Yoga Nidra To Rest And Restore

Welcome to a Yoga Nidra meditation - the Yogic Sleep. This guided meditation will take you through the layers of your being utilizing the techniques of a body scan, breath awareness, and sense perception. The invitation to create a sankalpa or heart wisdom intention allows for the seed of your Truth to be revealed.

Transcript

Hello,

And welcome to a yoga nidra,

The yogic sleep.

There is no wrong way to practice yoga nidra.

The instructions are simple.

Listen without forcing or trying,

As there is nowhere to go and nothing to do.

Do not worry if you do not hear everything I say,

As it is natural to flow in and out of conscious hearing.

Whatever you do experience,

The practice of yoga nidra will still work,

Even if you feel as if you fell asleep,

As your subconscious and unconscious levels of mind are always awake and always aware,

And you will be practicing,

Whether you consciously remember it or not.

Allow your body to settle.

Invite your eyelids to blink closed if they're not already there,

And to feel the muscles around your eyes soften,

Lengthen,

Allow your eyes to drop deep within their sockets.

Move from a place of seeing,

Now into a place of feeling,

Your doing,

Into your being.

As you sink into the felt sense of your physical body,

Begin to feel into the structure and density of your bones,

And to allow your bones to sink deep into the earth beneath you.

Know that you are fully supported.

And as you begin to find the heaviness of your bony matrix,

Begin to explore into the fluidity of your organs,

The plasticity of your musculature and connective tissue,

And even to feel your skin begin to drape over these underlying structures.

Make any small adjustments to your physical body as you need.

Allow for greater ease.

And when there is an ease of body,

An ease of breath,

Feel your breath move.

Allow your breath to become effortless,

Open your body,

Receive.

Invite any thoughts or emerging narratives to diminish or to be set aside.

Allow this time for you to be.

Your thoughts should arise.

Do recall it is your mind's very nature to think,

To digest its energetic signature as a circle that is in constant motion.

Your mind spins.

Can you allow yourself to watch,

To witness the spinning?

Practice self-observation with compassion.

And as your mind begins to settle,

You might find that there are spaces between your thoughts,

Feelings,

And emotions.

And in this space,

To invite the possibility of stillness.

And in this stillness,

A presence and fullness of light,

Love,

And joy.

In this place,

To affirm your capacity of inner knowing,

Innate healing,

And the communion with your divine.

And to draw your awareness into the body of your breath.

Feel your natural breath,

The rise and fall of your inhalation to exhalation.

Aware of your breath as it stirs within your physical body.

To sense your breath in the space of your lungs and heart.

To feel your breath as it ebbs and flows in the very center of your being,

Massaging,

Nourishing your inner structures.

To allow yourself to now move beyond the structure and form and into the subtle space of your heart and lungs,

The seat of both joy and sorrow,

Your shadow and light.

And as you step into this subtle space,

To investigate,

What is my heart's deepest longing?

And let your answer truly arise from your heart,

And know that your heart may speak in words,

Perhaps color,

Song,

Image,

Something else.

Allow your heart to speak its longing.

And from your heart's longing,

Create a positive statement,

Your Sankalpa or intention.

Allow it to be in the present tense as though it was already happening.

And it may be something like,

I flow through life with ease and grace.

Or simply stated,

I am content.

And if nothing arose for you,

Then perhaps you take one of those phrases.

To now state your heart's wish now three times to yourself as your truth.

To allow your consciousness to now move through your physical body as you are guided.

Feel into each body part,

And then move on to the next one prompted.

Be open to the possibility of sensation,

Or no sensation at all within each space.

Become aware of your face,

Forehead,

Space of your third eye center.

Notice your nose,

Eyes,

Cheeks.

Feel your chin,

Lips,

Jaw.

Sense your teeth,

Hard palate,

Soft palate,

Root of your tongue.

Bring awareness to the structures of your whole mouth,

Your whole mouth.

Feel your ears,

Back of your head,

Top of your head.

Become aware of the structures of your whole head,

Your whole head.

Notice your neck,

Throat center.

Notice your shoulders,

Upper arms,

Elbows,

Forearms,

Wrists.

Witness your hands,

Fingers.

Feel the palms of both your hands.

Feel your hands alive with energy and their connection to your heart.

Notice your chest,

Space of your heart.

Sense your belly,

Navel center,

Space of your sacral bone,

Pelvis,

Root of your spine.

