All right,
Welcome to Yoga Nidra.
We're going to be doing the practice for just half an hour today,
So I'm going to jump right into just a brief explanation of what you might want to do before you find your yoga mat.
A really good thing to have around is a bolster or just two couch pillows that you can put underneath of each thigh and knee area.
Another good thing to have is something for behind your head,
Like something soft if you want that.
A yoga mat is good for me usually.
And then a soft blanket is really nice as well if your house tends to be just a little bit chilly.
Mine is a really old house and lots of drafty windows,
As you can see.
I'd suggest a blanket as well if you happen to be in a chilly home.
You just basically want your whole body to be quite relaxed when you do this practice.
Since it's just a half an hour of that stillness,
Try to commit to stillness for the full 30 minutes if you can.
Even if there's that itch to move around a little bit,
I would suggest that you just try to stay as still as possible.
Just so that you know one more thing,
Nidra is typically a scripted practice.
What I mean by that is I follow a pre-written script that I have written out prior to this point so that we stay really focused and moving at the correct pace and it doesn't get too ad-libbed that way.
Let's begin.
You're just comfortable on your back with all those props and bolsters around that you might need.
You can close your eyes and just let your hands rest comfortably,
Palms open.
Let's take a long breath in through the nose,
Fill up the whole body,
The lungs lift,
The chest expands,
And then exhale,
Relax that breath out through the mouth.
Do one more of those as you lay here,
Big breath in the nose and a soft breath out through your mouth.
The practice of yoga Nidra is a wonderful gift to explore a deeper expression of who you are.
It helps to create healthy patterns of self-awareness and it's almost like a threshold state between sleep and wakefulness.
It's in this state between sleep and wakefulness that the gateways to some of our unconscious and subconscious realities are starting to be opened a little bit.
You will be guided by the sound of my voice and we'll move through different parts of the physical body in awareness beginning with the fingers and hands and then we'll move through the whole body sequentially.
One more thing that we want to maybe have during a yoga Nidra is an intention to focus on.
During the Nidra or during this first few moments,
I would encourage you to think about something in your life that you want to make intentional.
This might be like an I statement like I am and then blank.
I am peaceful if you don't have one that comes to your mind for today.
It's a good one.
So with your whole body melting down to the earth beneath you,
There's no separation between you and the earth.
Let your eyeballs relax heavy into the eye sockets.
Your jaw is relaxed.
You're letting go physically in this moment.
Relaxing physically.
Witness the natural rhythm of your breathing.
Simply breathing in and out.
With every exhale,
Sink deeper and deeper into the ground beneath you.
Feel the skull,
The jaw,
The mouth,
The tongue,
The neck and the shoulders.
Notice the whole upper body there.
The shoulders,
The chest,
The ribs,
The spine and the stomach.
Now start to notice the lower body,
The pelvis,
The bum,
Thighs,
Knees,
Shins and the feet.
Publishing this connection with the area around your body,
I'd like you to try to visualize how far around the body you can feel in the air.
So almost seeing a two to three foot shape around your body with your awareness.
Use your breath and internal vision to visualize this.
Simply state the intention to have this field,
This area cleared from all attachment that you have picked up throughout space and time that are not yours.
Now see a golden rain shower of liquid light pour down from above you and notice how this feels.
Relax now into the space behind the closed eyes.
As you enter deeper and deeper into this stillness arising out of nothing,
A golden majestic gate appears in front of your inward gaze.
The soft breeze of your breath causes the gate to slowly open as you approach it.
As you enter,
You find yourself in a serene place of nature created into being by your imagination.
You are flooded with feelings of calmness and peace,
Surrounded by love and safety emanating from the ground and air all around you.
You find a nice spot on the soft ground and lay your body down.
Your nose is filled with pleasant smells.
Your skin is surrounded by warm air and your body is supported by the earth beneath you.
Softly breathe in and exhale.
Relax deeper and deeper.
Softly breathe in.
Exhale,
Relax your body into the earth.
We will now plant our intention,
Our sankalpa,
Into this quiet place that we have created.
If we want to feel this sankalpa,
We want to notice it in our thoughts and in our body as though it is already manifested.
State your sankalpa now with full feeling,
Excitement,
Sincerity,
And resolve three times.
