Welcome yourself to this Yoga Nidra practice for expanding your capacity to meet life.
Begin by settling into a position where your body can be fully supported and held.
Let yourself learn.
Where you have nothing to hold up.
And nothing to perform.
Simply arriving in the body as it is.
There can be a quiet pressure in life to keep going.
To stay open.
To hold it all.
And when we can't,
We can feel like something is wrong.
But there's nothing wrong with you.
The body was never designed to live that way.
It knows something deeper.
Something more honest.
That life moves in rhythms.
Of opening.
And returning.
Of meeting.
And softening.
And somewhere along the way,
Many of us learn to leave ourselves behind in the process.
To lean forward,
To give.
To stretch.
Without knowing how to come back home.
But real capacity doesn't come from pushing past yourself.
It comes from staying connected as you move with life.
This practice is a space to remember that.
Let yourself receive the next breath in through your nose and into your body.
And give back a long,
Steady breath out.
Again,
Receiving by breathing in.
Exhaling,
Allowing the body to soften a little deeper.
Feeling the weight of yourself being received.
Imagining there's something beneath you that doesn't need anything from you.
Simply welcoming you.
Sensing the body as a whole.
Nothing to change or adjust.
Just noticing.
The back of the body held and supported.
The front of the body,
Soft,
Receptive.
The body already in relationship.
With support.
With gravity.
With breath.
Nothing separate.
Nothing isolated or alone.
Everything in relationship to one another.
We'll let our focus land onto the space of the heart.
Not thinking about the heart.
But what does it feel like to sense it?
In the same way you might notice your breath.
You might feel a subtle pulsing.
A rhythm.
A quiet movement.
Or maybe just a sense of presence.
In the area.
There's no need to force feeling.
Just open to listening.
And beginning to notice.
The heart,
Too,
Lives in rhythm.
A subtle expansion.
And a soft contraction.
Again and again.
Without your effort.
Without your control.
This movement is what sustains life.
Expansion.
Contraction.
Giving.
Receiving.
Pushing outward.
Drawing inward.
Not one or the other.
But both.
In relationship.
See if you can feel this as something alive within you,
Right now.
A steady,
Intelligent rhythm.
That knows how to keep you going.
That knows how to support a thriving life.
Rest here for a few moments.
Sensing this quiet pulse of life within you.
From this place.
Begin to listen for your intention.
Or sunk hopper.
Something that feels true when you are connected like this.
Let it arise gently and quietly.
As an I am statement.
Examples could be.
I am steady with change.
I am able to meet life and return to myself.
I am guided by my natural rhythm.
If something lands for you.
That it feels true and real for you right now.
Let it form softly and repeat it internally three times to yourself.
As if the heart is speaking it.
As we have already brought our awareness and love to the heart space,
Let's continue that journey through the whole body now.
And remember,
We're not here to force relaxation or to change anything.
But welcoming and noticing what is already here.
Bring your awareness to your right hand.
Right hand.
Fingers on your right hand.
Tips of the fingers.
Each one lighting up.
As you bring your awareness to it.
Palm of the hand.
Palm of the hand lights up in awareness.
Back of the hat.
Lights up.
Rest.
Forum.
Elbow.
Up or wrong?
Shoulder.
Perhaps each part lights up.
So that your whole right hand to shoulder is now bathed in light.
Full in your awareness.
Shift to the left hand.
Left hand.
Fingers.
Tips of the fingers light up in your awareness.
Palm of the hand.
Light in the palm of the hand.
Left wrist.
Elbow.
Shoulder.
Light from the tips of the fingers on your left hand.
To the top of your shoulder.
Both arms together now.
Lighting up both arms together.
Feel into the right side of the chest.
Right side of the belly.
Pelvis.
And right hip.
Each part lighting up.
Connecting in your awareness.
Left side of the chest.
Left side of the stomach.
Pelvis.
Sense each part lighting up with light.
Filling the space with light.
Sensing into both the right and the left side of the upper body now.
Both sides together.
Both sides of the chest.
Of the belly.
And the whole pelvis.
Awareness now to the right hip.
Letting the light move into the right thigh.
Right knee.
Lower leg.
The light fills into the right foot.
Whole right thing.
Light from the hip to the tips of the toes.
Whole right leg.
Awareness to left hip.
Light moves from left hip to left thigh.
To left knee.
No a leg.
Whole left foot.
Light fills the whole left foot to the tips of the toes.
And your awareness senses from the top of the left leg to the tips of the toes.
Whole left leg.
Welcome both legs together.
Both legs full of light.
Now let your awareness move into the whole back body.
Whole back body.
From the backs of your heels,
Up the backs of your legs,
Buttocks,
All the way up your back.
Back of the neck.
Back of the arms.
Back of the head.
All illuminated by light.
Whole back body.
Connected.
And bring awareness to your face.
From the top of your head.
