Hey,
It's Sydney,
And I would like to welcome you to this moment of gratitude.
Let's slow our bodies down.
Maybe you move a little bit slower as you gather your blankets,
Pillows,
Bolsters,
Anything you need to get cozy.
Make your nest,
Get supported.
Get snuggly.
Move with intention.
Maybe there's one or two more things you could do to make yourself even 5% more comfy.
In a traditional yoga nidra practice,
We often encourage a reclined on your back position,
But the truth is.
.
.
Not many of us feel rested or comfortable lying on our backs.
So if that doesn't feel good in your body in this moment,
I encourage you to lie on your side or sit in a chair or even lean against the wall.
There is no prize for suffering through your meditation position,
So lean into it.
Feel supported.
And allow your body to be held wherever you are.
When life gets lifey,
The human nervous system is literally built to keep our hearts pumping and our bodies breathing.
And that is priority survival.
So whether it's a bear,
A boss,
Bills,
Babies,
Or gluten,
Our nervous system doesn't really care.
It's constantly reading our physiological responses and responding accordingly,
Which doesn't always match up to our situations.
And this isn't a glitch that we do this.
Many of us are hardwired to notice and avoid the destroyers of life.
Our nerve systems are really good at scanning for what's wrong,
What's missing,
What needs fixing.
But guess what,
My friends?
There's more to it than that.
The other sides of life,
And I'm talking about joy,
Play,
Pleasure,
Connection,
Beauty,
Gratitude.
Are just as valid to our moral experience as the hard stuff.
And there's actually some really interesting physiology behind this.
When we are experiencing something we perceive as safe or meaningful,
Nourishing,
Our nervous systems can begin to shift out of that constant state of vigilance.
And gratitude in particular has been associated with changes in stress physiology.
Heart rate and blood pressure all come to nice normal levels,
And even sleep improves.
It's not magic,
And it's not about pretending that the hard things aren't happening.
It's giving our nervous system more information.
There's more here than the hard stuff.
And the idea behind a gratitude practice is that we give ourselves some grace and forgiveness for all the times gratitude feels hard.
Because I'm me,
And I cannot resist taking us out a little bit further into the cosmos.
At the tiniest level,
We are energy,
Matter,
Movement,
Particles,
Fields,
All of this wildly mysterious stuff that we still don't fully understand.
Quantum physics has shown us that reality is a whole lot stranger and more interconnected than our human brains can really wrap themselves around.
Now I'm not going to sit here and tell you that quantum physics proves that gratitude can heal us,
Because,
Well,
Science hasn't actually proven that.
But I do think there's something beautiful about remembering that we are not separate from the world around us.
We're part of it.
And maybe gratitude is one way of remembering that we are part of this wildly complex,
Mysterious experience of being alive.
Our body is doing a million things every moment without us having to ask it.
That we get to breathe,
Feel,
Move,
Connect and experience,
Love and laugh and rest.
Maybe healing isn't always about fixing or changing or becoming something different.
Maybe healing is sometimes about creating enough safety and space and presence and connection to actually notice.
What is already here.
I chose a yoga nidra style practice for us to facilitate the movement through all of the layers of our being,
Body,
Mind,
And spirit,
And to truly plant the seeds of gratitude deep within us,
Not with the expectation of an immediately fully grown tree,
But tiny sprouts,
Little moments,
Little reminders,
And with time and nurturing,
Perhaps those sprouts allow us to feel gratitude more often alongside the heaviness of life,
Rather than instead of it.
Before we begin,
I want to invite you to choose a sankalpa,
Which is a simple intention or a heartfelt resolve that you can carry with you through this practice.
Think of it less like a goal you need to accomplish and more like a seed that you're planting.
For this practice,
Your sankalpa might have something to do with gratitude,
But it doesn't have to.
Maybe something like,
I am open to noticing what is good.
Or there is enough.
Or I trust the wisdom of my body.
Or if you can't come up with something or you're not hearing it,
Doesn't feel right,
A simple I am here does the trick almost every time.
So choose something that feels true or something you're gently growing towards.
There's no need to force it,
Figure it out perfectly,
Or even fully believe it just yet.
Just plant the seed.
