Yoga Nidra With Guided Imagery

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, laying 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 natural world, before being brought back to your day.

Transcript

Let's begin our practice by finding a comfortable,

Lying down or seated position.

Allow your body to be supported by the surface that you're resting upon.

If you wish,

You can allow your eyes to remain open or let them gently close.

Take a moment to settle into a position that feels just right for you.

During Yoga Nidra,

You're guided to notice and feel physical sensations,

The breath,

Maybe emotions,

Thoughts and feelings of well-being,

And also to experience yourself as the witness of all of these different things,

As comings and goings.

Whatever your experience is of Yoga Nidra,

Allow it to be just as it is.

Your experience is perfect exactly how it is.

Now simply allow yourself to rest at ease and if you wish,

Follow my guidance.

Maybe you let my voice become your voice.

Also,

If you wish at any time and for any reason,

You can choose not to follow my suggestions.

Just let yourself come back to a place of feeling grounded and at ease.

During Yoga Nidra,

If you can,

Let yourself welcome every experience as a messenger that's inviting you to explore sensations and thoughts without trying to change,

Fix or make anything happen.

As you welcome whatever is arising,

Your body and your mind are learning to let themselves remain at ease.

While this happens,

You discover the place within that is always at ease and peaceful,

Witnessing yourself to be unchanging well-being,

Witnessing presence that is allowing you to welcome everything.

Now you may want to feel your body settling into stillness.

Bring your attention to your senses.

Notice the taste in your mouth,

The sounds around you,

Smells,

Maybe images or colours behind your eyelids if you chose to have your eyes closed,

The touch of the air or clothing on your skin.

Allow your senses to be open and alive.

Now if you wish,

Let the sound of my voice be your guide and support you in experiencing sensations throughout the whole of your body.

As I name each area,

You may feel sensations that are present or nothing in particular,

But whatever you experience is just as it is in this moment.

Take in your awareness to your mouth.

Bring your attention to the inside of your mouth.

The roof of the mouth,

The floor of the mouth,

The inside of your left cheek,

The inside of your right cheek.

Become aware of the back of your throat and now your tongue.

Be aware of the entirety of your mouth as one.

Now become aware of the breath,

The sensation in your nose.

Shift in your awareness to just your left nostril.

Now to your right nostril and now both nostrils simultaneously.

Taking that awareness now to your eyes,

To your left eye and now to your right eye and now to both eyes together.

Notice in the field of sensation.

Now take in that awareness to your forehead,

Your scalp,

The back of your head,

The back of your neck,

Inside your throat.

Now shift awareness to your left shoulder,

Left upper arm,

Forearm,

Wrist,

To your left palm and to the fingers on your left hand.

Now become aware of your entire left arm and hand.

Shift in that awareness to your right shoulder,

Your right upper arm,

Forearm,

Wrist,

To your right palm and all of the fingers on your right hand.

And now to the entirety of your right arm and hand.

Now allowing your awareness to come to both arms and hands together as one field of sensation.

Taking your awareness now to your upper chest,

Upper back,

Centre of your chest,

The middle of your back.

Now to your abdomen,

Your lower back and now to your entire torso as a field of sensation.

Taking your awareness now to your left buttock,

Left hip,

Thigh,

Knee,

Left foreleg,

Foot and each of the toes on your left foot.

Now become aware of the entirety of your left leg.

Taking your awareness now to your right buttock,

Right hip,

Thigh,

Knee,

To your right foreleg,

Foot and now all the toes on your right foot.

Now taking that awareness to the entirety of your right leg.

And now sensing both legs together simultaneously.

Next if you can,

Sense the entirety of the front of your body,

The entirety of the back of your body,

The left side of your body,

The right side of your body.

And now your entire body,

Inside,

Outside,

Back,

Front,

Left and right together as a field of sensation.

Be aware of all that is now present in your awareness.

Allowing yourself to observe everything that is coming and going.

Stay in with that sense of awareness.

Now if you wish,

Become aware of the body breathing.

The flow of the breath as sensation in the nostrils,

Your abdomen gently rising as breath flows in and falling as breath flows out.

There's no need to change anything at all.

The body breathing naturally,

Rhythmically.

In breath,

Abdomen rises.

Out breath,

Abdomen falls.

No need to change anything.

The body breathing itself.

Maybe you'd like to begin counting each breath silently backwards from seven to one in the following way.

Inhale abdomen rises.

Seven.

Exhale abdomen falls.

Seven.

Inhale,

Abdomen rises.

Six.

Exhale,

Abdomen falls.

Six.

Continue counting and breathing in your body's own natural rhythm.

If you lose count,

Begin again at seven.

Breathing and counting.

And just being with everything just as it is.

Staying with that natural breath.

Breathing and counting.

