Hello and welcome to your yoga nidra practice.
This loving and heartfelt practice rooted in ancient tradition and here to support your journey into rest this evening.
Make sure you're warm enough.
Get as cozy and as comfortable as you can,
Feeling into the shape of your body from the inside,
Closing down the eyes,
Ready for our sleep meditation.
Amongst the stars it is estimated that there are 200 billion stars just in our galaxy and three trillion galaxies across the universe.
See if your mind can comprehend these numbers and if it is difficult that it is said that there are as many stars in the sky as there are grains of sand on the earth.
Feel into your place on this planet between sand and stars,
Recognising that the universe favours balance and if there are ever times when it feels as though life has veered off course,
Know that it will right itself again.
Under the warmth and the protection of this knowledge,
Of this knowledge,
The practice of yoga nidra begins.
With eyes closed,
Picture the room around you,
The wall in front of you,
The wall to your left,
The wall to your right and imagine all the space that there is in between and gather yourself inwards now,
Rolling awareness gently in from the corners,
Coming inside of the body,
All the parts of you welcome and included inside the home of the body,
Held,
Grounded,
Fully supported by the surface beneath you.
Feel all the places now the body is touching the surface below,
All of the touch points against the surface below and bring awareness in even further now into the spine and as you breathe in,
Breathing up the spine from base towards the neck,
As you breathe out,
Breathing down from neck towards the base,
Breathing up and down the spine like so.
Take two more breaths like this and come right inside now into your heart space.
Can you find a sense of nestling in to your own heart space,
Curling up in this warm and cosy place and from this place we will now set our joint sankalpa,
Our shared and sacred intention for this practice.
Listen to the words as I say them three times and repeat them mentally after me.
I rest in a sense of ease and well-being.
I rest in a sense of ease and well-being.
I rest in a sense of ease and well-being.
And letting go of sankalpa now,
Follow the guidance on a rotation around the terrain of the body.
Allow awareness to flow into each body part that is named,
Placing a star on each port which is visited.
Beginning with the right hand thumb,
Place a star on the right hand thumb,
Second finger,
Third finger,
Fourth finger,
Fifth finger,
Palm of right hand,
Back of hand,
Wrist,
Lower arm,
Elbow,
Upper arm,
Shoulder,
Armpit,
Right side of chest,
Waist,
Hip,
Thigh,
Knee,
Shin,
Top of right foot,
Sole of foot,
Right big toe,
Second toe,
Third toe,
Fourth toe,
Fourth toe,
Fifth toe,
Whole right side of the body.
Moving to the left hand thumb,
Place a star on the left hand thumb,
Second finger,
Third finger,
Fourth finger,
Fifth finger,
Palm of left hand,
Back of hand,
Wrist,
Lower arm,
Elbow,
Upper arm,
Shoulder,
Armpit,
Left side of chest,
Waist,
Hip,
Thigh,
Knee,
Shin,
Ankle,
Top of left foot,
Sole of foot,
Left big toe,
Second toe,
Third toe,
Fourth toe,
Fifth toe,
Whole left side of the body.
Place a star on the right heel,
Left heel,
Right calf,
Left calf,
Back of right knee,
Back of left knee,
Back of right thigh,
Back of left thigh,
Right buttock,
Left buttock,
Lower back,
Middle of the back,
Upper back,
Whole spinal column,
Right shoulder blade,
Left shoulder blade,
Back of neck,
Back of head,
Place a star at the top of the head,
Right temple,
Left temple,
Right eyebrow,
Left eyebrow,
Space between the eyebrows,
Right eyelid,
Left eyelid,
Right eye,
Left eye,
Right ear,
Left ear,
Right cheek,
Left cheek,
Bridge of nose,
Tip of nose,
Right nostril,
Left nostril,
Upper lip,
Lower lip,
Line where the lips meet,
Teeth,
Tongue,
Gums,
Inside of mouth,
Right side of jaw,
Left side of jaw,
Chin,
Front of throat,
Throat hollow,
Right side of chest,
Left side of chest,
Heart centre,
Upper abdomen,
Abdomen,
Navel,
Lower abdomen,
Pelvis,
Whole right leg and foot together,
Whole left leg and foot together,
Whole right arm and hand together,
Whole left arm and hand together,
Whole torso,
Neck and head,
Whole torso,
Neck and head together,
Whole right side of the body,
Whole left side of the body,
Whole back of body,
Whole front of body,
Whole body together,
Whole body together,
Whole body together as a constellation of stars.
Letting go now of this focus of awareness on the body,
Bring attention to the breath.
Count the natural breath backwards from the number 22.
Breathe in 22,
Breathe out 22.
Breathe in 21,
Breathe out 21.
Continue to count the breath backwards like so.
If the mind has wandered from the breath,
Just come back to 22 and start again.
Continue to count the natural breath backwards from 22.
If zero is reached,
Come back to 22 and start again.
Let go now of this counting of the breath.
Different body sensations will now be named.
As each one is named,
Feel it fully throughout the body,
Starting with the sensation of heaviness,
A sense of being very heavy throughout the whole body,
Grounded against the surface below.
Feel heaviness in the legs and feet,
Heaviness throughout the torso,
Arms and hands,
Heaviness in the neck and head,
Feeling weighted against the surface below throughout the whole body.
And letting go of heaviness now,
Find the pathway to a sensation of being light,
Feeling lightness throughout the whole body,
A sense of buoyancy,
Lightness throughout the whole torso,
Arms and hands,
Lightness in the neck and head,
Feeling light and buoyant throughout the whole body.
And letting go of lightness,
Find the pathway back to heaviness,
Feeling heavy and weighted throughout the whole body.
And take time now to move backwards between a feeling of heaviness and lightness and heaviness again.
Backwards and forwards between a feeling of heaviness and heaviness between a feeling of heaviness and heaviness again.
And see if it's possible now to feel both heaviness and lightness at the same time,
Heavy and light at the same time.
And letting go of both heaviness and lightness now,
Resting in neutral awareness,
Taking rest in the place which is neutral awareness.
And letting go of body sensations now,
Allowing awareness to drift to the space of the mind.
Different images will now be named,
Visualize them and sense them in the space of the mind.
Cat curled up asleep,
Mug of hot chocolate with pink and white marshmallows,
Candle flame flickering and dancing,
Glass jar filled with sand,
Fairy tale castle with five turrets,
Fairy tale castle with five turrets,
Street lamps coming on as twilight falls,
Feeling of getting into a perfectly warm body,
Feeling the warmth of the earth,
Feeling the warmth of the earth,
A soft light falling across the pages of a book,
A wise owl on a tree branch,
A wise owl on a tree branch,
Peaceful desert under a blanket of stars,
Looking up into a star filled sky.
And in this sky,
See written out our initial shared sacred sankalpa.
I take rest in a sense of ease and well-being.
And stay now in this place of well-being as you listen to the music or let go softly into sleep.
All my love.
See you again soon.
