Yoga Nidra To Soothe The Nervous System

Yoga nidra or ‘Yogic Sleep’ is a state of consciousness between waking and sleeping. It is a meditation practice that promotes deep rest and relaxation. Using the technique of body scanning and breath awareness helps to calm the nervous system, encouraging stillness, relaxation, healing, and peace.
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Transcript

So just allowing your eyes to close down.

Allowing your focus to go within.

Starting to withdraw your attention to your internal world.

And start to notice how you're feeling in this time,

In this space.

Just give yourself a nice little quick scan from your head all the way down to your toes.

And notice how you feel.

Just start to bring your awareness to any parts of the body where you may be holding on to tension.

And without any judgement or criticism,

Can you just kindly observe?

Rest in your loving awareness to these parts of your body.

And then start to bring your attention to the parts of your body that feel open and expansive.

Where you can actually feel your energy flowing through.

And again just resting your loving awareness to these parts of your body.

And then start to bring your attention to the energy field that surrounds your physical body.

You may even see that energy field as a white light protecting you,

Healing you.

Connect with that energy field.

And then just start to quietly observe the thoughts and the mind.

Acknowledging each one as it comes along.

But then allowing it to pass on by just like a floating cloud.

Not feeling any need to go into them,

To analyse them.

Just to simply observe.

And then start to bring your attention now to your breath.

Notice exactly how you're breathing and where you're breathing.

Now you may be feeling your breath up around your collarbones.

Or maybe you can feel your breath down in your ribcage.

Or maybe you can feel your breath down in your belly.

How does the breath feel as it moves its way throughout your body?

Does it feel short,

Fast or tense?

Or does it feel long,

Slow and deep?

And as you continue to notice your body,

As you notice your breath,

Give yourself permission to completely relax,

To settle into the space that you're in.

And to surrender ever so gently into this moment,

Into this breath.

Let's just slowly start to bring our attention now to the back of our head.

And feel it gently sinking down towards the earth.

And as you rest your awareness to the centre of your forehead,

Into that space between the brows,

Known as the mind's eye or the third eye chakra,

Space for wisdom,

Intuition.

Start to feel that area relaxing,

Opening.

Notice how your ears,

Your eyes and your nose are gently softening.

And feel your jawline,

Your cheekbones,

Your lips gently releasing any tension.

And as you bring your attention down into your neck and your throat,

Feel it gently let go.

And shifting your awareness down into your shoulders,

Just start to become aware of any heaviness,

Any burdens,

Any pressure.

Just simply dissolving away with each and every breath.

Notice your arms and your elbows sinking closer towards the earth.

And as you bring your awareness down into your hands,

You can start to feel your fingertips,

Your palms,

Your wrists gently releasing.

Resting your loving awareness to the centre of your palms.

And perhaps you can start to connect with that warm energy that's circulating in the centre of your palms.

Allow that energy to relax your entire body now from head to toe.

Feeling a wave of peace,

Just washing over your entire body.

And then let's bring our awareness back to our breath.

How are you breathing?

And let's start to use our breath as we continue to move through the body.

So keep your attention resting in your fingertips.

And as you begin to inhale your next breath,

Start to feel or visualise your breath rising up from your fingertips.

Feel that breath flowing up into the palms and the wrists.

Watch that breath as it rises up the forearms into the elbows.

Follow that breath as it comes up the upper arm all the way to the shoulders.

And as you begin to exhale your next breath,

Follow it back down,

Down from your shoulders into your forearms and your elbows.

Follow that breath down into your forearms and your wrists.

Coming into the palms and the fingertips.

Let's do that one more time now just at our own pace.

Inhaling from the very tips of our fingertips up,

Up the arms.

All the way until we reach our shoulders.

When we're ready as we exhale,

Slowly follow that breath down,

Down from your shoulders into your arms,

Your elbows,

To the palms and fingertips.

Just resting your loving awareness in the centre of the palms,

Continuing to breathe naturally and notice how you feel.

And then let's continue to use our breath as we explore the rest of the body.

So start to bring your awareness with your breath now to your collarbones.

