So we're going to practice a solstice yoga nidra,
Which is just a total treat.
You know,
It feels wrong.
I'm in this room with these lights on,
And that's not where we're at.
Winter solstice is about the darkness and embracing the darkness and all the medicine that can be found in it,
Which I know we are really familiar with.
So you might want to temper the light in your room accordingly.
Just before you do that,
Though,
Check that you've got the things that you need to be super comfortable.
You don't want to be chilly.
You want to be warm,
Warmer than warm.
Maybe something to lay across your eyes,
Just to really block out the light.
Cushions underneath feel fantastic.
Cushions under the neck feel amazing.
Tiny cushions are all rolled up towels.
And any point of your body that actually is lifting up off the floor when you lie down,
You can use that as a place to add some padding.
But don't sit down just yet.
And I'll say now that my household has a 10-week-old puppy in it,
Who my daughter is doing her best to entertain whilst we do this.
But there is every chance that there will be noise coming during the practice.
Certainly in the mornings,
He ate the microphone this morning.
So I've got another one ordered.
And puppy chaos is well and truly here.
But it's so wonderful to get the opportunity to practice in the imperfection of reality,
Because that is really the only kind of practice that's of any use to any of us.
So we'll just take it as one of those.
And I'll be busy training him over the Christmas period.
Hopefully that will give us,
By the time we meet again on the 4th of January,
We'll be in a good place with him behaving.
Let's hope.
Or not.
So before we lie down,
Let's start by sitting.
Sitting up to be in a place you don't have to lie down for yoga nidra.
You can sit for the whole thing.
Yoga nidra is a beautiful,
Ancient practice,
A yogic practice,
Of exploring our capacity to go to the space between,
The space between being awake and asleep.
And you might know that more as the area of your,
Of where you're falling asleep and you go into the really wild terrain where there's no kind of logical common sense and imagination is everything.
And so we're in possibility,
Not probability.
That liminal space holds huge potential for healing.
And yoga nidra was developed as a system to help us get there more often.
So often we do fall asleep in yoga nidra,
But that actually is just falling asleep.
It's not a true yoga nidra practice.
So we're trying,
Which also has its own medicine,
But we're trying to stay in that place between awake and asleep as much as we can.
So we're still consciously directing our awareness around our body with our breath,
But we are deeply,
Deeply relaxed.
And I shall be following a structure from a teacher called Tracy Stanley,
Who is a very high profile yoga nidra teacher.
And I'll be doing an om practice with her.
Om is the sound of the universe,
The complete sound of the universe.
And it's written in English,
It's written A-U-M.
So that has three distinct qualities to it.
Rather than just O-M as it's written sometimes.
So as we sit here and start to settle,
You can choose to drop your eyelids or you can just drop your gaze to the floor.
You don't have to have your eyelids down.
As ever,
We're using the compass of what feels good.
So anything that doesn't feel good,
Just change direction.
You don't have to do that.
The intelligence inside of yourselves is far superior to my session.
So always defer to the intelligence of yourselves over and above what I suggest.
I'm simply making suggestions.
I'm simply making suggestions.
Noticing your breath as you inhale and noticing your breath as you exhale.
So we can start with the mantra,
I am practicing yoga nidra.
I am practicing yoga nidra.
I am practicing yoga nidra.
It's like a prayer invoking the goddess yoga nidra to our practice tonight.
And we use our bodies as the vessel of awareness.
Let's start with our sense of hearing.
So listening to the inhalation and listening to the exhalation.
And then expanding that sense of hearing out beyond the limitation of your breath and listening out to what sounds you can hear in your household.
What sounds you can hear around the building that you're in.
Listening to the sounds outside of the building.
Noticing what the furthest away sound is that you can hear.
And then bringing your sense of hearing back to your body and tuning into the sound of the inhalation,
The sound of the exhalation.
And then taking the mantra,
AUM.
We're starting to let that sound,
However it expresses itself through you,
Let it start to roll around inside your skull.
To the outside world it's silent,
But inside letting the sound of AUM resonate and vibrate inside your skull.
Might want to add a little bit of movement if there's some shoulder circling or neck circling that would feel good.
And remembering the fluid nature of the body.
And then making your way down to the floor ready for your yoga nidra nest.
So you can lie on your back with your knees bent,
Pillows underneath the knees,
Or you can lie on your side that can feel really good.
And sometimes a pillow between the knees feels more gentle on the hips.
And you can be sitting.
And start to allow your body to become heavy.
We can count our exhales backwards from 10 to 0.
