The Phoenix Yoga Nidra

This practice guides practitioners through the five ayers, the koshas. Moving awareness through opposite sensations neutralizing strong emotion and preference to the background of awareness. In the wisdom teachings of this practice, the body in a relaxed state, provides the opportunity for transformation and spiritual enlightenment. The visualization uses the symbolism of the snake, fire and the Phoenix.

Transcript

Welcome to this yoga nidra practice.

As you come to rest in the shape we know so well as Shavasana,

Take a soft moment to honor the intelligence that exists within the shape,

The architecture of corpse pose.

A symbolic gesture of both rest and death.

And in this shape death comes to us as the easy release of what is no longer in service of your highest good.

Rest here in the knowing that all of what you need will remain within you,

And all of what is ready to go will be released.

Practicing the art of non-attachment,

Releasing any suffering that exists outside of this exact moment.

For thousands of years the sages and the yogis have known this as a peregracha.

Remind yourself that there is no need to control this process,

That this is what we come to know throughout many lifetimes as the art of surrender.

When we surrender to this shape we onboard the innate knowings of spirit,

And with that comes the ability to transform logic and understanding into trust and direct knowledge.

In this rested body the brain state of yoga nidra becomes present.

A right playground for spirit to arrive,

Setting aside the analytics of the mind and the ego,

The distractions of time and objects,

Now opens to the unified field of consciousness.

We come to it first through relaxation,

And then through the pathway of breath,

And carrying on through the subtler states of being.

This is yoga nidra.

Your body becomes the doorway to a vast field of intelligence that exists where we can't see,

Outside of our five sensory being.

Tension is the lock,

Relaxation is the key.

Gently explore your shape,

Softening your edges,

And making any adjustments to your shape so that you are symmetrical from right to left.

The brain is in a constant state of mapping the body.

When we place it with care in a symmetrical shape,

The mind finds a state of balance and harmony.

The body is the ultimate connection to all.

It is the temple from where we travel to the realms of energy,

Where there is no time,

No space,

Nothing to attach to,

And nothing to hold on to.

As we go deeper into the practice of yoga nidra,

We track time in no time.

Liberating our external senses from a constant state of alertness,

And activating the inner senses of direct knowledge,

And the ability to see through the eyes of spirit who we are in this moment,

With the love and compassion that only spirit knows.

Settling awareness on your breath,

Allow it to wash through and over your body,

Creating a wave of relaxation everywhere breath touches.

See with your inner eye the breath move through each cell,

Beginning at the surface of the skin,

All the way through to the marrow of your bones.

Every breath becoming a homecoming of relaxation.

Relaxation washing over the body,

Like a wave across the ocean.

Every breath becomes the tide,

And your body becoming the ocean.

A unity of consciousness from the densest form to the subtlest state.

A dissolution of the full physical form,

As you center all awareness around your breath.

The interior of the mouth begins to soften as the breath settles.

Muscle body liquefying,

Breath settling.

Bone structure heavying into the support of the earth beneath you,

As the breath settles.

Open your heart to a softer state of being.

Relax the walls and the guards that surround your tender interior,

Your emotional state.

Welcome the relief of full surrender.

Quiet the mind by activating the witness.

Step into the seat of the observer,

Knowing that this moment is without suffering.

There is nothing to do here but to simply watch and remain aware.

Watch as the tide of emotion and thought continue,

Without any need to be within them or to manage them at all.

This is the true art of surrender.

Welcome yourself into this moment,

Exactly as it is.

If your physical shape needs attention,

Create a pillow for the heart and lungs to fall back on.

And with a gentleness,

Pull the shoulder blades towards the strength of your spine.

Then sense the body drop away from the center,

As you relax muscle control once again.

This is Shavasana.

Whole body laying flat,

Long and symmetrical from left to right.

Continue to release any tension.

Stay so intimately connected to each breath.

During the practice of Yoga Nidra,

We have a potent opportunity to access our unconscious and our subconscious mind.

And this is where all of our previous programming is held.

Through the body's relaxed state of awareness,

We call upon our will to rewrite any of the limiting thoughts or beliefs that are no longer in alignment with our highest good or our intention which we wish to create inside of this life.

