Yoga Nidra Practice For Wild Nervous Systems

A tonic for these times.

For the anxious souls.

For the wild nervous systems.

For those in fight or flight or fawn.

This is for you.

A practice that starts seated, gives you time to settle and self soothe before coming to the horizontal and exploring the beauty of full Yoga Nidra practice.

Music : unconscious mind by interference

Transcript

Hi,

My name is Pip Roberts and this is a yoga nidra practice intended to help us cool our nervous systems a little so that we can find a place of rest.

Rather unusually for me,

I'm going to suggest that we start this sat up.

So there's no hurry to lie down at the moment.

If you can meet me at your seat,

That is a great thing.

Maybe you want to lean up against something or prop yourself up on something.

Any way that you can find a comfortable seat is cool.

And when you do land,

When you do land seated,

Maybe there's some movement your body feels it wants to take.

Maybe some gentle cow and cat movements,

Some seated spinal rolls.

We might begin to sense into the body a little as these movements are moving through us.

Using them as a way to come to the body a little bit,

Rather than the thoughts.

Feeling our way with those movements,

I'm going to invite you to unclench your jaw.

And allow our breath to move in and out through the nose.

Just a normal,

Natural breath,

Moving in and out through the nose.

Perhaps our hands come and place themselves on the lower ribs.

You might have your elbows sticking out to the side,

A little like I'm a little teapot.

Or perhaps they cross over your body and land on the opposite side to that arm.

But the hands rest on the lower ribs,

On the sides of the lower ribs.

And still this simple,

Natural breath continues to move in and out through your nose.

Can you let your body soften to the breath just a little?

Can you let your body soften to that breath just a little more?

Soften again.

In a moment,

We're going to take a physiological sigh.

So taking an inhale,

Allow it to fill yourself up.

Hold that breath for a second and then take another sip of air in.

Hold for three and then let it out.

We'll repeat that three times.

So it's a full inhale,

A little extra sip,

Then a pause,

Exhaling out with a sigh.

A full breath,

That extra sip at the top of the breath,

Tiny pause,

Let's notice what's there now.

With your eyes ever so slightly open,

Soft gaze,

I'm going to invite you to exhale as your head turns over towards the left,

Almost to the place it can't turn anymore.

And then as you inhale,

Bring that head,

Bring that gaze back to centre.

Then exhale as your head turns over towards the right again,

Almost to the point it doesn't turn anymore.

Inhaling back towards the centre.

Carry on with that movement,

Marrying the breath.

So exhale as it turns outwards from centre.

Inhaling as it comes back towards centre.

And as the head is turning in time with the breath,

Allow yourself to notice your surroundings.

Slowly taking in where you are,

Noticing what's there,

This slow scanning of your environment.

Then next time your head comes to centre,

Take a pause,

Let your breath continue in that beautiful natural way.

And now,

Now we're going to move to being horizontal.

Now we're going to come to lay down.

And as we're beginning to build our yoga nidra nests,

We might begin to let our exhales come out with a hum.

So as we're taking our time to really carefully create these rest nests,

We're going to inhale through our nose and exhaling out.

Let that continue.

Soft inhales being greeted by your body,

And these really gentle and long hums out.

Continuing to make your way towards your nest,

Noticing where your body is asking for more support,

Checking in with your temperature,

Do you need a blanket?

What can you bring to this to make your body more comfortable?

And still that humming can continue.

Still that humming can continue,

Tails slowly letting them lengthen out even more.

If your body needs to move a little more to find that perfect place to rest,

Let your body move a little more.

Is there anything else that it's asking for so it can feel supported and held?

Maybe that humming practice is ready to subside.

Maybe that humming practice is yours for a little longer,

It is totally up to you.

I'm going to suggest an intention for this practice of I'm resilient and I really,

Really,

Really would love you to say it out loud to yourself.

Our voice holds so much power for our bodies and to say something out loud,

To speak it into truth,

It's just so different to thinking it.

So saying it like you mean it,

Like you really,

Really mean it.

I'm resilient.

I'm resilient.

I'm resilient.

Notice what your body says in response.

It might respond through any of your senses,

Be open.

So I'm going to bring your awareness around your body.

You just need to follow my voice,

Don't need to move any parts.

Can we find an awareness of our whole scalp,

A whole scalp across our head,

The forehead,

The eyebrows,

Both eyebrows,

The space between the eyebrows,

The eyelids,

The eyeballs themselves,

Both temples,

Both earlobes,

The patches of skin just behind your ears before your hairline,

The apples of your cheeks,

The inside of both nostrils,

Your cupid's bow on your upper lip,

Your lower lip,

Each of the teeth in your mouth,

Your tongue,

Your jawbone,

The tip of your chin,

Your voice box,

The sides of your neck,

The nape of your neck,

The space between the shoulder blades,

The shoulder blades themselves.

