Welcome to this practice of Yoga Nidra.
It is time to take care of yourself.
So allowing yourself to settle into a comfortable position.
That might be lying on your back or in any position that your body can be completely at ease.
Feel free to support yourself with blankets and cushions.
Letting your whole body know that this is important time.
This is your time of rest.
Throughout this practice,
You're invited to follow my voice.
And you're welcome at any point to follow your breath and then to come back to my voice when ready.
And if you fall asleep,
Then that is what you needed today.
So take a moment to acknowledge that there's nowhere else you need to be.
Nothing to fix.
Nothing to become.
Only this gentle invitation to rest.
And to open to whatever is here.
So when you're ready you can softly close the eyes if that feels comfortable.
Or soften your gaze.
Feeling the support beneath you.
And the ground holding you completely.
You might open and close the hands a few times.
Squeezing the fists and letting go.
And then just let the hands soften.
And release.
And if you like now you can place one hand on your heart and one on the belly resting here.
Noticing the natural rhythm of your breathing.
Feeling each breath.
And with each out breath maybe sensing the body softening just a little more.
And now take in these words by Julia Verenbacher.
Open.
Open every cracked and lonely window.
Every false and frightened door.
Open clenched hand,
Closed mind.
Let the tight,
The tense,
The tangled,
The untrue sift,
Sift slowly through.
Open like heron opens as she returns to wind.
At the bashedly unfurling,
Stretching,
Lifting,
Lifting her sunshine wings.
Open.
Open to every weary traveller.
To those who have lost their way.
Even when you disagree.
Even when they are unkind,
Unpopular,
Unlikable.
Invite them to tea.
Listen.
Listen like you've never listened before.
Marvel at how alike you are.
At how sweet the honey.
Unclench,
Unfold,
Unfurl,
And decide.
Pour it all out.
Take it all off.
Open like ground,
Like page opens to receive fallen leaf,
Fallen words,
Like breath opens to make space,
To make space for more.
Open 10,
000 times a day.
Rest and re-fill when you need to.
Then open.
Open.
Some more.
Bringing awareness now to the places in the body that might be holding tension.
Allowing the whole body to settle.
You can keep your hands where they are or let them fall to the sides or place them in any position that feels comfortable for you.
Now take a slow gentle breath into the nose.
And exhale with a soft sigh through the mouth.
Again when you are ready a slow breath in and a longer breath out.
Noticing the weight of the whole body resting.
The head,
Shoulders,
Spine,
Hips,
Legs,
Heels,
All supported.
Like you are being carried.
Take time now to bring an intention for your life into your awareness.
What speaks to your deepest truth.
Inviting your whole body to feel it as true,
Repeating it to yourself three times.
Inviting the intention into your being.
And if nothing comes to you today,
You might use the intention,
I open to life.
Or simply the intention open.
The portal to rest is now open.
We will move awareness through the body.
Letting your attention move to wherever I name the body part.
And as you touch in on each body part.
Sensing the body and clenching in its own time.
I'm clenching not because it has to,
But because for now.
It's safe.
To soften.
To open.
Beginning now at the crown of your head.
Opening to the crown of the head.
Opening into the forehead.
Into the space between the eyebrows.
Both eyes.
Both cheeks.
Mouth.
Tongue.
Choo!
Softly opening to the throat.
Right shoulder down the right arm to the right elbow.
Right elbow to the right wrist right hand.
Right thumb.
Index finger middle finger.
Ring finger little finger.
And now opening awareness to the left shoulder.
Upper arm.
Left elbow.
Left wrist Left hand.
Left thumb.
Index finger.
Middle finger.
Ring finger baby finger.
Now opening to the heart center chaste ribcage.
Daily.
Right hip.
Right thigh.
Right knee.
Right ankle.
Right foot.
Right big toe second toe.
Third toe fourth toe.
Little top.
Opening awareness now to the left hip.
Left thigh.
Knee left ankle.
Left foot left big toe,
Second toe.
Third toe.
Fourth time.
Little top.
Feeling now the whole body.
The whole body.
Opening to the whole body Notice the sensations in the body.
Fingers and curling.
Daily softening.
Heart opening gently.
No.
Begin to notice the breath.
Opening to the space of the in-breath.
Opening to the space on the out-breath.
Feeling each breath.
In its natural rhythm.
Feeling the rise and fall.
Of Bailey and Chaste.
And now beginning to count your breath backwards from 11 to 1.
With each breath the body settles into stillness.
Inhaling 11 Excel 11.
Inhale 10.
The Excel team.
Inhale 9 and exhale 9.
Continuing in your own time.
All the way down to 1.
If you lose track at any point,
You start again from 11.
The body opening in its own way,
In its own time,
With each breath.
And now rest in the quiet.
Noticing the sensations in the body.
And now with each out-breath Feeling as if something heavy is slowly moving through you.
Noticing tension.
Holding.
Contracting.
If it.
Closed.
Noticing how does that feel in your body.
And now begin to notice space and openness inside the body.
Maybe a sense of aliveness beneath the skin.
The movement of breath in the chest.
Feeling the space in the body.
What does open feel like now in your body.
Opening.
And now moving back and forwards between closed and open,
Closed and open.
Moving back and forth in your own rhythm.
And now allow the opposites to dissolve and rest in spacious awareness.
Resting here.
And now imagine yourself near still water at dawn or at dusk.
Everything is quiet.
And spacious.
A soft breeze moving across the surface of the water.
And nearby stands a beautiful heron.
A majestic bird.
Still.
Patient.
Elegant And slowly,
Slowly.
The hair and begins to open to flight.
Wings unfurling effortlessly stretching wide meeting the wind.
Feeling the sunshine on her wings.
Stretching and lifting in the vast sky,
Opening to life and all that is around her.
Free to open and close her wings.
Feel her strength and the space around her.
Opening to the vast blue skies.
Sensing now this opening within yourself.
A remembering of your own spaciousness.
Responding to life naturally.
As wings respond to wind.
What might it be like to trust openness?
And now bringing awareness to the heart space.
Simply resting in awareness of the heart meeting yourself just as you are.
And from the space of the heart opening to your intention once again,
Repeating it to yourself quietly,
Sending it to your own heart.
And now let go of everything,
Letting go of the words Letting go of imagination,
Simply resting here,
Aware of the body breathing.
Aware of the quiet spaces between sounds.
Aware of awareness itself like open ground receiving fallen leaves resting here.
And as this practice begins to come to an end.
Notice the feeling of the body,
The texture of clothing.
The support of the ground beneath you.
Knowing that you can rest and refill whenever you need to and then open,
Open some more.
Respecting your capacity to open and close.
And to open again and again.
You might like to deepen the breath.
Bring some small movements to the fingers and the toes.
Stretching the body in whatever way works for you.
And when you are ready you can slowly allow the eyes to open.
Or continue resting.
Carrying this intention of openness.
With you into the rest of your day or night.
The Yoga Nidra is now complete.
