Pre/Post-Election Stress Relief With Yoga Nidra

Feeling the stress of the world around you? Do important topics like climate change, the elections, and social injustices bring you grief, keep your body tense, and over-activate your thoughts? This Yoga Nidra practice will help you find calm and a deep physical release as you experience compassion in body, mind, and spirit for every aspect of the elections - especially for yourself.

Donations for this recording directly support the nonprofit The Resilient Activist.

Transcript

Welcome to Yoga Nidra for pre and post-election stress with Sami Erin.

So we'll begin by relaxing through the face and through the head and I invite you to scrunch up really tighten all the muscles around the forehead,

The eyes,

Scrunch up the nose,

You might clench the teeth and then release.

Begin to notice the breath as you slow it down.

Tighten around the back of the head,

Top of the shoulders,

Scrunch up the shoulders,

Tighten around the neck and the throat and release that.

Jiggle out through the shoulders just a little bit.

You might do some just gentle movement opening the shoulders,

Feeling very open through the chest and then tighten through both arms.

Clench through the fingers,

The wrists,

You might do some wrist circles in one direction and the other direction.

Tighten through both arms,

The elbows,

The upper arms and then release.

Jiggle out through the fingers.

Let the arms just fall heavy to your sides.

If you're on your back,

Your hands can be palms face up or you could bend at the elbows and let your hands rest down at the low belly.

Bring your awareness up into the chest,

The armpits,

The rib cage and the belly and just constrict through the front body.

Tighten all the muscles for just a moment and then on an exhalation,

Let that go completely release through the front body.

Let the soft belly be soft and then tighten and constrict around the back,

Around the back of the shoulders.

You might draw the shoulder blades together.

Tighten around the waist and small of the back.

Constrict through the glutes and the hips and then completely release the back body.

Imagine that gravity could just draw the back body down into the floor.

Take a full inhalation,

A full exhalation and then draw your attention into your legs.

Constrict through the hips,

The knees,

The thighs,

The lower legs,

Even clench through the toes and then release.

You might want to wiggle the toes out,

Do some ankle circles.

Take a full inhalation,

A full exhalation there.

Do one more body scan from the crown of your head down to the tips of your fingers and the tips of your toes and let it go.

Notice any place that you're still gripping,

Any tension,

Any tightness.

Notice any place where you feel out of alignment and adjust your position.

So you should feel a nice straight line from the tip of the tailbone all the way up the back to the crown of the head.

Make sure your hips are in alignment,

Your shoulders are equidistant from your ears.

Bring your attention into the breath at the upper chest.

Notice the sensation of the movement of the muscles,

The tissues around the throat,

Maybe the back of the mouth around the TMJ area and see if you can soften and expand the breath through the throat,

Through the upper part of the chest.

The breath begins to deepen just slightly.

You notice softening around the collarbones,

The front of the shoulders.

Exhale and drop your awareness of the breath down into the rib cage.

Notice what happens there when you inhale,

You fill up the lungs,

The rib cage expands as you receive the breath and as you exhale,

It releases,

Softens,

Constricts just so slightly.

With the next few breaths,

Notice the movement through the ribs.

As you inhale and you exhale,

Notice the sensation through each lung as you completely fill up with breath and as you exhale and let that breath go,

Soften around the side bodies under the armpits.

Even notice if you can soften around the shoulder blades of the back body and then exhale completely and drop your awareness of the breath down into the soft belly.

Let go any gripping around the navel and the waist and breathe.

As you inhale,

You feel the belly open.

It lifts to receive the breath.

There's a little rocking sensation through the pubic bone and as you exhale,

The navel draws back down towards the spine and you empty out completely.

Each breath in the low belly is a little longer and deeper and slower.

Imagine that you could soften and receive the breath even through the small of the back.

This little gentle rocking sensation through the pelvis as you inhale and exhale.

With your next exhalation,

Empty out completely and then let the breath come back to its natural state.

Nothing else for you to do in this moment but observe the breath.

Notice how it feels as you inhale through the low belly,

Through the ribs,

Through the throat and notice as you exhale that sensation of release and letting go from the throat through the chest and the ribs and the lungs,

Through the solar plexus and the low belly.

