Hi it's Sydney and on behalf of Embodied Living I would like to welcome you to a moment of rest.
Today's practice is going to be about 15 minutes and in the style of yoga nidra,
Which is my personal favorite way to relax.
Yoga nidra is formulated in a specific way.
We move through the body and what this does to our resting brainwaves is puts our bodies and our minds in the most optimal brainwaves for deep rest without actually falling to sleep.
So how we support our bodies during this meditation is important.
There is a term in yoga nidra called the nidra nest and it's exactly what it sounds like.
So I invite you to create a nest around you.
Think pillows,
Blankets,
Eye masks,
Incense.
Really go to town with creating this nest and you'll want to be able to be comfortable and still for as long as the meditation.
So setting yourself up either seated or lying down or perhaps on your side or standing against a wall.
Whatever will allow your body to soften and relax and your brain to stay alert.
You can pause here if you need more time to make your nest.
Notice your breath.
Notice how your breath moves through your body where you are resting.
Develop an awareness for how your cushions and blankets are supporting you and keeping you warm.
Noticing the texture of your clothing on your skin.
Deepening your breath ever so slightly just enough to feel a shift through your bones.
And as your bones are shifting into your final resting position of the nidra,
Can you offer a little more length through your spine,
A softening through your jaw.
The beautiful part of yoga nidra is something we call a sankalpa.
A sankalpa is a short positive in-the-moment statement of something you are desiring to create in your life or something you are desiring to feel in your life.
And we'll start these sankalpa statements with I am.
So for example if I am working on feeling as if I have enough,
My sankalpa could be I am enough.
Or I am worthy,
I am loving,
I am patient.
As you breathe and drop into your body,
I want you to use your senses to hear or feel or smell or taste or even see in your mind's eye your I am statement.
Allow it to bubble up.
And once you've locked into your I am sankalpa,
Repeat it now three times.
The practice of yoga nidra officially begins now.
Bring softness to your throat,
To your tongue,
Softening behind your eyes,
The brow of your forehead,
Your scalp along the crown of your head,
The back of your head,
The backside of your neck,
Softening.
Feeling into your shoulder blades,
Soften,
Allow them to rest on your body,
To move away from tension.
Softening through the spine,
Through the rib attachments,
Through the pelvic bones,
Softening through both long thigh bones,
Shin bones,
Feet,
Soles of the feet,
Softening your kneecaps,
Your lower stomach,
Your belly button,
Softening your ribs,
Softening through the thumbs,
Both index fingers,
Middle fingers,
And fourth and fifth fingers,
Allowing the palms of your hand to become heavy,
Your arms to be pulled down by gravity.
And for a moment,
Observe your body getting heavier and heavier,
Almost as if we could fill you with rocks shiny smooth from the river,
Placing them on your body so you can return to earth and become soil.
Now noticing your breath,
And every inhale creating a sense of lightness,
Inflating each one of your trillions of cells like a small balloon,
And allowing your body to begin a sense of lightness.
Noticing how we feel when we are sensing lightness.
Shifting your awareness now to your cells in your body as we explore how it feels to be tense.
Every cell sticking so close to each other,
Tension in your body,
Noticing where tension feels familiar,
Where it may reside in you.
Noticing any surprise areas of tension as you scan from head to toe.
And with a big full breath in and out,
Bring a softening,
A relaxation,
A soothing to those areas of tension.
Allow your body to become as soft as a marshmallow.
Becoming soft.
Allowing your body to be soft.
Deepening your breath just for a moment,
Expanding through the ribs,
Creating space in the body.
Noticing your cycle of air is very similar to the waves of the ocean.
Inhaling and exhaling,
Waves of nourishment rolling into and out of the body.
Breathing in,
Counting down from 10.
One wave of breath in and out counts as one.
Counting your breath down from 10.
Inhale and exhale.
And if you lose count,
Start back at 10.
Drop control of your breath and return to an organic flow.
Noticing any wave-like fluid sensations in your body as if you were rocking in a comfortable boat on a river,
Or floating in a pool,
Or like a baby in the womb.
Noticing your particles,
Your cells,
Your blood,
Your oxygen.
All moving with a tide in your body.
Making note if this tide runs from the head to toe direction,
Or from the left to right,
Or right to left.
Sensing the support under you while you feel this rhythm.
Imagine you are on some sort of vessel,
Some sort of boat,
Being lulled under the stars.
Noticing the constellations,
The moon.
Perhaps making note that the stars are ancient,
And that you are not alone in having wondered and gazed up above.
Ancient travelers used to measure the distance between stars between their hands.
They would have scopes and maps and deep,
Old,
Passed-down knowledge of the shapes the stars would make.
To help them navigate in a world of darkness.
They could tell by the temperature of the water where they were going.
And they were brave.
They were proud to be the travelers of their people,
To make the risk of the unknown an adventure.
Perhaps you can imagine what the sound of the water feels like lapping against your boat.
In this moment,
We imagine that we are simultaneously in this visualization of the boat,
And yet still here in the plane of the present,
And being supported by our own bodies as the boat.
And allowing yourself to be rocked to sleep under the starry night.
Noticing the darkness of the sky and the brightness of the stars.
And we'll repeat our sankalpa three more times.
The practice of yoga nidra is complete.
Allowing your body to float here in the in-between,
In between the ocean and sky.
If you are playing this to continue on resting,
Then don't do anything at all,
But allow yourself to float.
And for those of you who are waking up for the day,
Begin to roll your ankles and your hands,
Slowly like they're moving through honey.
Rocking your body back and forth.
Perhaps even taking a big breath in and sighing it all out.
Thank you for resting with us today.
Choosing even micro-moments of rest throughout your day helps regulate your hormones and set your nervous system up to feel supported and resilient.
Thank you.