We find an awareness deep in our armpits and of both upper arms,

The creases on the insides of your elbows,

The lower arms,

The insides of the wrists,

Your open palms,

Both thumbs and each of your fingers and bringing your awareness back to your breastbone and to the ribs that move all around the body from there and then coming awareness inside the ribcage.

Can we sense our lungs as they breathe us?

We find an awareness of the heart and then allow our awareness to move down in the torso to where the visceral organs all lie.

We find awareness of the outside of the belly,

The skin over the belly,

The navel,

The hips,

Both of your bum cheeks,

Both upper legs,

The creases at the back of your knees,

The lower legs,

The arches of your feet,

The balls of your feet and each of your toes.

Let's find awareness of the whole of yourself from the very top of your head,

All the way down to the very tips of those toes.

Resting in awareness of your whole fabulous self,

Resting into your body,

The whole body,

Resting into your whole body,

Meeting the parts of you that are loud just as we might meet the parts of you that are quieter.

The parts of you that are chaotic as well as the parts that are in order,

The pieces of you that are really present in this moment as well as those that are living in the future or the past.

Meeting your whole self just as you are right now and all those beautiful multitudes that you contain.

Resting into yourself and resting into those multitudes.

We aren't ever only one thing.

I'm going to invite you now on a journey with your imagination,

In your mind's eye and perhaps as well through all of your other senses.

I'm going to invite you to visualize the color blue.

Any blue that feels safe to you.

Any blue that exists in the spectrum of possibility within your mind's eye.

It might be bright,

It might be pale.

Just take a moment bathing yourself in that blue.

Seeing,

Feeling,

Hearing,

Tasting,

Smelling.

So simple.

In your mind's eye seeing that blue and allowing the rest of your senses to be with it as well.

It might be a blue that you've seen before.

It might be something fresh and new.

Seeing the color blue,

Imagining the color blue and feeling it too.

Going to begin to allow that visualization to fade away.

Know that you can come back to that anytime you wish.

If your body is hungry for more,

You can always return to that.

It's all in the power of your mind.

We're going to come back to our intention that we set at the start.

I'm resilient.

Inviting you to say it with me three more times.

I'm resilient.

I'm resilient.

I'm resilient.

Let those words land with you for the second time.

From here,

We might begin to bring our awareness back into the space we laid.

Get a sense of what it is you're laid on.

Maybe get a sense of what it is that covers you,

Your clothes or your blanket.

Perhaps there's movement that feels ready to move through.

It might be a wiggle of the fingers and toes.

Maybe a good old-fashioned stretch of the arms and the legs.

And maybe,

Maybe there's a big sigh that's ready to come out.

There's no hurry.

There's no hurry at all.

Take your time in coming back to the world.

If you've been laid on your back,

Maybe it's time,

When you're ready,

To roll on your side.

You might listen in to what you can hear beyond my voice,

Beyond this recording.

Listen in to the environment you're in.

Maybe beyond the room that you're in.

How far can you cast your hearing?

Then in time,

Your eyes may flicker open.

And again,

You'll begin to see where you're laid.

There's no hurry though.

Perhaps this is the time to bask in the residue of the practice and not do anything for a few more moments.

But for now,

Until next time,

I'm going to say thank you so much for practicing with me and I will see you soon for some more rest.

Reviews

Ive been listening to this every day for probably nearly a year now and it really settles me into having an enjoyable day ahead even through some very serious health struggles ❤️

Very effective, creative nidra for resetting my nervous system 💗

Gratitude!

A unique yoga nidra, love your warm voice, very calming, one to come back to 🙏

Really lovely with very effective visualizations. Thank you 🙏

Love this unique Nidra! It's going straight into my "favourites" playlist, thank you so much for a beautiful journey 💛

Really lovely mix of gentle somatics to begin, yoga nidra and a visualization at the end! Perfect. Thank you 🙏🏽

Excellent. This was a wonderful soothing practice. Thank you!🙏🏻

A fantastic meditation Pip! Smooth and gentle, lovely! Thank you. Namaste
🌺🙏🌺

Ok, that was incredible - I was able to relax more deeply than I have in a very long time. Delicious! Thank you for this unique practice. I didn't sit up for the first part of the session as she suggests because I was already cozy in bed, but I did the movements lying down and still found them effective. Thanks again!

Wow. Thank you so much. This is hands down one of the BEST Yoga Nidras ive done. And ive done quite alot of them.. So relaxing, your voice is amazing ! Thank you!! ❤️❤️❤️

So soothing. Background sounds are just right. Thank you.

That was amazing, thank you! I started two different Nidras before this one but could not find stillness. I loved the start, it helped me calm enough to do the practice, and by the end of the it I was feeling relaxed.