We will begin this practice of I-Rest Yoga Nidra remembering that the foundation of practice is in meeting and welcoming moments as they are.
And perhaps your intention might be to remain awake to the underlying experience of ease when it arises,
When it really becomes available and in the foreground.
So take a moment to check in to the posture that you've chosen.
Make sure it feels comfortable in your body.
You might be lying on the floor with supports beneath you.
You may be sitting upright on the ground or perhaps choosing to sit in a chair with the feet flat on the earth.
Begin by listening to the sound of the singing bowl three times.
And continue to rest here.
Just listening to the vibration of sound.
The prominence or subtlety of sound arising slowly in all directions,
In front and behind,
To the sides,
Even above and below.
And take a few moments just to feel into the experience of listening itself.
Listening without the need to prepare.
Perhaps listening without agenda.
How does that feel in your body?
And then from your body,
Begin to feel the support of the earth beneath you.
You can also begin to open to the touch of air on your skin.
And perhaps a soft embrace of the sky above.
If your eyes are closed,
Open to the play of light and shadow.
And if your eyes are softly open,
Feeling the play of shape and color.
Even the subtle residue of taste and smell.
Your senses are just gently opening into the environment as it is.
And gently turn your attention towards your body and gently place your attention at the seat of your heart.
And to feel how your body is breathing.
The subtle pulse of your heart beating.
And noticing how all of this is happening without any effort.
So feel the wonder of life living through you.
And then take a moment to open to intention.
Just recognizing what feels important for your practice today.
There may or may not be the clarity of intention in this moment,
But listening nonetheless.
And along with perhaps the intention to remain awake to the feeling of ease.
Including anything that might be arising for you as intention and affirming it with your body and mind.
And then gently setting it free to the side.
So here there's nothing to hold onto.
Nothing to reach for,
Nothing to push away.
Really opening with a freshness through the ground of being.
Just moment to moment.
So take a moment to feel into this ground of being right now.
This feeling of being with life rather than managing life,
Fixing life,
Resolving life.
The subtle freedom in being with life,
Welcoming it as it is.
And perhaps it ushers forward a subtle feeling of well-being or ease or calm.
A quiet peacefulness perhaps.
And if that is available,
Feel that in your body.
And perhaps there's imagery that you can recall now.
That also supports this feeling of well-being,
Ease,
Calm,
Safety.
Perhaps it's an image of a person,
A beloved animal,
A symbolic figure.
It may include a place.
It may include a memory,
Recent or in your past.
If that's available,
Allow it to become vivid through all of the senses.
And then gently drop into the direct experience arising in your body.
Just the sensations.
And this feeling of being and well-being.
You can return to this at any point in practice and life.
It's here for you as a place where you can return to to nourish so that we feel balanced when we do enter back into the stream of life.
But with this ground of being and welcoming,
We begin to meet the sensations in our body.
So gently placing your attention inside your mouth.
Just opening to the aliveness of sensation here.
If you feel nothing,
Just become curious about what nothing feels like.
And gently begin to feel sensation through the inner ears.
Left side.
The right side.
Feel sensation through the sides of the nose and the inside,
Right and left.
And across and below the eyes.
Right all the way up to the brow line.
Left eye and the right eye.
Feel the sensation across the forehead and gently opening your attention through the back of the head.
Entire face and head.
Your attention now resting at the center of the left shoulder.
At the base of the left palm.
Perhaps sensations feel light or heavy,
Warm or cool.
Even the labels or the concepts can come and go.
Even thoughts unrelated.
You can include everything that's arising,
Even the experience of drifting away for moments.
When you're here and awake,
You can include what's arising and then return back into the direct nature of experience.
So your attention now resting inside the right shoulder.
Gently settling into the base of the right palm.
And feeling sensation in both palms at the same time.
And feel how your attention just begins to widen.
To feel sensation in both palms simultaneously.
Feel through the torso.
Gently scan and feel across the back from the top to the bottom.
Equally the front,
Top to bottom.
And then through the sides.
From the surface in,
From the surface out.
The torso in all directions.
And feel through the hips.
Sensation through the length of the left leg.
To the sole of the left foot.
And the right leg.
To the sole of the right foot.
And now this whole body of sensation being with the whole body of sensation,
A subtle shimmering perhaps.
You might really begin to notice this pulse,
The ebb and flow,
The breathing body of sensation.
And also notice if the feeling of being is still here.
Being aware of breath and body and environment.
Even thoughts and emotions.
All of this that's changing and perhaps the more steady feeling of being aware.
So if you'd like turn your attention to this,
The felt sense of being aware.
It may bring forward the feeling of a steady,
Spacious calm.
Perhaps a field that is unchanging that includes all of experience as it is without agenda.
Even while the thoughts come and go.
Remaining free of them while including them.
So this ground of being,
This feeling of being is in the foreground.
Just allow yourself to be solicited by it.
Might nourish here.
And perhaps you feel both this unchanging and steady,
Calm ground of being and this dance of life and sensation.
That's changing.
Both of this here at the same time.
And when you feel ready,
You can begin to feel your body in the space resting on the earth.
And feel the sensation in your hands and your feet again.
Gently waking back up into the body still breathing,
Heart still beating.
And perhaps there's this kind of taste of being that you can carry forward even as you wake back up and into your day.
And perhaps you're even called momentarily in the midst of your day or your afternoon to just check back in to the feeling of being.
Or you might feel your body…!
Your body…!
You
