Yoga Nidra (Trauma Aware)

This Trauma Aware 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 shapes, before being brought back to your day.

Transcript

So welcome to Yoga Nidra.

Before we start,

Just allow yourself to make sure that you're comfortable and warm.

Adjusting the level of the volume so that it feels nice and comfortable for you.

This evening's practice is going to consist of a few moments to allow ourselves to settle.

Then we are going to have a rotation of consciousness around the body.

We're going to focus on our breath after that and then have a visualisation before slowly returning to our present moment.

So you may want to lay on your back or sit comfortably,

Maybe on a chair with your back supported.

No matter how you choose to be,

Check that your spine feels nicely aligned and that you feel grounded.

You may want to take a moment to make any movements or adjustments that you feel could maximise your level of comfort.

I'd like you to remember that you can change your position at any time if you feel you want to.

It's okay.

Now if you haven't already,

You may want to close your eyes or just soften your gaze and look at nothing in particular.

Now as you settle here,

Maybe you want to take an exhale as if the whole of your body is exhaling.

Allow yourself to maybe settle a little more.

And then with your next inhale,

Inhale as if the whole of your body is inhaling.

As you take your next exhale,

You might like to try and let go of any tension that you notice in the body.

And maybe allow on your inhale to be as if you're inhaling calmness and softness into the body.

If you like,

Just spend a moment to exhale and inhale a few more times.

Now if you choose,

All you need to do for the next part of the practice is to listen to my voice as best you can.

I'd like you to know that it's okay if you do not hear or follow everything I say.

It is perfectly natural to flow in and out of conscious hearing.

If you do drift,

You may want to tune back into my voice or maybe you want to allow yourself to drift for a while.

It's absolutely fine too.

I invite you now to become aware of any sounds that you can hear in the distance.

An awareness of any distant sounds.

Now maybe let your attention shift to any closer sounds.

Maybe then in the same building.

And now to any sounds that you may hear in the room that you're in.

If you wish,

You may allow yourself to develop an awareness of your room.

In your mind,

Picture in the walls,

The ceiling,

The floor and your body within the room.

The shape of the way you are resting in the room.

Now I invite you to become aware of your breathing.

Your natural,

Effortless breathing.

Maybe let yourself spend a moment being aware of the ebb and flow of your breath.

If you like,

Just keep on listening to my voice and know that your breath is flowing.

The practice of yoga nidra begins now.

I invite you to allow your consciousness to take a trip through different parts of your body.

Let in your awareness shift and move from point to point.

Maybe you'll feel like you'd like to silently repeat the name of the body part after me.

Taking your conscious awareness to that part.

Or maybe just letting your awareness move to that part.

It's okay either way.

If you wish,

We shall begin with the area between the eyebrows.

Moving your attention to the area between the brows.

Now to the throat.

The right shoulder.

Right elbow.

Right wrist.

Right thumb.

Index finger.

The middle finger.

The fourth finger.

The little finger.

The right wrist.

Right elbow.

Right shoulder.

And the throat.

Now shift that awareness once more to the point between the brows.

The throat.

Left shoulder.

Left elbow.

Left wrist.

Left thumb.

Index finger.

Middle finger.

Fourth finger.

Little finger.

Left wrist.

Left elbow.

Left shoulder.

And to the throat.

Now take that awareness to the centre of the chest.

To the right side of the chest.

To the centre of the chest.

To the left side of the chest.

Once more to the centre of the chest.

And now to the centre of the torso.

To the navel.

And let your awareness now shift to the right hip.

Right knee.

Right ankle.

Right big toe.

Second toe.

Third toe.

Fourth toe.

Little toe.

To the right ankle.

Right knee.

Right hip.

To the navel.

Now to the left hip.

Left knee.

Left ankle.

Left big toe.

Second toe.

Third toe.

Fourth toe.

Little toe.

Left ankle.

Left knee.

Left hip.

And to the navel.

Now to the centre of the torso.

The centre of the chest.

To the throat.

And the area between the eyebrows.

Now to the whole of the right leg.

The whole of the left leg.

Both legs together.

The whole of the right arm.

The whole of the left arm.

Both arms together.

The legs,

Arms,

Torso and head together.

The whole body together.

An awareness of the whole body together.

The whole body together.

You may want to stay with that sensation of the whole of the body.

Or you may want to take a trip around the body with me once more.

If you wish,

We'll take that conscious awareness back to the area between the eyebrows.

To the throat.

Right shoulder.

Right elbow.

Right wrist.

Right thumb.

Index finger.

Middle finger.

