IRest Yoga Nidra (25 Minutes)

A 25-minute iRest Yoga Nidra practice to nourish your felt sense of well-being, ease, and presence. Great for quelling anxiety and decreasing depression symptoms. Ideally practiced lying down or in a comfortable position. You may find yourself moving into sleep or deep restfulness, this is normal and welcomed.

Transcript

Hi,

Thanks for joining me for this iRest Yoga Nidra practice.

Let's start by getting comfortable.

You may choose to sit down or you may choose to lie down for this practice.

Whatever posture you choose,

Take the time you need to really settle and feel comfortable.

And know that at any time during the practice you can always readjust yourself.

Sense your body settling and all of the transition that's led up until this moment.

As if you had just taken a snow globe,

Shook it up,

And then placed the snow globe back on a table.

As we start to settle more into physical stillness,

Liken yourself to that snow globe and sense all of the particles,

All of the glitter,

All of the little fractals of snow.

Everything's starting to settle down so that what we are left with is that clarity of water.

Sensing how there may be thoughts,

Emotions,

Feeling tones,

Physical sensations that we're arriving with,

That are here with us now.

And we're not trying to get rid of anything,

We're not trying to fix or change ourselves.

We're moving into a space of witnessing and noticing that as we start to still our bodies,

We feel ourselves ground and in relationship with gravity.

Everything's settling.

Affirming that anything that wants to be seen during our time in meditation,

We'll have the opportunity to do so.

Opening up into an intention for our practice together.

Let's intend for this time to be one of curiosity and non-judgment.

Let's set the intention for us to abide as a welcoming presence so that whatever shows up,

Be it a thought,

An emotion,

A physical sensation,

It's welcome here.

And as your body continues to settle,

Feel into that quality that is innate to us as humans of being.

Our human beingness.

That place in between two doings,

Where when we're here we feel spacious,

Open,

Perhaps a sense of okayness or ease,

Wholeness,

Well-being.

Affirm that throughout our practice,

We'll check in with this quality of being and invite it back online.

Not just as a thought,

But as a feeling in the body.

What does it feel like when we feel at ease?

What resonates in your body as you abide as openness,

Wholeness,

Being?

And as we start to rotate our attention through the body,

As you hear me call out different parts of the body,

You may almost anoint them as if we could anoint each part of the body with this felt sense of being and ease.

So we may deepen into our experience together.

Let your attention wander first through the body and notice what's here.

Pockets of tension,

Contraction,

The feeling of contact with your body and the ground.

Sense your body and the ground.

Sense into the mouth,

The hinge points of your jaw,

The hollowness of the mouth,

The tongue growing short and wide in the back of the mouth.

Sense the cheekbones,

The nose,

Sense the eyes,

Both eyeballs as spheres of radiant sensation.

See if you might soften as you anoint even the back of the eyes,

Releasing any tension that might be there.

Feel into the inner ear canals and the outer architecture of each ear and let your whole beingness serve as a receiving instrument for sound.

Sounds coming to you in all directions,

Above,

Below,

To the right,

To the left of you,

Inside,

Outside.

Sounds layered upon sound and forfeit thinking about sound.

Simply receive sound as sensation,

As vibration.

Continue scanning the body,

Shifting attention now to the forehead and feeling the temperature of the air on your skin,

The crown of the head,

The back of the head,

The neck.

Feel deep inside the throat.

What do the inner walls of your throat feel like?

Give up thinking,

Give up analyzing,

Give up visualizing and sense your way.

What do the inner walls of your throat feel like?

And as you soften the vocal cords and any tension in the neck and the throat,

Notice what happens to the thinking mind.

How self-talk starts to fall away.

Continue as we scan and anoint the body with this felt sense of being and ease,

Sensing into the chest,

The right shoulder,

Down the right arm,

The right palm of the hand and the fingers on the right hand.

Sense your way back to the chest and now to the left shoulder,

The left arm,

The left palm of your hand and all five fingers on your left hand.

Now,

See if you can sense both of your arms and hands at the same time.

Giving up thinking or analyzing and feel your way,

Sensing the right and the left arm together as one sensation.

Sense back into the chest and the torso,

The upper back,

Middle back,

Lower back and belly.

Sense all that is contained within the torso,

All the fluids and organs and bones and feel back into that quality of being,

Of being with life just as it is in this moment.

Sensing into the low belly and into the hips,

The right hip,

Without looking down with the right hand,

With your eyes,

Even with the eyes closed.

See if you can sense your way through the right leg into the right ankle and right foot,

Toes,

Sensing the whole right leg fully in sensation.

Feel your way now into the left hip,

The left leg,

The left foot and toes.

Welcome sensation through the entire left leg and foot.

Give up thinking and now welcome the sensation of both legs and feet at the same time.

Your mind may go back and forth feeling one and then feeling the other and then there may come a point where we move beyond thought in order to feel opposites at the same time.

And sensing the body breathing itself all the while the body,

So brilliant and wise,

Has been breathing itself all the while.

Sensing the natural flows of energy through the body,

The slight expanse of the body as you inhale and the softening of your body with each exhale.

Welcome any emotions that may be here with you or if there is no emotion present,

Be with what is here,

What is arising and true in this moment.

Whatever is here,

Welcome it fully with curiosity and non-judgment and notice where it lives as sensation in the body.

Is it warm,

Cool,

Prickly,

Sharp,

Tender?

Is it a contraction?

And is it located anywhere specific in your body?

Staying with and trusting the experience you're having as perfect.

Nothing you need to fix or change.

And if the sensation or emotion is present,

See if you might find an opposite or if there was an opposite,

Where you might locate that in the body.

And nice and slow,

Let's rotate our attention between these two emotions,

Our opposites.

Feeling one,

Really absolving into it,

Absorbing fully and then feeling your way to its opposite.

And go back and forth at your own tempo,

Sensing your way.

There may come a moment in which we invite both sensations,

Both feelings in at the same time.

Notice what happens to the thinking,

Mind.

Connect back with that feeling of being and well-being,

Where you feel open and spacious,

The feeling of okayness,

Affirming to yourself that life continues to unfold within you,

You as that unchanging witnessing presence,

Perhaps opening now into gratitude.

Gratitude just because.

The feeling of appreciation,

Joy maybe.

How does that resonate and where does that resonate in your body?

Staying with whatever experience you're having.

As you sense back into your physicalness,

Feeling the weight of your body against the ground,

A little grin on your face as we acknowledge with some self-satisfaction,

Having taken this time for ourselves to rest deeply and to be with ourselves.

Just as we are in this moment and in each moment,

Moment to moment,

As life continues to unfold within us,

Sensing your body breathing and perhaps gently deepening your breath.

Breathing all the way into your fingers and your toes,

Perhaps wiggling a little bit into your fingers and toes and feeling the edges of your physicalness.

Bring forth the feeling of gratitude and appreciation,

Thanking yourself.

For this time of rest,

Taking all the time you need to slowly come back,

Bringing yourself back into waking state but with some residue and remembrance of where home is and that feeling of being of well-being,

Of ease,

Of wholeness,

Of inner resource within you.

Thank you so much for your time and presence and practice.

Such a delight to be here and spend it with you.

Reviews

i felt so rested doing this meditation.