In the alpha state of Yoga Nidra,

With awareness present,

We have the will to recreate and reshape our inner reality and transfer that vibration to our external reality as we align with the new belief,

Our Sankalpa.

This is called Sankalpa,

The very truth of your essence and the knowing of consciousness.

It becomes a reunion with universal consciousness as we release ourselves from what we know as our I-consciousness.

You were born whole and this is the opportunity to reclaim that.

When working with the Sankalpa,

There can be no desire to outrun or to rapidly heal what you're working with.

That is in alignment with ego,

The home of I-consciousness.

Make beautiful friends with your Sankalpa and use it as a compass to continually guide you back towards your wholeness.

If you are struggling to find self-worth,

A beautiful reframe of that old thought patterning could be,

I am worthy.

If you have experienced events which made you feel unsafe,

Make them safe.

Make it as broad as possible as the root of most pinpointed Sankalpas is much,

Much deeper.

If you find yourself in a state of lack,

Financial worry at the forefront of your mind,

Under the money is the desire to feel safe,

Secure,

Supported.

Either of these could become your Sankalpa.

I am safe.

I am secure.

I am supported.

Choose only one that aligns with your energy.

Make it concise and speak it with truth.

It is a conviction that this Sankalpa is already so in the land of no time and no space.

Your mind becomes like a sponge in this state,

Ready to absorb the new frequency of these words.

Words,

Whether spoken out loud or written,

Carry with them a vibration.

This is the vibration that your innate knowing recognizes.

And this is the vibration that you emit to the external,

That the universe responds to.

Take this moment to feel into your Sankalpa and then take the next moment to hear it internally as your inner voice writes the script for your present and future.

Silently repeat your Sankalpa three times,

Beginning with I am,

Short,

Concise,

And with the power of authority that we know truth delivers.

I am.

I am.

I am.

Without returning to suffering or to struggle to plant your Sankalpa,

We must trust that it has already been received,

Received across many lifetimes,

And there is nothing else to do but to release it now.

Use my voice as a tether to this physical world as we begin our journey inward through what is known as the rotation of consciousness.

During the rotation of consciousness,

The mind may become distracted and drift off.

Keep calling it home to my voice and your body as we explore the internal landscape of the body.

If you find yourself falling asleep,

Silently repeat,

I am practicing Yoga Nidra.

I will remain awake.

And if you do drift off,

This must be what is needed.

And just trust that.

If you remain aware,

This is where we unite with spirit and uncover the hidden parts of ourselves that have been kept from the surface of our consciousness.

Moving through the body,

We activate the centers of the brain that are mapping that part of the body.

Even if you have lost this part of your physical self,

The brain still holds a memory of it.

This is why we experience phantom limb pain and why it's important not to overlook the memory of the brain and its connection to your physical as well as energetic bodies.

Gather all of your awareness and rest it into your right side body.

Mentally locate your right hand and pinpoint awareness to your right hand thumb.

This practice is the gateway to the subconscious.

This practice begins on the right hand side,

Locating the thumb as a signal to move into the bodily memory of the lower minds.

Right hand thumb.

Second finger.

Third finger.

Fourth finger.

Fifth.

Consciousness gathers at the palm of the right hand,

Traveling upward through the forearm,

Upper arm,

And over the shoulder.

Drip awareness down the right side of the chest,

Waist,

Hip.

Go inward with awareness to the darkness of the hip socket and stay there for a moment.

Let the feeling of flowing awareness move through the right side of your pelvic bowl,

Traveling down the right leg,

Over your femur,

Knee,

Shin,

And into the ankle.

And allow awareness to pool into the ankle joints and bones of your right foot.

Washing attention through the sole of your right foot and into each soft toe.

One,

Two,

Three,

Four,

Five.

Sensing attention and energy move through the entire right side body,

The entire right side body,

Your whole right side.

Now we'll anchor awareness to the left side body as we begin in the left hand thumb.

Second finger.

Third finger.

Fourth finger.

Fifth.

Consciousness gathering at the palm of the left hand and traveling upward through the forearm,

Upper arm,

And over the shoulder.

Drip awareness down the left side of the chest,

Waist,

And hip.

And going inward with awareness to the darkness of the hip socket.

And staying here and let the feeling of flowing awareness move through the left side of the pelvic bowl.

