Yoga Nidra to Hear Your Inner Truth

Yoga nidra is a guided meditation that helps us to relax our bodies deeply while staying present and listening deeply within. This practice includes the opportunity to set a powerful intention called a sankalpa to guide you to what you really want in life. Following a rotation of conciousness, insights are guided to help you see your own wisdom.

Yoga nidra can help you find deep rest when your mind seems to have other plans. There is no ending bell in this practice to allow you to rest until you feel complete.

Transcript

Welcome to the practice of yoga nidra.

Yoga nidra means yogic sleep.

It is a guided meditation in which we rest our physical bodies while our minds explore our own personal truth.

To begin,

You can lie down on the floor,

A sofa,

Or a bed.

Take a few moments to get comfortable.

It might be best to place a pillow underneath your head,

Or perhaps another pillow underneath your knees.

You can use a blanket to stay warm,

Create the space for you to begin to feel relaxed.

During your practice,

You can relax and you may fall asleep.

This is okay and it's completely normal.

You may drift back and forth between being aware and present and feeling that perhaps you might be in a state of sleep.

This is also quite natural.

As best you can,

Try to remain awake while relaxing your body.

There's no need to worry or stress if you fall asleep.

You don't need to do anything besides try to listen and stay with your experience.

Whatever arises for you arises.

Try to accept your experience just as it is without forcing or pushing anything away.

If any suggestions don't feel right for you,

You can make changes or just tune out and tune back in when things feel more comfortable.

Begin to deepen your awareness of your breath.

Start to notice how your breath feels as you inhale through your nose,

How that breath feels as it travels through your body,

The sensation of exhaling.

If your eyes aren't closed yet,

Gently close them now.

Notice if there's any places that you could feel more comfortable in your body.

Does it feel good to roll your hands open with your palms up?

Does it feel more restful to place your hands in a different position?

Take the time you need to really settle in,

Feel comfortable,

And see if you can make a commitment to remain still for the duration of your practice.

Take another deep breath in.

Observe your breath as it fills you up,

And exhale,

Soften,

Let your breath go.

Begin to bring your attention to the sounds you can hear.

Continue to scan the sounds that you hear the furthest away from you,

Just like a radar system.

Bring your attention and focus to each sound you hear just for a moment,

And continue scanning,

Listening for other sounds.

If you don't hear anything in particular,

That's okay too.

Just like a radar system,

Use your focus to continue scanning.

Begin to bring your focus a little closer,

Scanning for any sounds you can hear just outside the room.

Then slowly bring your focus to the room that you're resting within.

What can you hear as you slowly scan the space around you?

Come back to your breath once again.

As you inhale,

Notice how long it takes for you to fully fill up with air.

You can count until your lungs are completely full.

As you exhale,

Try to match that count as you breathe out.

Breathe in deeply again,

Noticing how long it takes you to count until your lungs are full.

See if you can count and match that number.

Don't worry about it if the numbers are different for you.

Just continue to bring your focus to what you feel as you breathe in deeply and slowly.

If you're starting to drift away,

Try to stay with my voice and your focus and what you feel as you breathe deeply and slowly.

It's time now to set your sun kalpa.

Sun kalpa is our resolve.

It aligns with our innermost desires.

Sometimes it's called an intention.

It's less of a goal and more aligned with a state of being,

Something that you want to work towards.

A heartfelt intention that rises up within you.

Sun kalpa is in the present tense.

It's a positive statement.

So if you are feeling rather reactive,

Rather than focusing on the negative experience,

You could reframe your sun kalpa to embrace your ability to be calm,

Making a statement such as,

I am calm and centered.

Breathe deeply.

Take a moment to allow your sun kalpa to arise.

It can be any quality at all that starts to be felt within you.

It's the truth that your heart lines with.

Your sun kalpa can begin to arise as any truth within you that your heart aligns with and starts to resonate as real for you.

As a present tense statement,

Begin to feel the truth of your sun kalpa already taking place in the present.

The seed that you are planting with recognizing your heartfelt desire already taking root in reality.

Take a breath in and slowly start to feel the energy right along the edge of your body.

It's okay if you don't quite feel something.

Take another breath.

See what you can feel even if it's rather subtle.

Where do you feel that energy field?

How far outside your body do you feel it resonating?

How far away are you interacting with anything else around you?

Begin to bring your focus now to the inside of your mouth.

Start to rotate our consciousness around our bodies,

Scanning different areas as we move together.

Bring your breath or your sensation to your tongue.

