Yoga Nidra: Ease Into Sleep | 27 Mins

Having trouble sleeping? Or perhaps you need a break in the day to soften your heart and mind. Sonia Azad takes you through a Yoga Nidra meditation practice. You don't need any equipment. Just lie back, close your eyes, open your ears, and your mind.

Transcript

Hi there.

It's so good to be with you.

We're going to practice Yoga Nidra,

Which translates to yogic sleep.

This is really great to do before bed and it should ease you into a restful night's sleep.

Let's begin.

All you need to do is lie down,

Close your eyes and listen to my voice.

You don't need to move or do anything else.

So please get ready for Yoga Nidra.

Close your eyes,

Adjust yourself until you're comfortable.

If you want to move or make any final adjustments,

You can do so now.

Once you're fully adjusted,

The body should not move until Yoga Nidra is over.

Become quiet,

As quiet as possible.

Take three long,

Deep breaths.

And each time you breathe out,

Feel yourself letting go.

Become aware of distant sounds.

Move your attention from sound to sound,

Listening only.

Don't try to analyze.

Bring your attention closer.

Become aware of the sounds outside of the building you're in.

And then become aware of sounds inside the building and even inside this room.

Develop awareness of this room,

The walls,

The ceiling,

Your body lying on the floor.

Become aware of the existence of your physical body and concentrate on the physical body as a whole.

Total awareness of the natural breath.

Continue with this awareness and feel yourself becoming relaxed.

Become aware that you're going to practice Yoga Nidra and say to yourself,

I'm going to practice Yoga Nidra.

Only two doors of perception are open,

Feeling and hearing.

Yoga Nidra begins now.

State your intention with feeling and awareness three times.

We'll move through a rotation of consciousness,

Which is awareness of different parts of the body.

So follow my voice,

Just moving your awareness as quickly as possible.

We'll let the mind jump from point to point.

Right hand thumb,

Second finger,

Third,

Fourth,

Fifth finger,

Palm of the hand,

Back of the hand,

Wrist,

Lower arm,

Elbow,

Upper arm,

Shoulder,

Armpit,

Side,

Waist,

Hip,

Hamstring,

Right thigh,

Kneecap,

Calf muscle,

Ankle,

Heel,

Sole,

Top of the right foot,

Right toes,

One,

Two,

Three,

Four,

Five toes.

Left hand thumb,

Second finger,

Third,

Fourth,

Fifth finger,

Palm of the hand,

Back of the hand,

Wrist,

Lower arm,

Elbow,

Upper arm,

Shoulder,

Armpit,

Side,

Waist,

Hip,

Hamstring,

Left thigh,

Kneecap,

Calf muscle,

Ankle,

Heel,

Sole,

Top of the left foot,

Left toes,

One,

Two,

Three,

Four,

Five toes.

Go to the top of the head,

Forehead,

Right eyebrow,

Left eyebrow,

Space between the eyebrows,

Right eyelid,

Left eyelid,

Right eye,

Left eye,

Right ear,

Left ear,

Right nostril,

Left nostril,

Right cheek,

Left cheek,

Upper lip,

Lower lip,

Chin,

Jaw,

Throat,

Right collarbone,

Left collarbone,

Right chest,

Left chest,

Middle of the chest,

Navel,

Upper abdomen,

Lower abdomen,

Right thigh,

Left thigh,

Right knee,

Left knee,

Right ankle,

Left ankle,

Right toes,

Left toes.

Now go to the back.

Right toes,

Left toes,

Right sole of the foot,

Left sole of the foot,

Right heel,

Left heel,

Right ankle,

Left ankle,

Right calf muscle,

Left calf muscle,

Back of the right knee,

Back of the left knee,

Back of the right thigh,

Back of the left thigh,

Right hip,

Left hip,

Whole spine,

Right shoulder blade,

Left shoulder blade,

Back of the neck,

Back of the head,

Top of the head,

Inner parts of the body.

Take your mind to the brain.

Start with the brain,

The nasal passage between the nose and throat,

The tongue,

Teeth,

Palate or roof of the mouth,

Right eardrum,

Left eardrum,

The throat through which the air passes,

Right lung,

Left lung,

Heart.

Feel the heart by concentrating on the heartbeat.

Stomach,

Liver,

Which is above the navel toward the right,

Right kidney and left kidney toward the back above the waist level,

And in the abdomen,

A very long coiled tube called the small intestine and an inverted U-shaped tube called the large intestine.

Now major parts of the body,

Whole right leg,

Whole left leg,

Both legs together,

Whole right arm,

Whole left arm,

Both arms together.

Whole of the head,

Whole of the back,

Whole of the front,

Whole of the internal organs,

Whole body.

Visualize the whole body.

Concentrate on the body lying on the floor or your couch or your bed and become aware of the meeting points between the body and the floor.

Head to floor,

Shoulders to floor,

Arms to floor,

Back to floor,

Thighs to floor,

Calves to floor,

Heels to floor,

The whole of the body and the floor.

Bring your awareness back to your breath.

Become aware that you are breathing.

Become aware of your breath in general.

Just become conscious that you're breathing and nothing else.

Continue your awareness of breathing and gradually bring your attention to the eyebrow center.

