Yoga Nidra For Children - My Secret Garden

This Nidra is aimed primarily at young children around 3-6.
It includes a practice of engage and release to help relaxation
A body scan with glitter (magic glitter that doesn’t stick and doesn’t make a mess!)
An invitation to bring along a toy or imaginary friend
And a trip to a garden.
It is offered as a bedtime sleep Nidra

Transcript

I would like to share with you a yoga nidra and this yoga nidra can be done by anyone of any age but I guess I'm especially thinking that it might be nice for children.

So before we start let's maybe do some exercises to get ourselves into the into the mood for doing the nidra and so let's see if you can feel the contact between your body and whatever's underneath you.

Maybe you're lying on the ground or maybe you're lying on your bed or maybe on a sofa or maybe something else but wherever you are just see if you can feel the surface underneath you and maybe you can feel the temperature maybe you can feel the places where your body comes in contact with it and maybe some places where it doesn't and maybe you can let yourself relax into that surface just a little bit more and if you need to wriggle around a little bit to get more comfortable please feel free to wriggle around and as I go through the yoga nidra you know there's no rules here so you can do whatever you want and you can fall asleep or you can stay awake you can be still or you can move around you can lie down or you can sit up or you can get up and walk around the room and listen to it while you're walking around the room.

So really the only rule is you do you and you do whatever works best for you in the moment.

So you might have thoughts in your head your head might be very empty it really doesn't matter but just to try and listen to my voice and and come with me on the journey that we're going to go on together.

So I would like to take you on a trip to a beautiful garden so would you like to come with I hope you will and maybe would you like to bring someone else too is there anyone or anything you'd like to bring with you maybe you'd like to bring one of your toys or a pet or maybe an imaginary creature you can bring whoever you want to bring or you can just come by yourself either way is fine with me.

But before we go to this garden we're going to bring our attention to our body for a moment and to try and help us relax and try and help us get more comfortable.

So to do that we'll first of all engage the body and then relax it.

So first let's try and press our fingers into our palms and make tiny balls so you really squeeze your fingers into your palm while I count to three one two three and then let your fingers uncurl and open and turn into soft stars.

And then we'll make the tiny balls with the fingers as well as lifting your shoulders right up to your ears so your arms become hard like tree trunks and I'm going to count to three one two three squeeze and then let your arms go soft soft like spaghetti.

And then we'll breathe in and press your fingers into your palms to make the balls and then lift your shoulders up to your ears so your arms become hard like tree trunks and then I'll do it again count to three one two three and then go soft like spaghetti.

And then we'll do the same thing with your legs so squeeze your toes press your heels into the ground as if your legs are turning into logs one two three squeeze and then relax so your legs are like spaghetti now and then we'll do that one more time so squeeze your toes press down your heels squeeze squeeze squeeze one two three and then release and let your legs be soft like jelly.

And then we'll do the same thing for your whole body so your whole body is going to become stiff like a tree trunk so squeeze your fingers into your palms bring your shoulders to your ears squeeze your toes squeeze your legs squeeze everything squeeze squeeze squeeze and then release and let's do a sigh and then see if your body can become completely soft like spaghetti and then let's do another breath in and out like a sigh and see if your body can maybe become even softer and then one more time breathe in and breathe out as a sigh great so that was all to help us prepare and now we'll go for a journey around the body and I have a magic wand that sprinkles glitter and you are invited to be exactly as you are right now and I will sprinkle the glitter over you so when I mention a body part imagine the glitter is sparkling okay so I'm also going to sprinkle the glitter on your pet or your soft toy or your imaginary friend whoever it was that you brought with you I'm going to sprinkle the glitter on them so they can be happy and sparkly as well so let's sparkle up and sprinkle glitter on whoever you brought with you and then I'll sprinkle glitter on your feet so your feet are shimmering and sparkling with glitter and now I sprinkled glitter over your legs so your legs are twinkling with glitter and now I sprinkled glitter on your tummy and maybe it tickles a little at first but then it feels nice and your tummy can sparkle and now I sprinkled glitter over your arms your arms becoming sparkly with glitter and now your whole body is sparkling your whole body shimmering and shining with glitter and sparkles so now that we're all sparkly let's visit the beautiful garden together and remember this is your garden and you can decide what it looks like so as you start to walk towards your garden imagine a gateway it's the gate to your garden and it looks like anything you would like it to be it can be big it can be small it can be medium-sized and the gate is painted in your favourite colour what's what is your favourite colour so what does your gate look like so now you can open the gate and enter your garden and in the garden the sun is shining and stroking your cheeks and the wind is stroking your arms softly and you can see your favourite flowers what kind of flowers are your favourite what colours are they do they smell nice and as you continue to walk in your garden you notice your favourite trees favourite trees what kind of trees are they are they big or small what colour are the leaves and you continue to walk and you start to come closer to your favourite tree and as you do that you feel that you want to take a little rest underneath the tree so maybe you sit down or maybe you lie down under your tree and what does the surface under you feel like is it soft is it fluffy is it warm or maybe something else and you can imagine that you and your toy or your pet or your imaginary creature lie down under the tree under a blanket and you can feel how nice it is to lie there surrounded by beautiful flowers and beautiful trees I think your friend has fallen asleep and while you're lying in bed if you want you can think more about what your beautiful garden looks like and I'll leave you here so good night sleep tight sweet dreams