The Winter Goddess: A Yoga Nidra

Rebirth happens in the darkness. This is a practice to nourish and restore you during the winter season or any wintering period of your life. Using the symbolism of water and fire and exploring the opposite emotions of fear and faith, is a strong practice, assisting you in kindling your inner power during a time of rest. It is particularly supportive of the kidneys, adrenals, and nervous system.

The practice includes body rotation with the visual of deep blue light, gentle breath exploration, opposite emotions of cold/hot and fear/faith, ending in an experience of healing with the winter goddess. I truly hope it nourishes you.

Music 'Angels Are Returning' by Music of Wisdom.

Transcript

Welcome to Yoga Nidra with the Winter Goddess.

My name is Miranda and I am truly grateful to be your guide through this experience.

I've been reflecting on winter a lot lately.

Winter is the time of the water element,

Reminding us that this time of rest and replenishment is anything but stagnant.

Winter is the dark time,

The quiet time,

Which calls on us to bed down and rest down for our flow to be restored.

Winter is a time of effortless movement,

A lot like water.

Winter is also a call to come home to yourself,

Returning to home ground so that the fires of your inner power can be kindled higher.

Fire and water,

Water and fire.

Winter is a time of tremendous power,

The kind of power that is called into being when we release,

Relax,

Let it all go.

We let something end so that something new can begin.

This rebirth happens in the dark time.

This Yoga Nidra practice is a call to that rebirth.

It's a beautiful practice for the winter season or any other wintering period of your life,

Maybe times of grief or of illness.

It's a practice to surrender to the flow and let your power be reborn in the darkness.

I truly hope it serves you and brings you deep nourishment.

So let's begin by settling into our bodies,

Creating a nurturing space in which to rest and unfold.

Set yourself up in a safe and warm space,

Somewhere you won't be disturbed,

Paying attention to how your body feels,

Repositioning yourself for maximum comfort,

Resting onto a supportive surface where you can lie down and fall back fully into stillness will maximize the benefits of the practice.

A symmetrical position can help to balance the left and right hemispheres of the body,

Aiding the restoration of flow.

But follow your own body's guidance.

What feels good for you today?

Let yourself practice in a way that feels right to your body in this moment.

You are the author of your experience and you are free to follow your own desires.

When you feel fully settled,

Take a few releasing breaths,

Tension releasing as you exhale.

Begin to feel and sense into the body,

Just receiving whatever sensations are present for you,

No need to change anything,

Allowing your breath to follow its own rhythm,

Softly settling,

Begin to acknowledge yourself for making the choice to rest,

Coming home to your deeper self.

The outside world can fall away,

You are safe here.

Softly and gently watch the breath,

Exploring how it feels in your body,

Witnessing its rise and its fall,

Soft and settling.

Remember that the earth is holding you,

She can take all your weight.

Sense into the back of the body,

Surrendering a little more deeply through those points of contact with the surface beneath you.

Settle,

Breathe,

Rest into the earth.

If you have a sankalpa or intention for your practice,

Bring it into your awareness now.

Let it settle into the mind,

Sinking into the body with every breath.

An intention is a new beginning,

Planting into your being that which you trust is being reborn as you lie in the fertile yoga nidra state.

Something like I am safe,

I am rested,

I belong.

Something you deeply desire to experience in your life,

Medicine for the parts of you that are hurting.

If you want to work with an intention,

Let it rise naturally into your awareness now and repeat it slowly and lovingly to yourself,

Three times.

If you're uncertain what feels resonant for you right now,

Just rest back and trust you will receive exactly what you need from the holy medicine that is yoga nidra.

Fall back into the darkness of rest.

Yoga nidra begins.

Begin to imagine your body surrounded in a deep blue light,

A protective powerful cocoon of deep blue light into which you can safely relax and rest.

Returning to a state of pure being,

Feel and sense the light holding your body in rest.

Your body is filled with this light,

This deep powerful blue light here to heal and strengthen and restore you.

Begin to watch it filling the feet,

Rising up through the legs,

Filling the pelvis,

Rising through the belly and the chest and the spine,

Spilling down the arms and the hands,

Rising through the neck and the skull and the brain.

Your body full of blue light,

Nourishing you from the inside out and as we rest into the light we'll move through a journey of the body,

Allowing ourselves to rest deeply in stillness as awareness moves from part to part.

