Yoga Nidra - Rewilding Ourselves

This Yoga Nidra relaxation practice was inspired by my recent visit to the first place in England to be 'rewilded', over 20yrs ago. Most of the imagery in the practice is based on things I saw there. The practice invites us to “rewild ourselves”, removing the veil of delusion through which we see the world, and to see our true nature with clarity. It features a Tibetan Buddhist practice which involves breathing in the delusion of ourselves and all beings. I hope you enjoy the practice.

Transcript

So welcome home to yourself and welcome to this yoga nidra practice which aims to help us rewild ourselves,

To bring us back to our true nature,

Without the veil of illusion through which we normally see the world.

I can't of course guarantee that one simple practice would enable you to see your true nature or the true nature of reality clearly,

But done regularly then it's a step in the right direction.

And know that there's no way to do this practice wrong,

There isn't anything to be done.

So just inviting a surrender into the practice for the next 20 minutes or so.

And the first part of the practice is making sure that you're warm enough and comfortable.

Just taking a few moments to adjust your posture so that you feel well supported and can completely let go.

And the invitation is to close down the eyes now,

Letting go of the day and surrendering into this practice.

Inviting stillness to settle in over the body.

Having a sense of the shape and arrangement of the body and the orientation of the body in the room,

Perhaps in relation to the door,

The windows or any objects.

And we'll begin by tensing and relaxing different areas of the body,

Beginning with the face.

So tensing your forehead,

Around the eyes,

The mouth,

The jaw,

Squeezing all of those muscles and holding it and then release.

And now tensing the muscles in the arms,

The hands,

The elbows,

The shoulders,

Holding it and then release.

And now the lower body,

Tensing the buttocks,

The thighs,

The feet,

The toes,

Holding it and release.

And finally putting it all together.

So tensing up the face,

The arms and shoulders,

The lower body,

The whole body tense and now release.

Feeling the weight of the body now sinking down into the surface beneath,

Knowing that you are held and supported by the earth below.

And just allowing any sounds that can be heard now to come into the ears without any labelling or judging those sounds as pleasant or unpleasant.

If there aren't any sounds then just welcoming in the silence.

Perhaps you hear sounds from far away,

Outside the space where you are right now.

Sounds from inside the room.

Sounds from within the body.

The sound of the breath.

Welcoming all of these sounds without any labelling or judging.

Just observing this soundscape around you which has never before been heard and will never be heard again exactly as it is right now.

And noticing the touch of air upon the skin,

Its texture and its temperature.

Perhaps noticing the covers or your clothing as it moves with the breath.

And feeling all of the places where the body is moved by this breath.

Perhaps the belly,

The chest or some other places.

Noticing the expansion with the inhale and the natural contraction with the exhale.

Just resting the awareness upon the breath as it comes and goes,

As if the body was being breathed by the breath.

And now noticing those little pauses at the top of the in-breath and the end of the out-breath.

And now bringing awareness to all of these four parts of the breath.

Perhaps having a sense that the incoming breath is like the springtime of the breath and the life force is rising in the land of this body.

And pause at the top of the in-breath is like the fullness and abundance of summertime.

The outgoing breath like the autumn time of the breath,

The land of the body shedding what's no longer needed and preparing for the deep rest of winter,

Which is the pause of the end of the out-breath.

And really feeling into these four seasons of the breath as it moves in and out of the body now.

Inviting the awareness now to rest upon the heart.

And inviting the awareness now to rest upon the heart.

Perhaps cultivating a sense of gratitude for something or someone in your life,

Or perhaps a special place.

Feeling a warmth or an expansiveness in the deep heart's core,

Beneath the breastbone in the very centre of the chest.

And from that place of gratitude,

Allowing for an intention to arise.

Perhaps an intention around seeing more clearly,

Of rewilding yourself back to your true nature.

And if no intention arises,

Then just resting in the warm embrace of the heart.

Next we'll invite our awareness to travel around the body.

You might like to imagine a clear white light illuminating each place,

So that by the end of the body scan the whole body is illuminated and made clear by this cool white light.

So starting at the crown of the head.

Clear white light at the eyebrow centre.

The nose.

The upper lip.

The lower lip.

Both lips together.

The chin.

The point between the collarbones,

Illuminating there.

The right shoulder.

Right elbow.

The wrist.

The palm.

The tip of the right hand thumb.

The index finger.

Middle finger.

Ring finger.

Little finger.

All the fingers and the thumb glowing with this clear white light.

Going back through the palm,

The wrist,

The elbow,

The shoulder,

And back to the point between the collarbones.

The heart centre.

Clear light at the navel.

The pelvis.

The right hip.

The knee.

The ankle.

The heel.

The tip of the right big toe.

Second toe.

Third toe.

Fourth toe.

The little toe.

All the toes together.

Moving back up through the heel.

The ankle.

The knee.

The hip.

And back to the pelvis.

Clear light at the navel.

The point between the collarbones.

