Yoga Nidra For Balance

This guided relaxation is adapted from a classical form of yoga nidra from the Bihar School of India. You will begin with a body scan and move into breath awareness and a visualization to clear the chakras and different layers of the body, resulting in a sense of balance and restoration.

Transcript

Welcome to this yoga nidra for balance. This is a guided practice that takes you through different layers of your awareness to go really deep into the subconscious and unconscious layers of your being and often a yoga nidra will be able to kind of help you clear out things that have been stuck and create a capacity for more freedom a bit more rootedness in your body and in your inner knowing and there are a lot of scientific benefits about the states of rest you can drop into here and their implications for your health and longevity and concentration and memory all kinds of things so with that said the first step of this yoga nidra for balance is to create a space where you can lie comfortably for an amount of time and if you need to shift your position the understanding is that you will do that with your breath with your inner awareness with some attention to what you are doing but in this step you'll settle so that you might be able to lie still or sit still for the duration of the practice taking the time to support yourself with cushions or adjust the position in which you're sitting or lying down it's always nice to shimmy the shoulders away from the ears wiggle any little bit that might help release some tension or unconscious holding that the body is doing as you invite it to surrender as much as is possible in this moment to the space where you're supported making sure that you have enough coverings because your body will cool down as you relax making any final adjustments and saying to yourself I will practice yoga nidra now and part of me will stay awake throughout the practice you'd be surprised how often a part of you continues to follow the sound of the guides voice even if you the rest of you feels like it's asleep I am practicing yoga nidra part of me will stay following the practice until the end breathing into the body feeling the internal space of the body as you breathe might even like to take a few sighs out through the mouth just allowing any more relaxation that's pot that it might be possible now bringing your awareness to the sensation of sound beginning to scan the area around you for sounds and there's no need to identify the sound or think about the sound it's more the actual experience of the sound kind of entering your eardrum and then scanning to experience the next sound gently sending your awareness out in all directions scanning for sound listening for sounds very far away seeing how far the furthest sound could be reaching far out to experience sound now scanning for sound just right in your environment like maybe inside the room where you are or just outside the room where you are sounds that are pretty close by scanning for those and now perhaps you can even hear sounds inside your body see if you can listen to the sound of your own breath maybe even your heartbeat letting this go letting go scanning for sounds and now we'll begin a body scan where you just have to feel the part of the body that I name and then move on and feel the next part we'll go through the body in this way beginning by feeling the right big toe second toe middle toe fourth toe little toe sole of the foot top of the foot ankle lower leg knee joint upper leg hip bone side of the pelvis right glute right side of the abdomen all the way up right side of the navel area rib cage chest top of the shoulder moving up the right side of the back right side of the low back feeling the mid part of the back the shoulder blade top of the shoulder the upper arm elbow and lower arm writh back of the hand palm thumb first finger middle finger fourth finger little finger and now feeling the space of the left big toe second toe middle toe fourth toe little toe sole of the foot top of the foot ankle lower leg knee joint upper leg left hip bone side of the pelvis left glute left side of the abdomen belly left side of the ribcage chest left side of the lower back mid back shoulder blade top of the shoulder left upper arm elbow lower arm wrist palm back of the hand thumb first finger middle finger fourth finger little finger the whole right side the whole left side pit of the throat back of the neck left side of the face left ear right side of the face right ear back of the head top of the head forehead right eyebrow left eyebrow space between the eyebrows right eye left eye nose tip of the nose right cheek left cheek upper lip lower lip tongue and jaw legs arms torso neck and head whole body whole body whole body resting here bringing your awareness to your breath we're going to move up and down the energy centers and the yogic system up and down connecting with the energetic places in you that create your experience of life we're going to do this in a really relaxed and easeful way beginning by breathing in through that place between the eyebrows to a point at the top of the spine a little line of gold or white light from that point between the eyebrows to the top of the spine in and out little thread or filament of white or gold light as you breathe in as you breathe out staying with the visualization staying with this breath moving down now to the pit of the throat same invitation here perhaps visualizing this filament or thread of white or gold light moving in through the pit of the throat to a point on the spine