State your intention now three times.
Become aware of the right hand.
Right hand thumb.
Second finger.
Third finger.
Fourth finger.
And fifth finger.
Become aware of the palm of the hand.
Your palm.
The back of the hand.
The wrist.
Lower arm.
Elbow.
Upper arm.
The shoulder.
The right armpit.
The right side of your waist.
The right hip.
Right thigh.
Knee cap.
Calf muscle.
Ankle.
Heel.
Sole of the right foot.
Top of the foot.
The big toe.
Second toe.
Middle toe.
Fourth toe.
And the little toe.
Now become aware of the left side of your body.
Left hand.
Left hand thumb.
Second finger.
Third finger.
Fourth finger.
Fifth finger.
Palm of the hand.
Become aware of your palm.
The back of the hand.
Wrist.
Lower arm.
Elbow.
Upper arm.
The left shoulder.
Armpit.
The left side of your waist.
The left hip.
Thigh.
Knee cap.
Left calf muscle.
Ankle.
Heel.
Sole of the left foot.
Top of the foot.
The big toe.
Second toe.
Middle toe.
Fourth toe.
And little toe.
And now to the back.
Become aware of your back.
Right shoulder blade.
Left shoulder blade.
Back of the ribs.
Right buttock.
Left buttock.
Spine.
Back of the thighs.
Back of the knees.
Back of the lower legs.
Your heels on the floor.
The whole back body together.
Now bring your awareness to the top of your head.
Notice your forehead.
Both sides of the head.
Right eyebrow.
Left eyebrow.
The space between the eyebrows.
Right eyelid.
Left eyelid.
Right eye.
Left eye.
Right ear.
Left ear.
Right cheek.
Left cheek.
The nose.
The tip of your nose.
The upper lip.
Lower lip.
Tongue.
The inside of the mouth.
Chin.
Throat.
Right side of the chest.
Left side of the chest.
Middle of the chest.
The navel.
The abdomen.
The upper thighs.
Shins.
And the tops of your feet.
Now become aware of the whole right side of your body together.
The whole right side of your body as one.
The arm and the leg all as one.
Now notice the whole left side of your body together.
The whole left side.
The whole left side of the body.
The arm and the leg together.
Feel your whole body on the floor.
Feel the meeting points between your back and the floor.
The back of the head.
The shoulder blades on the floor.
The elbows and the hands on the floor.
The bum and the legs on the floor.
Feel your heels on the floor.
Feel all these meeting points of your body touching the ground together as one.
As you follow your breath,
You see the colour red slowly solidifying in front of your inward gaze.
Arriving into your perception by the natural rhythm of your breathing,
Merging with the air around your skin,
You see red effortlessly adapt to the contours of your physical body.
In full awareness of your breath,
You merely witness the presence of red around you.
Observe the red colour slowly move into your body through your hips and thighs to merge with your physical body and concentrate its intensity inside of your pelvis around the base of the spine.
Your whole pelvic area shines brightly with red light.
Now with every inhale,
Breathe in the colour orange.
Touching the air around your skin,
You see orange effortlessly adapt to the contours of your physical body.
In full awareness of your breath,
You merely witness the colour orange around you.
Observe the colour slowly intensify above your lower abdomen and then merge with your physical body and concentrate its intensity just below your belly button in the space above the red.
The whole lower abdomen shines brightly with orange light.
With every inhale,
Begin to absorb the colour of yellow.
Merging with the air around your skin,
You see the colour yellow effortlessly adapt to the curves of your physical body.
In full awareness of your breath,
You merely witness the colour around you.
Observe the yellow slowly merge with your physical body,
First starting with your fingertips and moving up your arms.
The yellow slowly moves deeper inside of you and concentrates its intensity just inside of your stomach.
Your whole stomach area shines brightly with yellow light.
Allow a smooth breath in the nose and a relaxing breath out through the mouth.
Now become aware of your whole body.
Once again imagine an image of yourself positioned on the floor in your room.
Then drift up and out of your physical body,
Imagine you're floating up to the ceiling where you can turn down and look back upon yourself.
See your body perfectly still on the floor in this room.
Become aware of your breathing.
Watch the flow of the breath in and out of the lungs without trying to manipulate the rhythm of breathing.
The breath is automatic,
No effort.
