil and here the practice of yoga nidra begins.

We'll start with a rotation of consciousness taking a journey around the body together with the body skin.

You will hear me name spaces in the body and visit them with your felt awareness.

Maybe the welcoming in a light or a color to move with you or maybe perhaps just a felt sense of energy there.

Let's begin at the third eye center the space just above the brows the middle of the forehead.

To arrive here you can throw your brow and then relax your face.

This third eye is a space close to that of the mind the space so many of us associate with ideas and writing and language and knowledge but in esoteric practices the third eye is a space of pre-conscious deep inner knowing.

So we begin here with an open sense of curiosity.

Notice if there is a light or a color or what feeling likes to gather here maybe it is nameless.

Travel this light or color or awareness to the corner of your right eye and the corner of your left eye your top lip your bottom lip the very tip of your tongue your jaw relaxed and unclenched.

Travel now to the back of your neck nestled into the base of the skull just where the neck meets the head.

From here travel to your right ear your right shoulder your right elbow your right wrist your right thumb pointer finger middle finger fourth finger and little finger and now hold this light or color awareness in the entire right palm.

Allow it to travel up the whole right arm and travel upwards return to the base of your skull at the back of your neck.

From here shift with this light or color or awareness over to your left earlobe your left shoulder your left elbow your left wrist your left thumb second finger middle finger fourth finger little finger and the whole left palm of your hand.

Follow this light energy color upwards all the way to fill the whole left arm and then return to the back of the neck just at the base of your skull.

Travel down your spine to the space just behind your heart in the middle of your back between your shoulder blades.

Gather your light color energy here and follow it down further to the base of your spine your sacrum your tailbone your whole back body here alight.

Notice this light travel outwards to your right hip back of your right thigh your right knee your right shin your right calf your right ankle and the whole sole of your right foot your whole right leg shimmering with this light color awareness.

Travel back upward to your right hip and from here to the base of your spine your sacrum and now over to your left hip the back of your left thigh your left knee your left shin your left calf your left ankle and the whole sole of your left foot.

Now your entire left leg filled with light color awareness travel back to the top of the leg the left hip and back to the bottom of your spine your sacrum.

Travel from here all the way through to your navel center now up to your chest your heart and from here just allow this light color awareness to fill your entire torso pooling in the belly from the navel outward all filled with light color awareness.

Locate a space in your body that feels like a center or perhaps an anchor.

Maybe it's here at your navel or maybe it's here at your heart or maybe somewhere else.

Now locate somewhere that feels like a boundary or a periphery or an edge of your body.

Moving from the center outward notice how you are both of these at once center and periphery container and that which is contained within.

Find a space in your body that feels warm.

Linger here for a moment with your awareness the felt experience of warmth in your body.

Now find a place that feels cool linger here for a moment what is the felt experience of cool in your body.

Notice how your body can be both cool and warm.

Notice where in your body feels heavy and breathe into the felt sense of heaviness.

Now travel somewhere that feels light and breathe into the felt sense of lightness.

Invite now the felt sense of constriction.

How and where do you feel constriction in your body?

And now invite in the felt sense of release.

How and where do you feel relief in your body?

And now for a moment just acknowledge the existence of all of these at once.

The polarities of center periphery warm and cool heavy and light constriction and release and all the full spectrum in between them all here exist within you.

Allow yourself to move among these within you now flowing freely following your natural breath without changing or editing any part of it.

On your next deep inhale maybe you notice how the periphery of your ribcage expands and lifts and on the exhale how like a wave it recedes back upon itself expanding on the inhale at the top of the breath the crest of a wave and then exhale it draws back and pulls in towards your center.

Gently map your awareness to your fingertips and maybe invite a bit of motion to each finger.

These hands your gateway to the world especially to contact with pen and page.

Maybe you create a light fist hugging your palm and then opening gently the hand.

Map your awareness now to your feet which carry you so boldly through this world which has made all of it available to experience.

Notice the soles of your feet and maybe perhaps you wiggle each toe.

Perhaps you want to explore the spaciousness of your body by extending your arms overhead reaching through your fingertips and through your toes and then releasing the reaching,

Releasing the striving,

The searching.

On your next exhale just release and heavy your body here.

The practice of yoga nidra is now complete.

If you're on your back maybe you roll over to your side and gently make your way to a seat if you're not already there and bring your writing hand to your heart like it were a stethoscope that we're about to listen in on a conversation that was always already ongoing.

Bring your other hand to the space over your navel and listen in here perhaps to a different conversation that was always already ongoing.

Hold yourself here.

Notice all that you energetically released into the earth beneath you like a compost of ideas,

Challenges,

Questions,

Seeds,

Anything you seek to bring forth into the world through your words.

You the only one who could write them and may this practice be like water nurturing your art and your imagination and your voice by way of your body acknowledging everything you already are always creating in your body and how rest,

Non-doing,

And awareness are just as important as all the rest of it.

Take a deep deep breath in and exhale and let it go.

Thank you for your practice today.

May your words be real and true and know that this practice is here for you to return to whenever you need to anchor deep within.

Reviews

I have been searching for This and aujourd'hui I have received. Exquisite Practice. Skilfuly and elegantly executed. I received aethetic pleasure and satisfaction from your choice of words, your beautifully poetic and creative associations, your effective ability to facilitate the challenging (for me) transition from the busy doing and thinking to another realm. Even the background music resonated with me. The immersion into non-doing was healing, restorative and much needed today. You managed to create the space for deep relaxation and alertness at the same time, to unite and reconcile the opposing phenomena and tie it all to the prospect of a creative process. My amygdala is pacified, the prefrontal cortex rejuvenated, body rested and the spirit lifted. Last but important, the motivation to write is restored.
Much gratitude. Namaste. I shall revisit.

Great audio, traumainformed and gentle guiding. Thanks so much for sharing!

Wonderful practice, thank you

A very beautiful and deep practice to precede writing. Thank you!🙏

Added: I just love this practice! Have returned to it.💕

Very helpful!

A Soothing, calming and centering session that allowed space for creativity. Thank you 😊

Great sound quality. Soothing and relaxing. I don't know if it will help my writing yet, but I'll keep doing it.

Will be coming back to this one!

Thank you for this lovely practice. It was such a nourishing way to begin my day. Your queueing and guidance for opposites was extraordinary. 💖