Yoga Nidra For Beginners
Yoga Nidra - known as psychic sleep or yogic sleep is an excellent technique to alleviate anxiety and stress. This is a guided yogic relaxation technique suitable for all practitioners and meditation aspirants.
Transcript
Namaskar.
We are going to practice Yoga Nidra.
And before we start this practice,
This technique of Yoga Nidra,
I want to share briefly about the technique,
Some of the practical aspects,
So that following the instructions become easier.
So this entire process of Yoga Nidra known as Yogic Sleep is conducted in one very comfortable position of Shavasana.
In English,
Shavasana is known as the corpse pose,
In which you lie down on your back and then you follow the instructions.
Once you lie down in Shavasana or the corpse pose,
You need to ensure that your body is comfortably warm.
So if you find that your room is slightly cooler,
Then you may cover the body with a thin sheet.
And once you begin the practice,
Begin to follow the instructions,
Then you are not supposed to move the body.
During this entire practice of Yoga Nidra,
The body should remain still and you follow the instructions on the level of your feelings and awareness.
So in this stage of Yoga Nidra,
We will be doing a beginner's stage of the practice.
And in this beginner's stage of the practice,
We go through preparation of the body and then we will rotate the mental awareness through different parts of the body.
Then comes the stage of observing or noticing the breath mindfully in different parts of the body.
And then we will conclude the practice with externalization.
So in brief,
This is the practice,
This is the process.
It is very easy practice to understand.
And the important part is that once you are following the instructions,
Please avoid analyzing the instructions analytically and try to feel or experience the instructions on the level of your feelings and awareness.
So please prepare yourself for the practice of Yoga Nidra.
And for this practice,
Please lie down on your back and nicely cover the body if you need,
If you notice that you need to keep the body warm.
And once you lie down on the ground,
Then separate your both feet one and a half feet apart and allow your both feet to naturally flop to the sides.
And check that your both arms are beside the body with your both palms are naturally open to the ceiling.
And mentally observe and check that your head,
Your neck and the spinal column all are in one line.
Your head is not tilted to any one side and your chin is slightly pointing to the chest.
And now keeping your both eyes and your both lips gently and softly closed.
Please mentally scan the entire body from head down to the feet.
And if you notice that if any part of your body is tight or tense,
Please consciously release that part.
Mentally check that your entire facial area,
Your facial muscles are completely loose.
There is no tightness in your jaws,
Your neck,
Your throat are completely released.
And checking that your both shoulders,
Your both arms and the shoulder blades are completely released and surrendered to the ground.
Mentally notice that your entire back is completely relaxed and surrendered to the gravity.
Please mentally relax the lower back muscles,
Loosen the lower back,
Your abdominal muscles.
Mentally releasing both hips,
Buttocks,
Relaxing both of your thighs and your both legs completely.
Right from the top of the head down to the feet,
Mentally become aware,
Become conscious of your whole body,
Completely still and completely surrendered to the gravity.
And keeping your awareness on the body,
Observe your body mentally from outside like an observer.
And imagine that you are looking at the body from the top just like an outside observer.
And keeping the awareness on the body,
Begin to watch your every breath which is moving in and moving out without any efforts.
Just allow the body to breathe by itself and you become one silent observer of your own breathing.
You are going to practice the technique of yoga nidra and throughout this process of yoga nidra,
Please remain silent,
Keeping the body completely still.
Now we are going to rotate the awareness through different parts of the body one by one.
As I name one part of the body,
Please take your awareness to that particular part and mentally visualize and feel that part of the body and move to the next part with my instructions.
Now take your whole awareness to the right side of the body and become conscious,
Become aware of the entire right side,
Completely still.
Then mentally become aware of your right hand thumb,
Mentally feeling the first finger,
Second finger,
Ring finger,
The little finger.
Feel palm of the right hand,
Back of the hand,
Right wrist,
Right lower arm,
Right elbow,
Right upper arm,
Right shoulder,
Right side of the chest,
Right side of the trunk,
Right hip,
Right thigh,
Back of the thigh,
Right knee,
Back of the knee,
Right calf,
Right ankle,
Right heel,
Sole of the right foot,
Top of the right foot,
First big toe,
Second toe,
Third toe,
Fourth toe,
And the little toe.
With the toes together,
Feeling whole of the right side mentally.
And notice that your entire right side completely relaxed and still on the ground.
And now taking the awareness to the left side,
Becoming aware of left hand thumb,
First finger,
Second finger,
Ring finger,
Little finger.
Feel palm of the hand,
Back of the hand,
Left wrist,
Left lower arm,
Left elbow,
Left upper arm,
Left shoulder,
Left side of the chest,
Side of the trunk,
Left hip,
Left thigh,
Back of the thigh,
Knee cap,
Back of the knee,
Calf,
Left ankle,
Left heel,
Sole of the left foot,
Top of the foot,
Big toe,
Second toe,
Third toe,
Fourth toe,
And the little toe.
With the toes together,
Feeling the entire left side completely relaxed and still.
And now taking the awareness to the back of the body and become conscious of the right buttock,
Left buttock,
Lower back,
Middle of the back,
Right shoulder blade,
Left shoulder blade,
Back of the neck,
Back of the head,
Top of the head,
And the forehead,
Right eyebrow,
Left eyebrow,
And focus between the two eyebrows,
Right eye,
Left eye,
Right ear,
Left ear,
Right cheek,
Left cheek,
Right nostril,
Left nostril,
And focus on the tip of the nose,
Both lips,
Focus on the chin,
Your entire throat,
Notice the entire chest,
Whole of the abdomen,
And lower parts of the abdomen.
Now concentrating on the body front and back together,
Mentally observe and feel your entire body in shavasana.
Notice your entire body completely relaxed and still in the corpse pose.
Maintaining this stillness in the body now,
Begin to focus on your natural and normal breaths.
Your entire body is completely still and only your breath is moving in and moving out freely.
And watch your every breath moving effortlessly inside the body with your complete awareness.
And as you are watching the breath,
Begin to observe your breath in the abdominal region visualizing or feeling your abdomen which is expanding with every inhalation and contracting with every exhalation.
Mentally watch your every breath happening in the abdomen right now.
And begin to count your eleven breaths while observing the movements of your navel happening with inhalation and exhalation.
And as you are counting your breath,
Mentally count your breath in backward direction from eleven back to one.
As you take your first breath,
Mentally counting eleven and as you are breathing out,
Mentally count eleven.
Then with the next subsequent inhalation,
Mentally count ten and exhalation,
Mentally counting ten.
And in this fashion,
Keep counting your breath in backward direction eleven back to one.
And as you are counting the breath,
Please remain aware and ensure that you don't miss a single breath and the count.
Once you complete the counting of your eleven breaths,
Then please stop counting the breath and observe your normal breath moving in,
Moving out of your abdomen.
And now let go the counting of the breath.
Begin to become aware of your whole body laying on the back in shavasana.
Once again visualize your entire body in shavasana and become aware of your surrounding,
Your environment.
And once you notice that you are completely awake,
Conscious and externalized,
Begin to move your hands,
Your fingers,
Your head from side to side.
And then interlocking the fingers of your both hands,
Please stretch your arms completely just like you wake up the body.
And after stretching the body completely,
Once you feel that your body is completely awakened,
Then taking your own time,
Please release the position and come into a comfortable sitting position.
