Feel Grounded Yoga Nidra
For the days when you can't find a steady footing. When you feel unsure, uncertain, and not able to find your own personal strength. This nurturing yoga nidra practice invites you into comfort and draws upon simple awareness techniques, breath practices, and elements associated with the root chakra. After this you will feel rested, steady, confident, secure, and energized for the rest of the day. Music by Chris Collins at indiemusicbox. Photo by Simon Wilkes on Unsplash
Transcript
Welcome.
Welcome to today's Yoga Nidra.
So make sure that you feel settled.
Lie down somewhere comfortable.
Perhaps your bed,
The sofa,
The floor.
And make sure that you're in a room where you won't be disturbed for a short while.
So that you can rest deeply.
Gather up any props,
Any cushions,
Any blankets or quilts that you need to make sure that you are entirely comfortable.
Your comfort is top priority when practicing Yoga Nidra.
Once your body is completely comfortable and relaxed,
Then your awareness no longer receives signals of discomfort and it can drop into deeper layers of restful states.
Into deeper layers of consciousness.
Into deep healing spaces.
So hopefully you've found your comfortable nest.
Your cocoon of comfort where you can nestle in a little deeper.
Snuggle up.
Feeling settled.
And your eyes are now closed.
For a moment,
Open your senses.
Notice the touch of the clothes on your skin.
How they bring you a sensation of warmth.
The feeling of the material on your body.
And for the parts of you that aren't covered with clothing,
Notice the currents of air as they pass over your skin.
The feeling of coolness.
Cast your sense of hearing outwards.
Listen for sounds further away.
And then listen for sounds closer to you.
Allowing your sense of hearing to move from one vibration to the next without labelling what the source of the sound is.
Just receiving the sounds.
Your eyes are still closed but take a look at the space behind your closed eyelids.
What do you see there?
Is it darkness?
Colours?
Shapes?
Specific imagery?
Let your tongue move around in your mouth.
Notice if there's any residual tastes in your mouth.
Finally,
Flare your nostrils.
Take a deep inhale through both nostrils.
Pick up any sense in the air.
And now allow for a deep exhale.
Notice the temperature and the texture of the air as you breathe in.
Notice the change in the temperature and the texture of the air as you breathe out.
Your body is softening now.
Resting a little deeper.
And your awareness is drawn to your breath.
The gentle rise of the breath in your belly and your chest.
The turning of the breath at the top.
And the soft falling of the breath on its release.
And the turning of the breath at the bottom.
And we'll practice a breath exploration here.
I'll provide a count.
If it's too fast or too slow,
You can create your own count.
Let's meet on an exhale.
Take a breath in for a count of 1,
2,
3,
4.
Exhale 1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6.
Inhale 1,
2,
3,
4.
Exhale 1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6.
Inhale 1,
2,
3,
4.
Exhale 1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6.
Inhale 1,
2,
3,
4.
Exhale 1,
2,
3,
4,
5,
6.
Let that breath exploration go.
And feel how your body is resting on your support beneath you.
Tune in to how your head rests heavy.
Your neck softens.
Notice how your shoulders have landed on the earth beneath.
Your hips,
Your legs and your feet.
The whole of your physical body begins to soften even deeper,
Even heavier into the support beneath you.
You notice here that you're feeling fully held.
Rooted,
Supported by the earth underneath.
And now your awareness is drawn to the very tip of your tailbone.
The base and the back of your pelvis.
And here in your mind's eye,
You see a red light.
A warming,
Comforting,
Soothing red light.
It gently glows.
And it sends this feeling of safety,
Security throughout the whole of your being.
This red light begins to travel through your body to give you more of that warm glow,
That sense of security.
So you see your red light begin to travel to both sides of the pelvis,
Both hip joints.
And this red light sends its warming,
Safe glow down through your thighs,
Into your knee joints.
The red light travels further down still,
To your lower legs,
Into your ankles,
Your heels,
Through the soles of your feet and into each of your toes in turn.
Your big toe,
Second toes,
Third toes,
Fourth toes,
And fifth toes.
And you see with your mind's eye the bottom half of your body,
From your tailbone and your pelvis all the way down through your legs,
Your ankles,
Your feet,
Into your toes.