And now let go of the counting with no need to reach one.

And be aware of the flow of sensation throughout your body.

Now we're going to allow the breath to happen.

But while gently retaining the breath at the top of the inhalation,

Bring your attention to the left side of your body.

And while exhaling and inhaling,

Sensation throughout the left side of the body.

Then while gently retaining the breath at the top of the inhalation,

Bring your attention to the right side of the body.

Inhaling and inhaling,

Welcoming sensation throughout the right side of the body.

Allow yourself to go back and forth from one side to the other at your own breathing speed.

Sensing sensation first on one side of the body and then the other side.

Now time for the sensation to completely shift across the centre line of the body.

And when you're ready,

On your next inhale,

Retain the inhale for a moment and sense the entire body simultaneously and allow the body return to its own natural breathing.

Allowing your breath to be completely natural and effortless.

And let yourself be aware of all that is now present.

Feeling yourself aware of everything that is present right now.

Sensing what is present.

And then maybe experiencing yourself dissolving into being the field of awareness in which everything is arising.

Now if you wish,

You can join me on a visualisation or just stay with that sense of being present.

If you wish,

Imagine yourself outside in the beautiful autumn air.

If you can,

Pretend for a moment that you are the wind.

You glide peacefully along on this sunny,

Pleasant autumnal day.

The air smells crisp all around you.

As you breeze along your journey,

You pick up some leaves that come along with you for a little while.

How wonderful to feel the connection to these beautiful autumn leaves.

Gold,

Red,

Browns and yellows.

You know that you are not separate,

But you are one with everything you see.

Sometimes you are strong and other times you are very gentle.

Feel your gentle strength now as you calmly blow across the trees and the rich earth.

Now imagine yourself changing into one of the leaves floating on the wind.

Notice the colour that you are as a leaf.

Feel yourself as a beautiful soft leaf,

Bending back and forth with the wind,

Riding far and dancing in the breeze.

You do this so beautifully,

Gliding so gracefully.

You're letting the wind carry you wherever it wants.

Now as the leaf you turn over and you see the big sky above you.

It's vast and open.

Allow yourself to become the bright blue sky now.

You cover the whole of the earth,

Expansive.

Feel the clouds move all about you,

Floating along as the wind gently moves them.

Sense how large and expansive you are as the bright blue sky.

You cover everything below you,

Preserving and caring for the plants,

The animals,

The people on earth.

Maybe as you see down,

People gaze up at you in wonder to see how magnificent and beautiful you are.

Now within the sky,

Become aware of one particular cloud amongst the others.

Allow yourself to become that cloud now.

Feel the softness,

The beauty,

The lightness of your cloud.

Maybe you feel like a big fluffy pillow.

Feel yourself as the cloud.

Moving and changing,

Changing shape as you want.

You feel wonderfully light and happy,

Just floating and dancing around.

Feel how magnificent you are in all of your states.

From one leaf to the entire sky,

You are part of everything and everything is part of you.

Know whenever you need,

You can allow yourself to drift peacefully into this happy state,

Just by using your mind's eye.

Now start to slowly allow yourself to drift back down to earth,

Becoming yourself and your body once again.

And now,

Let our visualization go and with awareness,

Reflect in on all that has been or is now present.

Feelings,

Sensations,

Emotions,

Beliefs,

Joy,

Wellbeing,

The experience of being pure awareness.

Feeling just as it is,

Yourself just as you are.

Bring in your awareness to your senses once more.

Listen,

The taste in your mouth,

Sounds around you,

Any smells that you're aware of,

Any images or colours behind your closed eyelids,

And maybe the touch of the air on your skin.

And just take in another moment here to allow yourself to become aware of the present,

Become aware of the comings and goings,

Of sensation,

Of thoughts,

Allowing yourself to be the experience of pure awareness.

And now,

Taking your time to transition to an alert and wide awake state of wakefulness,

Allowing yourself to sense your body,

Becoming a little bit more aware of the room around you.

Maybe you'd like to allow your fingers and toes to wiggle,

Maybe you feel like moving your body.

And maybe if your eyes were closed,

You'd like to gently shield your eyes with your hands,

Allow your eyes to slowly open and let your fingers divide to let the light in really gradually.

Allow yourself to feel room around you once more,

Knowing where you are,

And allow yourself to become fully alert and wide awake.

And perhaps before you end your practice,

Take a moment to experience the sense of gratitude for taking the time to practice Yoga Nidra.

Be experiencing yourself as open and spacious wellbeing that is perfect just as it is.

Experience yourself as a whole,

Perfect just as you are.

And when you feel ready,

Just allow yourself to come back to your day.

The practice of Yoga Nidra is now complete.

Reviews

Excellent relaxation.
It was great and I loved it.
Thank you.