In Delight Of Water Nidra: Winter's Element

Relax deeply with this playful Nidra in praise of water, winter's element. Immerse yourself, bathe your senses in this fluid flow, and emerge cleansed, well-rested, and calm. In Winter, we go inwards to listen to our deep knowing. A time for stillness, water, the element of death and birth, creativity, and inner wisdom. Daily Nidra or meditation is key for neurological, physiological, and mental health, balancing the yang of everyday stress with the yin of rich and rewarding rest.

Transcript

So welcome, Welcome to this lovely practice of deep relaxation. Welcome to this practice of homecoming and arrival. And let us bless the grace of water, The fluency and the fluidity and the softness. I was out walking and playing with my daughters and the Cathkin braes and the moorland there is ribbed with wee burns, Wee streams. And I stopped and listened to the splash and splosh and rippling and gurgling of the beautiful little stream as it bounced and flowed merrily, Little bubbles twinkling at each tiny little waterfall. And it's as if it was a raging river and we were giants looking in. And Florence had her wellies on and so she popped her foot in and was splashing, Splashing in the waterfall and splashing as she walked upstream. And there's something deeply magical about that. Something about just going with the flow when we need to but at the same time not being afraid to put on our wellies and create a big noise and a rumpus and walk upstream because we need to. And so in this wonderful practice of yoga nidra, Let's invite the playfulness and fluidity of the water element to lace and swirl our hair as if we were each mermaids and merman just luxuriating in the beautiful ocean wide and deep or river nymphs or something else entirely a water god or goddess. And so bringing to mind and to almost to the sense of taste but definitely to the sense of hearing the sound of water. It could be the sound that it makes when you turn on the tap just a little or the sound of a fountain in a garden or the sound of a rivulet or we burn or the sound of a deep slow river almost so thick and slow that the water laps very slowly at its edges. Or the softness of rain on the cheeks or the chilliness of ice. In praise of water let us bless the grace of water its ability to be soft and yet hard warm and freezing the element of arrival and the element of departure. And so bringing to mind the fluidity the fluency the playfulness of this very stuff that delights the senses water and allowing that to flow around the body adaptability softness deep wisdom carrying all of the minerals mined from autumn carrying all of that connection with what truly is of precious and lasting value to our ability to go inwards and listen deeply and so with that deep listening welcoming in ourselves into this very moment letting that fluency and fluidity or warmth or creativity or abundance or softness whatever quality appeals to you most and delights you most inviting that to flow easily carefree around your very body around your very bones as if from the midst we can emerge like a freshly peeled venus peeled from the skin of the sea dripping and ready to face the rest of our lives with inspiration connectedness and love. And so bringing the awareness to the eyebrow center and imagining a little droplet of water like a jewel or a warm anointing of warm water or whatever feels like the way that water could wrap itself around you and restore you and heal you. And then taking that to the soft space in between the collarbones and allowing that to flow out into both shoulders fluency and fluidity adaptability of water in and around the left shoulder and the right flowing down each of the arms into the elbows maybe little tiny miniature pools in the crook of each elbow and flowing down the forearms into the wrists and then pooling in the palms of each hand left hand and right hand. That wasn't enough flowing along to the very tips of each of your thumbs your index fingers your middle fingers your ring fingers and your little fingers. Crest and robed with just that wonderful playful animal water bringing the awareness to the points in the wrists elbows shoulders back to that little pool in between the collarbones a soft space in the pit of the throat and just one tiny droplet manages to free itself and starts to run down the chest into the very centre of the chest more beautiful healing water pooling there and spreading to the left side of the whole of the chest and then to the right side as if bit by bit we're being immersed into a healing pool that feels safe taking awareness from the heart and the whole of the chest down the body to the navel little droplet of water escaping and flowing down the centre into your tummy button and again that's as if it's a a lake in miniature and then from there a little drip trickling all the way down into the very depths into the very centre of your pelvis behind the pubic bone as if we've gone from something physical into something energetic and yet surely that's as close to seeing and feeling energy in the physical realm as we can get playfulness of water in the centre of the pelvis and then spreading out into the hips the left and the right hip and then from there pooling through the whole of the pelvis and starting to build and flow down each of the legs the left knee and the right knee water trickling or flowing or flooding all the way down into the left ankle and the right ankle drenching both feet top of the foot sole of the foot and just becoming aware from the ankles now into the tips of the very toes and yet in your mind's eye you may like to imagine that at the same time as the legs just being as they are they could also be the soles of the feet together with the knees bent so there's a little pool there a little cup that you've made with the sole of each foot against the other and that is filled with this wonderful amniotic fluid of creativity of life of endings of death of just arriving of presence of joy the whole body anointed the whole body immersed the whole body in something freezing whatever it is that delights you most brings a smile spreading its wings across your face the wings of a smile and so taking the awareness into each of the toes big toes second toes third toes fourth toes fifth toes as if the whole of you has freshly been born and you are fresh bring the awareness to the ankles to the knees to the hips to the centre of the pelvis and then flowing the sift time is starting to go and flow in reverse that water droplet coming from the hips to the centre of the pelvis traveling back up to the navel that little pool at the navel starting to reduce and shrink until it's just one droplet then flows in reverse up onto the heart space in the centre of the chest and all of the beautiful elixir over the chest starts to grow smaller and smaller and smaller until it's just a little drop like a dew drop that travels sparkling like a diamond back up to the soft space in between the collar bones that soft pool in the pit of the throat that then grows smaller and smaller and smaller until it's just a tiny diamond drop of life giving water that then flows from there effortlessly and magically to the eyebrow centre and there it stays and you may like to imagine this dew drop as a beautiful perfect circle half sphere of water or in the shape of a teardrop or something more precious and lasting like a diamond imagining the whole body all of these different points each with its own dew drop of a diamond the diamond is ice the ice is cold and yet there's a fire there a little warm spot at each of these points tinkling and twinkling as if could each could sound like a little bell the whole body adorned celebrated the whole body something so miraculous and so precious this is the very least we could do taking the awareness up and down the spine with the breath becoming aware of each and every breath like the bellows gently flowing on the embers of the heart and the belly and yet the breath is so soft and so easy it's almost like water flowing into the land of the body finding its way through all of the little channels streams riverbeds on the inhale and on the exhale just softly flowing all the way out again where in the body do you feel the fluidity of water the softness there in the body is still a little hard a little stuck and can we in these moments invite that soft fluidity to flow into those hard and stuck places with a kindness and a deep love the kind of kindness you get from an old friend or a parent someone that you hold dear that truly values you just as you are and in these closing moments of our practice if there's anything from the practice that you would like to take with you you are more than welcome and if in the coming days the going is going to be a little slow you may wish to offer your future self which incidentally could be your present self calm nourished with more than enough resources to manage any situation like the most beautiful swan gliding serenely across the surface of a lake then now is a time that you can offer that future self support and succor and help and nurturing it could be with an affirmation for yourself or it could be with something else that feels just as powerful recording a time in the past that you felt love recording a time in the past that you felt love and that you were capable of absolutely anything and with that feeling filling your toes filling your fingers filling your eyelashes the crown of your head the whole of your spine all of your legs your arms your nose starting to bring small and tiny and delicious movements back into the body we'll be moving through the hands maybe placing the hands over the eyes to steadily negotiate letting the light back in so deepening and lengthening the breath lengthening the body into a deliciously long stretch and then hugging the knees and making yourself deliciously small like a little nut rocking from side to side and if you're in any other position and this guidance is not you know relevant then that is okay too so eventually making your way onto a comfy side this practice of yoga nidra is now over this practice is now complete thank you very much for listening