Take one more full inhalation,

Filling up through all the areas of the belly and the chest and the throat and exhale completely.

Draw that sensation of releasing the body to gravity one more time.

You feel the arms very heavy,

Both legs completely relaxed.

You feel weighted and grounded through the hips,

The back,

The spine,

The back of the neck,

The back of the skull.

Even the chest feels heavy.

The face is completely at ease.

Let your mind settle for a moment on your thoughts.

Bring your attention into your brain,

Into all the busyness,

All the activity,

All the worries,

All the joys,

All the memories that are bubbling up in your thoughts right now.

Be the witness,

The observer of whatever is just bubbling up for you.

And imagine that for the next hour,

You could simply allow all those thoughts to soften away from your brain,

To settle down on the earth around you.

Bring a little softness through your forehead,

Through the frontal lobes of the brain,

Through the back of the eyes,

And then drop your attention into your heart.

As you remember all those thoughts that you let go of,

Notice what emotions you were carrying right here in the heart center,

What was gripping at your heart,

What was giving you joy,

What brought a little anxiety or tension or grief.

For today's sankalpa or intention statement,

I invite you to set the intention for today to experience compassion in your body,

Your mind,

And your spirit for every aspect of the upcoming elections,

Finding compassion and setting the intention for compassion for yourself,

Your loved ones,

For the candidates and initiatives that you support,

As well as for those that you don't support,

And simply setting the intention to find compassion for everyone on all sides of all issues.

With the sankalpa,

You visualize that you could just let that thought,

That intention settle at the heart,

And you take a full inhalation,

A full exhalation,

And we'll begin the guided body scan for the actual yoga nidra practice.

Nothing you need to do,

But notice,

As I mentioned,

Each part of the body.

How does it feel?

What's your awareness of that area of the body?

Is there another layer of gripping or tension that you could release?

So bring your awareness to the crown of your head,

To the soft spot at the crown.

Imagine that you could soften through the soft spot,

And you could soften the hair follicles around the entire skull,

The skin of the skull,

The bones of the skull.

Bring your awareness into your forehead.

Notice the hairline at the forehead,

Both eyebrows,

The eyes,

The eye sockets,

The eyelids,

And eyelashes.

Notice even the muscles supporting the eyes and the optic nerve,

A little softening,

A little release into gravity through the eyes,

Through the brain.

Bring your attention into the temples,

The right temple on the left,

And then draw your awareness to the bridge of your nose.

Bring your attention to both nostrils,

To the cheekbones,

Right and left,

And then move your awareness from the cheekbones out to both ears.

Notice the outer ears,

The cartilage of the ears,

The back of the ears,

And the bones that support the ears.

Draw your attention to the opening of the ear canals,

And move your awareness into the inner ear,

Down into the TMJ area on the left and the right,

And then move your awareness from the TMJ through the upper teeth,

Past the molars,

In your mind's eye,

Visualize each tooth on the upper palate,

The upper lip.

Notice where each tooth connects into the bone,

And even imagine that you could soften the gums around the teeth,

You could soften through the upper palate,

And then bring your awareness back to the TMJ,

And draw your awareness through the lower teeth now.

Notice the bones that support the teeth,

Follow your awareness from the back molars towards the front,

Noticing each tooth individually,

The sensation where each tooth connects into the bone,

Imagine softening through the gums,

And then draw your awareness to the tip of the tongue,

Visualize heaviness,

Weightedness through the tongue,

Deep back into the throat.

Draw your awareness into the throat,

Into the sides of the neck,

The carotid arteries,

Swallow once or twice,

Release through the notch at the base of the throat,

The collar bones.

Draw your attention to the back of the neck,

The upper part of the back,

And the tops of both shoulders.

Feel that little softening of the shoulders away from the ears,

And move your attention into the shoulder joints,

Rotator cuff,

The armpits,

Move your awareness into the upper arms,

Both elbows,

The crease of the elbows,

The forearms,

Both wrists,

The palms of the hands,

Notice the fleshy pads of each palm,

And the very center of the palm,

A little sense of tugging energy activity through the very center of the palms.

