Yoga Nidra - The Journey Home

Welcome to The Journey Home. This Yoga Nidra practice is an invitation to soften, settle, and return to the part of you that has always been whole. Across breath, body awareness, opposites, and guided visualisation, you’ll be gently guided inward: from doing into being, from striving into surrender, and from fragmentation back into a sense of deep belonging.
This practice is designed to help you rest, restore, and remember who you truly are beneath the noise of daily life.
Find a comfortable place to lay down, use headphones if you can, and allow yourself to simply be carried, HOME.

Transcript

So welcome,

Welcome to today's practice of Yoga Nidra.

Find warmth and comfort wherever you are.

Take any props you feel can help bring you comfort for this practice,

Using headphones if possible.

You might like to also bring in an eye pillow or an eye mask,

Warm socks,

Warm blankets,

Anything you have around that can help you find the greatest possible comfort for your practice today.

Today's practice is an invitation to journey inward,

To follow the quiet path from doing into being.

This is not a journey towards something new,

It's a return to what has always been waiting,

A still unshaken truth of your own self.

Let this practice be a pilgrimage home.

Remember yoga is the journey of the self,

Through the self,

To the self.

So settle now,

And let the body rest where it has longed to rest.

Let the body remember rest,

And let yourself be held here,

The support beneath you,

The earth beneath you,

Ancient and steady,

Receiving your weight without question,

Always there for you,

To let go to,

To trust.

The breath begins to steady,

No longer chasing,

No longer doing,

Awareness on your breath,

To simply be,

And notice the points of contact your body has with the ground,

The earth beneath you,

Your heels,

Your calves,

Your thighs,

And your hips,

Your back,

And your shoulders,

Your arms,

Your hands,

And your head.

Notice the points of contact,

Everything anchoring you to this moment,

To this place.

Let the body find its symmetry,

Its natural alignment,

Its balance,

Front and back,

Right and left,

Above and below.

You are safe to arrive here.

You are safe to stop searching.

The journey home begins by arriving here,

In this moment.

Now the senses begin to rest,

Sound,

Soften,

And drift outward until they fade to the edges of awareness.

The light behind your closed eyes dims to gentle twilight,

Each sense folding its wings,

The outer dissolving into the inner,

The inner landscape of your being.

In this quiet world inside,

Something familiar stirs,

A whisper of who you are and who you have always been.

It might come as a feeling,

A color,

A word,

Or a deep knowing that says,

I am.

Trust what comes.

Let it rise without effort.

Your sankalpa,

Your intention,

Silently repeating it to yourself three times,

Starting with the words,

I am.

Hold this whisper like a small flame in your heart.

It will light your way as the journey begins.

Awareness begins a pilgrimage around the body,

A journey of remembering every corner of your being,

Taking your awareness to your right hand and to your right hand thumb.

First finger,

Second finger,

Third finger,

And little finger.

The palm of your right hand,

The back of your hand,

Your right wrist.

Shoulder,

The right hand side of your chest,

To your hip,

Thigh,

Knee,

Shin,

Ankle,

Sole of foot,

Top of foot,

Your right big toe,

Second toe,

Third toe,

Fourth toe,

And little toe.

Now move your awareness to your left hand and to your left hand thumb.

First finger,

Second finger,

Third finger,

And little finger.

Palm of hand,

Back of hand,

Your left wrist,

Lower arm,

Elbow,

Upper arm,

And shoulder.

The left hand side of your chest,

To your hip,

Your thigh,

Knee,

Shin,

Ankle,

Sole of foot,

Top of foot,

Your left big toe,

Second toe,

Third toe,

Fourth toe,

And little toe.

Moving your awareness to your back body and both your heels,

Your calves,

And the little space behind your knees,

The backs of your thighs,

To your glutes,

Your lower back,

Your middle back,

Your upper back,

Your shoulder blades right and left,

Your neck,

To your head,

Your whole head,

Your whole head.

Moving awareness to your front body and to your forehead,

Your eyebrows right and left,

And the space between your eyebrows,

Your eyes right and left,

Your nose and the tip of your nose,

Your temples right and left,

And your ears right and left,

Both your cheeks,

Your mouth,

Your whole mouth,

Your tongue lying heavy in the base of your mouth,

Your teeth,

Your jaw,

Everything releasing into the stillness of your awareness,

Your throat,

Your right collarbone and left collarbone,

And the space between your collarbones.

The whole of the right side of your chest,

The whole of the left side of your chest,

Your whole chest,

Your whole right arm,

Your whole left arm,

Both your arms together,

The whole of your right leg and the whole of your left leg,

Both legs together.

