You Are Worthy Of Rest Yoga Nidra

We all deserve to rest. We are all worthy of it. Use this track to remind you that you are worth it and give yourself the gift of deep rest. In this yoga nidra we move through the body with care and awareness, opening to feeling our energy body. As always, yoga nidra offers us a journey into our bodies and minds that is always unique and nourishing. This Yoga nidra is based on the Daring to Rest teaching by Karen Brody.

Transcript

Every time we take time to rest in the practice of Yoga Nidra,

We learn more and more how to become our truest selves and how to meet ourselves with care and gentleness.

So welcome to this Yoga Nidra,

Holding an intention for warmth,

Self-love and self-care.

Let the body settle comfortably,

Find a position where you feel you can enjoy stillness,

Lying down perhaps with a pillow under your head or under your knees.

Find a position that is right for you and make any adjustments you need to settle into this time of rest,

This time for you.

Body comfortable and at ease,

It's time to be kind to yourself and give yourself space to rest.

If you have a touchstone,

You can hold it in your left hand and when you're ready,

If you'd like,

You can place it on any part of the body that needs care or you can place it anywhere off your body,

Maybe close to you.

Then inviting a long deep breath in and as you exhale,

Feel the surface of the ground holding you.

And if your mind feels busy and full today,

Imagine you can just send the thoughts down to the earth with each out-breath,

Letting everything be just as it is without any commentary.

In this Yoga Nidra,

You're welcome to follow my voice and instructions and at any point you're welcome to just come back to the breath or the touchstone.

And if you find yourself falling asleep,

You can also come back to my voice or just give yourself space to sleep.

There is nothing you can do wrong.

So begin now to notice all the sounds around you,

The sounds in this room,

The sounds beyond the room.

And now we'll read you some words about rest by the writer Tricia Hershey.

I wish you rest today.

I wish you a deep knowing that exhaustion is not a normal way of living.

You are enough.

You can rest.

You must resist anything that doesn't center your divinity as a human being.

You are worthy of care.

I wish you rest today.

I wish you a deep knowing that exhaustion is not a normal way of living.

You are enough.

You can rest.

You must resist anything that doesn't center your divinity as a human being.

You are worthy of care.

Rest today.

And now begin to take some time just to feel the body lying here,

Breathing.

And taking some time to bring an intention to your mind and heart.

Imagining the intention as if it's happening right now.

Now,

Sense it and repeat the intention to yourself silently three times.

And if there's no intention,

You might use the phrase today,

I am worthy of care.

And as we move through the body now,

You might like to repeat the name of the body part or So just breathe care into the part of the body.

If it works for you,

You're also welcome to breathe a color that sends care or love into that area.

Your body has about 30 trillion cells performing miracles for you every day.

So you might feel this as you sense each part of the body.

Breathing now into the tips of the right toes.

And now breathing the tips of the left toes.

And now breathing and sensing the tips of all your toes.

Now breathing the right foot.

Breathing the left foot.

Breathing both feet now.

As you exhale,

Breathing the whole of the right leg.

And now the whole of the left leg.

And now feeling both legs together.

Attention now to the hips.

Feeling the right hip.

Feeling the left hip.

And now breathing with both hips.

Bringing awareness now into the pelvic basin as you begin to breathe with this area.

And now breathing in and out of the navel area,

Sensing the navel point,

The center.

And now bringing attention to the middle of the chest.

Breathing here in the middle of the chest.

And now sensing the breathing at the throat.

And when it feels right,

Bringing this breathing awareness to the tips of the right fingers.

Letting the breathing awareness move to the tips of the left fingers.

And now the tips of all the fingers together.

Now feeling and breathing into the whole of the right hand.

On an out-breath,

Breathing into the whole of the left hand.

And now breathing both hands together.

As you breathe now,

Attention moves to the right arm.

Breathing the right arm.

Inviting this breathing awareness now into the left arm.

And now attention and breath in both arms together.

More and more attention here.

Breathing now into the left shoulder.

Now attention to the right shoulder.

Now breathing both shoulders together.

Moving attention now to the neck.

Breathing with the space of the neck.

Now breathing with the right side of the face.

As you exhale,

Breathing the left side of the face.

Inviting breath now into the whole of the face.

Sensing and breathing now into the space between the eyebrows.

Breathing now into the crown of the head.

And now breathing with the whole body.

Awareness of the sensations in the whole body.

You can allow the breath to breathe itself.

If you want you can place both hands on your belly.

And just breathe here.

If you want you can place both hands on your heart.

Focusing your attention on the heart.

And you can keep the hands here or place the hands by the sides of the body.

As you begin to welcome each cycle of the breath.

Now let's breathe through the left side of the body.

Breathing through the left side of the body.

And breathing through the right side of the body.

The right side of the body.

And now breathing up and down the front of the body.

The front of the body.

And on your next in-breath breathing through the back of the body.

Just breathing up and down the back of the body.

Just noticing the breath without any effort or pressure.

Breathing now again through the whole body.

The whole body is breathed.

And you can bring your attention to the brow point as you let the body settle more and more into stillness.

And now feel the whole body heavy.

Feeling gravity,

Feeling weight,

The whole body heavy.

Now feel the body light,

Lighter and lighter with each breath.

And now feeling all that you are holding both heavy and light.

Heavy and light.

And now be still aware of the subtle sensations in the body and the space between the eyebrows.

And now see yourself walking along the banks of a river.

As you walk along the river you notice the beauty of the water flowing and clear.

You pause and gaze into the water and here you notice multicolored fish dancing in and around each other.

A beautiful dance of joy and freedom.

They are just being themselves free in the water.

You see your own image in the water as you watch them and you smile.

Lying down by the banks of the river under a canopy of trees.

Listening to the sound of the water flowing.

And feeling the flow of air all around you.

Feeling the sacredness of this place in your body.

The life that pulses in this place is sacred and creative.

And you feel the same sacred,

Creative life force in your body.

And you take some time just to feel the energy flow with you and around you freely.

Listening to the sounds around you.

You hear the sound of the wind and the whispers in the air from the trees around you.

Whispering you are worthy of care.

Just resting in this space.

And now when you are ready bringing your attention back to your body here and now.

Bringing your intention back into the space.

Feeling it from the heart rippling into every part of your body.

You can repeat your intention to yourself three times.

And if there is no intention you might use the words again,

I am worthy of care.

And now if you like bringing in your allies,

Your mentors,

Your guides living or real or imagined surrounding you.

Take time just to witness with curiosity who arrives in this space.

Feeling held and protected.

As you lie here you might want to let the out breath carry you into the space of the heart.

Listening to what the heart has to say.

Let yourself be open to receiving words or images.

Or simply to rest in the space of the heart and to feel its welcoming warmth.

And your yoga nidra is now complete.

If you want to continue to rest further just give yourself the time and space to do so.

Thanking yourself for taking this sacred time.

And if you are ready to become more awake you might want to tap or rub the hands.

You might want to rub the fingers and the thumbs together.

Stretching the body in whatever way that you need.

Reminding yourself that you are worthy of care.

Your yoga nidra is now complete.

Reviews

I loved this nidra. It was deeply restful and just what I needed.