Yoga Nidra For Balance

This Yoga Nidra honours balance. The dictionary says balance is the stability that comes from the equilibrium of two opposing forces. And Carl Jung said that life itself is a tension of opposites. Yoga Nidra provides the space to softly hold those opposites. It’s this process of holding again and again that supports us in growing to stand tall, strong and steady in our bodies.

Transcript

Welcome to this Yoga Nidra for balance.

Simply settle your body.

Do nothing else but adjust towards comfort and ease.

Your position can be lying on the side or the back.

Find a position where you can completely let go into relaxation.

This Yoga Nidra is a systematic relaxation and rest.

A dropping down through the layers of being towards deep rest.

The guidance of this meditative stillness practice will offer you pauses of silence.

Trust in those pauses as invitations for your experience to open and unfold.

Whatever arises throughout your experience is naturally a part.

Sensations,

Feelings,

Emotions.

Trust in the unfolding of your experience.

Use your breath as a support to help your settling process.

Each exhale,

Transfer the weight of your body down into the support below you.

As though you could fully allow yourself to be held completely.

This Yoga Nidra honors balance.

The Oxford Dictionary says that balance is the stability due to the equilibrium of forces within a system.

C.

G.

Young,

Carl Young has said that the greater the contrast of opposites,

The greater the potential.

Great energy comes from a correspondingly great tension of opposites.

This Yoga Nidra is about sensing opposites.

Sensing what lies between them,

What connects them.

This Yoga Nidra is also an opportunity to balance whatever is happening in your life.

As you continue to settle your body,

Allow your breath to become natural.

Now with your imagination,

Trace a protective circle around your body,

Made of whatever material or color will bring you a sense of safety.

Feel and sense yourself as the center of the circle,

Both safe and protected within.

Now allow your mind to follow the example of the body and become still.

Allow the mind to take on a single form of consciousness,

And allow that form to be,

I am practicing Yoga Nidra.

I am practicing Yoga Nidra.

I am practicing Yoga Nidra.

Direct your breath into the space of the heart,

The center of the chest,

Behind the middle of the breastbone.

With each inhale,

Expand this space.

With each exhale,

Soften the heart space.

Notice what welcomes you from within the heart.

Bring an open and gentle listening presence in towards the center of the heart space.

Create or connect with your sankalpa.

Sankalpa is a seed of intention.

The sankalpa honors the heart's deepest longing.

Sankalpa can take on the form of a statement with words.

It can also be an image.

Both represent the heart's deepest wish having already come fully true.

Say your sankalpa in your mother tongue three times slowly,

Listening with the ears of the heart.

The sankalpa can be as simple as three words that begin with I am,

Or I welcome,

Or I feel.

Or see your sankalpa with the eyes of the heart one minute.

Exhale to allow the sankalpa to settle into the body,

A tiny seed full of potential,

Settling into the fertile soil of the practice of yoga nidra.

Feel the whole shape of your body.

Feel the gentle movement of the body as the breath breathes you.

No effort.

Open and spacious witnessing.

We will now take conscious awareness around the body in a body scan.

As you draw your conscious awareness around the body,

Let it take on the form of a beautiful blue healing light.

Now become aware of the right side of your body and bring blue light to the right hand thumb.

Index finger.

Middle finger.

Ring finger.

Little finger.

Thumb and fingers together.

Palm of the hand.

Back of the hand.

The whole hand.

Wrist.

Forearm.

Elbow.

Upper arm.

Shoulder.

Armpit.

The whole arm.

Side ribs.

Waist.

Hip.

Upper leg.

Knee.

Lower leg.

Ankle.

Heel.

Sole of foot.

Top of foot.

Right big toe.

Second toe.

Third toe.

Fourth toe.

Fifth toe.

All toes together.

The whole right leg.

The whole right side of the body radiating beautiful healing blue light.

Become aware of the left side of the body and bring healing blue light to the left hand thumb.

Index finger.

Middle finger.

Ring finger.

Little finger.

Fingers and thumb together.

Palm of the hand.

Back of the hand.

The whole hand.

Wrist.

Lower arm.

Elbow.

Upper arm.

Shoulder.

Armpit.

The whole left arm.

Side ribs.

Waist.

Hip.

Upper leg.

Knee.

Lower leg.

Ankle.

Heel.

Sole of foot.

Top of the foot.

Big toe.

Second toe.

Third toe.

Fourth toe.

Fifth toe.

All toes together.

The whole leg.

The whole left side of the body radiating beautiful blue healing light.

Bring blue light to the tailbone.

The lower back.

Middle back.

Upper back.

The length of the spine from tail to crown.

The whole back side of the torso radiating healing blue light.

Back of neck.

Back of the head.

Top of the head.

Forehead.

Both temples together.

The eyebrows.

Eyebrow center.

Both eyes.

Eyelids heavy.

Trace the bridge of the nose.

Blue light to the tip of the nose.

Right and left nostril.

Inside of the nose.

Upper lip.

Lower lip.

Lips gently touching.

The inside of the mouth and the very center of the tongue.

Tip of the tongue.

The whole mouth.

Both cheeks.

Both outer ears.

Inner ears.

And the innermost part of the ears where sound waves from the outside become electrical information for the brain.

The very center of the brain radiating healing blue light.

The whole head.

The front of the neck and the throat.

The upper chest.

The diaphragm.

The belly.

The pelvic bowl and the root of the pelvis.

The whole right side of the body radiating blue light.

The whole left side of the body radiating blue light.

The whole front side of the body radiating blue light.

The whole back side of the body radiating blue light.