Feel and sense into your right hand thumb,

Receiving the light through the thumb,

Moving to the index finger,

The middle finger,

The ring finger and the little finger,

The palm of the hand and the back of the hand,

The whole hand filled with blue light,

The wrist and the forearm,

The elbow,

The upper arm,

The shoulder and the armpits full of blue light.

Feel it fill the ribs on the right side of the chest,

Encircling the right lung,

Spreading down through the right side of the diaphragm and into the right side of the belly and the right side of the pelvis,

Through the pelvic floor and the right hip,

Grounded and deepening into blue light.

Feel it move through the right thigh,

Filling the knee and the lower leg,

The ankle and the right foot,

Filling into each of the toes.

Feel blue light flooding through the right side of the body,

Filling through the bones,

Through the muscles and flesh and skin,

Your whole right side full of blue light,

Balancing and restoring you,

Effortless ease.

And now moving into the left side of the body,

Into the left thumb,

The second finger,

The third finger,

The fourth finger and the fifth finger,

The palm of the hand and the back of the hand,

The whole hand full of blue light,

The wrist and the forearm,

The elbow and the upper arm,

Shoulder and the armpits,

The whole left arm filled with blue light,

Filling into the ribs on the left side of the chest,

Encircling the left lung.

Let it move through the diaphragm on the left hand side and into the belly,

The left side of the pelvis,

Filling the pelvic floor and the left hip,

Grounding and restoring,

Flowing blue lights down the left leg,

Through the thigh and the knee,

Through the lower leg and the ankle,

Filling into the left foot and all of the toes,

Deep blue light filling through the bones of the left hand side,

Through the muscle and the skin,

Filling through the left side,

Full of blue lights,

Restoring,

Rebalancing,

Healing the body.

Begin to feel into the right side again and the left side,

Both sides of the body together,

Blue light in the soles of the feet,

In the ankles,

The backs of the calves,

Flooding the backs of the knees,

The backs of the thighs,

The buttocks,

The back of the pelvis,

Light received in the back of the pelvis,

Flowing into the spine,

Deep blue light at the base of the spine,

Flowing through this channel,

Moving and clearing through the spine,

Relaxing and restoring,

Returning you to a balanced state,

The light flows effortlessly through your back,

Moving up through the neck and the cervical spine,

Received into the back of the head,

The skull fills with deep blue light,

The brain receives the deep blue light,

Relaxing back into the flood and flow of this powerful healing and restorative light,

You effortlessly receive,

Let the light smooth your brow,

Flood in through the space between the eyebrows,

Blue light at the third eye,

Blue light in through the eyes,

Through the nose and the cheekbones,

Blue light through the jaw and the ears,

The sides of the head blue light,

Blue light through the whole head,

Blue light flowing down through the throat,

Into the collarbones and the chest,

Filling the lungs and the heart blue light,

Softening and balancing,

Smoothing down through the diaphragm,

Into the organs of the belly,

Resting at the back of the body in the kidneys and the adrenal glands blue light,

Filling the kidneys and the adrenals,

Flooding your body with nourishment,

As you relax and restore,

Soaking into the light light fills into the pelvis,

Collecting again at the base of the spine,

Filling the pelvic floor,

All of your bones resting and restoring restoring,

All of your organs restoring,

All of your nerves restoring,

The whole body restoring feel the whole body restoring,

Become aware of the breath moving in and out of the body,

Effortless,

Easy cycles of breath as you breathe in,

Your cocoon of light expands,

As you breathe out it settles back towards your centre breath and blue light,

Feel it expand as you breathe,

Release,

Coming home as you exhale,

The body settling into it's natural rhythm,

The effortless flow of breathing and now as we shift into the experiencing of opposites,

Settling into your body,

Anchoring into the space of your heart,

The safe space your inner treasure,

Your inner home,

Come back here at any time that you need,

An anchor and a beacon for you as we explore the mind and emotions and the realm of our human experience,

Begin to feel the sensation of cold in the body allowing the sensation of cold,

Maybe feeling it in the hands and the feet,

Cold as if you were standing on an icy floor,

The body and the experience of cold fully allowing the experience of cold,

And now letting cold go and allowing the experience of heat,

Heat,

The body is warming and heating up feeling heat through the centre of the body,

Heat through your extremities,

The whole body hot,

As if you were standing in front of a warm fire,

The body is hot now letting that go and anchoring back into the safe space of the heart,