Imagine that you are breathing through the eyebrow center and that the breath moves in and out from the forehead.

Maintain awareness of that breath.

Awakening the feeling of cold in the body.

Concentrate on your spinal cord and develop the feeling of coldness and shivering.

Concentrate on the breath in your left nostril and develop the feeling of cold in the whole body.

Every breath you take in makes the body cooler and cooler.

Concentrate on the left nostril and left breath.

With every breath you take in,

Experience the cold.

Now concentrate on heating.

Create heat surrounding the body.

Develop the manifestation of heat around your body.

Concentrate on becoming enveloped in an atmosphere of heat throughout the body from head to toe,

Permeating the whole body.

Concentrate on the breath in the right nostril.

With each inhaled breath,

Increase the feeling of heat in the whole body from head to toe.

Develop the feeling of heat in the body by concentrating around your navel area.

Now we recollect through the experience of pain.

So try to develop that recollection to such a depth that your mind is infused by the pain.

We've recollected ourselves into this experience of pain,

Remembering the pain,

Feeling that pain.

Awaken your will and feel pain,

Real and imaginary,

In any part of the body or all parts of the body.

Concentrate your mind wherever you awaken the feeling of pain.

Assemble the energy particles of pain.

Manifest the experience of pain.

And now we shift into the feeling of pleasure.

Maybe pleasure belonging to the sense of taste,

Hearing,

Or seeing.

Whatever that experience is,

Whether a big or little experience,

It should be concentrated and developed into a total ecstatic feeling.

Deepen your awareness.

Assemble the total energies of will and manifest the experience of pleasure.

And please bring your awareness to the dark space in front of your forehead.

Concentrate on yourself.

Perhaps visualizing yourself seated in meditation with your legs crossed and eyes closed,

Seated in a meditation,

Perhaps in a hall,

Or sitting in a chair.

And there's someone seated in front of you,

An important person.

And this is an important event in your life.

You are sitting in meditation and he or she is sitting in meditation.

Your eyebrow center and that person's eyebrow center are one.

Both of you breathing through this eyebrow center.

When you breathe out,

You touch that person's eyebrow center.

And when he or she breathes out,

They touch your eyebrow center.

Now come back to that dark space in front of your forehead.

Imagining waves surging over a large ocean under a dark sky.

The waves are symbols of your unconscious.

See the dark sky,

The vast ocean,

And the waves.

Intensify your concentration and imagine a well,

Very deep.

With the help of a rope,

You go down as far as you can and then come out.

Take yourself through this experience.

Return now to the dark space in front of your forehead.

Become aware of any spontaneous thoughts.

Any spontaneous thoughts,

Process for some time.

And then without completing it,

Dispose of it.

Detach yourself completely and go to another thought.

Now stop the spontaneous thoughts.

Reject all spontaneous thoughts.

Instead,

You must choose a thought and develop it at will.

Reject any spontaneous thoughts and develop a thought of your own making.

Clearly see that thought and continue.

Concentrate on the eyebrow center.

Discover there a nerve pulsating in a rhythmic way.

Concentrate on the eyebrow center and discover there a small circle that becomes bigger and bigger until it merges with the rest of your body.

With the infinite.

Discover these circles growing from the eyebrow center.

Intensify your imagination and concentration and the power of conception.

Imagine an ocean,

Calm and quiet,

Dark.

Imagine that you are on the surface.

Slowly start sinking.

Become unconscious.

Sink deeper and deeper.

Sink deeper and discover the secrets of the body in a world which is absolutely inside.

Intensify your imagination and the power of conception.

See a deep and dark jungle.

Enter into the jungle.

Go deep into it and continue on.

Go much deeper into the jungle.

See a lonely clearing with an aura of light around it.

The light comes from a temple close by.

The temple is like a house lit from the inside at night.

There's a great aura of light around the outside.

From far off,

You can see that.

Inside the temple,

There is chanting and ringing of bells and the smell of incense.

Draw closer to the temple and feel the atmosphere of peace.

The door of the temple is open.

You peek inside and there's nothing there.

Nothing but a monk in orange robes sitting with his eyes open.

Sit in front of him and look at his face and find out who he could be.

Now become aware of your breaths.

Gainly aware of your breath.

Remember your intention,

Your sankalpa.

Repeat that intention with absolute faith and awareness three times.

The whole body.

The whole body.

The whole body.

Relax all efforts and become aware of the whole body.

Bring your attention to the natural,

Quiet breath.

Develop your awareness of this breath.

Maintain your awareness of the breath and gradually deepen the breath.

Make it stronger.

Become aware of your physical existence,

Of your body and your state of physical relaxation.

At the same time your breath is growing stronger,

Take a long,

Slow,

Deep breath in and let it out.

Develop awareness of your body,

Deeply relaxed,

Lying on the floor,

The sofa or your bed.

Visualize the surrounding room and let your mind become completely external.

You can start making small movements of the body,

Bending fingers,

Moving toes,

Move your arms and legs,

But please keep the eyes closed.

Take a few deep breaths and stretch yourself thoroughly.

Arms above the head.

Please take your time,

There is no hurry.

When you are sure that you are wide awake,

You may sit up slowly and open your eyes.

The practice of Yoga Nidra is now complete.