Awareness And Yoga Nidra

Yoga Nidra is a state of brainwaves similar to deep non-REM sleep. In this awareness practice, we come to and rest in the alert, calm stillness in the mind. Guided yoga Nidra practices can lead us to this state of deep peace.

Transcript

With this awareness of your whole physical body,

Notice the sensations,

The movement of your body with your breath,

Your sense perceptions,

And then notice the space itself,

The space that your body is occupying.

I am the awareness in which thoughts arise.

We're going to start with witnessing thoughts.

If awareness was right behind your head and you were aware of thoughts in your mind,

Spend some time here noticing what happens in the thought stream when we witness it,

When we stop and pause.

And we're not noticing much else right now,

The body.

Move to the background.

If awareness was behind your head,

Notice what happens in your thought stream.

There are some things that are very common that we would all be noticing.

One is thoughts come in as words or pictures.

Some of the pictures are still.

Some of them are video clips.

Some have sound,

Some don't.

Thoughts are words or pictures.

And there's a content of thought.

Some thoughts are pretty neutral,

They just kind of flow through our awareness without really getting much attention.

There might be a thought like,

Hmm,

This is odd,

Or this is kind of interesting,

Or I'm noticing that there's gaps in thought.

We could be thinking about what we're witnessing.

And at some point for most of us,

We're going to notice that we've gotten engaged with thought.

Some thoughts have more of a way to kind of grab our attention,

Especially if we're worried about something.

Remain aware that you're a witness.

If awareness was right behind your head and you're watching thoughts,

You're witnessing thoughts as they come and go.

And the awareness in which thoughts arise.

And then bring your attention behind your heart center.

Witness emotion as if awareness was behind your heart center.

Become aware of your heart center,

And then let yourself rest just behind your heart center so that you can watch and witness what's coming and going in your heart.

Sometimes emotion is like a physical sensation.

If you're feeling joy,

It often feels warm and light.

Notice in particular the sensations.

If you're feeling grief or sadness or fear,

All of those come with sensation as well as associated thoughts.

We might not be aware of what's associated with it.

So we're just watching,

We're witnessing to see what are the emotions that are in our heart center right now.

You might be coming into awareness of thought again,

And that's okay.

So we're witnessing from behind the heart center,

We're witnessing emotion,

And noticing that some of that is thought as well.

See if you could keep your awareness in your heart center.

You're witnessing emotion in your heart center.

And if you're not feeling anything in particular,

That's okay.

Just keep your attention there,

Witnessing what's happening in your heart space.

I am the awareness in which thoughts and emotions arise.

Now bring your attention behind your navel center,

Behind your gut,

And witness sensation.

If your awareness was resting behind your navel center and your gut,

We're witnessing sensations in that area,

In that space.

So there's a physical sensation of the body moving with the breath.

What else is here?

We might be describing the sensation to ourselves,

It might be very familiar,

It might be comfortable,

Uncomfortable.

Witnessing sensation in the navel center and the gut.

I am the awareness in which thoughts,

Emotions,

And sensations arise.

I'm witnessing what's arising.

Now bring your attention,

Your focus,

To the empty space between your eyebrows.

And not your eyebrow center,

Just the empty space between your two eyebrows.

Now bring your attention to the empty space between your thumbs and your hands.

Thumbs and the index fingers,

The rest of your hands.

Now notice the space between your big toe and your second toe.

That empty space.

And now become aware of the whole space that your body is occupying,

Become aware of that again.

What it is that's happening in that space that you're witnessing.

And then notice the space itself,

The space your body is occupying,

And the space all around the space that your body is occupying.

And witness all phenomena as arising in the space of awareness.

Without thinking about that,

Just to notice,

I am the awareness.

I'm witnessing phenomena in this space of awareness.

Now bring your awareness to the eyebrow center,

The Agnya Chakra,

Just behind the forehead,

Just above your eyebrows.

And breathe deeply several times as if you're breathing in and out through the eyebrow center.

Now we're not paying attention to thought.

Let thought move way to the background.

Just notice the eyebrow center as though you're breathing in and out through the eyebrow center.

And if your thoughts go to something mundane or something else,

That's okay.

Bring yourself back.

Bring your awareness back to the eyebrow center,

Aware of the breath.

And now shift your awareness to the throat center and visualize a full moon shining at the throat center.

And breathe into that full moon at the throat center.

Let all of your awareness,

All of your attention focus on this full moon at the throat center.

Vishuddhi Chakra,

The breath flowing in and out of the throat center.

Now bring your awareness to the heart center,

Manahatta Chakra,

That area right in the center of your chest,

And rest your mind in the heart center.

Continue to breathe deeply,

Diaphragmatically,

Be aware minimally of the breath.

You're not breathing in and out through the heart center.

Just let your attention rest in the stillness in the heart center.

Don't fall asleep here.

Let your mind be awake,

Alert.

Minimally aware of the breath and all of your awareness centered in your heart center.

And if you find that you're being distracted,

Come back.

Let your awareness be fully absorbed in the heart center.

No thoughts,

Just awareness.

Let your mind be awake,

Alert.

And then bring your awareness to the heart center.

Bring your awareness from your heart center to the throat center.

Breathing in and out again through that full moon.

Letting your awareness be completely absorbed in that full moon at the throat center,

The breath moving in and out.

And bring your awareness up to your eyebrow center,

And so you're breathing in and out through your eyebrow center.

Fully aware,

All of your awareness focused in your eyebrow center right now.

Now let your awareness begin to flow as though you're breathing from your eyebrow center through to the base of the nose and back.

Let your breath be smooth,

Continuous.

Let your awareness flow in that channel from the eyebrow center through to the base of the nose,

Back up through to the eyebrow center on the inhale.

Notice the sensations of breath.

Bring your awareness back to the whole of your body from head to toes.

Notice the sensations in your body,

Notice your position,

The way your body's moving with your breath.

And then bring your hands together and rub them to create some warmth,

And then cover your eyes with the warmth of your palms.

Continue to be aware of that flow of breath from the eyebrow center to the base of the nose.

And then open your eyes into your palms,

Remaining aware of your whole body,

Of your breath.

Bring your arms down,

Your hands down,

And if you're lying down,

It will take a minute or so to come out of Shavasana.

Roll over onto your left side,

Support your head with your arm,

Bend your knees.

In particular,

Follow the flow of breath in your right nostril now.

Let the whole of your right side of your body kind of wake up,

The solar energy in the body.

If you're sleeping,

Let your mind wake up,

Come back into alertness.

With this awareness of your whole physical body,

Notice the sensations,

The movement of your body with your breath,

Your sense perceptions,

And then notice the space itself,

The space that your body is occupying.

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