Yoga Nidra for Deep Rest
This Yoga Nidra will allow you to feel deeply relaxed and leave you feeling energised and refreshed, as though you have had some sleep! You will be guided into a comfortable position, lying or seated to settle. You are taken on a rotation of consciousness around your body, before bringing your awareness to the breath. You can stay with the breath or follow guided imagery of the a beautiful summer meadow, before being brought back to your day.
Transcript
Let's prepare for our yoga nidra.
So to get ready for yoga nidra,
Just lay in down,
Letting your body be as comfortable as possible.
If the legs are outstretched,
Just allow your feet to fall apart and let them flop a little sideways.
If it feels comfortable,
Your arms can be slightly away from the body,
With the palms of your hands facing skywards.
Adjust your clothing,
Adjust your position,
Adjust your blankets,
So that you can practice yoga nidra without moving and without any physical discomfort.
Please allow your eyes to softly close.
We're going to keep our eyes closed for the duration of the practice.
The practice of yoga nidra is about hearing and feeling.
These are the only important factors.
In yoga nidra,
You function on the level of awareness and listening.
In dreams,
You have no control,
But in yoga nidra,
You are the creator of the dream.
Try not to fall asleep during the practice,
But if you do,
Be kind to yourself and just allow that to happen.
If you would try not to fall asleep,
You may want to just repeat to yourself now,
I will not sleep,
I shall only listen to the voice.
Give yourself time to become calm and steady.
Take a deep breath and as you inhale,
Feel calmness spreading throughout your body.
As you exhale,
Silently say to yourself,
I am at ease.
Allow yourself to become aware of sounds in the distance.
Become aware of the most distant sound you can hear.
Let your sense of hearing operate like a radar beam,
Searching out distant sounds and following them for a few seconds.
Move your attention from sound to sound without trying to identify the source of that sound and gradually bring your attention to closer sounds.
To sounds just outside the building that you're in and then to sounds inside your building or room.
Now develop an awareness of the room where you are laying.
Without opening your eyes,
Allow yourself to visualize the four walls,
The ceiling,
The floor and your body laying on the bed or the floor.
See your body laying down.
Become aware of the physical existence of your body as you lay there.
Total awareness of your body lying in perfect stillness.
Your body is laying down.
I'd like you to develop an awareness of all the physical meeting points between your body and the surface below you.
Become aware of your natural breath.
Become aware of the deep spontaneous natural breath.
Try not to concentrate too hard on the breath.
Just a gentle awareness so it doesn't interfere with the natural process.
Keep on listening to me and know that you are breathing.
The practice of yoga nidra begins now.
Silently say to yourself,
I am going to practice yoga nidra.
I will try not to sleep.
This is the time to make your resolve a simple statement of something that you would like to happen.
Please allow your resolve to arise naturally and then state clearly with feeling and awareness,
Silently to yourself three times.
And now we're going to take a trip through the body.
We're going to rotate the consciousness through different centers of the body as quickly as possible.
Your awareness will be jumping from point to point.
Please mentally repeat the name of each part after me and simultaneously become aware of that part of the body.
The practice always begins with the right hand.
Take your awareness to your right hand thumb,
Second finger,
Third finger,
Fourth finger,
Now fifth finger,
To the palm of the hand,
Back of the hand,
Wrist,
Lower arm,
Elbow,
Upper arm,
Shoulder,
Armpit,
Waist,
Right thigh,
Knee,
Calf muscle,
Ankle,
Heel,
Sole of the foot,
Top of the foot,
Right big toe,
Second toe,
Third toe,
Fourth toe,
Fifth toe.
Now move your awareness to your left hand thumb,
Second finger,
Third finger,
Fourth finger,
Fifth finger,
To the palm of the hand,
Back of the hand,
Wrist,
Lower arm,
Elbow,
Upper arm,
Shoulder,
Armpit,
Waist,
Hip,
To your left thigh,
Knee,
Calf muscle,
Ankle,
Heel,
Sole of the foot,
Top of the foot,
Left big toe,
Second toe,
Third toe,
Fourth toe,
Fifth toe.
Now to your right shoulder and now your left shoulder.