Fourth finger.

And little finger.

To the right wrist.

Right elbow.

Right shoulder.

The throat.

Once more between the eyebrows.

The throat.

Left shoulder.

Left elbow.

The left wrist.

Left thumb.

Index finger.

The middle finger.

The fourth finger.

Little finger.

Left wrist.

Left elbow.

Left shoulder.

The throat.

To the centre of the chest.

Right side of the chest.

Centre of the chest.

Left side of the chest.

Centre of the chest.

Centre of the torso.

To the navel.

The right hip.

Right knee.

Right ankle.

Right big toe.

Second toe.

The third toe.

Fourth toe.

Little toe.

Right ankle.

Right knee.

Right hip.

The navel.

Left hip.

Left knee.

Left ankle.

Left big toe.

Second toe.

Third toe.

The fourth toe.

Little toe.

Left ankle.

Left knee.

Left hip.

And the navel.

Now to the centre of the torso.

The centre of the chest.

The throat.

And the area between the eyebrows.

Now shift your awareness to the legs,

Arms,

Torso and head together.

An awareness of the whole body together.

The whole body together.

The whole of your body together.

Just allow your attention to rest here if you like for a few moments.

And now if you wish,

Let any attention on the body dissolve.

And allow yourself to become once more aware of your breath.

Maybe your breath feels natural and effortless.

Maybe you'd like to take an exhale and imagine that the breath is moving down your body from your nose to the base of your spine.

As you inhale,

Inhale as though you're breathing from the base of your spine up to the top of your head.

Maybe let yourself inhale and exhale this way.

Inhaling down.

Exhaling up.

Inhaling down.

Exhaling up.

Exhaling down.

Inhaling up.

You may want to imagine that the breath is allowing a soft energy and ease to flow up and down the whole of your body.

Exhaling down.

Inhaling up.

If you like,

Just take a few more moments with your breath.

And now if you wish,

We're going to take a simple visualisation.

If you choose to,

In your mind's eye,

Start to let the shape of a square appear.

If it doesn't appear right away,

That's okay.

Maybe it will appear in its own time.

Or maybe you'd just like to listen to my voice.

Take a moment to notice your square.

Notice the size of your square.

The colour of your square.

Is it empty?

Or is it filled in?

Allow your attention to trace round all four sides of the shape.

Notice if the corners are pointed or rounded.

And notice the flat sides.

Just letting your attention explore the shape of your square.

And now maybe you let the square shift and morph into a circle.

A perfect or an imperfect circle in your mind's eye.

See your circle.

Is it the same colour as your square or has it changed?

Is it an outline?

Or is it filled with a colour?

Let your awareness slowly move clockwise around the whole circumference of your circle.

And when you're finished,

Maybe tracing around it anticlockwise.

Maybe now your circle changes into the form of a triangle.

A triangle with equal length sides or not.

Be aware of the colour of your triangle.

The size.

And the overall shape of the form of your triangle.

Now once more in your mind's eye,

Trace around the corners and flat sides.

Notice the angles of the corners.

Are they all the same or are they different?

Now if you wish,

Let your triangle shift to the shape you felt most drawn to.

Maybe you didn't feel drawn to any shape in particular and that's okay.

Just go to any shape you choose.

If you want to,

Just take a moment once more to notice the form of that shape.

The colour,

The size,

The qualities of your shape.

Now just allow the shape to start to fade.

Maybe it fades gradually or maybe it undraws itself.

Just allow your awareness of the visualisation to fade also.

If you choose,

Become aware of your breathing once more.

Your natural,

Effortless breath.

Perhaps you'd like to spend a moment being aware of the ebb and flow of your breath.

Allowing it to bring renewed energy into your being.

Now maybe let your attention shift to any sounds in your room.

They could be quiet sounds.

They could be very quiet sounds but just see if you can allow your attention to move to anything you can hear within your room.

And now to sounds,

Outside the room but in the same building.

Now I invite you to become aware of any sounds in the distance.

Maybe listening out for the most distant sound you can hear.

You may now want to develop an awareness of your room.

If you like,

Start to become more aware of your surroundings and where you are positioned in your room.

Allowing your breath to maybe deepen a little more.

Breathing in that renewed energy into the whole of your being.

Maybe you choose to move your fingers and toes just nice and gently.

And if you like,

Take a nice long smooth breath and maybe a stretch too.

If you chose to close the eyes,

If you like you can shield them with your palms as they slowly open.

Allowing your fingers to divide to gradually let the light back in.

The practice of Yoga Nidra is now complete.