Welcome to this yoga nidra for grounding.
Tune into your breath and use your breath as a resource to land softly within your body and settle the body onto the support below you.
Take a slow inhale through the nose.
Feel into the lifting and expanding of your body up and out into the open space around you.
As you exhale slowly out the mouth through a small opening as if a straw was between your lips feel a softening of your body.
For the next few rounds of breath,
With inhale feel a sense of lightness and expansion and with exhale connect to a feeling of heaviness towards the back of the body as though your body were sinking and spreading into the earth.
Allow your breath to be natural and declare with your inner voice I am awake and aware of my experience of yoga nidra.
During this yoga nidra be open and receptive to sensations and emotions that arise within you and as part of your experience.
Take the next quiet moment to draw a protective circle around your body with your imagination.
A protective circle made of whatever material will give you the greatest feeling of safety.
Within this circle you are safe and cared for as sensations,
Feelings and emotions arise cultivate an allowing.
They are mere guests in the field of your awareness.
Welcome them with curiosity and kindness.
They may come with messages.
If at any point in this yoga nidra you feel the need to move your body then do so.
You are not fixed in stillness.
Feel the shape of your whole body supported and held.
Recall what is supporting you below you and let go a little bit more into that support.
Create or connect with your sankalpa.
Intention statement.
A positive,
True statement honouring what you wish for in this moment.
State that as though what you do wish for has already come true.
The statement can be as simple as three words choosing what to follow from I am,
I feel,
I trust.
Listen as you say that statement three times slowly together with your breath using your inner voice.
Allow those words to settle into the body.
Feel your whole body.
Feel the gentle movement of your body as it breathes.
Take your attention to the back side of the body.
The side connected to the support below you.
Become aware of the points of contact between your body and the support below you.
Use an exhale to deepen that connection between your body and the earth through each point.
Point by point,
Breath by breath.
Patiently travel from one point to the next.
You may wish to add the sound LAM with your inner voice as you exhale.
Say or sing that syllable with your inner voice for each point in a low pitch which sounds something like LAAAAAAA Feel the whole back side of your body.
Notice what you feel.
Take attention to the front side of the body.
For the next five rounds of breath,
Focus on your inhale and the space above and around your body.
The space that your body expands and lifts into.
Feel into the freedom to take up space,
The freedom to expand and the freedom to rise.
Allow your breath to be natural.
Feel the whole shape of your body.
Feel the beautiful weight of your body,
Supported.
Feel the shape of the space that your body occupies.
Feel the shape of the space that is surrounding your body.
Declare with your inner voice,
I am releasing tension.
Recall your circle.
And declare,
I am awake and aware of my experience of yoga nidra.
Take your attention to your breath.
The whole inhale,
The space at the top,
The whole exhale,
The space at the bottom.
Take the next quiet moment to gently organize your breath with inner counting,
So that inhale and exhale are equal length.
Inquire into what is the length of breath where you feel inhale and exhale can be equal length with ease.
Adding on,
In the space of your mind,
In the space behind your eyes,
On the inside of your head,
Visualize and imagine a red square.
Take your attention to the bottom left corner of the square.
As you inhale,
Trace your attention along the left side edge from bottom to top of the square,
Clockwise,
Together with your breath.
As you exhale,
Trace along the top edge of the square from left to right.
As you inhale,
Trace the right side of the square.
And as you exhale,
Trace along the bottom edge of the square.
Keep traveling around the red square,
Together with an even and harmonious inhale-exhale breath,
In a clockwise direction.
Gently let that go and notice what you feel.
Declare with your inner voice,
I am awake and aware of my experience of Yoga Nidra.
Take your attention to your mind.
Be patient and still as you observe thoughts arising in your mind.
As a thought arises,
Allow its space to be there.
Let go and let settle that thought.
As if the thought were a clump of energy,
As you allow it,
Let it go and let it settle,
It sinks down towards the earth together with gravity,
Landing on the earth,
Absorbed where Mother Earth can recycle that energy and transform it into whatever it will be next.
With each thought,
Observe,
Allow,
Let go and let settle.
Gently let that go and notice what you feel.
Declare,
I am awake and aware of my experience of Yoga Nidra.
Awaken your imagination.
Visualize a space out in nature that is deeply nurturing.
This could be a space that you have visited before and it can be a new space that you create with your imagination,
Somewhere you dream to visit.
Allow yourself to experience this space fully with all of your senses.
Bring your attention to your sense of sight.
What can you see?
Notice colors,
Shapes,
Both near and far.
Notice what is above you and what is below you.
Bring your attention to your sense of hearing.
Listen to the layers of sounds around you.
Let those sounds come to you.
Let them touch your inner ear and your whole body.
Bring your attention to your sense of touch.
What do you feel on your skin?
The touch and the temperature of the air?
Notice how the ground feels below you.
What things around you can you touch and feel?
Notice smells.
What smells can you detect in the air,
Right down to the very subtle?
Let your nose open to receiving smells and scents around you.
Taste inside your mouth.
What can you taste?
If this nurturing place in nature has a taste,
What is it?
And what are the tastes of this place?
Rest here in this place.
Experience fully all the nurturing benefits of this space.
Breathe and be here.
Simply be.
Become aware of simply being.
Let your awareness spread open.
Become aware that you are aware of this present moment.
Feel a sense of joy in a purity of presence,
Together with the awareness of that presence.
Very gently,
Come back to your body.
And become aware of your body breathing.
Rest your awareness in the space inside your heart.
Simply rest here.
Remember your sankalpa.
And listen with a new sense of inner quiet as you say these words again,
One to three times slowly,
Together with the rhythm of your breath.
Pause after each statement to feel the resonance and to let the words settle.
The next time you exhale,
Release your sankalpa out to the care of the universe.
Allow your body to guide you in some very tiny movement toward awakening.
Be slow and deliberate in your process.
No haste.
Take the time you need to awaken your body.
I thank you for your practice today.