Your right shoulder blade,
Left shoulder blade,
Right buttock,
Left buttock,
To your spine,
To the whole of your back together.
Now to the top of the head,
Your forehead,
Right eyebrow,
Left eyebrow,
The centre of your brows,
To the right eyelid,
Left eyelid,
To your right eye,
Left eye,
Right ear,
Left ear,
Right cheek,
Left cheek,
To your nose,
The tip of the nose,
To your right nostril,
Left nostril,
Upper lip,
Lower lip,
Chin,
Jaw,
Throat,
To your right collarbone,
Left collarbone,
Right chest,
Left chest,
To the middle of your chest,
Navel,
Abdomen and lower abdomen.
Now switch your awareness to the whole of your right leg.
Now to the whole of your left leg.
Now both legs together.
Now to the whole of your right arm,
The whole of your left arm,
Both arms together.
To the whole of the back,
The whole of the front,
The whole of the head,
Together.
Legs,
Arms,
Back,
Front,
Head,
Together.
The whole body,
Together.
The whole body,
Together.
The whole body,
Together.
We're going to take a trip through the body once more,
This time a little slower.
So once again,
Moving that awareness to your right hand thumb,
Second finger,
Third finger,
Fourth finger,
Fifth finger,
Palm of the hand,
Back of the hand,
Wrist,
Lower arm,
Elbow,
Upper arm,
Shoulder,
Armpit,
Waist,
Right thigh,
Knee,
Calf muscle,
Ankle,
Heel,
Sole,
Top of the foot,
Right big toe,
Second toe,
Third toe,
Fourth toe and little toe.
Once more to your left hand thumb,
Second finger,
Third finger,
Fourth finger,
Fifth finger,
Palm of the hand,
Back of the hand,
Wrist,
Lower arm,
Elbow,
Upper arm,
Shoulder,
Armpit,
Waist,
Hip,
Left thigh,
Knee,
Calf muscle,
Ankle,
Heel,
Sole,
Top of the foot,
Left big toe,
Second toe,
Third toe,
Fourth toe and little toe.
Now to your right shoulder and now your left shoulder.
Right shoulder blade,
Left shoulder blade,
Right buttock,
Left buttock,
To the spine and now to the whole back together.
Move that awareness to the top of the head,
Forehead,
Right eyebrow,
Left eyebrow,
The centre of your brows,
Right eyelid,
Left eyelid,
Right eye,
Left eye,
Right ear,
Left ear,
Right cheek,
Left cheek,
Nose,
Tip of the nose,
Right nostril,
Left nostril,
Upper lip,
Lower lip,
Chin,
Jaw,
Throat,
Right collarbone,
Left collarbone,
The right side of your chest,
The left side of your chest,
The middle of your chest,
Your navel,
Abdomen and lower abdomen.
Now to the whole of your right leg,
Whole of your left leg,
Both legs together,
The whole of your right arm,
The whole of your left arm,
Both arms together.
Now to the whole of the back,
The whole of the front,
The whole of your head,
The legs,
Arms,
Back,
Front and head together,
The whole body together,
The whole body together,
The whole body together.
Allow yourself to develop a homogenous awareness of the whole body and become aware of the space occupied by your body,
Become aware of your body and the space that is occupied by your body,
Body and space.
Become aware of the whole of your body and the surface on which you are laying,
The whole body in relation to that surface and at the same time become aware of the meeting points of the body and the surface which you are on.
These may be very subtle meeting points between your body and the surface.
Feel the meeting points between the back of your head and the surface,
Shoulder blades,
Elbows,
Backs of the hands,
Buttocks and the surface on which you're on,
Calves or heels.
Allow yourself to develop an awareness of all the meeting points between your body and where your body is laying.
Feel the sensation of all of those points simultaneously and evenly.
Go on feeling these points clearly and distinctly.
Please try not to sleep but continue feeling these points where your body meets its support.
Now switch your attention to your eyelids and feel the narrow line where the upper and lower eyelids meet.
Feel the sharp point in the corner of your eyes.
Intensify your awareness between the eyelids and then the lips.
Center your attention on the line between the lips,
The space between the lips.
From the lips we go to the breath.
