The following practice is led by Sonia Lockyer,
Host of the Wellbeing Ritual Club.
Let's start our yoga nidra practice by finding a comfortable position to sit in.
We'll let ourselves settle.
So sitting in a place where you can sit with your spine straight,
So that might be in a chair,
It might be on the floor.
There's no prescribed way to sit other than trying to have your spine as straight as it is comfortable.
And then gently starting to bring your awareness to your breath as you take a nourishing in breath and a nourishing out breath.
And usually just the act of bringing your awareness to your breath is enough for it to just naturally start to lengthen.
It's almost as if the breath expands under the gaze of your awareness like it basks in the light of your awareness.
And without forcing anything,
Just being in that space of ease,
Notice how deep you can get your breath to be.
How much more space can you create in your torso as you inhale to accommodate that expansion that the inhale brings?
And how much more depth can you find in the exhale?
Gently resting the tongue up against the roof of your mouth.
Dropping into your sense of hearing.
And noticing all the sounds,
The sound of your breath,
The sound within your space,
Maybe you can hear other rooms or outside of the building.
And trying to avoid labeling sounds as good or bad,
Just witness them,
Notice them.
And then bring your sense of hearing in closer so you're more focused on the sounds coming from your body as you breath.
A gentle pulse,
A tidal current of breath,
Moving in and out.
We'll do a little bit of gentle movement to help us get into our body.
So start by dropping right ear to right shoulder.
Notice how that feels on the side of the neck.
And as you exhale,
Drop your chin down to your chest.
Circling left ear across to left shoulder.
Resting there for a moment so you can feel.
And then coming up and over.
So that the neck has space.
Maybe circling like that a second time.
Nice slow conscious movement.
And then switching directions.
So left ear comes to left shoulder.
And chin drops down to chest.
Right ear comes to right shoulder.
And then up and over.
And then coming back to centre,
Circling your shoulders.
Inhaling as they come up.
And exhaling as they come down.
And then feeling how they feel as you circle.
If you have space,
Perhaps circling your elbows.
And then resting your hands either in your lap or on your knees as you slowly take some heart circles.
Allowing yourself to feel how it feels to move through the lower back.
And the slower you go,
The easier it is to feel.
And then switching directions.
And then coming back to centre.
And maybe let's come on to all fours as we take,
Get ready to do a bit of cat and cow.
So hands directly beneath the shoulders,
Knees directly beneath the hips.
And allowing,
Let's start just by rocking the pelvis.
So as you inhale,
Turn the tailbone to point up.
And as you exhale,
Tuck the tailbone down so the pubic bone moves in towards your chest.
And then that movement can ripple out from there so that the whole of the spine starts to get involved.
And as that movement expands with your breath,
You start to allow the heart to move forwards between the gate of your arms as you inhale.
And as you exhale,
You press down through the palms and the heart rises up towards the sky.
And maybe the gaze starts to move,
So as you inhale,
The gaze lifts,
Looking still down at the floor but slightly forwards.
And then as you exhale,
The gaze rolls in,
Chin comes to chest.
So the whole of your body becomes this pulsing,
Tidal movement.
Almost like the movement of a jellyfish as it rides the current of the ocean.
And then sitting back on your heels and stretching your arms out in front of you,
Forehead on the floor.
And let your exhale allow you to access the heaviness of your physical body.
Maybe your arms come back alongside you,
So you move through to child's pose.
Get a very real sense of this natural,
Unforced,
Very gentle inhale expansion,
Exhale contraction.
And then inhaling as you come back up.
And we'll come to our yoga nidra nest.
So you can choose your position according to what feels most effortless for you.
For some people it's sitting back against a wall with your legs out,
Other people in a chair.
You can be lying on your back with a cushion beneath your knees or lying to your side.
And then a cushion between your knees can feel good.
And you want to be warm because your body temperature will drop,
So feel free to have cosy socks on,
Jumpers,
A blanket.
Don't hold back,
You don't want to scrimp on your yoga nidra nest.
And then something to lay across your eyes to block out any extra light.
And that can be as simple as a t-shirt,
It doesn't need to be an eye pillow,
Although eye pillows are lovely also.
And take as much time as you need to settle.
It's not unusual for the body to want to do those last minute riddles and adjustments,
So let it.
And we can start to introduce some more stillness by focusing on the breath so the mind can be more anchored by focusing on the in breath and the out breath.
And as you do that the body starts to drop into more stillness.
And let's count our breath backwards from 21 towards zero,
Every exhale a count.
