Welcome to this short practice of Yoga Nidra to bring balance to the nervous system.
This short practice is a body scan for the somatosensory cortex.
That's the part of the brain that's responsible for registering the information that we take in through the senses.
If you feel overloaded,
Sensory overload,
If these words mean something to you today,
Then this is a very nourishing and balancing practice.
In this rotation of consciousness,
Bring awareness around the body.
Be aware of each of the mentioned points and the space between,
So that journey that you take within the land of the body to go from point to point.
We'll begin with the nose,
So feel the nose,
Trace the length of the nose,
Feel the right nostril and the left nostril,
And open to your sense of smell.
Notice any smells or scents that you can pick up on the air that you're breathing.
Any smell that is left inside the inner nose channel.
Awareness resting in the nose and on the nose.
And feel that gentle touch of the breath on the upper lip,
And feel both lips touching.
Take awareness inside the mouth.
Sense the tongue melting into the lower palate.
Notice where the tip of the tongue is resting inside the mouth,
And feel your teeth,
The gums,
And notice the water inside the mouth.
The sense of moistness,
And open to your sense of taste,
Noticing tastes inside the mouth.
Sense of taste awake.
Awareness in the whole inside of the mouth.
Tasting,
Noticing,
Feeling.
And then let awareness travel from the mouth up to the eyes.
Feel the lids of the eyes,
Gently resting on the orbs of the eyes.
And feel also the water of the eyes,
The tears,
The moistness,
The space between the lids and the eyes.
Feel the whole eye,
All the muscles around the eyes,
Even the space inside the head behind the eyes.
Feeling the eyes,
And awaken your sense of sight,
Looking into the lids of the closed eyes,
Noticing what you can see.
Sense of sight,
Very gently awake,
Seeing into the lids of the closed eyes.
And trace awareness from the eyes out to the ears.
Feel the outer ears,
The skin of the ears,
Receptive,
Picking up and guiding sounds into the ears.
And trace awareness over the outsides of the ears and into the inner ears on both sides.
And feeling into the middle ear and deep inside the ear,
Where the sound waves from outside touch the skin of the eardrum.
Where these sounds are turned from touch into information for your brain.
There's sense of hearing open and awake,
Not labeling sounds,
But just receiving sound as touch,
The sounds outside of your body,
To those sounds that are farthest away from you,
Being touched by sound.
And to the sounds that are closest to you,
To the sound of your own breath,
And feeling that in the ear,
Both from the outside and the inside of your body.
And since you're listening,
Turning inwards,
Your sense of hearing,
The sense of hearing is connected to our sense of touch.
We can hear,
We can listen,
The whole body.
Sounds as sensations,
Sensation as sound.
And then bring awareness out to feel the whole face,
The whole face with all its details,
The right side of the face and the left side of the face.
And awareness to the whole head,
To the surface area of the head and the inside of the head,
The whole inside of the head.
And trace awareness down through the throat and the neck,
Across the collarbones and into the shoulders,
Arms,
And hands together,
Fingers,
The whole length of the arms on both sides.
And rest awareness in the palms of the hands,
On the insides of the fingers and thumbs,
Awakening your sense of feeling,
Of touch,
Feeling the pulse of life,
Sensation,
So alive in the hands.
Sensation as information for you to receive,
The hands resting and flowing with aliveness.
And trace awareness up through the hands and feel the whole torso,
All the inner contents of the torso and the surface area of your torso.
And feeling as it moves,
As your breath breathes you,
The torso ever so gently expanding as you breathe in,
And a softening of the whole torso as you breathe out.
And feeling into the pelvis and both hips and down the length of the legs,
Out to the feet,
The soles of the feet,
The undersides of the feet,
So alive with sensation.
Feeling the soles of the feet,
Feeling each toe in turn,
All toes together,
And feeling your whole body,
Feeling the whole body,
Alive with sensation,
Open to feeling,
And feeling open through the land of the body.
Listening,
The quality of listening for the whole body,
Whole body listening.
All the sensations,
Present,
Temperatures,
Different temperatures throughout the body,
Here or there,
Experiencing different temperature,
Sense of touch open to the whole body.
And welcoming a sense of peace as you are open to feeling,
Sensing,
And welcoming all the information available in your body,
Connected to your senses,
All the senses resting.
And begin to deepen your breath and awaken your body,
Small movements to awaken your body,
And maybe welcoming the sound of a yawn,
Your sense of hearing,
Going from inwards back to outwards as you hear sounds,
The sound of a sigh,
The sound of a yawn,
Welcoming back the sounds in the room and those sounds farthest away from you,
All sounds welcome as you welcome yourself back to more wakefulness.
And when the time is right,
Stretching your body,
Stretching your body into more wakefulness as you welcome back from this short rest practice,
Welcome back.
Thank you for your practice today.