And the center space within where the right and left,

Front and back come together.

The whole body.

The whole body.

The whole body.

I am practicing Yoga Nidra.

I am practicing Yoga Nidra.

I am practicing Yoga Nidra.

I am practicing Yoga Nidra.

Draw awareness to your breath.

Simply notice and observe your breath breathing you.

No effort.

Open witnessing.

Begin to organize your breath with your imagination into Nadi Shodhana,

Alternate nostril breathing.

The breath begins with an inhale and ends with an exhale from the left nostril.

It begins and ends on the left nostril.

As each breath comes in one nostril,

It crosses over and exits out the other nostril.

One round is inhale through left nostril,

Exhale right.

Inhale through right nostril,

Exhale left.

This is one round.

Continue for one minute.

And gently let this go.

I am practicing Yoga Nidra.

I am practicing Yoga Nidra.

I am practicing Yoga Nidra.

Take attention to your mind.

Feel and sense the energy of the mind in this moment.

Remember your circle protecting you.

You are safe.

Now draw your inwards gaze into the mind sky.

Looking into the lids of the closed eyes where your dreams are projected.

Upon the mind sky,

See a sunrise each time you inhale.

See the sun rising ever so slightly towards a new day with each inhale.

Inhale sunrise.

Witness colors and feel the warmth of this light,

The dawning of a new day.

Shift your attention to your exhalation and with each exhalation witness a moon rising in a night sky.

Exhale to see stars appearing,

The moon rising up into the quiet cool darkness of night.

Exhale to witness the beginning of a night.

Exhale to witness a moon rise.

Now hold both the sunrise and the moon rise in your awareness simultaneously.

See both the beginning of a new day and the beginning of a new night simultaneously for both the inhalation and exhalation.

And know that within each new beginning holds also an ending.

For as a new day is beginning,

Night is ending.

And as a new night is beginning,

The day is ending.

And gently let this go.

I am practicing Yoga Nidra.

I am practicing Yoga Nidra.

I am practicing Yoga Nidra.

I am practicing Yoga Nidra.

Awaken your imagination.

Allow yourself to create and travel to a place that would bring you great balance in your life right now.

This could be a space in nature.

It could be somewhere with important people.

Design this experience.

You choose all the details.

If there's something you would love to add,

If there's something you want to take away,

Then with your imagination,

You do that.

As this space is coming into focus,

Awaken your senses.

Open the eyes of the imagination to see this space.

See colors.

See the light and the quality of the light.

Notice the shapes.

Let the eyes of the imagination be open to seeing this space.

See things near,

Directly near your body.

And what can you see that is far away from you?

Notice what is above you and below you.

See with the eyes of the imagination.

Gently let the eyes come to rest.

Open your ears to hearing deeply this space.

Listen to sounds that are near and far.

Listen to sounds that are near and far.

Receive the sounds as a gentle touch within your inner ear.

Avoid labeling them,

Just receive them as a form of nurturing and rebalancing.

Remember that your circle is protecting you and remember that if there are sounds that you would like to hear,

Then you can bring them in with the magnificence of your imagination.

Gently let the ears close down their listening towards rest.

Open your sense of touch.

Let your skin be receptive.

Feel the air and the temperature of the air.

Feel the support below you.

Sense what is directly below you.

Notice textures around you.

Use your open imagination to feel your surroundings.

Feel the clothing on your body.

Can you feel the sun and the warmth of the sun where you are?

What other temperatures can you sense with your skin?

Skin alive and open to feeling.

Allow your skin to come to rest.

Open your sense of taste.

Taste inside the mouth.

Can you taste the air?

Receive taste as an experience as you notice what is around you,

What is available to you to nurture you through your sense of taste.

Then allow your mouth to relax.

Allow your sense of taste to come to rest.

Open your sense of smell.

Let the scents and fragrances come to you upon the air.

Nose open to smelling your space.

Receive smell.

And allow your sense of smell to come to rest.

Rest in being here in this space.

And notice if there is something that you can add to the space where you can come to rest.

That could be a bench or a hammock.

There is something that you can add to the space where you can come to rest.

That could be a bench or a hammock.

Something soft where you can lay your body down or sit.

And simply be receiving a balanced recalibration of your whole being.

Resting in this space beyond your senses.

And allow your awareness to open.

Awareness open.

Open awareness.

Rest in open awareness.

Rest.

And be in open-hearted awareness.

Rest.

And simply be.

Rest.

Rest.

Rest.

Rest.

Rest.

Rest.

Rest.

Rest.

Rest.

Rest.

Rest.

Rest.

Rest.

Rest.

Rest.

Rest.

Rest.

Rest.

Rest.

Rest.

Rest.

Rest.

Rest.

Come back to your body.

Become aware of your body breathing by taking a slower breath and releasing it slowly.

Feel your whole body exhale for the next three breaths.

And come back to the space of the heart.

Recall your sankalpa,

Your seed of intention.

And hold the sankalpa within your experience by listening to the words with the ears of the heart or seeing the image of your sankalpa with the eyes of the heart.

One minute.

With your next exhalation,

Release your sankalpa and trust that it is already thriving and manifesting in your life right now.

And allow your body to guide you in some small movement towards awakening.

Be slow in your process towards awakening.

Yawn.

All the muscles of the face awake.

Stretch your body.

And as you stretch your body long,

Create a yawn or two so the whole body will be yawning.

No haste.

Simply take the time which is needed to awaken your body.

I have been practicing yoga nidra.

I have been practicing yoga nidra.

I have been practicing yoga nidra.

This yoga nidra for balance is now complete.

Thank you for your practice today.