Yoga Nidra For Imposter Syndrome

Dive into the waters of yoga nidra as you follow this guided journey to help you let go of perfectionism, and old programming, and discover the beautiful confidence within. Bring your positive affirmation into this practice and watch how your mind begins to let go of not feeling enough.

Transcript

Hello and welcome to this yoga nidra for imposter syndrome.

Inside this yoga nidra,

We'll be diving deep into our subconscious to help our minds rewrite some limiting beliefs we have around how enough and perfect we are for sharing our gifts in the world.

If you feel like you struggle with imposter syndrome,

This is a perfect meditation to help your brain develop a new neural pathway to gain confidence and courage to share your beautiful gifts.

We're using the power of the full moon in Virgo in creating this yoga nidra practice,

And so I hope you feel the potency that this was originally made in.

If you've never practiced yoga nidra,

All you need to know is that you need a comfortable place to lie down,

Some pillows and blanket.

You'll also want to have a positive affirmation or a sankalpa,

An affirmation stated in the present tense to work with throughout this practice.

If you aren't sure what that looks like,

It can be as simple as I am enough.

Let's get started.

Come to lay flat on your back,

Placing a pillow underneath your knees and a pillow under your head.

If you'd like,

You can place a blanket over your body,

Extend your legs out long and place your hands on your sides,

Palms facing up with a slight bend in your elbows to not overstretch the arms.

Relax into the earth and the practice of yoga nidra.

Sleep with trace awareness.

Practice becoming completely effortless by taking a few slow,

Comfortable breaths.

With each exhale,

Feel your body relax more deeply.

Make sure the surface you're resting on is smooth and there are no lumps or bumps or wrinkles beneath you.

Set onto your nest,

Allowing your whole body to melt into the floor.

Relaxation phase.

Make sure your body is completely relaxed so your body will have no desire to move.

Arms are by your side with palms facing up.

Let your feet separate slightly apart from each other so the hips can relax completely.

Feel your entire body from the toes to the head,

Letting go of tension and relaxing into the floor.

Feel your feet relaxing.

Feel your legs relaxing.

Feel your hips and buttocks relaxing.

Feel your abdomen and your low back relaxing.

Feel your chest and mid-upper back relaxing.

Feel your arms and hands relaxing.

Feel your shoulders and neck relaxing.

Feel your face and head relaxing.

Begin to collect your attention for a few minutes.

Take a long,

Deep,

Abdominal breath,

Letting your awareness focus on your breathing.

Feeling the breath move in the lungs and feeling the breath move out.

Repeat to yourself,

I choose to remain still throughout the practice of yoga nidra.

Remain awake and aware.

Say to yourself,

I am awake,

I am aware.

Yoga nidra has now begun.

Begin to listen to the sounds around you.

First,

Listen to the most distant sounds you can hear.

Do not try to identify the source of the sound,

But simply listen for any sounds at all.

Then listen to the sounds closer to where your body is resting,

Feeling your attention coming into the room.

Feel your body resting,

Open,

Perfectly comfortable on the floor.

Now listen to sounds within your body.

These may be physical sounds,

Such as the sound of your own heart beating,

Heart breath in your lungs,

Or you may hear psychic sounds within you.

Sankalpa.

Before we begin the systematic process of yoga nidra,

We will now generate a sankalpa,

A heartfelt intention.

First,

Bring your awareness to your heart and visualize something,

Someone,

Or some place you are grateful for.

Feel gratitude spreading from your heart throughout your entire being.

Then carrying this feeling of gratitude in your heart,

Begin to create the sankalpa by feeling or seeing an image of your intention.

Holding this feeling or image,

Say your sankalpa three times clearly with absolute certainty that the sankalpa will manifest and be fulfilled.

Three times,

State your intention.

Then,

After you've repeated your intentions,

Give thanks,

Feeling thankful for the sankalpa already coming into being.

Now we will move into the setting of the energy points.

You will hear a point in the body and bring your awareness there.

Be as effortless as possible,

Allowing any sensations to arise,

Including physical,

Energetic,

A feeling of awareness,

A vision of light.

Using the mind as if you're traveling on a train,

Starting at the eyebrow point,

The throat,

Be effortless.

Right shoulder,

Right elbow,

Be effortless.

Right wrist,

Tip of the right thumb,

Tip of the right tip of the right index finger,

Tip of the right middle finger,

Tip of the right ring finger,

Tip of the right little finger,

Right wrist,

Effortless.