Bring your awareness to the back of the hands,

All 10 fingers,

Notice the knuckles,

The joints,

The cuticles,

The tips of each finger in both thumbs,

And then you visualize both hands together heavy and weighted,

Both arms completely released and relaxed,

Both shoulders grounded,

Surrendering to gravity.

You feel the weight through your neck and throat,

Heaviness through the face and the skull.

Take a full breath and bring your awareness into the chest,

Into the collar bones,

The breasts,

The sternum.

You notice the sensation of the ribs through the front body,

Around the side body.

Follow your awareness of the ribs around the back body and notice where the ribs connect to the spine.

Notice the shoulder blades against the floor,

The sensation of the spine from the base of the neck down to the shoulder blades and on down towards the kidneys.

You feel the spine released from the back of the neck down to the waist and you follow that awareness all the way down through past the sacrum,

Past the tailbone.

You feel the back body of the kidneys,

Smaller the back and the glutes just release heavily into the ground.

You notice the sensation around the waist,

The side bodies of the soft belly.

Draw your attention to the navel,

To the solar plexus,

The internal organs of the upper belly.

Imagine the sensation that you could release and relax through your stomach,

Through the liver on the right and the spleen on the left,

That there could be a sense of relaxation through the colon,

Through the intestines,

Reproductive organs,

Genitals in the pelvic floor.

You feel the entire torso from the pelvic floor to the top of the shoulders,

Heavy and released.

And bring your attention into the groins.

Notice the right hip joint and the left hip,

The right glute and the left glute.

Feel that weightedness through both thighs,

Both kneecaps,

The crease at the back of the knees,

Both shins,

Calves,

Achilles tendons and the ankles.

Draw your attention down the top of the feet,

Noticing each of the 10 toes,

The base of the toes,

The toenails,

The tips of the toes,

And then draw your attention to the soles of the feet.

Notice the heels,

The fleshy pads around the outsides of the soles and move your awareness into the very center of the arches,

Feeling that little bit of tugging,

Tingling sensation at the center of the arches.

And then with your awareness on both feet heavy,

Both legs grounded,

Both hips in the low belly completely relaxed,

You draw your awareness up through the entire body now.

There's a sensation with each exhalation that the body could let go a little bit more,

Could release more into gravity.

There's a sense of melting that the front body as you exhale could feel a sense of melting into the floor through the face and the throat and the chest and the belly and the pelvis.

Nothing else for you to do in this moment,

No place else to be,

Nothing to think about except the sensation of the weighted groundedness of your body.

Begin to notice the sensation of your breath.

What is your breathing doing in this moment?

When you inhale,

What's the sensation through your nostrils,

What muscles or tissues open to receive the breath?

And then how does the body respond as you surrender and let that breath go?

Just a gentle movement around the navel and the soft belly as you inhale and exhale.

You notice the expansion of the ribs,

Perhaps even movement through the armpits,

Under the breasts,

The collarbones and in the throat.

Bring your awareness into the low belly and begin to expand the length of the breath at the low belly.

You might begin by counting the number of beats that you take for a complete inhalation and count the number of beats you take on your exhalation.

Really noticing is one longer,

Is the other longer,

Are they equal?

As you count the beats on the in-breath,

Count the beats on the out-breath with the memory that as we shift into relaxation response,

The body would like to exhale longer than it inhales.

So as you count,

Begin to invite your exhalation to be longer,

Deeper than your inhalation.

You might add just one beat to the exhalation.

It might be comfortable to add two,

Perhaps even where the exhalation becomes twice as long as the inhalation and nothing else to do or think about,

But the motion of the breath through the body,

The counting of the number of beats and elongating the exhalation.

Exhaling through the face,

Through the jaw lines or the throat,

And simply observing,

Experiencing the breath.

On your next exhalation,

Let the breath come back to its natural state and we'll sit for just a moment as you notice what the breath does on its own after it's been slowed down and expanded.

And then bring your awareness up into your forehead,

There's a space there,

The very center of your forehead,

Inside the brain that is your inner gaze.

In that space,

You may see colors or patterns or light images.

You may see pure black.

You may see the night sky.

And allow yourself to just soften your inner gaze.

So even though your eyes are closed,

Your eyes can still be active.