And then let the practice do what practices do.
Give it some space,
Some nourishment,
And a little time.
I invite you to start feeling your breath.
That means breathing in.
And noticing how your body shifts to accommodate your lungs full of air.
Noticing how your heart rate changes with your inhales and exhales.
Or listening to the air entering and exiting your nostrils or your mouth.
Taking nice,
Big breaths in,
And slow,
Luxurious exhales.
Following your own pace.
Breathing deeply.
Noticing the clothes on your body.
You're supporting pillows and bolsters.
The weight of your bones.
Breathing.
Drawing your awareness towards the heart.
Noticing the flow of blood through your body.
The noises of your digestive system.
And allow for a moment your sankalpa.
To be at the forefront of your thinking.
I want you to repeat it.
Three times in your head.
The practice of Yoga Nidra begins now.
As we move into the mental body,
We're going to play with a couple of pairs of opposites.
This isn't about deciding which one is better or trying to hold on to the good feeling.
We're simply noticing because life is both.
Enough and not enough?
And connected and separate.
And gratitude doesn't ask us to pretend that the harder experiences aren't here.
It simply gives us another place to rest our attention.
So without needing to figure out anything.
Let's explore our first pair of opposites.
Bring your awareness to the feeling of enough.
Nothing to add,
Nothing to fix.
Nothing to change,
Just enough.
What is the experience of enough in your body?
What does your heart rate do?
How does your breathing change?
Is there tension or softness anywhere in your body?
Notice.
How your body feels in the experience of an affirmation.
It's all information,
We don't judge what comes up.
It's all information,
We're not judging what we feel,
We're noticing.
Now I want you to feel not enough.
The feeling of reaching,
Wanting,
Needing something to be different,
And simply notice how your body responds to not enough.
Check with your heart,
Your breath.
The tension,
Temperature.
Tingles,
Any sensations in your body,
What are you noticing about the experience of not enough?
Let's revert back to the feeling of enough.
Now,
Not enough.
And not enough.
And I'll tell them both at the same time.
Let it be both enough and not enough.
What do you notice about holding both experiences at the same time?
How does your body respond?
Now let's bring our awareness to the feeling of connected.
Connection to yourself connected to another connected to earth to life Yield the experience of connection.
Remaining curious about any stories that come through.
Sensations in the body.
Now separate.
The feeling of being on your own.
Is connected.
What does that feel like?
Where does your mind go?
What does your body do when we're experiencing separation?
Back to connected.
Notice.
Now separate.
Notice the feelings around separate.
Bringing your body and mind to the sensations of the experience of connection.
And allow that to melt into separate.
And finally,
We'll smush them both together,
Connected and separate at the same time.
Once again,
Letting them both be here,
Both valid experiences.
Noticing our beautiful capacity to experience the whole spectrum of being human.
Now let's have a play with a little scene of gratitude.
This is something I've been practicing for a few months now,
And it really resonates with me,
So I hope it resonates with you too.
I want you to think of something you're grateful for.
Something small.
Or somebody who's made an impact on your day or on your week or on your years on this planet.
Maybe you've seen a rare animal in your neighborhood.
Perhaps you found a coin on the ground.
Maybe you got a phone call from a friend you haven't talked to in a long time.
Breathe in to how it feels,
How you felt when you first experienced it.
Allow the sensations to build and grow,
Each cell becoming attuned to the frequency of gratitude.
Perhaps you feel your body softening.
Your jaw relaxing.
The wrinkles in your forehead smoothing out.
Notice in your body where you feel that it's easier to feel the gratitude.
Notice where perhaps gratitude feels a little bit more foreign.
Can you find some gratitude for every cell?
Every bone,
Every fiber of your being.
It's alright if that feels foreign too.
You can just breathe in the meantime.
Remembering how gratitude feels in your body.
Becoming accustomed with this frequency so we can invite it back again and again and again.
Especially when times feel really hard and challenging.
Now let's go a little deeper into your moment of gratitude.
Into the scene that is bringing you such a beautiful feeling of connectedness and of enough joy and play.
This grateful moment of yours.
That you associate it with a color.
Or a smell or a texture.
Let's bring all of our senses into this visualization.