Slowly your jaw moving up through your cheeks to your eyes,

Trying to soften your eyes down towards the ground,

Bouncing through your temples,

Down through your ears,

Into the back of your head,

Feeling your body sink deeply into the floor.

Bring your focus now to your right hand thumb,

Your right index finger,

Your right middle finger,

Your right ring finger,

Your right pinky finger,

The palm of your right hand,

The top of your right hand,

Your right forearm,

Your right upper arm,

Your right shoulder,

Your left thumb,

Left index finger,

Left middle finger,

Left ring finger,

Left pinky finger,

The palm of your left hand,

The top of your left hand,

Your left forearm,

The upper part of your left arm,

Your left shoulder,

The middle of your back,

The right side of your waist,

The left side of your waist.

Now shift your focus all the way to your right big toe,

Your second toe on the right,

Third toe,

Fourth toe,

Your baby toe,

The sole of your right foot,

The top of your right foot.

Slide your awareness up the lower part of your right leg,

Your right knee,

Your right thigh,

Your right hips.

Bring your attention to your left big toe,

Your left second toe,

Third toe,

Fourth toe,

Your baby toe,

The sole of your left foot,

The top of your foot.

Slide your focus up your leg from your lower leg to your knee,

Up through your left hip,

Your right hip,

Your right waist,

Left waist,

Right shoulder,

Left shoulder.

Bring your focus now to the back of your body.

Feel it sinking into the ground or the surface that you're lying on,

Feeling heavy from your heels,

Up both legs,

The backs of your legs into your glutes,

Your low back,

Your mid back,

The way up into your shoulders,

Your arms,

Working from your hands up through your wrists,

Your forearms,

Your shoulders,

Up into your neck,

The back of your head,

Your eyes sinking deeper,

Your whole body relaxed,

Your whole body relaxed.

Try to remain with my voice as your whole body relaxes deeply.

Come back to your breath focus now.

Take an inhale.

Notice the quality of your breath,

And then exhale to let your breath go.

Count down from 10 breaths.

Let's begin to count from 10,

And as you exhale,

Count yourself down,

Nine.

Breathing deeply,

Staying with your focus as your body relaxes,

Eight.

Continue counting yourself down at the pace of your own breath.

If you get to one before we come back together,

You can begin again.

Just following each breath in,

Letting each breath go.

Bring your focus to another inhale and let it go.

Start to explore the practice of examining our reactions to sensations and emotions,

Beginning with the sensation of being hot.

What does it feel like to be warm?

Where do you feel the sensation of feeling warm and hot in your body?

Conjure up the experience of feeling hot.

Notice the effect that thinking about heat has on your body and your awareness.

Shift now to feeling the experience of being cold.

Bring your thoughts,

Your awareness to conjure up what coldness feels like.

Observe the reactions in your body to feeling the sensation of cold,

Hot,

Cold.

Now try to bring your awareness to feeling hot and cold together.

Hot,

Cold,

Hot and cold together.

Shift now to experiencing what darkness feels like.

Observe in your body and your mind how you react to the feeling of darkness.

What sensations rise up.

Where do you feel your reaction?

Shift now to feeling how you feel about light.

What sensations rise up in your body.

Where do you feel your reaction to the experience of feeling light,

Brightness,

Dark,

Light,

Dark and light together.

Bring your focus now to how you feel when you enjoy something.

The sensation of enjoyment.

What you experience when something is pleasurable.

Where do you feel what rises up for you?

Shift now to how you feel when you dislike something.

Where do you feel your reaction?

What rises up and where does it arise?

Come back to enjoyment.

Dislike.

Feel enjoyment and dislike together.

Now shift to how it feels to be lonely.

Where do you feel loneliness?

Bring your focus to community.

Where do you feel your connection with community?

Loneliness.

Community.

Loneliness and community together.

Slowly,

Start to move your awareness to a big blue sky.

As you observe the sky,

Notice that it's bright and sunny.

There are very few clouds in the open sky that you observe.

Slowly,

Clouds begin to form.

You see the clouds beginning to gather.

The wind begins to pick up.

The clouds thicken.

Begins to get stormy.

The clouds darken.

But in time,

That darkness passes.

As the clouds move away,

You begin to float,

Rising from the earth.

Eventually,

Floating safely and gently up in the sky.

This time,

As the clouds begin to form,

You rest,

Floating gently above them.

The earth below begins to be obscured from your place up high above.

You remain with the sky,

Observing.