This red light has sent this feeling of comfort,
Safety and warmth all the way through the bottom half of your body.
And your awareness travels all the way back up and it lands at the space,
At the tip of the tailbone.
And it moves up now to the top of both sides of the pelvis and it travels to both sides of the waist,
All the way around the back to your lower back and then all the way around the front to your belly button.
This red,
Warm glow travels up to the space just at the bottom of your ribs.
And from the front at the bottom of your ribs,
It travels to both sides of the ribs and to your middle back.
And you feel this red light dive deep within to your organ body now.
It lands at the very centre of your chest,
At your heart space.
Your heart feels safe,
Comforted,
Held by the earth.
And this awareness travels forwards to your sternum,
Up to both of your collarbones,
All along the length of the collarbones,
Around the shoulders and through to your upper back,
Your shoulder blades.
And then all the way back around your shoulders and down your arms now,
Through your upper arms,
Elbows,
Your forearms,
Into your wrists,
The palms of your hands.
And this glow,
This warm red glow,
Begins to extend now along both thumbs,
Index fingers,
Middle fingers,
Ring fingers and little fingers.
You feel the bones of the whole of your body now,
From your toes through to your fingertips,
Up to your collars,
Warm,
Alight with this red,
Soft light.
Travelling up now to the space at the base of the throat.
The red light lands there.
Moving up to the chin,
Both sides of the jaw,
Both ears,
Both cheekbones.
Over to the mouth,
The upper lip,
The lower lip,
Your tongue,
The upper row of teeth and the lower row of teeth.
The tip of your nose and both nostrils,
The length of your nose and both eyes,
The space around the eyes and the space in between the eyes.
This red light travels through your eyebrows to both sides of the temple,
All the way around the skull to the back of the head.
And then it finally lands at the crown of the head.
This red light now has travelled with your awareness through the whole of your body,
Bringing with it this grounding sensation of feeling supported,
Held,
Comfortable and safe.
The whole of you,
The whole of your being.
Feeling supported,
Comfortable,
Taking deep healing rest.
And it's as if there's a part of you that takes a step back now and can see all of these parts of your body that have been touched by the red light,
All of these red lights that have landed in the landmarks of your body.
And as you inhale,
You see these red lights rise up as if they lift out from you a little bit.
Their light is free.
They're lifting farther than the physical boundaries of your skin.
And then each time you exhale,
These red lights land back in their original spot in your body.
Steady,
Grounded,
Supported,
Fully held.
And explore that for a few rounds of breath each time you inhale.
These soft red lights lift up,
Feeling light,
Moving farther than the physical boundaries of your skin.
And each time you exhale,
They land once more in their original position,
Fully held,
Grounded.
And you move between these two sensations now,
Each inhale feeling light,
Free,
And each exhale feeling steady,
Earthed,
Supported.
And then what does it feel like to experience both of these at the same time?
At once feeling light and steady,
At once feeling free and yet grounded.
Let that exploration go.
Come back to the sensation of the breath in your body.
The gentle rise and fall of your breath.
This breath,
In this body.
Noticing the soft rise of each inhale,
The turning at the top of the breath,
The slow descent of each exhale,
And the turning at the bottom of the breath for the cycle to begin again.
Once more,
Allow your senses to open up.
Notice the texture and the warmth of clothes on your skin.
Notice the sensation of the air currents passing over your skin and the feeling of coolness.
Cast your sense of hearing outwards.
Listen for sounds far away,
And sounds closer to you.
Take a look at the space behind your closed eyelids.
What do you see?
Allow your tongue to move around in your mouth,
Picking up any taste sensations.
And noticing what happens when you flare your nostrils and you allow a deep breath in,
And the change in the temperature and the texture of the air as you breathe back out through your nostrils.
Each of your senses waking up now,
Allowing in the waking world,
Bringing you back to more of a sense of this body in this moment,
Lying on this support in this room.
Now do take your time.
As you feel more awake,
You can wriggle fingers,
You can wriggle your toes,
Roll your wrists and your ankles around in circles.
It might be nice to go for a big stretch.
When you're ready,
Roll onto one side,
And take as long as you need to there before you're ready to move back into the waking world and move through the rest of your day.
Thank you so much for practicing.
Namaste.
