Hello and welcome to this new moon yoga nidra practice.
You can begin to prepare for yoga nidra by laying on your back in shavasana.
If you have a cell phone make sure your notifications are off and lie down and relax the body.
You can use any props you need to become more comfortable.
If you want to put a pillow under your head or cover yourself up with a blanket,
All are perfectly acceptable.
And then relax your hands and your body with your palms facing up,
Your feet open,
Eyes closed,
And slowly inhale and exhale through the nose.
And when you inhale,
Let your belly rise and expand like a balloon.
And when you exhale,
Let your belly completely fall,
Concaving all the way to the back of your spine.
And completely relax your body from your head to your toes and your toes to your head.
And we'll read you a poem by Leilana Wright called New Moon.
Black moon,
No moon,
Moon that finally gets to hide at night.
This too is my phase tonight,
There but unseen,
Wandered into nothingness with more than a lunar cycle before I will be full again.
So relax your head,
Give permission to all your organs,
Muscles,
Bones,
Cells,
And nerves to completely relax.
And when you inhale,
Inhale positive hope,
Happiness,
Joy,
And serenity.
And when you exhale,
Exhale negativity,
Despair,
Anxiety,
Stress,
And tension.
Feel yourself become more and more relaxed.
And any thoughts that come into the mind,
Acknowledge them and let them go.
This is your time to let the universe take care of you.
Now say to yourself mentally,
I am practicing yoga nidra.
I will stay awake for yoga nidra.
Take a deep breath in with the exhalation.
Think new beginnings.
Do this a few more times.
Your inhale and exhale,
Preparing yourself for new beginnings.
As you do this,
Become aware of your body relaxing,
Letting go of all effort to hold on.
Hold on.
And now just for a short time,
Begin to notice the rhythm of your breath.
Now extend your awareness outward,
Listening for sounds in all directions,
Becoming aware of distant sounds,
Sounds in the room,
Sounds outside the room,
Sounds from the body,
Sounds from your breath.
And now we're going to hear our sankalpa.
A sankalpa is a short and positive statement in the present or future tense.
It's a resolve,
An intention,
An affirmation.
If you do not yet have a sankalpa,
For today,
You can use the resolve I am willing to start again.
And using your personal sankalpa or statement,
I am willing to start again.
Repeat it three times with the exact wording and the confidence that it will come true.
Now we're going to move on to a rotation of consciousness through the body.
This is called a body scan.
And while we do this,
The body is going to remain motionless.
When a part of the body is either named,
You can either repeat the name of the body part mentally,
You can just bring your awareness to that body part,
Or you can visualize the body part being touched by the moonlight.
The instructions will be for visualization,
But repeating the name or bringing awareness to the body part is also welcomed.
So we're going to begin on your right side.
You can imagine the body is suspended in the dark night sky,
Like a cloud hovering.
You can see or feel the moonlight gently touching the cloud body and illuminating the right hand thumb,
The index finger,
The middle finger,
The ring finger,
The pinky finger,
Palm of the hand,
The back of the hand,
The wrist,
The forearm,
The elbow,
The upper arm,
The shoulder,
The armpit,
The right rib cage,
The right waist,
The right hip,
The upper leg,
The kneecap,
The lower leg,
The ankle,
The heel,
The instep,
The sole of the foot,
The top of the foot,
The soft moonlight shining across the right big toe,
Second toe,
Third toe,
Fourth toe,
And fifth toe.
Staying awake and aware,
Bring the moonlight to the left side of the body.
See or feel the moonlight touching the left hand thumb,
The index finger,
The middle finger,
The ring finger,
The pinky finger,
The palm of the hand,
The back of the hand,
The wrist,
The forearm,
The elbow,
Upper arm,
Shoulder,
Armpit,
Side of the left rib cage,
Left waist,
Left hip,
Upper leg,
Kneecap,
Lower leg,
Ankle,
Heel,
Instep,
Sole of the foot,
Top of the foot,
Left big toe,
Second toe,
Third toe,
Fourth toe,
And fifth toe.