and exhale point on the spine out through the pit of the throat gentle awareness of the breath moving in through the throat to the spine back out from the spine through the throat perhaps envisioning imagining a little thread of white or gold light accompanying the breath beautiful moving the awareness down to the center of the chest with inhale drying that filament of light in toward the spine and with exhale the filament of light moves from the spine back out through the center of the chest keep a gentle awareness on the breath on the visualization at the heart center and very gently with kind of kind awareness sending your breath down to the navel breath enters at the navel follows the pathway of a line of light to the spine and then the line of light moves back out from the spine through the navel with exhale inhaling to the spine exhaling through the navel taking the awareness of breath even lower to a place right kind of at the base of the low belly the line of light moves in toward the tip of the sacrum that triangular bone at the base of the spine and exhales back from the tip of the sacrum out through the low belly accompanying this with the line filament of light inhaling tip of the sacrum exhaling low part of the low belly and then with inhale slight uplift of the pelvic floor with exhale relax and release the muscles of the pelvic floor inhale little bit of an uplift exhale soften letting go of this beginning to imagine some lines of light moving from the pelvic floor and the hips down the legs all the way down the legs these lines of light moving out through the soles of the feet no matter how you're sitting or lying letting those connect way down deep through the center of the earth so through all the layers of sediment and rock all the way down to the earth's molten core and then you can visualize those lines of light like kind of tying to like maybe a crystal or something right at the center of the core of the earth and all of those centers that you touched all of those places in the body that you contacted through this breath and visualization you can imagine any sediment anything that is being stirred up through all the layers of the being as you contact the energy body moving in this spiral a coil of light starting from the top of the spine that point coiling lines of light moving and kind of how you'd imagine like a tornado or a cyclone formation but gentle not like a storm just a coil of light moving downward moving downward through all those centers through the throat the heart navel sacral area pelvic floor coiling lines of light moving downward downward through the legs downward through the feet downward through those roots that you grew into the center of the earth regenerating releasing recalibrating letting go letting the earth consume the old repurpose it to be recreated letting go letting go through these coils of light moving down through the energy body through the physical body through the emotions through the mental body etheric body all the bodies coiled lines of light roping coiling downwards moving down your roots into the this is a practice of releasing of letting go of purifying breathe through it allow sensation let it happen however it's happening there's no need to concentrate too much just allow visualize imagine be in the space of this this release this beautiful uncoiling unwinding which is most of the path most of the path is releasing conditioning releasing old pain releasing old beliefs letting without even needing to understand the process finding in yourself that space of surrender opening enough to say I trust in something healing and higher even if it's my own higher to guide this release to guide this letting go I don't need to understand and beginning to visualize any impediments to the release as like stones in your bowl of light the body the bowl of light can get filled with stones and those stones can also just be tipped out down these coiling lines of gold and a white light moving way down into the center of the earth releasing the stones letting them go allowing the release of things that are heavy obstructive old stories letting go beginning to notice feelings of lightness of expansion breathing gold or white light into those spaces that have been cleared into any spaces that feel like they now need to be filled with the healing golden or white light filling those spaces with your awareness with your breath and even noticing if there are etheric beings that want to help with this process so whether you can imagine angels or benevolent ancestors or your higher self maybe it's animal beings or nature beings a mixture of things or just one you are not alone you are guided you are protected and then this healing process there are those who step forward to place their hands on you to whisper new words new messages to replace who you were with who you really are who are you they will tell you in pictures or words or just a felt sense of well-being you are enough you are worthy take your place there in that space you are worthy feeling their support feeling their loving hands for a few moments more listening for anything that wants to be transmitted to you any messages you need to hear without needing them to be in words without even needing them to be right now just opening to this space letting go of this visualization and staying with the feeling of enough I am enough I have enough this is enough staying with the feeling of well-being and enough breathing that through the space of the whole body whole body the whole body resting here yoga nidra is now complete namaste