If you get lost in the count that's fine,
Just go back to 21.
It's not about arriving at zero.
We're just using the count to help us anchor.
And then releasing the count.
And we can start to explore as our body lies here,
Just notice the parts of you that are connecting to the floor,
Whatever position you've taken.
Those parts of you that are connecting to the floor,
Gently press them down or allow yourself to become heavier.
So if you are making an imprint on sand,
The imprint would be deeper.
And notice how as you inhale there's a sense of lightness inside the body.
Almost like a floating quality.
Start to play with those two sensations,
The heaviness of the exhale.
Feel how the earth,
Your foundation comes to catch you and hold you.
And the lightness of the inhale within your body.
And then allow the heaviness and the lightness to merge so you're feeling both simultaneously.
And then release the lightness of the inhale.
And we're going to bring our awareness around our bodies.
And as we move our awareness,
We're going to bring a spectacular constellation of stars.
So everywhere that our awareness rests,
It brings with it an amazing ocean of starlight.
An infinite ocean of starlight.
Starting with the space of the third eye directly between the eyebrows and back into the centre of the brain.
Breathing in through the nose.
Breathing out through the nose and bringing all of your awareness to the space of the third eye.
And notice how that feels.
Bringing your awareness down to the throat.
And with your awareness comes the stars.
An endless expanse of stars at the pit of your throat.
And moving awareness from the throat across to the right hand shoulder.
So here in the intricacies of the shoulder joint,
Bringing your awareness and a flood of starlight.
Starlight that fills the armpit,
The collarbones,
The shoulder blade,
The front of the chest.
An expanse of stars.
Drawing that awareness down to your right elbow.
Your right wrist.
The palm of your right hand.
And out to each of the fingertips.
Starlight filling the fingers and the palm.
The wrist and the elbow.
All the way up into the shoulder.
And across to the pit of the throat.
Into the left shoulder.
All the intricacies.
The armpit,
Collarbones,
Chest and shoulder blade.
Infinite stars.
As your awareness rests here.
Left elbow joint.
Left wrist.
The palm of the left hand.
And the tips of each of the fingers.
Starlight.
Your awareness moving back to the palm of the hand.
The wrist.
The elbow.
And the shoulder.
Returning to the throat.
Noticing how it feels in both arms and hands and fingers.
Holding an expanse of starlight.
Awareness traveling from throat deep into the center of the heart.
Bringing with it an ocean of tiny stars.
Bringing awareness down through the midline of the body.
Coming to rest at the center of the navel.
The constellation of starlight.
Bringing awareness down through the midline to the very center of the pelvis.
Noticing how it feels to hold thousands and thousands of tiny stars within your pelvic bowl.
Awareness.
Awareness to the right hip joint.
To the right knee.
Awareness to the right ankle joint.
The left sole of foot.
Awareness and starlight.
The sole of the foot,
The ankle,
The knee,
And the hip.
Coming back to rest in the center of the pelvis.
And traveling across to left hip joint.
Thousands of tiny stars at the left knee joint.
And the left ankle joint.
The sole of foot and tips of toes.
Stars at the sole of the left foot.
The ankle,
The knee,
And the hip.
And deep within the pelvis.
Noticing how it feels to hold galaxies of starlight within the legs,
Feet,
And toes.
Noticing how it feels through the pelvis,
The navel,
The heart,
The throat,
The space of the third eye.
Across both arms,
Hands,
And fingers.
Up to the crown of your head.
A magnificent constellation of tiny stars.
Visualizing the stars above.
A perfect reflection of the stars within.
And noticing again the parts of your body that are connecting to the body.
The parts of your body that are connecting to the floor or the chair.
Whatever your foundation is,
Just notice how they feel.
Maybe there's some movement as your breath deepens.
Maybe you can hear the sound of your breath.
Bringing the tips of your thumbs to the tips of each of your fingers.
Remembering this physical body of yours.
And picturing how you are in relation to the furniture and the walls of the space that you're in.
And stretching out through the arms and the legs.
Maybe a gentle smile comes to the face.
As we offer our thanks to Yoga Nidra and all she brings us in her unique,
Nourishing way.
And with knees bent,
We can gently roll to the side.
We can stay here some time.
I have been practicing Yoga Nidra.
And slowly making your way back up to sitting.
There's no rush,
Take your time.
Lay one hand on top of the heart,
The other hand on top of that.
And drop your chin towards your chest.
As we offer up the fruits of our practice to all beings.
So that each time we practice our personal well-being,
We do so for the collective.
Namaste.