Traveling down the left leg,

Over the femur,

Knee,

Shin,

And into the ankle.

Let awareness pool through the ankle joints and bones of your left foot.

Washing attention through the sole of your left foot and upward into each toe.

One.

Two.

Three.

Four.

Five.

Sense attention and energy move through the entire left side body.

Entire left side body.

Your whole left side body.

And wash awareness now through the back body,

Beginning at the heels of both feet.

Settle into your breath as you move awareness from your heels to your calves and behind the knees.

And feel awareness wash through your hamstrings,

Glutes,

Low back,

Mid back,

And your upper back.

Feel it move down both arms,

Smoothing consciousness over your shoulders and up the cervical spine to the cranium and settling into the very top of your head.

Liquefying awareness from the top of your head,

Melted over the skin of your face,

Every feature across your face,

Where your personality has rested within your facial structure,

And what you hide and what is seen.

Settle into the pockets that receive no attention and rest yourself there.

Slowly move down your throat through the truth of who you are to the center of your heart and outward towards the hands of doing.

From the hands,

Move yourself back up the arms,

Across your shoulders,

Down your chest,

Into the womb of wisdom that exists within us all,

The seed of creation,

And the emotional brain.

Down through the pelvic bowl,

Swirling energy and attention into the watery fluidity of the pelvic bowl.

Breathe here,

Settle here,

Drop all awareness to the depth of the pelvic bowl.

Down through the legs,

The root of your structure,

Your forward momentum,

Settle into the feet,

Feel awareness ground itself into your feet,

Awareness grounding itself into your feet,

Feel grounded awareness present in your feet.

And now from the feet,

Travel upward to the crown of your head and sense the lightness and connectedness that rests there.

Experience the duality that exists within the physical structure and in Mayakosha,

Heaven and earth.

Open yourself to this experience of your whole body,

Your whole body,

Your whole body.

Move from the knowing of your whole body to settle into the cavern of your chest and belly and experience your whole torso.

Inside the torso,

Begin to attune witness to the natural quality of your breath,

Releasing any need to control or alter your breath.

There is a gift in witnessing the natural rhythm.

Witness the natural rhythm of your breath.

Where is your breath rising from?

Where does the exhale begin?

Aparigraha.

Release the desire to interfere with the innate intelligence of spirit,

Breathing your body.

Bear witness to this intelligence of spirit,

Breathing your body.

Without interfering,

Begin to count each breath.

Count each breath backwards from 89 to 1.

Witness any feelings that come or fluctuations you experience in response to counting the breath.

And once you settle back in,

Start the count.

Backwards from 89 to 1.

No rush,

No timeline,

Just pure concentration.

Dharana.

Continue to relax into the earth and settle yourself into concentration.

Settle,

Counting backwards,

89 to 1.

Where the breath is moving,

Give it permission to be there with no force,

No interference,

Just witness.

And as we release the counting of breath,

You'll come with me into the settler layers of self as we explore the mental body and let the yogis know as Manamaya Kosha.

In Manamaya Kosha,

We spend time and no time exploring the mental body and the opportunity arises to neutralize potent emotions and where preference is present.

When experienced from the seed of witness,

An observation state,

All charged emotions have the potential to move into a dream-like state.

Remember,

As we move through this layer,

That you have chosen this space because you are safe here.

You have chosen this space to reflect that back to you over and over again.

You are safe and you are not these emotions and preferences that arise.

They are stored as memory.

You are a conscious being with a beautiful gift of presence within your power.

So sit high in the seed of witness as we internally recreate the experience of opposites.

The feeling of safety,

Remembering experience,

A time,

A memory of when you felt safe.

It could bring up feelings of temperature,

Smell,

Touch,

Possibly even a taste.

Let yourself move through feelings of feeling safe.

If you have never experienced safety in your lifetime,

What would safety feel like to you?

Right now,

Experience the feelings that safety would bring.

Relax the feeling of safety and come backward towards your breath.

And call in a time,

An experience,

A memory,

A feeling of unsafe.

Remember that this is an internal experience and to stay soft in the body as you call back the feeling of unsafe.

If there was a time,

A smell,

A sound,

A pressure,

Remember that experience.

And if you have to create an experience of feeling unsafe,

Do that now.

