Welcome,
This is Erica Garcia and welcome to this beautiful yoga nidra.
What is yoga nidra?
What you'll be doing is you'll be lying on your backs with your knees slightly bent and supported.
Make sure that you are warm enough and that your position is one that you'll be able to remain comfortable for the duration of the practice.
It's best that you remain still during the practice so that your body and brain will have a chance to relax.
However if at any time you feel uncomfortable or you become uncomfortable,
Please feel free to change your position.
Keep your eyes closed during the entire practice and until instructed that the practice has ended.
The practice of yoga nidra is a practice of yogi sleep.
It will guide you to a hypnotic state,
A state of consciousness between wakefulness and sleeping.
Try to remain awake by listening to the sound of my voice.
You'll be asked to use and move your awareness to various bodily sensations,
Emotions and images and try to concentrate but not too intensely that it may prevent you from relaxing.
During this meditation please use and absorb what you need in the moment and just leave the rest behind.
If the mind becomes overactive with thoughts or worries or sensations in the bodies,
Just shift as needed and come back to the sound of my voice and the rhythm of your own relaxed breath.
Now we'll be moving towards relaxation so if you haven't already,
As I stated,
Lay down on your backs,
Have your bolsters under your knees,
Get your eye pillows,
Have your blankets.
And then become aware of the sounds as you can hear them from moment to moment.
Keep the awareness soft.
I'll be playing a sound pyramid with various sounds and tunes to help keep you relaxed.
But nothing else is needed.
Just focus on what you can hear without restraint and let's hang out here for a breath or two.
Begin to focus on the most distant sounds that you can hear and let your sense of hearing radiate outwards.
Searching out the different sounds from near and far,
Take a few moments.
Move your attention from sound to sound without labeling the source.
Gradually bring your attention to the sounds outside of the room.
Now bring your attention to the sounds inside the room.
Bringing your attention now to the sound of your own breath.
And then now to the sound of my voice.
Without opening your eyes,
Visualize the four walls in the room,
The ceiling,
The floor,
Your body wherever you are laying in the room,
Whether it be on the floor or the bed.
Visualize the position of your body,
The clothes you are wearing,
Your hair,
Your face.
Be aware of how you are being supported,
Whether it be the ground supporting you or the bed or the chair.
Become acutely aware of the existence of your physical body.
Now bringing your attention and your awareness to your natural breath,
Become aware of your natural and spontaneous breath as it moves in and out of the body without effort.
The natural breath,
Notice the sensations as it flows through both nostrils.
Feel the breath as it comes in and out of the body.
This prana,
This life moving force,
Can you feel and sense from the tip of your nose,
Can you sense the coolness?
Trace that coolness as it goes through the nostrils,
As you inhale it goes into the sinuses,
Back of the throat and into the lungs.
Follow the feeling of that coolness for a few breaths.
Feel that sensation.
And now conversely let's bring the attention to the exhale breath.
Come back to the tip of your nose and notice if you can feel the warmth and the strength of the exhale.
So acutely aware of the sensations,
Can you notice the warmth,
Perhaps even moisture on the top of your lip?
Sometimes with the force of the exhale,
You can feel even the little hairs within your nostrils moving with the sensations of the inhales and the exhales.
And let's just focus on the exhale breaths for a few rounds.
Feel the exhale,
Feel the release of tension coming from the body with each exhale breath.
A letting go,
A surrender,
Remembering you are safe.
You're in your home space or your office space,
But you are safe.
Just continue to stay aware of this natural breath as it flows through the both nostrils with each inhale and exhale.
Allow the breath to become longer and slower.
Take a long slow inhale breath.
Followed by a long and slow exhale breath.
See if you can make the exhale even slower than the inhale.
Slow inhale breath.
Followed by an even slower exhale and pause.
Keep the breath empty.
Wait until you feel the urge to breathe begin to bubble up inside you and when you do,
Then fill those lungs with this new inhale breath.
And then exhale and release and pause where the body is no longer breathing in or out.
Keep that exhale and once that bubble comes,
Then inhale.
We'll do like two more rounds before we release the control.
Deep inhale.
Even slower exhale.
Keep it empty.
Pause and then inhale.
Now let's go back to the natural breath.
Let it naturally flow in and out.
Let it get shallow and smooth.
Now is when the yoga nidra practice will begin.
And it's at this moment that you should make your sankalpa.
What is a sankalpa?
It's a simple sentence.
It's a resolve or an affirmation or intention in simple language.
What is the purpose that you laid down today?
Can you discover one naturally?
Let this sankalpa be what you bring to this yoga nidra.
It'll plant a seed right in this beautiful fertile soil of your mind to bring you transformation and healing.
I am practicing yoga nidra because I am practicing yoga nidra because I am practicing yoga nidra because finish those sentences.
And if you couldn't find one,
May you all repeat after me right now in your minds.
I am practicing yoga nidra.
I am awake,
Relaxed and open to healing and manifesting.
I am practicing yoga nidra.
I am awake,
Relaxed,
Open to healing and manifesting.
I am practicing yoga nidra.