Draw your attention to the natural ingoing and outgoing breath.
Feel the breath move along the passage between the navel and the throat.
On the inhalation it rises from the navel to the throat and on exhalation it descends from throat to navel.
Be completely aware of the respiration navel to throat,
Throat to navel.
Allowing the breath to be natural but just being completely aware of the movement of the breath in your body.
Maintaining that gentle awareness and at the same time start counting your breath backwards as follows.
I inhale 27,
I exhale 27,
I inhale 26,
I exhale 26.
Just count to yourself mentally as you follow the rise and fall of your breath from navel to throat and back again.
Total awareness of breathing and counting.
Breathing is slow and relaxed.
Please continue your counting and now just allow your awareness and the counting to relax and I'd like you to bring your awareness back to your body.
I'm going to ask you to awaken the feeling of heaviness in the body.
The feeling of heaviness.
Become aware of heaviness in every single part of your body.
You're feeling so heavy that you feel you may be sinking into the earth below you.
Awareness of heaviness,
Awareness of heaviness.
Now I'd like you to awaken the feeling of lightness in the body.
Awaken the feeling of lightness.
The sensation of lightness and weightlessness in all parts of the body.
Your body feels so light that it seems to be floating away.
An awareness of lightness,
Awareness of lightness.
Please check now that you're awake.
Make sure that you're not sleeping.
Maybe say to yourself silently,
I am awake.
Now I'd like you to withdraw your mind and concentrate on the space in front of your closed eyes.
Imagine before you a transparent screen through which you can see infinite space.
A space that extends as far as the eyes can see.
Concentrate on this space and become aware of any phenomena that manifests within it.
Whatever you see is the manifesting state of your mind at present.
Continue your awareness of this space but do not become involved.
Practice detached awareness only.
And now we come away from the space in front of the eyes and to a visualization.
I would like you to imagine you're standing in front of a door.
As you gently open the door,
Door opens out onto a summer meadow.
You can see the wild flowers and grasses swaying gently in the summer breeze,
In the sunshine.
As you take a step out into the meadow,
You feel the sun on your face.
And feel the gentle warm breeze on your skin.
Allow yourself to walk a little in the long grass and meadow flowers.
Observe the colors of the flowers.
Purples,
Pinks,
Yellows,
Reds and blues.
If you wish,
Smell their fragrance.
Be aware of the feeling of the grass brushing past your legs as you walk.
Maybe allow your hands to gently stroke the top of the blades of grass,
Feeling the sensation of the grass sweeping past your palms.
Allow yourself to be here for a moment,
Experiencing the scene,
The smell,
Sensations,
Any sounds that you can hear.
Just taking a moment to pause and keep this scene in your mind's eye,
So that you can come back to this meadow anytime you feel that you need some quiet time.
And allowing that scene to fade,
I'm going to bring you back to the awareness of the space in front of your closed eyes.
Just allow yourself to let your mind rest in this warm,
Friendly place.
Maybe you can see colors or patterns.
Just allow yourself to notice them,
But continue with your detached awareness of what manifests in this space.
And now I'd like you to bring your awareness back to the resolve that you made at the beginning of your practice.
Remember your resolve and repeat the same resolve you made in the same words with the same attitude,
Three times clearly,
With feeling and emphasis,
Silently to yourself now.
And allow yourself to become aware of the breath,
Become aware of your natural breathing,
An awareness of breathing and awareness of relaxation.
Develop an awareness of your physical existence,
Become aware of your arms and legs and your body laying down.
Once again,
Become aware of the meeting points between your body and the surface that you're laying on.
Develop an awareness of the room that you're in,
The walls,
The ceiling,
Any noises inside the room and outside.
Let your mind become completely external.
Lie quietly for a few moments,
Keeping your eyes closed.
And just start moving your body and stretching yourself,
Making any movements that you feel you want to,
Just to allow the body to feel a little bit more alert,
A little bit more awake.
Take your time,
There's no need to hurry at all.
And when you're sure that you're wide awake and feeling more alert,
Gently allow yourself,
If you wish,
To sit up and open your eyes.
The practice of Yoga Nidra is now complete.