Remember everything about that experience,

The feeling of unsafe.

And then remember that you are safe.

Bring back the feelings that safety brings.

Through the inner senses,

Call back safe and unsafe in the same body at the same time.

And this is possible.

There is a duality that exists within us always.

Feel safe and unsafe inside the same body at the same time.

Releasing these feelings and welcoming the neutral landscape back as you settle into your breath,

Your familiar breath.

Come back to your soft body,

An aware state.

You are practicing Yoga Nidra.

You will remain awake and aware.

Recall now the time of an experience that you felt strongly about,

One that invites feelings of discomfort,

Unlike and even the possibility of hate.

What experience is this?

What can you see through all your inner senses?

What experience is this?

Call in the feeling of the situation through all of your senses.

And if you can only experience it through one sense,

Do that vividly.

Let this experience wash through you and call back a time when you never wanted to leave,

One that you wanted to last forever,

An experience that you would recreate over and over.

The smells,

Feelings,

The sights and any sensations,

Be back there now,

An experience that you loved.

And call back both sensations,

Both experiences,

The one that you've rejected and the one that you've welcomed,

And invite both to be present within your body at the same time,

The polarizing paradox of love and hate within your body at the same time.

Releasing both sensations now,

Both experiences,

Come back to this moment,

Come back to this breath,

Your soft body,

And settle into comfort,

Breath,

And presence.

Dissolve your edges,

Any rigidity that's formed,

Any structure,

And soften into your support.

Welcome the release of weight into the earth that holds you.

Stay aware of my voice,

Use it as an anchor,

And stay soft as we move into an even subtler layer of the body,

Known as vijayana maya kosha,

The wisdom sheath.

In this layer we offer the sub and unconscious mind an opportunity to explore,

Make known,

And synthesize all of the impressions that have been stored in our cells throughout many lifetimes.

And there is a great potential here to access the universal wisdom from this space as we leave large gaps,

Large pockets of silence for intuition to speak.

Remember to stay soft and aware.

Before you,

From the intelligence of the inner eye,

See a field of fire,

Red,

Orange,

Blue,

Burning fire across an open field,

An endless field of fire.

And smell the smoke,

Feel the heat as you stand next to the fire.

There is no need to rush,

Feel unsafe,

Or to do anything at all in this moment.

The fire is exactly what is needed.

There is nothing to do but experience the inner rush of sense.

Let the heat rest across your face,

Your clothes,

Feel the sweat as it melts down your body.

Total experience of mass burning through all of your senses.

And as you look down and you see that your body is not there,

That you have been released from your physical self and are now looking around.

You see your body moving across the field.

From the outside looking in,

See your body,

How you've identified yourself to your body,

Moving through the fire,

Slow and steady,

With a fire that you can see in your own eyes.

There is something very mysterious about this fire,

This field,

Your body,

This experience.

An alchemy is happening as the fire transforms what was to what is.

And this fire is a gift,

A gift stolen from the gods and gifted to man,

One that is written within you at all times.

It brings with it the gift of change,

Renewal,

And a rebirth.

Fire holds within it the sacred practice of transformation.

What needs to be released can be burned to the ground.

And from the ground the seeds of potential arise and a new life begins.

This process is recreated throughout this life.

The others that came before it and the ones that will come after it.

Through the power of fire we recreate.

Witness yourself slowly stepping across the field of fire,

Burning off each layer of personality,

Roles,

Identities,

And memories,

Which are ready to be released,

Becoming more and more like the shedding skin of a snake.

Each step you take you shed your whole skin,

Face,

Torso,

Arms,

Legs,

Feet,

All falling to the ground,

Revealing another layer and another layer.

Walking through the fire,

Each layer of skin alchemized and reborn through the soil.

A powerful walk,

A determined face,

To leave all of the heaviness that has served its purpose,

Burning with the fire,

Alchemized into the field.

You watch as your body sheds every layer that needs to go.

The field is endless and the surge of authority is awakened.

Your physical body becomes lighter and lighter as it comes near to where your soul is standing.

Look into the eyes of your physical self and see the image of a burning red phoenix reflected from the gaze in your eyes.

As the last layers of self are burned to the ground,

The phoenix within you begins to rise.