Each exhale another number and it doesn't matter if you get lost along the way,
Just go back to 10 and start again.
You don't have to reach zero.
And then once you finish counting just notice the breath and let it be,
Let it do its thing.
You don't need to control it.
And we can start to follow the flow of our next exhalation,
Allowing it to start from the crown of your head to move down through the midline,
The center of your body,
And then out between the legs,
Continuing down through the space between your feet.
And as you take your next inhalation,
Reversing that journey,
So letting the breath move up between your feet through the midline all the way up to the crown of your head and beyond.
And perhaps the vibration of om can start to be felt within that breath.
So om moving with the breath as it flows from the crown of your head through the midline of your body and out through the space between your feet.
And the sound of om rising on the breath,
Flowing all the way up between the feet through the midline and up and out through the crown.
And each inhale is coming up to the crown of your head,
But the exhale starts to move further and further.
So perhaps this time as you exhale,
It comes down through the midline,
Down between the legs,
Out between the feet,
And extends to the walls of the room that you're in,
Inhaling its journey all the way back up to the crown of your head.
And on your next exhale as it comes down through the midline,
Down between the feet,
Perhaps it travels out beyond the walls.
The exhalation carrying the vibration of om.
Maybe it flows out into the garden or the outside space around you.
The inhale returning to the crown of your head.
So continuing to expand with the exhale,
Perhaps it moves out beyond the garden into the closest strip of water,
And perhaps that's a river or the ocean.
So the om and breath carries out into the water and beyond,
And then inhaling back up to the crown of your head.
And the next exhale,
The om vibration travels down through the midline,
Out from between the feet,
Out into the water and across the ocean,
All the way across until it reaches land,
And then inhaling back up to the crown of your head.
So the vibration of om reaching out beyond on the exhale,
Right way down through the midline,
Between the feet,
Out into the ocean,
To the land,
And up to the brightest star in the sky,
And inhaling all the way back up through the midline to the crown of your head.
Next exhale,
The breath carrying all the way down through and out to the moon and beyond.
Inhaling the vibration of om back up and in through the centre to the crown of the head.
Now the next exhale taking you out to the farthest reaches of the galaxy,
The entire cosmos,
The universe,
And all the galaxies within that universe,
Ever expanding infinite time space.
Inhaling back up and through the midline to the crown of your head,
The vibration of om.
Now the next exhale taking you out to the moon and beyond.
And then resting in stillness,
Experiencing the sound of om vibrating through the entire body,
Feeling the flow of prana,
Life force that comes with it.
Bring your awareness to the soles of your feet and feel the vibration of om there.
Rest in the vibration of om,
Moving with the breath,
Resting in the soles of the feet.
And then bringing your awareness to the crown of your head,
The vibration of om travelling from the soles of your feet all the way up to the crown of your head.
As you exhale,
The wave of prana moves back down to the soles of your feet.
And your next breath takes you to the crown of your head.
And bring your awareness to your pelvis.
Feel the prana energy of om resting in the pelvis.
And bringing the vibration of om to the centre of the navel.
Feeling the presence of om deep within the navel.
And bringing your awareness up to the heart centre.
And feeling the vibration of om travelling on your breath within your heart centre.
And bringing your awareness to the throat,
Home to our vibrational essence,
Bringing om,
The vibration of life force energy to the throat.
And then bringing the awareness of your vibrational om to the space of your third eye.
And feeling the entire body vibrating with the sound of om.
And letting the breath deepen so that you're aware of the sound.
Repeating to yourself,
I have been practicing yoga nidra.
I have been practicing yoga nidra.
I have been practicing yoga nidra.
And feeling the parts of the body that are connecting to the floor.
Gently pressing them down.
Let your fingers touch the floor,
Or maybe the tips of the thumbs come to the tips of the fingers.
As you welcome yourself back to your body,
Perhaps you smile to yourself.
Notice how this vessel of yours,
The body,
Enables you to experience life.
Notice how it feels with that connection to prana,
Om,
Remembered.
And then starting to stretch through the fingers and the toes,
The arms and the legs.
And as long as it's comfortable to do so,
Taking your time to roll to your side.
And very gently making your way back up to sitting.
Bringing your hands together,
Dropping your forehead to your fingertips.
Thanking yoga nidra for her protection as we practice and into the night air.
Thanking the teachers that have brought us these practices.
Thanking each other for showing up to share this evening's practice.
And recognizing winter solstice,
A time of darkness,
And all the medicine she holds for us.
Namaste.