And as you begin to inhale your next breath through the nose,

Start to feel your collarbones rising and expanding.

Feel them lifting up towards the sky.

And as you begin to exhale your next breath,

Feel the collarbones releasing,

Relaxing.

Again when you're ready as you inhale,

Breathe into the collarbones and feel them rise and expand towards the sky.

When you're ready as you exhale slowly,

Feel your collarbones release and relax.

Let's start to shift our awareness now down into the ribcage.

And again as you inhale through the nose,

Start to feel your ribcage rising and expanding outward.

As you exhale through the nose,

Feel your ribcage release and let go.

As you inhale,

Feel your ribcage rising and expanding.

As you exhale,

Feel your ribcage release and let go.

Let's shift our awareness with our breath down into the belly.

Inhale through the nose,

Start to feel your belly rising and expanding towards the sky.

As you exhale through the nose,

Feel your belly release and soften.

As you inhale through the nose,

Feel your belly rising,

Expanding.

As you exhale through the nose,

Feel your belly release and soften.

Let's continue to rest your loving awareness to your belly,

Breathing naturally,

Noticing how you feel.

And then let's start to shift our attention with our breath now to our spine.

And just starting at the very base of your head.

As you begin to exhale your next breath,

Slowly start to follow that breath down,

Down your spine.

Feel your breath moving vertebrae by vertebrae.

Perhaps even starting to create a little bit of space in the actual spinal column.

And as you follow your breath down,

Start to feel the spine relaxing and releasing.

Feeling your breath all the way down until you reach the very base of your spine,

Your tailbone,

Your root chakra,

Mulhadaraya.

And just keeping your awareness now at the base of the spine.

As you begin to inhale slowly through the nose,

Start to feel the breath rising up from the base of the spine.

Feel that breath as it moves its way up into your lower spine.

Coming up vertebrae by vertebrae,

Watching that breath as it enters into the mid back.

And up into that space between the shoulder blades.

Follow that breath as it rises into the back of the neck and the back of the head.

Follow that breath all the way up until you reach the very top of your head,

Your crown.

And as you begin to exhale slowly,

Start to follow your breath down from your crown to the back of your head,

To the back of the neck.

Feel that breath as it flows down into that space between the shoulder blades,

Vertebrae by vertebrae,

As it makes its way down into the mid back.

Feeling that space being created.

Feeling your breath massaging out any bits of tension or tightness.

Feel that breath as it makes its way down into your lower spine,

All the way down into the tailbone,

That root chakra.

And as you exhale completely,

Feel your entire spine soften against the earth.

Resting your loving awareness at the very base of the spine,

Breathing naturally,

Noticing how you feel.

And as you continue to rest here,

Start to feel the weight of the earth beneath your body.

Feel it holding and supporting you.

Feel its grounded presence beneath you.

And as you connect with the earth,

Give yourself permission to let go of any worries,

Any doubts,

Or any fears,

Knowing that you are in a safe,

Stable and supported space to do so.

Noticing the hips and the pelvis gently softening into the earth.

You can feel your thighs,

Your knees are releasing.

Your calves,

Ankles and shins are relaxing.

You can start to feel your heels surrendering.

Your insteps are dissolving.

And the tips of your toes are just melting into an ocean of peace.

And as you slowly begin to lift your awareness back into that space between the brow,

Into your mind's eye,

That centre of intuition and wisdom.

Rest your loving awareness in this space.

Feel it softening,

Feel it opening.

Feel it merging with that energy field that surrounds your body.

And know that in this moment,

Everything is perfect.

Everything is how it should be.

Thank you.

Reviews

Lovely, soothing voice. I appreciated using the breath through the whole practice.

Namaste

This has been helping me so much, I can’t thank you enough.

Oh so relaxing. Deeeep relxation.

Such a lovely way to tune into my body before I fall asleep . Namaste

Thank you Asleigh. I really enjoyed your meditation. It's very relaxing and re-charging. I love to do this in combination of dolphin the neck with the breath.
Coming so in the here and now. Big hug. Love from Belgium.

Very soothing and grounding practice. Thank you!

Beautiful as always Angel x