Elbow,

Shoulder,

Throat,

Go to the left shoulder,

Left elbow,

Left wrist,

Thumb,

Index finger,

Middle finger,

Left ring finger,

Little finger,

Left wrist,

Elbow,

Left shoulder,

Throat.

Move down to the center of the breastbone,

Center of chest,

Right chest,

Center of chest,

Navel,

Perineum,

Be effortless.

Right hip,

Right knee,

Ankle,

Right big toe,

Right big toe,

Second toe,

Third toe,

Fourth toe,

Fifth toe,

Be effortless.

Right ankle,

Right ankle,

Knee,

Hip,

Perineum,

Left hip,

Left knee,

Ankle,

Left big toe,

Left second toe,

Third toe,

Fourth toe,

Fifth toe,

Ankle,

Knee,

Hip,

Perineum,

Navel,

Be effortless.

Center of the chest,

Throat center,

Point between the eyebrows,

Beware of the whole body,

Scanning from the top of the head all the way down to the tips of the toes,

And then back up,

Toes all the way to the top of the head,

Being the whole body.

Bring attention to the breath.

See the breath as it moves in and out of the nostrils like two separate flows.

With complete effortlessness,

Just watch your breath as it rises and falls.

Practice relaxation and awareness of the breath without trying to alter or control the breath.

Remaining completely relaxed,

Begin to see or visualize a mental alternate nostril breath without forcing.

See the breath rise through the left nostril and fall through the right nostril.

Rise through the right,

Fall through the left.

Then add counting backwards from 54.

Breathe in the left,

54,

Out the right,

54.

Next breath,

In the right,

53,

Out the left,

53.

In the left,

52,

Out the right,

52.

Mental alternate nostril breath.

Simply follow the breath with the mind.

If you finish early,

Start over again.

If you lose track,

Start over again.

Effortless,

Counting,

Alternate nostril breath.

Stop counting.

It doesn't matter how far you've counted,

Or if you finished or lost track.

Now we're going to cultivate different sensations.

The first one is heat.

Imagine you're outside on a very hot day.

You're in the midday sun.

There's no shade in sight.

Feel the heat penetrating your body as the sun shines down with incredible intensity.

You're sweating profusely as heat permeates your entire body.

The next sensation is cold.

Cultivate the feeling of cold.

Feel that you're lying on a cold surface.

The air is cold.

Your bones are chilled.

Your muscles are contracted.

The cold reaches through the surface of your body to your bones,

Internal organs,

And you notice a shiver in your body.

Now you feel heavy.

Legs heavy,

Arms heavy,

Head heavy,

Ribs heavy.

Your body feels laden.

You're so heavy.

You cannot move.

You feel that you're sinking down into the earth.

Lightness.

Feel light.

Your body is as light as a feather.

Feel space between your body and the floor.

Feel your body.

It feels like how it could float away from the floor.

Pain.

Access the sensation of pain through any of the five senses.

Feel a memory of pain.

Grow the feeling of pain.

Let it move through your being.

Pleasure.

Feel pleasure through any of the five senses.

Something beautiful that you've seen or smelled.

Cultivate that feeling of pleasure.

Your whole body is vibrating with pleasure.

The hairs on the ends of your skin start to stand up on end.

Pleasure.

Release the sensations.

Now we will move through some visual symbols.

See these visions in your mind or indirectly in front of your forehead.

There's a blank or black space directly in front of the forehead.

Visualize these symbols in that space.

Ocean.

Ocean.

Ocean.

White cloud.

White cloud.

White cloud.

A child running in a field.

A child running in a field.

A child running in a field.

A child running in a field.

Heavy clothing.

Heavy clothing.

Heavy clothing.

Cliff edge.

Cliff edge.

Cliff edge.

Golden Buddha.

Golden Buddha.

Golden Buddha.

Yogi sitting in meditation.

Yogi sitting in meditation.

Yogi sitting in meditation.

Driftwood floating in the ocean.

Driftwood floating in the ocean.

Driftwood floating in the ocean.

Waves on an infinite ocean.

Waves on an infinite ocean.

Waves on an infinite ocean.

Feel how waves on the ocean are like waves in the mind.

Now imagine body resting in a gentle hammock underneath the sounds of leaves and the ocean waves in the background.

