Welcome to your practice,
Your space to recharge and reconnect to yourself.
Come to find a comfortable position.
You may choose to start this practice lying on the floor maybe with a pillow under the head and a blanket comfortably wrapped over the front of your body.
This is your yoga nidra nest so whatever you need to do to provide that extra layer of comfort for yourself,
Take the time to do that now.
You can set a timer for 15 to 20 minutes,
Clearing the schedule of any other priorities and making yourself this space of deep relaxation and restoration.
Once you feel comfortable and settled,
Comfortably close your eyes and if not leave them gently open,
Gazing softly around the room that you are in and start to sense the feeling of the surface you are on.
If you are lying on the floor,
Note the density and the hardness of the floor and if you are in a bed,
Notice the sense of comfort or firmness or softness of the mattress.
Take three deep natural breaths now.
Inhaling and filling your lungs.
Exhaling and emptying your lungs with a deep sigh out of the mouth.
Ah becoming more and more aware of your breath.
Each time that you exhale,
Feel almost like a wave of relaxation sweep through your body as you allow yourself to begin to explore the possibility of releasing control and letting go of needing to know what comes next.
Invite stillness into your body and become aware of the space that your body is occupying.
Start to connect to sensation,
Maybe feeling the softness of the surface you are on with your fingers,
The material of your clothing,
The connection of your hand maybe on your face or your other hand connected.
Take a moment to explore your immediate environment just to establish a sense of grounded presence.
You are here,
You are allowed to be here and you are allowed to rest.
Imagine that you draw a circle of protection around your body and this circle can be made of anything that you wish.
Your favorite flowers,
Fresh soil,
The leaves of your favorite trees or even a wall of clay or toys.
Whatever calls to you,
Establish this circle of protection around yourself and see and feel yourself inside the circle and as you become more still,
Settling like a stone,
Making its way through sand and silt,
Begin to feel the breath as it enters your nostrils and feel it travel into your lungs where it dissolves then follow its path all the way to somewhere outside your body where it dissolves again.
You are not controlling the breath,
You are merely watching it move in and out of your body.
Feel your belly button rise and fall as you breathe in and out,
Opening up to gravity.
Slowly scan through your body and become aware of how you are holding it.
You may recall the body parts that felt constricted during your early awareness exercises and just make a little note here if there's any slight difference in how you're experiencing your physical body.
Notice if there's any sense of awakening in the body.
Perhaps you can breathe in a different place than you could before or maybe even the expansion of your ribcage is a little bit more noticeable as you focus on it.
Can you perhaps deepen your inhalation,
Filling up the volume in your thoracic cavity?
Does your low back feel a sense of relaxation?
And then let your awareness move towards the sound in your environment,
Noticing all the sounds around you without judgment,
Almost as if you're collecting little pieces of data.
Just observing,
Moving your awareness from sound to sound to sound and letting all the sounds just be there.
Remember that you are on the inside of the circle of protection and the sounds are on the outside.
And allow my voice to merge with yours as you repeat this short expression three times.
Feel free to repeat it out loud to yourself or internally.
May I widen my window.
May I widen my window.
We will now begin the rotation of consciousness through your body.
Simply guide and follow my voice as I bring your attention to different points within your physical body.
Remember there's nothing you need to do.
Feel free to engage with those points of your body as I call to them,
Feeling your whole attention centered now in the right hand thumb,
The right hand thumb.
And next guiding your focus to your pointer finger,
Middle finger,
Ring finger and pinky finger of the right hand.
Travel your attention up through the right elbow,
The right shoulder and then guide your focus to the left hand thumb,
The left hand thumb.
Feel your pointer finger of the left hand,
The middle finger,
Ring finger,
Pinky finger of the left hand.
Traveling your attention up through the left elbow and the left shoulder.
Bring your focus to the right hip.
Let it be heavy.
Let it be soft.
Following that focus to the right knee,
Back of the right knee and front of the right knee,
Right ankle and all five toes of the right foot.
Your whole right side.
Your whole right side here.
Balanced and connected to the surface beneath you.
And now shift your focus to the left hip,
The left hip.
Let it be heavy.
Let it be soft.
Let it relax.
The left knee,
The back and front of the left knee,
The left ankle and all five toes of the left foot.
Notice the whole left side at once.
The whole left side and then scan the back body.
From the back of your ankles to your hips,
To your middle back,
Upper back and neck and down the front of the body.
From the forehead,
Softening the forehead.
Maybe licking the lips and swallowing.
Scanning down the front of the belly,
Thighs and shins to the bottom,
Very bottom of your feet.
Notice the way your whole body becomes heavier as you continue to breathe.
Each exhale allowing your body to open to gravity and every in-breath invites the surface beneath you to support you even more.
And begin to count the number of breaths starting at 10 and begin counting backwards.
Inhale 10 and exhale 10.
Inhale 9,
Exhale 9.
Inhale 8,
Exhale 8 and so on until you get to 1.
Each time you exhale,
A layer of constriction and tension is released from your body and your mind.
By the time you get to zero,
Notice how your body starts to allow the possibility of completely being free of responsibility just for this moment.
And take this time to again repeat that short expression,
May I widen my window,
May I widen my window,
May I widen my window.
Enjoy the space of rebalancing your body and take this space to connect with that sense of inner aliveness,
Recognizing the difference it feels to experience aliveness versus arousal and hyper vigilance.
In a moment we will conclude the practice of yoga nidra and as we transition out of the practice and back into the external environment,
Take note of any observations you noticed as you set aside the space to deeply relax and feel that embodied sense of support.
Notice maybe your breath rate.
If you can breathe a little deeper or into the sides of your ribcage,
Experience how your body responded to that practice today.
If you need to write or make note of any insights that came through after practice,
Feel free to do so and begin to gently deepen your in-breath,
Letting the breath be equal between inhalation and exhalation.
You may wish to wiggle your fingers and your toes,
Maybe taking a full body stretch and when you're ready you can bring your knees into your chest,
Roll to one side and sit up and prepare to move forward in your day from this place of groundedness and balance.
Have a beautiful rest of your day and I'll see you next time.