Bring awareness to your upper legs,

Knees,

Lower legs,

Ankles.

Witness your feet,

Toes.

Feel the soles of both your feet.

Feel your feet alive with energy and their connection to the root of your spine.

Bring awareness to the root of your spine.

Feel the space of your sacral bone,

Navel center,

Heart space,

Throat space.

Sense the space of your third eye center,

The crown of your head.

Notice your whole body,

Your whole body,

Your whole body.

Aware of your intrinsic wholeness,

Full of vibrancy and aliveness.

Begin to draw your awareness into the body of your breath.

No need to change your breath.

Observe.

Observe the qualities as they might emerge.

Your length,

Depth,

Pace.

Is there a sound or texture to your breath?

An emotional quality.

Feel your breath move,

Not forced or altered,

Inhalation,

Exhalation.

On your next inhalation,

Can you begin to sense your breath as it stirs deep within your belly,

To feel the rise and fall of your belly with breath?

With your next inhalation,

Can you begin to sense your breath as it radiates through your ribcage to feel the pulsation of your ribs with breath?

With your next inhalation,

Can you begin to sense your breath as it dances in the space of your throat?

Watch your inhalation move into exhalation.

Your inspiration followed by your expiration,

An emptiness that opens into fullness.

Begin to now guide the flow of your in-breath so that it begins to fill into the central channel of your being.

To guide the flow of your out-breath so that it radiates out into your whole being.

Invite your inhalation to move through center.

Exhale radiates outward.

Continue to breathe in this way.

Nothing to do,

Breathe and listen.

To now imagine your physical body becoming heavy,

Heavy,

Sinking into the earth beneath you.

Feel as if you were filled with sand,

Your body heavy,

Your body sinking.

Drilling deep into the soft earth below,

Your body heavy,

Your body sinking.

Feel your bony matrix grow heavy,

Heavy into your limbs,

Heavy through your torso,

Heavy into your head.

Body heavy,

Body sinking.

To now imagine your physical body becoming light,

Light as a feather floating.

To feel heavy again,

Weighted,

Dense.

To now feel light,

Weightless,

Free.

To allow yourself to explore going between feeling light and feeling heavy.

Can you feel both at the very same time?

And to now imagine the qualities of happiness,

Joy,

Bliss.

Allow yourself to open completely to the feeling of joy in your body,

In your being.

Where does happiness and bliss reside in your body?

Notice where you might feel it.

Can you allow this happiness to fully expand through your body,

Through your being?

To become fully immersed in joy and bliss.

Begin to recall your heart's intention,

Your positive statement,

And to state your sankalpa and feel it breathing through your body.

Allow it to permeate every bone,

Every tissue,

Every cell of your being.

And to repeat your heartfelt resolve now three times to yourself,

As though it was already happening.

Feel it wash through you again,

And again,

And again.

Your heart's deepest calling is already truth.

Feel yourself expansive,

Open,

Free,

Radiating pure bliss and light,

Aware of your innate healing energy.

Begin to become aware of yourself as your witness,

The compassionate one who has observed your body,

Your breath,

Your practice.

Begin to notice any thoughts,

Feelings,

Or emotions as they pass through your field of awareness.

To sense your breath.

Feel the qualities present.

Even to sense your breath body now in your physical body.

And as you journey back to your physical being,

Begin to notice all the points that touch the earth,

Aware of all the points that lift away.

And before you bring movement into your body,

First to sense,

To sense your fingers.

Imagine your fingers in movement,

Then to wiggle.

Feel any and all effects.

To sense your toes.

Imagine your toes in movement,

Then to wiggle.

Feel.

And to allow this pattern to continue to move within your body.

First to sense.

Imagine movement.

Create your movement.

Feel the effects.

And in your own time,

Begin to gather yourself,

Gather your hands into your heart space.

And whether you take on an Anjali mudra,

The prayer mudra,

Or perhaps you do stack your hands,

To sense your breath move in and move out.

And coupled with the beat of your heart attuning to this place within that is your aliveness,

Your vitality,

The seat of your essence.

The space within that is infinite,

Immortal,

And whole.

Take a breath in.

Exhale,

Let go with a sigh.

Hari Om Shanti,

Shanti,

Shanti,

Peace,

Peace,

Eternal peace.

Namaste.

Jai Bhagwan.