So I invite you to once again,

Release through the eyes,

Release through the muscles behind the eyes,

Release through the temples and bring to memory your favorite place in nature.

Let it meander through your brain.

Where were you?

Who were you with?

When were you there?

What was the season and the time of day?

And imagine in this visualization that you could simply step out of this place where you are in yoga nidra and step into that place in nature.

Notice what your breath does as you leave behind your everyday world and you step into the most glorious,

Supportive,

Nurturing,

Natural place that's inviting you to connect and be there and breathe.

What would your breath be like in this place?

How deep would it be?

What aromas would you drink in?

What might you notice as you inhale about the humidity,

The temperature of the air in this place and how would that feel through your nostrils and your sinus passages?

How would it feel to breathe that air in all the way deep into your lungs,

Drawing the energies,

The temperature,

The time of day,

The season,

The sense,

The aromas directly into your lungs and as you exhale,

There's a sense that you give back the gift of your breath to nature in the same way that you receive it from nature.

You gift it back.

Bring your attention to your sense of hearing and sound in this place in nature.

If you soften your hearing and you simply receive the sound,

What might you hear?

What would be the sounds directly in front of you and behind you,

To the left and the right?

If you could imagine the sounds that would come in on the wind from as far away as the horizon,

What would be the sound of that wind and where would it have flown from?

Where was that breeze before it came and touched you,

Before you breathed it in?

As you soften through your eyes,

You begin to notice detail about where you are,

What's in your line of sight,

What catches your attention,

The shapes and forms,

The colors.

Are you in sunlight or shade,

Shadow or moonlight?

As you soften through your eyes and expand your sense of vision and visualization,

What do you notice by way of movement?

What's directly in front of you in your line of sight and what's beneath you in that sense of grounding,

Earthiness,

Supporting you in this place?

Bring your attention to your sense of touch.

As you notice that breeze blowing against your face,

How does it feel?

How does your skin react to receive the touch of the breeze?

What's the temperature there coming against your skin?

And again,

You notice the humidity.

You notice the sensation of sunlight or moonlight against your skin.

There's a sensation of the touch of your clothing or whatever you're touching.

You imagine that you could touch what's nearby and how would it feel against your fingertips,

In the palms of your hands,

Against your feet or your back?

It's as if you could soften and open through every pore of your skin and receive the textures,

The sensations that are surrounding you in this place.

Your senses are completely open and receptive and receiving.

Now sit for just a moment in silence as you simply notice whatever else comes to your mind,

To your heart,

To your thoughts and your visualization.

Then drop your attention into your heart.

Notice if there's a sense of gratitude for this place in nature and how would you express that gratitude?

What could you think?

Could you thank the earth and the trees and the water and the rocks and the sky and the critters?

And how does that feel to embody that sense of gratitude right here at your heart center?

You expand that awareness of all that you're grateful for,

To bring in the images of those that you love,

Those who are in your life or have been in your life in the past.

You notice there's so much room in your heart for so much gratitude.

You expand that out into your community,

Your core groups of friends,

Acquaintances,

Business associates,

All the people that you connect with,

Whether in person or on Zoom or by email.

You just feel that sense of gratitude for the support that you have through your broad community.

And then take a full inhalation and a full exhalation,

Sending one last gift of gratitude back to this place in nature.

And then imagine that you could step back out of this place and come back into your yoga nidra practice,

Wherever you are,

With your blanket,

Your pillow.

You notice the weight and heaviness of your body against the earth,

The sensation and the weight of the blanket against your skin.

And with your awareness still at your heart,

We bring back the original sankalpa,

The intention statement,

The concept today,

The invitation for you to experience compassion in your body and noticing how that feels for your entire body to be completely at ease,

Completely relaxed.

To experience compassion through your mind,

Softness of your thoughts,

Gentle focus on your breath and your body and your visualization.

Experiencing compassion for your spirit,

For your heartfelt wishes,

The passions that you have in your life,

For your dreams and goals.

Setting up a concept of protection,

Gentleness,

Forgiveness,

Along with hope and resilience for every aspect of your life.

And we expand that today into the upcoming elections.

Nothing else for you to do in this moment,

Nothing you can accomplish,

No one else you can convince to vote.