I am awake,
Relaxed and open to healing and manifesting.
Now let's begin this systematic journey,
This journey of sensory awareness.
Let me take you through the body and you'll move your awareness to the different body parts.
As soon as you hear them named,
You'll say the name of the body part to yourself and you'll bring your attention and your awareness and feel that body part but do not move it,
Just sense it.
Bring your attention to your forehead and your throat.
We will then move to the right side of the body.
Bring your attention to your right hand thumb.
Tip of the second right finger.
Tip of the third right finger.
Tip of the fourth right finger.
Tip of your little pinky finger.
Bring your attention to the palm of your right hand.
Bring your attention to the back of your right hand.
Your right wrist.
Right forearm.
Right elbow.
Right upper arm.
Your right shoulder.
Your right armpit.
Bring your attention to the space between your breath.
Right by the breasts,
Up to the throat.
Now let's move to the left side.
Bring your attention and awareness to your left hand thumb.
To the tip of your second left finger.
To the tip of the third finger.
To the tip of the fourth finger.
To the tip of your pinky finger on the left side.
Bring your attention to the palm of your left hand.
To the back of your left hand.
To your left wrist.
To your left forearm.
To your left elbow.
To your left upper arm.
To your left shoulder.
To your left armpit.
Back to the space between your breasts.
Back up to the throat.
Bringing that triangle,
Now bring your attention back to the left breast.
And then the right breast.
Bringing your attention to the entire chest and feel the softness taking place in your heart space.
Now bring your attention to your shoulders.
Then your middle back.
Bringing the attention back to the front of the body towards the navel.
Back around again to the lower back.
And then back to the front,
The lower abdomen.
Feeling that spiral going through the torso.
Almost like a hug.
And from the lower abdomen let's bring our attention now to the right hip.
To the right buttock.
To the right thigh.
Right knee.
Right calf.
Right ankle.
Right heel.
Top of the right foot.
Tip of the right big toe.
Tip of the second toe.
Tip of the third toe.
Tip of the fourth right toe.
Tip of the little pinky right toe.
Bring your attention to the sole of your entire right foot.
Bring your attention to the back of the right leg.
Bring your attention back to the right buttock.
Bring your attention to the right hip.
Bring your attention to the right lower back.
The left side of your lower back.
Bring your attention to the left hip.
Bring your attention to the left buttock.
Bring your attention to the left thigh.
Bring your attention to the left knee.
Bring your attention to the left calf.
Bring your attention to the left ankle.
Bring your attention to your left heel.
Bring your attention to the top of the left foot.
Bring your attention to the tip of the big toe.
Bring your attention to the tip of the second left toe.
Bring your attention to the tip of the third toe.
Bring your attention to the tip of the fourth toe.
Bring your attention to the little toe on the left side.
Bring your attention to the sole of the left foot.
Bring your attention to the back of the left leg.
To your left buttock.
To your left hip.
To the lower left side of the abdomen and the lower back.
Bring your attention to the tailbone.
Bring your attention to the lower lumbar.
Bring your attention to the navel.
Bring your attention to the space between your breasts.
Bring your attention to your throat.
Bring your attention to the space between the eyes.
Bring your awareness to the top and the crown of your head.
Remaining your stillness and allow the breath to remain still and steady.
Riding the breath up and down the body.
Now imagine the whole body becoming very light.
As though your body could float and hover up away from your physical body.
The arms and the limbs,
The legs,
They get light and weightless.
The head gets light and weightless.
The torso gets light and weightless.
The whole body is light and weightless.
Knowing that you are safe,
Allow the body to begin to float up and away.
Dance in the freedom of the space.
Let the air rise and lift you and support you.
Allow the body to rise higher and higher.
The body is floating on up towards the ceiling.
Continue to feel light and weightless.
You no longer feel any pain.
You feel free.
Continue to feel light and weightless.
Now imagine the feeling of heaviness starting to come into the body.
Now the head begins to start feeling heavy.
The arms start to feel heavy.
The legs begin to feel heavy.
The torso begins to feel heavy and the whole body starts to feel heavier and heavier.
Feeling to come down from the sky.
Reconnecting with your physical body.
Sinking deeper and deeper.
Feel the sensation of heaviness as you come back and hold with a new awareness of the casing of your skin,
Your tissues and your bones.
Sink deeper into your body.
Spread even wider than the casing of your skin.
Feel like hot chocolate melting on a pot.
Spread wider and heavier.
Feel the security and the safety of your skin.
Feeling stable and supported.
Feeling whole.
Now begin to concentrate on the space in front of your closed eyelids.
Imagine before you a transparent screen as though you were at a movie theater.
The screen is as high and as wide as the eyes can see.
Concentrate on this mind screen and become aware of the phenomena that manifests within it.
Acknowledge the colors,
The shapes,
Patterns.
Acknowledge the lightness and the darkness.
Whatever you begin to see is the manifesting state of your mind.
Continue with your awareness of this space but just bear witness to not become involved.
Practice detached awareness only.
If any subtle images make themselves known,
Simply notice them and without directing the images let them float away.