Maintain awareness of your breath and continue with this awareness as you witness yourself from up above.
Now begin to concentrate your mind on the moving inside of the belly.
With each breath in your belly rises and with each and every breath out it slowly falls back down towards the spine.
Now start counting your breaths backwards from 27 to 1.
Kind of like this.
As you inhale you're mentally saying 27,
Navel rising.
And as you exhale you're mentally saying 27,
Navel falling.
Try that again,
26,
Navel rising.
26,
Navel falling.
Continue to say these words mentally to yourself as you count your breath silently.
If you make a mistake and you lose track of which number you're at,
That's okay.
Just go back to 27 and start again.
It doesn't matter what number you get to,
But that you're just aware of the task of breathing.
In and out through the nose.
Now let go of the counting entirely in the belly.
I want you to draw your attention up to your chest and your ribcage.
Notice now how your chest and your ribcage rise and fall slightly with every breath.
With each and every breath become more aware.
And as you're breathing begin to count down from 27 to 1.
No mistakes,
No sleeping.
Simply focus on the counting and the rhythm that's in your chest.
Remaining awake and alert.
Now let go of the counting in the chest.
I want you to bring your awareness up from the chest towards your throat and your nostrils.
Feeling the throat and the nostrils with each and every breath that you take.
27,
Throat filling.
27,
Throat emptying.
Keep going down from 27 towards 1.
Now let go of all the counting and let the breath continue simply on its own.
And again hovering up somewhere near the ceiling,
Witness your body lying on the floor in this room like an object.
Perfectly still on the floor in the room.
You see yourself lying here watching from above.
Perfectly still and perfectly aware.
You're witnessing your body totally relaxed.
Floating up from your physical body you then start to drift through the ceiling into the air above your room.
You continue to rise up and up,
Seeing streets and trees.
Drifting up and up,
Seeing parks and other buildings.
Drifting higher still.
You notice the whole area around your home buzzing with energy.
Higher yet you drift you can see the sun in the distance and the beautiful colours it projects in the sky.
Drifting higher yet you begin to see the curvature of our planet earth and the dark empty space that surrounds us.
And you stop here for a moment seeing the whole planet in view.
Drifting back and forth.
Floating freely.
You begin to descend back down through earth's atmosphere.
Then noticing the curvature of the planet.
And you see the sky and the sun and the wonderful colours that it projects in the sky.
Drifting down and down.
You see the buildings and the energy buzzing around your home.
Drifting down further yet you notice the parks and your house.
The street and the trees around you.
And the ceiling drifting back down through the ceiling.
Through the air in your room.
Down.
Floating down like a leaf.
Drifting down towards yourself.
Through the blankets and the clothing.
You connect back within yourself physically and mentally.
Perfectly still and perfectly aware.
Feel the skull.
The jaw.
The mouth.
The tongue.
Neck.
Shoulders.
Elbows.
Hands.
Notice your chest.
Rib cage.
And the spine down the centre.
The stomach.
And the pelvis.
The muscles and the thighs.
Bring awareness to your knees,
Your shins and your feet.
Feel your whole body completely relaxed on the floor in your room.
Perfectly still.
And perfectly you.
Nothing to accept and nothing to reject.
Perfectly still.
Perfectly aware.
As slowly and as little as possible,
Begin to move the tips of your fingers.
Just one fingertip at a time.
Bring movement now to the tips of your fingers.
Toes.
Move your toes now.
As slowly as possible,
Wiggle your toes.
Open the palms of your hands.
Feel each movement slowly creep back into your moving palms.
Stretch your hands open wide and then make little fists with the hands.
Take your palms and place them just over each eye.
Like a little cover for each eye.
Open your eyes to the dark space that's behind your hands.
Then just slowly open the cracks of your hands.
The fingers open up like blinds of a window.
Let the light back in.
Maybe give your temples a little gentle rub or a little head massage around the hair or the side of the head and ears.
You can just wake up your body with a little bit of touch and a little bit of movement.
If you want to stay for longer in this position on your back,
Then you can just do that.
There is no rush to leave the space or to change into a different kind of state.
I hope that you enjoyed your New Jer class today and it will be available on Google Drive in just a few moments.
Take care folks.
Have an awesome day.
Namaste.