You begin to let your astral body take flight into the sky and as it does it begins soaring through the clouds gently and this freedom to fly.

It lands itself at the edge of a tree line on a beach front.

And as you land you notice that you have earbuds in music playing from your pocket.

You have a smartwatch and shoes laced up.

You look down and see you're wearing a button up jacket and heavy pants.

And one by one as you feel comfortable you feel an urge to go run into the water.

So you sit down and unlace your shoes and threading the knots,

Loosening the grip of the laces around your ankle.

You slip off one sock and then work on the other foot on tying the knots,

Loosening the laces,

And then slipping off your shoe and sock.

You set down your devices,

Unlatch your watch,

Remove your earbuds,

And remove the clothing that you choose to feel comfortable not to swim in.

Maybe underneath you're wearing your favorite swimming outfit or whatever feels feels good.

And you dip your toes in the sand and it feels warm.

This lightness removes everything else around you that you've been carrying attached to.

You feel an urge to go run straight into the warm water.

You remember how to swim,

Feel safe just waiting or splashing or diving deep into the water.

You let yourself be fully rinsed even if it's just your toes or your whole body.

And you come back out and you notice there's a private outdoor shower with a hook on it and a fresh towel and a backpack that looks familiar to you.

And you pop in the shower and rinse off in the warm water,

Dry off,

And there hanging underneath the towel is an outfit that you've always wanted to wear.

And so you dry off and slip it on and notice your hand grazing the familiar backpack.

And as you're in your new outfit,

You reach into the backpack and pull out this pile of research papers,

Textbooks,

And some note cards,

And you are reminded that you need to share something.

Something you've been learning,

Something you've been studying,

Something you've known so much about.

And there in front of you is a group of people sitting around a fire casually enjoying their company,

Waiting for you just to come share what you know.

And you feel confident,

Maybe a little bit jittery,

And go sit before them on one of the logs.

And they all smile at you and greet you.

Maybe some of them are your friends,

Some of them people you respect.

And you start to share this beautiful information and you begin to read off these note cards you've made.

And suddenly a gust of wind comes up just to you and all of your paperworks fly out.

And you try and reach for a few and shout for others too,

But no one can catch them.

They're gone.

You look down at your empty hands and the people around you wondering,

How can you share now?

But you close your eyes and say,

I'm enough.

I know everything I need.

And you start talking even with your eyes closed.

And these words come out of you.

It is everything you know,

Everything you've already understood,

All of your gifts come out in perfectly concise,

Understanding ways.

It's as if someone else is speaking through you,

But you open your eyes and you dive into the moment sharing everything you know.

And as you look around,

You see other versions of yourself witnessing you.

Take this time now in the waters of Yoga Nidra,

In this vision,

To witness the power of you sharing your gifts just as you are.

The guide will resume in eight to ten minutes.

At the end of your sharing,

Everyone is astounded and in awe.

And you feel this growth inside of you that you are enough.

You already can share your beautiful gifts and talents.

Everyone gives you big hugs,

Applauds you,

High fives you,

Cheers you on.

And together,

You put out the fire and everyone begins to scatter and leave as you go find the papers that got scattered earlier.

And you pick it all up.

And you notice one gets stuck under a rock and you lift the rock up and grab the piece of paper.

And you look down at your paper and you see that the words that were once there are mostly empty.

This page filled with the speech you were going to give,

The scripted one,

The one you thought you had to be,

Is mostly empty except for the lines of your sankalpa repeated three times.

In this new strength of your own knowing,

Repeat your sankalpa three times clearly,

Thanking this beautiful moment,

This experience,

When you're finished.

Slowly you begin walking back to the edge of the beach where you gather all the things you left at the beginning,

All your devices and clothing.

Stuff them in the backpack and take flight back to your body resting in a field.

And slowly you begin to wiggle your fingers and toe,

Noticing the sounds in the room that your physical body is dwelling.

Notice the sound of your own breath,

The sound of your heartbeat,

Be the sounds in the room or the sounds outside.

Take your time,

Slowly roll to your right side,

Using your top hand to push you up.

Come to a simple seated position.

I encourage you now in the next five to ten minutes to keep your screens off and take some moment in silence to just recap your experience and what you noticed.

You can journal about it or just take a moment feeling the sensations and experiences again and if you found this helpful,

Please let me know how you're doing in the comments.

Share this video with anyone else who might benefit from this meditation.

Thank you so much for joining me today.

Namaste.