A big thank you from me,
Your nervous system,
Your body,
Your mind and all the people around you for continuing with this course up to night seven.
I hope you're feeling some of the benefits.
Tonight we'll practice a longer yoga nidra.
So once again,
Getting comfortable in your position and starting to deepen your breath.
Resting your arms alongside your body,
Opening the palms of your hands,
Stretching out your fingers and trying to leave the palms facing upwards.
Continue with these active belly breaths for a few more moments and letting go of the breath.
We'll begin by making what is known as a sankalpa,
A resolve that forms part of our true nature.
For this practice I'll give you a sankalpa associated with better sleep.
You'll say to yourself three times,
Feeling rested and calm is my true nature.
Feeling rested and calm is my true nature.
Feeling rested and calm is my true nature.
Moving back to observing the breath,
Feeling the movement of your belly,
Observing the entire airflow through your body,
How the air enters your nostrils,
Any sensations there,
How it moves down your throat,
How the lungs adjust with the inhale and the exhale,
Any sensations felt around your ribcage,
Your back,
Your belly.
Moving away from the breath and onto your sense of hearing,
Listening to all the different sounds reaching your ears at this very moment,
Noting the loudest sound,
The softest sounds,
Sounds from furthest away,
Sounds from the room you're in.
Moving into the rotation of consciousness now,
Without moving your body in any way,
We'll strengthen that mind-body connection,
Helping the flow of information through the entire nervous system.
We'll begin by moving our awareness to the right thumb,
Not moving it,
Just noticing any sensations on your right thumb.
Moving your awareness to your index finger,
Middle finger,
Ring finger,
Baby finger,
The palm of the right hand,
Forearm,
Shoulder,
The right side of the chest,
Right hip bone,
Thigh,
Shin,
Top of the right foot,
Big toe,
Second toe,
Third toe,
Fourth toe,
Fifth toe,
Scanning that entire right side of your body from your toes up to your shoulder and down to your fingertips,
Moving your awareness around the nervous system in all these areas.
Now guiding your awareness over to your left thumb,
Left index finger,
Middle finger,
Ring finger,
Baby finger,
The palm of the left hand,
Left forearm,
Left elbow,
Upper arm,
Shoulder,
The left side of the chest,
Left hip,
Thigh,
Knee,
Shin,
Top of the left foot,
Big toe,
Second toe,
Third toe,
Fourth toe,
Fifth toe,
Scanning from your toes up the left side of the body to the shoulder,
Down to the fingertips,
Moving over that area over and over.
Now move to the soles of the feet,
Both soles of the feet together,
Observing any sensations here,
Both heels,
Soft area behind the knees,
Hamstring,
Buttocks,
Moving up your spine from the lower back,
Moving out to the rib cage,
Shoulder blades,
Back into your neck,
Into the back of your head,
Scanning this entire area for the next few moments,
Moving your awareness up and down the back part of your body,
And moving your awareness to your forehead,
Your eyelids,
The tip of your nose,
Your lips,
Your chin,
Your throat,
Your eyes,
Chest,
Belly,
Pelvis,
Your entire right leg,
Your entire left leg,
The entire front side of your body,
Now that your body and mind are in a deeply relaxed state,
We will start to experience some opposing emotions or feelings that we often have attachment or aversion to,
And through this process we can diminish those attachments,
Those aversions,
So that we can live with more ease in our life.
We will begin by creating a hot feeling in our body,
Moving this hotness towards extreme heat,
An uncomfortable level of heat,
Using your mind to experience that around your entire body,
Leaning into that uncomfortable heat,
Letting go of that heat,
And moving towards creating a bone-chilling cold.
We're often conditioned to fear the cold,
Lean into experiencing shivering coldness around your entire body,
Staying with it,
Creating it in each and every part of your body.
Now moving on to the experience of hate,
Bringing hate into your mind,
Noticing how hate makes you feel,
Using any techniques to cultivate hate in your mind,
And feeling how it moves around your body,
Then letting go of hate to experience love,
Allowing love to flow through your mind and flow through your body,
Keeping love front of mind for the next few moments,
Allowing yourself to experience all that love.
Moving on to the experience of sorrow,
Feeling all the different emotions around sorrow,
Allowing yourself to lean into sorrow for the next few moments,
Moving from sorrow to joy,
Bringing joy into your mind and allowing yourself to fully experience joy for the next few moments,
Letting go of joy and moving towards pain,
The experience of mental or physical pain,
Whatever pain means for you,
Sitting with the agony of pain for the next few moments,
Swapping pain now for pleasure,
Feelings of pleasure,
Bringing those feelings to the front of your mind,
Let's experience now a heaviness throughout our entire body,
Each and every part becoming heavier and heavier,
The density of every area becoming more pronounced,
The connection between you and the floor becomes stronger,
Moving that heaviness throughout your entire body,
Letting go of this heaviness and producing a lightness in each and every part of your body,
A buoyancy or weightlessness that lifts any of that heaviness,
Feeling as if you could float away,
Connection between you and the ground becomes fainter and fainter,
And moving your awareness back to your physical body,
Feeling the flow of energy through your body,
From your heartbeat,
The blood moving to all the different parts of your body,
Even though you are lying still,
There is so much happening in your body at any moment,
Explore that pranic energy that's happening all the time,
Returning now to our sankalpa,
We planted the seeds of our resolve at the beginning of the practice,
Now our subconscious mind is in a great place for those seeds to be watered,
Fertilized,
So let's repeat that sentence again 3 times,
Feeling rested and calm is my true nature,
Feeling rested and calm is my true nature,
Feeling rested and calm is my true nature,
Enjoy your night and thank you for practicing.