Unattached to what happens below,

Is your awareness and consciousness remain above.

The storm begins to brew.

Clouds thicken,

Even swirl underneath you.

You know that this too will pass.

Soon enough,

The clouds begin to dissipate.

They become thin white wisps that slowly give way to the earth below.

As what is above reflects what is below,

You very gently and slowly start to float back to the earth,

Bringing with you your newfound perspective.

As you float back to the earth,

You find yourself standing next to a well of water.

With the sun shining above,

You look in and can clearly see your own reflection.

In that well,

You begin to see reflections of people you admire.

The first person you see is a reflection of someone you admire for their kindness.

Notice who rises up for you.

There are pebbles next to the well.

Slowly you lean down,

Pick one up.

Looking at the face of the person who reminds you of kindness,

You drop a pebble in,

Making a good wish for something you desire for that person in your life.

The ripples of water obscure the image.

And then the next time you look into the well,

You see someone who you admire for their bravery.

As you look into the water,

You see that person.

They smile back at you.

With another pebble in your hand,

You drop it into the well,

Making your wish for that person.

And their image dissolves once again.

The next time you look into the well,

You see the image of someone who challenges you,

Someone who reflects a quality you find challenging to accept.

But as you look into the well,

You see that person.

You also see the suffering that they have experienced.

And that helps you begin to feel compassion for the person who you find challenging.

With a pebble in your hand,

You drop it into the well,

Making a wish for what you wish that person will receive.

Slowly the water fades.

As time as you look in,

You begin to see your own reflection.

You realize you too share kindness.

You too are brave.

You too present challenge to others.

As you look into the well,

You drop a pebble in,

You make a wish that aligns with your sankalpa.

You hear your sankalpa again.

Come back to your personal resolve.

More now than ever,

You begin to see the roots of the seeds of your sankalpa that are already starting to grow.

As you feel your sankalpa,

Reflect on a time you have felt great joy,

A time you may have felt great peace.

If one doesn't come to mind,

Imagine how it would feel to feel great joy or great peace.

Notice the sensations of your body relaxing,

Experiencing the peace that is always within you.

Slowly now,

Begin to bring yourself back.

From your nidra practice,

Very gently re-entering your regular consciousness,

You can choose to bring your wisdom and peace back with you.

Return to your body.

Allow your body to slowly reawaken.

Return to the sensation you feel.

Come back to a conscious focus on your breath.

Breathing in deeply,

Let your breath go when it's time.

Slowly,

Begin to bring movement back into your body,

Perhaps beginning to wiggle your toes,

Your fingers,

Your shoulders,

And your hips.

You can remain restful for as long as you like.

When it's time for you to begin to rise up,

Your yoga nidra is complete.

Reviews

Enjoyed. Would have liked to go a little deeper with the self inquiry however.

This is one of my favorite yoga nidras. I love how your voice is naturally calming without sounding forced or sing-songy. (Not sure that's a real word.) The imagery of the well is perfect. If I were to suggest anything, it would be maybe a bit more space between instructions- just a second or two- to let your words really sink in. I can't wait to hear more of your offerings. Thank you for the peace and relaxation.

Excellent, really enjoyed this meditation. Thank you, Namaste 🙏💚

A pleasant journey within my soul. Thank you 🙏

I felt so aligned throughout that and gained so much clarity where there has been such a block. Thank you so much for sharing this gift 🥰🥰

Very relaxing. Thank you

I love the loving kindness like part with the well!

Perfect!!! 🙏🏻
Thank you!

Lovely voice and pace! Thank you 💗

Thank you so much for posting this. It's exactly what I needed at just the right time, and it's a beautiful experience every time 🙏🌼

Very clear instructions. I particularly like the less rigid approach taken by this teacher to initial body positioning and to one's own personal response to the instructions. Just a personal preference, but I tend to find many yoga nidra instructors (needlessly?) authoritarian in their approach.

Love, love it. Helped me so much. Thank u.

I enjoyed more the second time. grateful for the meditation & guidance.

This was a deep and powerful experience. One of my favorites.

Very nice! Thank you!

A wonderful yoga Nidra . So detailed and delightfully spoken. Lovely soft music. Grateful for this practice. Namaste 💖🌟💛🙏

Excellent, deeply relaxing

Incredible 🙏🙏🙏

Awesome thank you. Loved being above the clouds and the storm passing under me 🙏🏻❤️

This is one of my regular go to meditation session. Perfect in every way for me. 😊