Higher and higher to the sky,

The powerful phoenix that was lying inside,

Asleep,

Takes flight.

Your soul catches on and you unite with the bird of fire.

You unite with the bird of fire.

You unite with the bird of fire.

From the eye of the phoenix,

You move across time and space,

Borderless and boundaryless,

Memory and sufferings,

Burning everything you touch.

To the outside lens,

This may seem like a burning of everything,

But it's only the disintegration of what has contained you,

What has kept you from the vast expansiveness of your soul.

This is the truth of who you are,

The totality of all the space you hold,

Across time,

Through time and within time.

There is no ending,

Only fire.

Fire.

Fire.

Fire.

Remember who you are.

Silently,

Steadily repeat your sankalpa three times.

Say it slow,

As the truth.

I am.

I am.

I am.

And it's safe to release the sankalpa and come back to this human form.

In this human form,

We track time and space.

We identify with objects as extensions of ourselves.

What can you feel under you?

What do you feel around you?

What can you smell?

And what do you taste?

It's okay to swallow into the mouth,

To experience the sensation of taste as it travels down your throat.

These are all blessed senses in our five sensory experience.

Stay connected to inner sight,

As you begin to turn outward all other senses.

What does it feel like to hear without seeing?

What does it feel like to smell without seeing?

What does it feel like to feel without seeing?

Breathe down through the touch points with the floor.

Remember the alchemy that has happened here.

And breathe into the cells of your memory.

Guide your breath back to a longer slower flow.

And then stop.

Watch what happens as you relax control of your breath.

There is a source present that wants you to live outside of your control.

There is an all-seeing and an all-knowing that is with you always.

Make union known of source through your breath.

Witnessing your body come back to life as life force is awakened into each cell.

Now firm this union by holding your breath and hold it as long as you can.

And as you near the end of being able to hold your breath,

Begin to acknowledge how eventually you will be breathed.

You will be breathed despite your control and your will not to.

That is the power of this union.

When you feel alone,

Lean into the breath that wants you to breathe.

From the moment you were born until your very last breath,

It is always with you.

Stay in this space for as long as you need before you awaken your physical sight.

The practice of yoga nidra is now complete.

Hariyom Tatsad Hariyom Tatsad Hariyom Tatsad Hariyom Tatsad

Reviews

Thank you, this was wonderful. Your voice and directions took me on a beautiful, sacred inward journey. 🙏💕❤️🌟

Beautiful and strengthening 🙏

This is a very beautiful and thorough yoga nidra that explains the practice well. The connecting with breath at the end was powerful and moved me.
(There are two moments near the beginning where the recording stops but it will pick back up again).

This was incredible. I loved everything about it - the opposites and the image of walking through fire and becoming a phoenix. Will return to this one for sure!

That was absolutely amazing!!! I am a yoga teacher who specializes in Yoga Nidra and this practice blew my mind. Thank you!!!!!

That was one the most comprehensive and helpful yoga nitras I have done.
Thank you so much

Amazing, beautifully presented. Inspiring. Loved it.

What a gloriously wonderful practice! So well crafted, timed, construed and with the added bonus of dealing with one my all time favourite subjects: alchemy… (well in a spiritual sense at least). Quite reshreshing (and actually inspirational and transformative for myself) was you made me see that how through the use of nidra a Jungean kind of individuation can be created most efficiently with not the conscious neither the unconscious level as working ground, yet rather in that place of energy that separates these poles most of the time. The use of nidra a means to allow people to freely shift somehow between more conscious to more unconscious realms of the mind and back, makes it a very powerful tool to really create change, not by applying the language of the conscious onto the unconscious nor vice versa, yet by exploring their common ground and by being able to observe their interactions as the observer. This is, I believe, a especially effective way to bring about change in not only body nor mind-levels, but in both including that 3rd in between level that is the energetic body-mind field. Thus I suspect truly making changes in neuroplasticity a highly likely result (alchemical transformation!). All these things you give us, are why I find this practice to be a thing of wonder, of wisdom and of grace! Namaste 🙏 Hari Om Tat Sat. ✨✨

Holy crap! That was an incredible experience. When I opened my eyes, I could believe I was in the same place, I had traveled soo many places. Thank you 🙏🏾