The whole of the front of your body,

The whole of the back of your body,

From the right to the left,

The left to the right,

From crown of head to soles of feet,

From the inside out,

Your whole body,

Your whole body,

Your whole body.

As one field of awareness,

Of light,

Alive and whole.

Allow your whisper to enter your breath now,

Moving in and out of your body with ease.

Allow your breath to be.

Now imagine your breath flowing into the right side of your brain,

Breathing in and out of the right side of your brain.

And then the left,

A gentle flow of breath in and out of the left side of your brain.

And then breathe in and out of both sides of your brain,

Bringing everything into a perfect balance,

A realignment,

An equilibrium.

You might like to invite your breath now to flow in and out of the right side of your body,

From head to toe,

Your breath moving in and out of the right side of your body.

Now into the left,

Breathing in and out of the left side of your body.

And then both together in perfect balance,

In realignment,

An equilibrium.

Notice your whisper entering your breath again,

Moving in and out of your body with ease,

Landing softly in your heart.

What might it be like to feel your whisper morph into a light,

A warm,

Golden,

Luminous light that starts to travel around your body,

Illuminating every hidden place.

And notice the light dissipate,

Shadow enters,

Cool,

Rich,

Silent,

Holding that which light cannot name.

And then move back to witnessing a luminosity.

And then back to the shadow,

The absence of light.

And then let them meet,

Welcome them both at the same time,

Light and shadow.

Day and night.

Clarity and mystery.

See how they recognize one another as opposites,

But of the same.

Your heart holds it all.

Your awareness holds it all.

Rest here.

Now move your awareness to your eyebrow center,

Chidakash,

Your inner sky.

Invite images of the following to form.

Imagine a starlit sky.

The sound of gentle rain.

A key turning in a lock.

Golden leaves falling in autumn.

A murmuration of starlings swirling in the sky.

Arriving at the crossroads.

Thunder rolling in the distance.

Candlelight steady in darkness.

A door opening to your heart.

A welcoming secret forest.

Making the journey home.

The journey home.

The journey home.

Enter that welcoming secret forest now.

That magical place inside.

Journey deeper.

In your mind's eye,

See a clearing in the forest.

And in the middle of this clearing lies a still pool.

Its dark glass reflecting the first stars of evening.

Kneel beside it and lean in.

Look for the reflection,

The reflection of your essence,

The one who has been waiting.

Patiently waiting.

And as you gaze into those familiar eyes,

Notice something subtle.

Behind your reflection,

A door begins to appear.

A quiet doorway,

Woven from light and shadow,

Opening inwards,

Inviting you home.

This is the threshold between who you have been and who you are becoming.

Step through it by softening,

By allowing,

By releasing.

And as you cross,

Witness yourself and your reflection merge.

No boundary now.

Only belonging.

Breathe here.

All the parts that wandered,

The light and the shadow,

The forgotten and the remembered,

They all return to the same still place.

The same place inside which has always been and which always will be.

The place you can truly call home.

In the words of Derek Walcott,

The time will come when,

With elation,

You will greet yourself arriving at your own door,

In your own mirror,

And each will smile at the other's welcome.

Open the door.

Open your heart.

Here,

You know you are whole.

Here,

You know you are complete.

Here,

You know you are home.

From this deep stillness,

Let your intention,

Your sankalpa,

Rise again.

The whisper that began this journey,

Feel it moving freely through you now as truth,

Not spoken but embodied.

Let it flow joyfully through every limb,

Through every cell,

Through your entire being.

Into your life,

Repeating it three times silently to yourself in the space that now follows.

I am.

And take a moment to pause here in gratitude.

Give time to be grateful for this practice,

For what you have afforded yourself in taking this practice.

Be grateful for your body,

Be grateful for your breath,

For your life,

For everyone you share your precious life with.

Be grateful for it all.

Begin to sense the body once more,

Its weight,

Its warmth.

Notice the sounds around you start to return,

The rhythm of your breath steady and kind.

Invite tiny movement now,

Your fingers,

Your toes,

Perhaps a gentle turning of the head.

And when you are ready,

Take another deep breath in and then gently allow the eyes to open.

Let the world come back to you slowly,

Clear,

Familiar and new.

Gathering all the benefits of this practice with you,

To carry with you as you return to your world.

And as Shannon L.

Alda reminds us,

When you stop living your life based on what others think of you,

Real life begins.

At that moment,

You will finally see the door of self-acceptance opened.

And remember,

With Yoga Nidra,

You already know the way.

May the peace which passes all understanding keep your heart and mind in the knowledge and presence of love.

This practice of Yoga Nidra is now complete.

Shine bright,

Shine bold and shine in love.

Thank you so much for taking the time to practice with me today.

I wish you a wonderful rest of your day,

Evening or sweet slumber ahead.

Thank you.