What senses come forward when you think about how grateful you are for your special thing?
Or person.
Or place or experience.
Create almost like a 3D feeling sensation in this.
And as we get more detail,
Let's start to think about really imprinting how our body feels and how our mind feels and how our spirit feels in this moment of gratitude.
And allowing your body to breathe naturally and organically.
And I'm going to watch the clock.
We're going to sit in these feelings of warmth.
In these feelings of gratitude for about a minute.
Also totally normal and natural.
To not be feeling things so intensely,
And if that's so for you,
Just keep breathing.
Doesn't mean anything.
Breathing into your body or into this feeling of gratitude.
I want you to stay with this sensation and I'm going to come back for you in about 45 seconds.
Release all sensations of gratitude and return to your heart space.
Noticing how you feel now.
Is there a peace or a calmness or an agitation?
And we'll continue to breathe and sit with this for another few moments.
And now for a little quantum magic.
As we settle deeper into this visualization,
You might imagine yourself as this little,
Moving,
Breathing,
Feeling,
Energetic piece of this much bigger universe.
And maybe.
.
.
In the next few moments,
Letting yourself feel a wave of awe for the strange and beautiful privilege of being here at all.
I want you to think about something in your life today.
That five-year-old you would be grateful for.
Maybe that's a pet.
Or a person,
Or a home,
Or a job,
Or a cool shirt.
Or a massive Hot Wheels collection.
Find something in your current life that five-year-old you would be so stoked and grateful to see.
Maybe it's love of your family.
Maybe it's support.
Maybe it's your bravery.
And allow five-year-old you.
To simultaneously feel what you are feeling in this moment for gratitude.
Share that with your little self.
What do you notice about your body?
What does your five-year-old notice about their body?
What do you notice that is similar about you and this five-year-old?
Both versions of you in this moment.
So grateful for something you have right now.
And let's invite our 15-year-old selves to the party because Lord knows they need an invitation.
What is something in your life,
And maybe it's been the same thing this whole time,
But something in your life today,
Right now,
That 15-year-old you would be so grateful for?
Maybe it's money in the bank or a cool haircut or a cool partner or.
.
.
The bravery to be solo and to travel the world or to be meditating.
Allow yourself today and 15-year-old you to really feel the gratitude.
The childlike pleasure of having something that you've always wanted.
Imagining yourself 25 years from now.
Your hair,
Your body,
Where you might live.
Who's supporting you and loving you and surrounding you.
Really imagining who you are right down to the bones in 25 years from now.
And what is something today that you have or are doing?
And are grateful for that you 25 years from now would be so grateful to have.
Maybe it is two working knees.
Or digestion that can still do gluten.
Maybe it's your strength,
Or your memory,
Or your hair.
What is something you might even be taking for granted?
That future you would love to return to.
And let's dig into the gratitude around that.
Perhaps there's even some grief.
Around the changes that the future self might be holding.
And that's all right.
Gratitude and grief go hand in hand.
Noticing in your body how it feels to be this grateful.
And how does it feel to also be holding the energy of you of the future?
And allowing.
All the versions of yourself,
Future you.
Little u,
Teenage u.
All coinciding into present day you and the gratitude for the life that you have exactly how it is now.
Even if it's only one thing,
It still counts.
Allow that feeling to circulate through every cell.
All the fluid in your body.
Through your veins.
Letting gratitude become your existence just for this moment.
Gently rocking back and forth.
Supported by a notion of gratitude.
Deepening your breath,
Intentionally pulling more air into your body.
Remembering.
Everything you need to remember.
Imprinting anything you need to imprint and energetically giving yourself a nice squeeze of support.
Slowly waking up,
Rolling through the hands and the feet.
Be reaching your arms overhead,
Big delicious stretch.
You're welcome to sit up or remain lying down.
Stay exactly as you are.
You choose.
Our practice of yoga nidra is complete.
And sometimes we say at the end of a yoga nidra practice,
Haram tatha.
Which translates into something that means the absolute truth.
Which I always translate to mean the truth of our own heart.
Of our own souls knowing.
You are the one who knows best about you.
As always,
I'm grateful that you had a listen today.
And I can't wait until we meet again.