Light moving down across your forehead.
Moving through your eyes.
Nose and cheeks.
Awareness into the mouth.
Inside of the mouth,
Filling with light.
Tongue.
Jaw.
Throat.
Whole face.
Filled with light.
Bringing in the whole front body now.
Moving down the throat,
Across the chest,
The fronts of the arms,
Palms of the hands.
All the way down the torso,
Across the pelvis and hips and down through the legs.
Tops of the feet,
Whole front body now.
Whole front body.
Illuminated.
In light.
Connected.
Now imagine the seams of the front side where it connects to the back side of the body.
Bringing the whole body into awareness.
The spaciousness within your whole body lighting up.
With light.
Welcoming the whole body.
No need to feel one particular way.
There is room for ease.
There is room for tension.
Whole body.
Room for openness.
Room for holding.
All of it is welcome.
Within the spaciousness of the body.
Return to the natural rhythm of the breath.
That effortlessly moves in and out of the body.
Noticing again,
The inhale expands.
The exhale returns.
The inhale,
The body expands.
The exhale.
It returns.
Begin to sense that this rhythm is not only in your breath.
Or in your house.
It is and how.
You meet life.
There are moments you move outward.
Engaging.
Responding.
Expressing.
And moments you come inwards.
Pausing.
Sensing.
Reconnecting.
We are not meant to stay in one state.
We are not always meant to be open.
Or always be withdrawn.
The body knows when to expand.
And it knows when to come back.
See if you can feel into this intelligence.
Already living within you.
There is an invitation now to notice if there's ever been a belief.
That you should be able to handle everything.
To stay open.
To stay available.
To stay on.
Or perhaps the opposite.
That you need to pull away.
Shut down.
Protect.
See if there's space.
To gently begin to loosen around that.
Because here.
In the body.
There is something more fluid.
There is space for you to move outward.
And you can always return.
You can meet life full on.
And you can come back to yourself.
Neither is failure.
Both a capacity.
Now rather than going somewhere to find a visualization,
Let an experience come to you.
A moment in your life.
It could be something simple.
A conversation.
A decision.
A situation where something is being asked of you.
Not the most overwhelming.
Something real.
When you're ready.
See yourself there.
Right in the middle of it.
And now shift your attention from the situation.
To yourself within it.
Going from.
The Observer.
From the outside.
To the observer within.
Notice your body.
From your breath.
To your internal space.
And from here begin to sense.
What does expansion feel like here,
In this situation?
Maybe it's speaking.
Listening.
Stepping forward.
Allowing yourself to be seen.
Feel what is.
Without forcing.
And now.
What does returning feel like?
A small pause.
The softening.
A moment of checking in.
Or letting something go.
That isn't yours to carry.
Feel that too.
What does it feel like to return?
And now,
Allow both.
A gentle movement between the two.
Between expansions.
And returning.
Listening.
Following,
Responding.
Then coming back.
To sensing.
Adjusting.
Staying with yourself.
There is no rush.
No need to get it right.
Just this quiet trust.
If it helps,
You may say to yourself silently,
I am here.
And I stay with myself.
Notice how that changes the experience.
Not because the situation disappears or changes.
But because you are not abandoning yourself inside it.
Meeting yourself with compassion.
And trust.
The dark land.
As this continues to integrate and land.
Let's return to the body as a whole.
The body resting.
The body breathing.
But wet.
And sense into this.
Taking what you want and leaving the rest behind.
Capacity is not how much you can hold.
It is how honestly you can move between engaging.
And returning.
Between meeting life.
And staying connected with yourself.
This is what allows life to move through you.
With you.
Without overwhelming you.
And with this.
Let's return.
The heart.
Bringing gentle awareness to the heart space where we began this practice.
Notice if it's perhaps slightly easier to connect with this space now.
Perhaps you have a new or slightly shifted perspective with your heart.
Remembering the words you silently whispered to yourself.
Your I am state.
Something that is already true.
Something that is already true.
And lives with you.
In rhythm.
With all the expanding and contracting that life brings.
There is space here to repeat this statement three more times.
Feeling it land even deeper into the heart.
Letting it become a part of you.
As this practice of Yoga Nidra is now complete.
As we slowly allow the layers of ourselves to drift one by one to the surface again.
Let the rhythm of the body,
The breath,
The heart guide you.
Perhaps the breath deepens.
You sense your body against the ground beneath you.
And you feel into the space around you.
Maybe your fingers and toes begin to wiggle and stretch.
And slowly,
Slowly.
In your own pace.
Perhaps you stretch.
Or bring your knees into your chest for a hug.
You may wish to let the eyes carefully open.
Bringing your awareness to your space that you're in.
Giving you a moment to adjust.
And as you return,
Notice this is still available to you.
The ability to move with life and come back to yourself again and again.
Thank you for practicing with me today.
I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day.