Simply let them come and go and just continue to watch out into the dark space.
Detached awareness.
I will now begin to name a number of different items and things.
You should envision the items or thing on the level of emotion,
Memory or imagination the best you can.
Jump from image to image as soon as you hear them mentioned.
A dark sky with a full moon.
A peacock feather.
Puppies playing.
A Buddha meditating.
Snow capped mountains.
A bubbling stream.
A beautiful garden path.
You and your dream job.
Waves crashing along the shore.
Laughing with friends.
You and your dream home.
Looking up at tall trees.
A burning candle.
You and your dream relationship in a warm embrace.
Children laughing.
Flying a kite.
Your favorite song.
Walking amongst the lavender patch.
Driving in an open road,
Windows open,
Convertible down,
Wind in your hair.
The sound of my voice.
Your body lying in the room.
Continually watching out into that mind screen.
Continually watching the phenomena that's manifesting.
Your body is healing.
With each breath,
You're bringing in that life giving force.
Healing your tissues and bones.
Healing you all the way down to your DNA.
Each exhale releasing.
Releasing letting go.
With each inhale,
You're opening yourself up.
Opening yourself up to the unlimited possibilities.
Letting go of limiting beliefs and opening up to greatness.
Opening up to your blessings,
To the dreams that you have in your hearts and in your minds.
Imagine manifesting that dream.
Where do you see yourself next month?
Where do you see yourself in six months?
Where do you see yourself in one year?
Where do you see yourself in five years?
Where do you see yourself in ten years?
Where do you see yourself living your greatest life?
Knowing that it is possible.
Now is the time to repeat your sankalpa.
Repeat the same statement that you made at the beginning of practice.
Repeat it three times.
Begin to bring your awareness back to your breath.
Bring your awareness back to the breath as it flows in and out of your nostrils.
Maintain your awareness of the breath and at the same time begin to develop an awareness of your physical body.
Your body is relaxed and laying in the same position you began whether it be on the bed or on the floor.
Feel the container of your skin.
Feel the clothing and the props touching your skin.
Notice the heaviness of the body as it rests.
Notice the sensation of the homeless coming back.
Bring your attention to the points that are touching the floor or the back.
The back of your heels,
The thighs,
The buttocks,
The shoulder blades,
The arms,
Tops of the hands,
Back of the head.
Notice the ease of the breath as it continues to flow in and out of the body.
Up and down the body,
Encasing the body like a cocoon.
Feel the breath coming all the way up and then exhale coming down.
Bringing that breath all the way up along the spine of the head to the crown of the head and then exhaling it down the forehead,
Nose,
Throat,
Chest,
Front part of the body to the soles of the feet.
Coming back up with the inhale all the way along the back of the body,
The calves,
The thighs,
The buttocks,
The back,
Back of the neck,
Crown of the head.
Exhaling it down the front of the body.
Continue to encase yourself with this cleansing breath.
Imagine that white light supporting you,
Surrounding you,
Protecting you with grace.
Visualize your body.
Visualize your body healing and whole,
Surrounded by light.
Visualize your body lying where you are in the room.
Come back to the awareness of where you are in the room,
The four walls,
The surrounding walls and ceiling and objects.
Feeling relaxed,
Completely relaxed.
As we begin to come out of this space,
Slowly bend your knees.
Slowly begin to sway your knees,
Keeping the feet on the ground.
Slowly,
Slowly,
Ever so slowly,
Gently from side to side.
You can now start moving your neck and your head,
Slowly massaging the back of your neck side to side.
You can open your mouth,
Give out a yawn.
When you are sure that you are fully awake,
Slowly begin to hug your knees into your chest,
Continuing to wake up the body.
Inhale,
Exhale,
Pull.
When you're ready,
Roll to the right side and let's rest in fetal position.
Unless you are pregnant,
If you're pregnant,
Move to the left.
Stay on your side for a few more moments.
Stay aware of the breath and sensations and reawakening.
When you're ready,
You'll slowly extend your left leg and with your left hand,
Fingertips extended in the direction of your right armpit,
Push yourself up one vertebrae at a time.
No jerking up,
No getting on your backs.
Push from the side part of the body.
Come to a seated position,
Keeping the eyes closed still if you can.
If not,
Gently close your eyes,
Sit in easy pose so we can sit in another brief moment of meditation to seal this up.
The breath is natural.
Take a deep inhale.
Let out a deep open mouth,
H-A-H.
One more,
Take a deep inhale.
Open mouth,
H-A-H.
Know that this practice of this yoga nidra is now complete.
Feel free to seal the class as you wish,
Some people prefer an om,
Some people prefer to just sit in prayer,
Some people prefer to just stay in this silence.
Take your time.
I'm here to support you for the next few moments as you come back into your awareness.
Come back to living our lives but knowing that we've opened ourselves for healing and manifesting in the greatest way.
I pray that each of you get all of your desires.
You are so deserving,
You are so worthy.
Let this be the manifesting yoga nidra that you come to often,
Once a week,
Once a month.
Let it be what serves you to your greatness.
Blessed be.
