In this wonderful space of welcoming yourself into a space of comfort,
Feeling supported,
Just inviting the whole of the body to sink down into your supports,
Cushions.
The mat is inviting the weight of your body to arrive,
To settle,
To make yourself at home.
All of the doing of the weekend,
Just let that go.
All of the doing of the morning,
Just lay that gently to one side and arrive.
With a kind curiosity,
Just chilling in,
Noticing the pattern of sensation and pressure through the different parts of your body.
Just checking in,
No judgement,
Just welcoming everything.
Welcoming yourself into this moment.
Feeling the awareness to the soft flow of the breath all the way in and all the way out.
The soothing flow of the easy breath all the way in,
All the way out.
Coming into all of the different soothing sounds inside the room,
Outside the room,
Outside the building.
And then steadily come back home,
Drawing back in,
Back into this building,
Back into this room,
Back into yourself.
And you may become aware of very small sounds,
The sound of your breath.
And the simple practice of Nidra,
Of relaxation and sleep for winter.
Very simple and pared down practice,
As bare as the branches of the trees outside and the light grey of the sky.
We can rest easy knowing that there is nothing to do.
And we're going to share and invite that sense of doing absolutely nothing around the whole body.
Relaxing with the eyebrow centre.
Relaxing the eyebrow centre,
Almost imagining it gently spreading so that waves of relaxation can flow into the eyes,
Into the cheeks,
Into the face.
Bringing the awareness down to in between the two collar bones.
No need to say anything.
All our needs are met.
Taking the awareness into both of the shoulders,
The left shoulder and the right shoulder.
It's like ah,
The weight of responsibility.
We can simply lay aside.
Taking the awareness down into the arms,
The left elbow and the right elbow,
The left wrist and the right wrist.
Into the palms of each hand and allowing,
There's nothing to do.
Allowing that to flow down into the thumbs and the fingers.
Sense of stillness,
Leaning into stillness,
Snuggling down into stillness.
Taking the awareness back up to the wrists,
The elbows,
The shoulders,
Back into in between the two collar bones.
And then coming down the chest to the centre of the chest,
To the heart.
And again,
Feeling reassured.
Staying in that warmth,
The love in the heart.
Just like a little cosy fire,
Glowing embers.
And taking that sense of stillness into the left side and the right side of the chest.
All of the heart and the chest and the solar plexus,
Feeling relaxed,
Reassured.
All is taken care of.
All of you is taken care of and cared for.
Taking the awareness back into the glowing embers of the heart and down the body again to the navel.
So that the whole of the belly feels relaxed and soft.
There's absolutely nothing to do.
Everything is taken care of.
And when the time is right,
You'll know exactly what to do in the right way.
And then coming down the body again to the centre of the pelvis,
Just allowing the hips,
The weight of the hips,
Just to relax down into the mat.
Taking that sense of relaxation and feeling held and supported into both hips,
The left hip and the right hip.
And that's gently flowing down each of the legs,
Coming down to the left knee and the right knee,
Down to the left ankle and the right ankle,
Into the sole of each foot and into the toes.
All of the walking around support that our feet do for us day in,
Day out.
They can simply rest.
Just inviting that fluid flow of the breath all the way down the body and out through the soles of the feet and the toes.
With every exhale,
That wave-like delicious sense of relaxing,
Flowing all the way down the body and out through the toes.
Just keep welcoming the whole body home with every breath out.
And in this very simple practice of relaxation and sleep,
You might like to bring something back with you.
It might be enough just to offer yourself this space to rest and to sleep.
It might be enough to do absolutely nothing,
To know that you are welcome.
You might prefer to offer yourself something positive to bring back,
Something that can stay the rest of your day.
In which case,
You might like to offer yourself something positive,
A positive affirmation.
Or you might prefer to visualize a little object,
An amulet,
Talisman,
Something that can fit very snug into the palm of your hand.
And you can imagine,
And you've got it right now,
The feel of it,
The texture,
The temperature.
And then wherever you are in your practice,
We're going to start to come back into this moment together.
Almost like the slow eddying of a little boat,
Just getting closer to the shore,
Gently drawn in by the ebb and flow of the tide.
Just like moving through into waking from sleep.
And so starting to become aware of all of the edges of the body,
All of the shores of the body,
The toes and the fingers,
The hands and the feet,
Maybe moving those a little bit,
Maybe running the tongue around the teeth.
Maybe stretching through the face,
Screwing it up,
Stretching through the whole body,
Hugging the knees,
Whatever feels like a delicious and a lovely way just to come back.
So taking this time just to come back.
Congratulations.
So gently,
If you're not already up,
Just finding your way onto your side and then coming up into a seated position.
This practice of sleep for winter is now over.
Thank you very much for listening.