The body balancing it's temperature easily,

As you rest into the heart space and now we begin to allow the experience of fear to arise,

Feeling fear in the body,

Knowing we are safe and held and free to experience the feeling of fear allowing fear to move through the body,

Arising and surfacing the energy of fear,

Allowing the experience as easily and effortlessly as you can and now fear releases,

Letting fear go,

Letting go of fear and allowing the experience of faith,

The energy of faith allowing the body to feel the energy of faith,

Faith moving through the body,

The whole body in an experience of faith,

Feel faith through the whole body now and now allowing the two to co-exist,

Allowing the experience of both fear and of faith to co-exist co-exist,

Allowing the experience of both in the same moment,

Body holding fear and faith together and now releasing both fear and faith and coming home to the space of the heart,

Anchoring into this safe space,

Effortless and easy,

Relaxing into a balanced state bring your awareness to the space behind the closed eyes,

The dark space of consciousness,

Noticing any light or patterns,

Just watching what is present in this space allowing the experience of the intuitive self,

The wise creative self,

Allow this experience to be as it is and now you'll receive a sequence of images,

Allowing your wise self to conjure them on this screen,

Exactly as they need to be A dark winter's night,

A frozen lake,

Birds nesting,

Moonlight on still water,

A winter's crown raw power,

Ivy on an old door,

A golden eagle,

A stormy night,

Firm ground deep roots,

Lamplight,

The heart space,

The heart space,

Still light,

Blue light you find yourself in a forest clearing at night,

Surrounded by a circle of pine trees,

The ground covered in snow take in the sweet scent,

The deep roots of the trees,

The strength of their trunks,

Grounded,

They bend up into the clear heavens bright sparks of stars glitter in the darkness,

You sense the chill in the air from the snow on the ground,

White wetness underfoot water is freshening the world,

You stand a while,

Grounded,

Breathing,

In the centre of the clearing a fire burns bringing warmth into the night,

You warm yourself with its heat,

The body relaxing and restoring safe,

Grounded and whole,

Safe,

Grounded and whole,

As you relax in the warmth of the bonfire,

Your inner fire rises spreads effortlessly through your being,

Rest here,

In the quietness of the dark night,

You feel the presence of a loving being she carries a sense of strength and of peace,

Filled with acceptance and ease,

She is the winter goddess,

Come to show you the wholeness of your being see and sense her presence,

Noticing how she appears to you,

Allowing your experience to be,

Rest with her feel what is yours to be felt,

Settle into effortless being,

She offers you a gift,

In images,

Words,

Energy let your heart open,

Your body strengthen,

You are so loved,

Receive the gift,

Receive the gift you are loved,

She holds you in her arms,

Encircled and enfolded,

In her protection,

Her healing arms,

You are one if you set a sankalpa or intention,

It rises into your consciousness,

Writing itself in your cellular memory let yourself receive this love,

Repeating it three times,

And now as the practice of yoga nidra comes to an end return home,

Into the loving vessel of your restoring body,

Remaining in stillness,

Soft,

Sweet breathing feeling and sensing into your physical body,

As you rest,

If you want to fall into sleep,

You can do that now but if you're intending to carry on with your day,

Bringing presence into the hands and the feet,

Imagining the world slowly waking after a long rest begin to wiggle hands and feet,

Feeling and sensing into the surface beneath you,

Let it be ever so slow and gentle,

This return to the world letting breath deepen,

Maybe stretching,

Beginning to picture the room around you,

Letting sounds flow into you as you shift into slowly increasing movements,

Staying deeply connected with yourself,

As you emerge back into the day wishing you every blessing,

As you move through the winter season Hari Om Tat Sat,

Namaste

Reviews

Thank you for this restorative stillness, Miranda🙏🏻🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🙏🏻

Relaxing practice
I enjoyed the background music too 🙏🏻

Thank you for this wonderful Yoga Nidra — it was just what I needed 🧚🏼✨

Miranda, thank you for this beautiful yoga nidra. The words that come to mind are healing, peaceful, poetic, deep, exquisite, transforming, generous, pure stillness, profound. You have offered here a gift of winter with such heart filled words, voice and vision. Very special. Thank you once again Miranda!