Hello and welcome.
Let's begin to settle in for our practice,
Get comfortable.
You might like to meet this practice lying down,
Inclined position.
You might like to be seated.
Just taking a position that feels comfortable for you in this moment and will help facilitate a level of deep self-inquiry.
And begin to draw your attention to the breath and might begin to deepen the breath a little,
In through the nostrils,
Out through the mouth.
You might have soft silky exhales lengthening the breath out.
How you might deepen into a sigh and cleanse release what no longer serves.
Take a few breaths here.
And as we prepare for our practice,
Our yoga nidra mapping the nervous system.
You might like to send an intention or a dedication for your practice or simply bringing a sense of open curiosity.
A time to deepen and nourish,
Rest and heal.
So sense the support you have beneath you,
The meeting points between your body and the floor,
The support,
The earth beneath you.
And take a moment to acknowledge the sacred land beneath you,
Wisdom of the earth.
I'm in the sacred land of the Meri Meri clan,
The Wurundjeri Willam people of the Kulin Nation.
And this sacred land that we anchor,
That nourishes,
Holds us,
Blesses us,
Always was,
Always is,
Always will be,
Ancient sacred lands.
And as we come to these ancient practices that are doorways into humanity's past,
The wisdom of the past,
These practices as a gift from the past to bring us into this awareness of this presence,
This connection to all that is.
So observe the meeting points between your body and the support and see if you can take a few breaths here and on the exhale,
Soften more into that support beneath you,
Knowing you have wisdom of the past,
The earth,
That gravity holding you to the earth,
A sense of surrendering,
And knowing you'll be held.
And then begin to sense the energetic tone that's here in the head,
This energetic center of our body,
All this activity,
All the thoughts,
Thinking mind,
What energies here in this moment.
And begin to sense the head and drop your attention a little bit deeper into a sense of the brain cavity,
Deeper into the sense of the brain,
Having the sensation of the left side of the brain and brain cavity,
And the right side of the brain and brain cavity.
The right side of the brain and brain cavity.
Notice where the front,
The brain,
The sides,
The back,
The base,
And from that sense of the base,
The brainstem,
Central nervous system of the brain,
Meaning a spinal cord that runs down through the neck and the throat,
Down through the torso,
Through the back and chest,
Down through the center of your body,
Down to the pelvis,
All the way the tailbone.
The sense of the head,
The brain,
And the whole length of your spine,
The brain and the whole spinal cord,
Sensing the brain and the whole spinal cord,
The head,
The whole length of the spine,
The head and whole length of the spine.
And from the base of the brain again,
Meaning the peripheral nervous system,
On the cranial nerves,
The head,
Branches through the face,
Eyes,
Cheeks,
Mouth,
Down through the neck and throat,
Meeting the torso,
The brachial plexus nerves running from the throat into the shoulder,
Branching from the central nervous system,
From the throat into the shoulder,
And the musculotaneous nerve from the chest,
The back and shoulder,
Into the radial nerves through the arms,
The medium nerves running from the upper arms through the elbows to the lower arms,
The lower arms,
The ulnar nerve flowing open and receptive through the wrist into the finger nerves,
And from the fingers back through the ulnar nerve of the lower arm,
The median,
The elbow into the upper arm,
The radial nerve the upper arm towards the shoulder,
The musculotaneous nerve through the chest,
The back,
The shoulder,
Running back to the central nervous system,
The signals receptive,
Open,
And down from the brain stem and the throat,
Into the intercostal nerves between the ribs around the torso,
Rib by rib,
Breath by breath,
Down into the subcostal nerves,
All the information of the organs within,
The iliohypogastric nerve receiving information in internal organs within,
As we lower down through the torso into iliogrenal nerves,
The end of the rib cage keep going down through the central nervous system,
Meeting the nerves through the abdomen,
The lumbar plexus,
Down into the hips of the lateral cutaneous nerves running through the thigh,
From the hip down to the thigh,
It's the tailbone,
Into the sacral plexus,
Into the pelvis,
The pudental nerve,
Down into the legs the femoral nerve,
Down through the upper legs,
Nerves branching off from that main femoral nerve through the legs,
This is the attic nerve through the thighs,
The saphenous nerve running from the upper legs through the knees the inner knee,
To the tibial nerve the lower leg down to the feet,
And from the toes the surreal nerve in the feet,
The superficial peroneal knee through the ankle,
The lower leg moving up the leg,
Into the common peroneal nerve,
Back through the femoral nerve,
Back into the sacral plexus,
The pelvis,
Sending the signals back into the central nervous system,
The pathway up through the spine,
Back to the brain,
All is well,
All is well,
All is working in harmony,
Safe,
A sense of okayness,
Open and receptive,
And just sense your breath breathing your body,
As the breath breathes the body,
Allowing the breath to be just as it is,
Happening automatically,
Breath breathing the body,
And then let your attention be the touch of the skin,
Sense the support beneath you the touch of your clothing or blanket,
The touch of the floor the earth beneath you,
Might be feelings of warmth or coolness,
A whole skin of the body,
And drop deep beneath this sense of the layer of your skin,
Into a sense of meeting these intricate networks,
The fascia,
Connective tissue,
Ligaments and tendons,
The peripheral nervous system and sinews,
And continue to draw deeper to the core of your being,
Through the flesh of the body to the muscular level,
And a sense of all the large muscles of the body surrendering here,
The back of the chest,
Legs,
Arms,
And the smaller muscles through the face,
The hands,
The feet,
And all the muscles of the body,
And drop your attention deeper to the core of your being from the muscles into a sense of the level of the bones,
Notice the heavy bones,
The skull,
Pelvis,
The weight of the leg bones,
The weight of the bones of the arms,
And sense the whole length of your spine and the rib cage,
All the bones,
These large bones,
And the small bones through your face,
The smaller bones of your hands,
The smaller bones of your feet,
All the bones of the body,
And drop even deeper into the core of the bones,
The bone marrow,
And the blood cells is into play,
This molecular level,
This dance of life,
Protons,
Neutrons,
Electrons,
And here in this depth of your being is mostly space,
Mostly space,
Mostly space,
Space to simply be,
Simply be,
Simply be,
So you and ever so gently now begin to deepen your breath,
Sense the meeting points between your body and the support beneath you,
Beginning to draw that attention outward again in preparation,
Awakening back into your day,
And slowly bring more movement,
Coming back into this present moment,
Taking your time.
Thank you for joining me,
All the blessings,
This is Rachel Hanrahan.