In this moment,

You can simply find gratitude and compassion for all those you know who are working towards a better,

More compassionate world,

For all the thousands and thousands and thousands of people who are helping to make this election everything that we know in our hearts it can be the sensation that whatever your journey is through this,

You're not alone.

And whatever steps you're taking to make a difference will have a tremendous impact,

Even if it's not something you might observe right away.

There's a sense in the yoga tradition of simply putting forward your best foot,

Stepping into whatever your heart is asking you to step into,

To take on,

To learn,

To gift to others without holding on to the outcome.

Simply knowing that what you give when given with love and gratitude and compassion is all that gift needs.

I invite you for today to offer a gift of nothing but compassion for those whose thoughts,

Ideas,

Platforms are different from yours.

Nothing to change,

Nothing to impact,

But simply coming from a place of peace and gentleness and gratitude within your own heart and let that be what you project out to everyone that you meet.

Sit in silence for just a moment and I invite you to just notice anything that's going on in your life,

Anything else that you would like to bring into this space and offer a little softness,

Compassion,

Gentleness,

Acceptance for.

And then take a full inhalation,

A full exhalation as we begin to slowly,

Slowly come out of the yoga nidra practice.

I will guide you through this.

There's no rush.

I invite you first to just swallow,

Maybe lick your lips a little,

Move your jawline around.

It might feel nice to let your head look over one shoulder,

Opening through the neck and then gently move ahead to look over the other shoulder,

Bringing the head back to center.

Maybe lift the chin slightly,

Opening through the throat and then draw the chin down towards the throat,

Towards the chest,

Opening through the upper part of the neck and the back.

Bring the head back to horizon level and just begin some gentle wrist circles.

Maybe open and release your fingers,

Wiggle out your fingers.

Might feel nice to get a little shoulder movement in so you can start some movement around the elbows and the shoulders and then bring your attention to your feet.

Linch and release the toes,

Maybe spread the toes really wide.

If you have a pillow or cushion underneath your knees,

Go ahead and push that out of the way so you can straighten your knees out.

Maybe feel the heels pushed away,

Draw the toes back towards your face,

Stretched out through one leg first and then the upper other,

A little bit of hip openers.

As you're ready,

Keeping a blanket around you if you'd like,

Ever so gently roll over to your right side if that feels comfortable.

Otherwise you can roll to the left or you can just come up to seated.

If you're on your right side for just a moment,

You can use your right arm to cushion your head or use your pillow there.

We'll just sit here for just a moment.

If you're seated,

Let's come into a quiet meditation.

Notice the sensation through your body,

The deep guided relaxation that we went through,

Finding heaviness,

Releasing tension through every part of the body.

The major body parts and some of the not so major body parts and parts of the body we don't often think about.

We expanded through the breath and especially that three part breathing,

Noticing the breath first in the upper chest where we typically find the breath when we're in fight or flight mode and then moving the breath down through the rib cage and the chest and then deepening the breath into the low belly.

And in fact,

Counting the number of beats on the inhalation and the exhalation to bring the body more closely into the relaxation response and the visualization.

Finding that place in nature,

Remembering how it felt through all of your senses,

Knowing that when you do that,

The same areas of your brain light up as lit up when you are actually in that place.

Even through your memories,

You can receive so many of the same benefits of that time in nature.

And then the gratitude at the heart center,

Gratitude for nature,

For those that you love and for everyone in your life.

Setting an intention to bring the memories of how this felt into your everyday life,

I invite you to come up to seated.

Take your time.

Again,

You're welcome to keep a blanket around you if you're chilled.

Once you're in seated,

Let's just take a moment to bring the palms of the hands together.

Thumbs resting at the sternum and prayer pose.

Let the fingers spread wide apart so that as you breathe,

You can feel your breath between each of the fingers,

The movement of air,

As if your spread fingers could spread everything that you received in practice today,

Sharing that breath and relaxation and gratitude and compassion out into the world around you.

My deep gratitude for joining me for yoga nidra today and my hope is that you will take the softness and gentleness with you out into the rest of the world and share it with everyone that you meet.

Namaste.

Reviews

Great wise Insights, and I slept well!!!! Thank you. 🕊