Staying awake and aware,
Bring the moon's healing light to the top of the head,
The forehead,
The right temple,
The left temple,
The right eyebrow,
The left eyebrow,
The eyebrow center,
The right eyelid,
The left eyelid,
The right eye,
The left eye,
Right ear,
Left ear,
The bridge of the nose,
The tip of the nose,
The right nostril,
The left nostril,
The right cheek,
The left cheek,
Upper lip,
Lower lip,
Teeth,
Tongue,
Jaw,
Front of the neck,
Right collarbone,
Left collarbone,
Left collarbone,
The space between the collarbones,
The right chest,
The left chest,
Heart center,
Upper abdomen,
Navel,
Lower abdomen,
Pelvis,
Place the moonlight at the buttocks,
The lower back,
The middle back,
Upper back,
Right shoulder blade,
Left shoulder blade,
Back of the neck,
Back of the head,
Top of the head.
Staying awake,
We are now going to pass through the chakras.
Place tonight's moon,
The dark disc of the moon at the crown of the head,
Crescent moon at the eyebrow center,
Half moon at the throat,
Full moon at the heart center,
Half moon at the navel,
Crescent moon at the sacrum,
New moon at the base of the spine.
Feel the whole right arm covered with moonlight and the whole left arm covered with moonlight.
Both arms illuminated together by the light of the moon.
The whole right leg lit by the moon,
The whole left leg touched by the moonlight,
Both legs together illuminated by the moon,
The whole front of the body covered with the moon's moonlight,
The whole back of the body touched by moonlight,
On the front and the back of the body together illuminated with the moon.
Now the whole body together being lit up by the light of the moon.
Now let go of this body scan and come back to your natural breathing.
Bring awareness to your breath.
Notice the rise and fall of your belly.
Inhale,
The belly rises.
Exhale,
The belly falls.
And as the belly rises,
You can think full moon.
And as the belly falls,
You can think new moon.
Mentally repeating new moon as the belly falls.
Full moon as the belly rises.
Stay with the practice of synchronizing the breath with the words new moon and full moon.
With the awareness of the breath moving up and down.
Staying awake and aware.
Now let go of the words new moon and full moon.
Let go of watching the belly and begin to bring awareness to the mind space in front of the closed eyes.
Bring awareness to a mind movie.
Notice if there's any patterns or colors here with your eyes closed.
Are there any images that come to you?
We're going to repeat some images and I want you to bring them to this mental movie stage.
We're going to repeat them fast and we're going to repeat them twice.
A black circle,
A candle flame,
A white dove,
A blue lotus flower,
A shooting star in the night sky,
A shooting star in the dark night sky,
A white dove,
A blue lotus flower,
A shooting star in the night sky,
The tide coming in and out,
A circle of friends around a campfire,
A black circle,
A candle flame,
A white dove,
A blue lotus flower,
A shooting star in the dark night sky,
Campfire.
Come back to your eyebrow center.
Come back to the mind space in front of the closed eyes and let go of this visualization practice.
Now come back to your heartbeat.
In your heartbeat,
You can remember your sankalpa,
The one that we used in the beginning of this yoga nidra practice and you can repeat it with resolve again.
The same resolve you made at the beginning of your practice with the same wording.
You can use your own personal statement or the statement,
I am willing to begin again.
You can repeat this three times with faith that it will come true.
Now become aware of your breath again.
When you inhale,
Inhale positivity,
Hope,
Happiness,
Joy,
And serenity.
When you exhale,
Exhale negativity,
Despair,
Anxiety,
Stress,
And tension.
Feel yourself relaxed.
Let the universe take care of you.
Now become aware of your entire body from your head to your fingertips.
Become aware of the body extending from your head to your toes.
Become aware of your breath.
Become aware of the entire physical body and the breath inside your body.
Consciously make your breath deeper and fuller.
Make your breath even more deep.
Inhaling and exhaling deeply.
Make your breath very full.
Keep your eyes closed.
Say to yourself,
The practice of yoga nidra is now complete.
You can begin moving your body and stretching,
Wiggling your fingers and your toes.
Inhaling your arms over your head,
Taking a nice big stretch,
And then gently rolling to your favorite side in a fetal position.
I will now reread Liana Wright's poem,
New Moon.
Black moon,
No moon,
Moon that finally gets to hide at night.
This too is my phase tonight.
There but unseen,
Wanting to nothingness.
With more than a lunar cycle,
Before I will be full again.
You can slowly push up to a seated position.
You can rub your hands vigorously together and place the warm palms over your closed eyes.
You can then release the palms from your face and find yourself fully alert and ready to go on with the rest of your day or evening.
Thank you for joining me for this yoga nidra practice.
Namaste.