Moving across to the left shoulder.

The left elbow.

The wrist.

The palm.

Tip of the left hand thumb.

Index finger.

Middle finger.

Ring finger.

Little finger.

All the fingers and thumb together.

The palm.

The wrist.

The elbow.

The shoulder.

The point between the collarbones.

Clear light at the heart centre.

The navel.

The pelvis.

The left hip.

The knee.

The ankle.

The heel.

The tip of the left big toe.

Second toe.

Third toe.

Fourth toe.

Little toe.

All the toes together.

The heel.

The ankle.

The knee.

The hip.

The pelvis.

The navel.

The heart centre.

The point between the collarbones.

The eyebrow centre.

And the crown of the head.

The whole body.

The whole body.

The whole body illuminated and glowing with this clear white light.

And now inviting the awareness to rest upon the breath.

Just observing the gentle rhythm of the natural breath as it enters and leaves the body.

And now the invitation is that with every in-breath imagine that you could breathe in the veil of illusion that covers your eyes so that you could see clearly into your true nature.

And with every exhale stabilising in that.

With every inhale breathing it in and removing it.

With every exhale stabilising.

And now imagine that with every inhale you could breathe in that veil of illusion from someone special in your life so that they may see clearly.

And with every exhale stabilising in that clarity.

And now widening out the field so that with each inhale you breathe in the veil of illusion from everyone in your street or your town.

And with every exhale stabilising in that.

And finally broadening out that field so that you could breathe in the veil of illusion from all beings.

Having a sense of being able to breathe all the flooding and stabilising it with every exhale.

And now with every exhale stabilising in that field.

And gently letting that go now.

So now imagining what it might feel like in the body to see your true nature clearly.

To tap into your wildness and express it.

What might that feel like?

Where would you feel it in the body?

Perhaps there's a clarity.

A freedom or a spaciousness.

And now imagine what it might like to feel deluded,

Unable to see your true nature,

Unable to experience your inner wildness or express it.

What might that feel like in the body?

Where would you feel it?

Perhaps it might feel like a dullness,

A contraction or something else.

Now returning to the sensation of clarity,

Of wildness.

And now coming back to that feeling of delusion,

Of dullness.

And for a few moments now just playing with whether it's possible to experience both of those sensations at the same time.

Feeling that inner wildness and clarity at the same time as the contraction and the dullness of delusion.

What might that be like?

And then gently letting that go.

And now I will name some things and you can imagine them.

I might move quickly from one thing to the next,

Just trying to imagine those things as best you can.

They might be rooted in your memory or just created in your imagination.

Jump from image to image as soon as you hear it said.

It's still late.

A meadow of wildflowers.

A butterfly.

A shade of a tall tree.

A field of grazing cattle.

A winding river.

Red deer.

Stalks nesting in the treetops.

The sun shining overhead.

Cruel water.

A field of ragwort.

A bird of prey.

A bee on a flower.

Wild pony.

And fowl.

Leaves underfoot.

Cat stretching.

A pile of acorns.

A path in the woods.

A dragonfly.

A walk through a field.

A grasshopper jumping.

A fish in a lake.

A purple thistle.

A white swan.

And now invite the awareness to focus on the space in front of your closed eyelids.

Perhaps imagining a transparent screen as though you're at the cinema.

And that screen is as high and as wide as your eyes can see.

Focus your awareness on this mental screen and become aware of any phenomena that manifest within it.

Perhaps there are colours or patterns or lights.

Whatever you see there,

Just let it arise and let it go.

Just exploring the space.

And if thoughts come,

Let them come and let them go.

Just observing what's there to be seen.

And gently guiding the awareness back to rest at the heart centre.

Perhaps cultivating a sense of gratitude once again.

Feeling a warmth or an expansiveness in the deep heart's core beneath the breastbone.

And from that place of gratitude,

Allowing for an intention to arise.

Perhaps the intention that you set at the beginning of the practice or perhaps just tuning in,

Allowing for any inner guidance to arise.

And just noticing the breath as it moves in and out of the body now.

Perhaps focusing more on the in-breath.

Feeling the touch of the air upon the skin.

The temperature of that air.

Perhaps feeling the coolness of the air entering the nostrils.

And hearing all of the sounds that can be heard.

The sound of the breath.

Sounds from within the room and sounds from further away.

And starting to deepen the breath now.

Deepening the in-breath.

Bringing some small movement to the fingers and the toes as we gently wake the body back up now.

Wiggling the fingers and toes,

Perhaps circling the wrists and the ankles.

And taking any movement or stretch that feels delightful and needed by the body right now.

Just taking a few moments to pause here before moving on to whatever's coming next in your day.

Perhaps setting the intention to return to this wildness,

To this little glimpse of your true nature.

At different points throughout the day.

So this practice of yoga nidra is now complete.

Thank you for listening.

Reviews

Wonderful! Thank you for sharing this here. 🙏🏼🫶🏼