Sleep Nidra, A Pre Sleep Preparation

This is a gentle yoga nidra, with a little pre-sleep advice added in, just the right amount of time to help you to switch off and transition into sleep. Beginning with the breath and body scan to ease your day away.
This track contains ambient sounds in the background

Transcript

Welcome to a little meditation before you go to bed, Something to help you sleep. I'm Victoria Skye and before you get comfortable, Maybe turn all of your electronic things off, Have a bedtime drink like a milky drink or a chamomile tea and see if you can give yourself an hour before you prepare to go to sleep where you have all of your electronics, Your TV, Your laptop, Your iPad, Things like that off. Maybe before you get into bed, Have a little foot massage with some oil and some lavender, Maybe some essential lavender in there and then get nice and comfy in your bed or laying down somewhere before you get into bed. So just coming to a place where you can relax, Laying down, Maybe laying down in like a yoga shavasana position, So laying with your legs a little bit apart, Your arms a bit apart and if you have a pillow or something like that that you'd like to stick underneath your knees, Placing that under your knees so you can feel totally comfortable and just a little bit weightless and then getting ready, Closing down your eyes. Noticing if you could be a little bit more comfortable, Maybe in your shoulders, In your hips, Anything like that. Trying to relax, Taking a deep breath in through your nose, Exhaling through your mouth, Just allowing everything to sink into the bed beneath you. We're going to start with a little bit of muscle relaxation, Taking a breath in, Trying to fill your body up, Breathe deeply, Fill in, Fill in, Fill in, Fill all your body with your breath and hold it here and tense all the muscles in your face, Your eyes, Your cheeks, Your jaw, Hold them tight, Hold them tight and let it go. Letting your breath out, Releasing your muscles, Breathing in, Filling up your body, Trying to feel from deep in your belly, All the way, Belly, Ribs, Chest, Filling up, Filling up, Filling up, Holding it here, Tensing your shoulders, Your arms, Your hands, Holding those muscles tight, Holding your breath, Hold on, Hold on and release, Blowing the air out like you're letting air out of a balloon, Letting all your muscles relax. Breathing in, Filling your body up, Fill up, Fill up, Fill up, Holding your breath, Tensing your chest and stomach together, Chest and stomach, Holding tight, Holding tight and release. Breathing in, Fill your body up, Filling up, Filling up, Try and fill your whole body with your breath, Fill up, Fill up, Holding it here and tensing your buttocks, Tense your buttocks, Tense your buttocks and let it go. Breathing in, Taking a nice deep breath in, Fill your body, Fill your body, Fill up, Fill up, Fill up, Holding your breath and tense your legs, Your thighs, Your calves, Your feet, Hold tight, Hold tight and now release. Breathing in, Deep breath in through your nose, Fill your whole body up, Exhaling with a sigh. One more, Breathing in, Fill your whole body up, Exhaling with a sigh, Just trying to really let go, Giving your body that sign to relax. Noticing how you're breathing, How you feel this evening and just focusing solely on the pace of your breath moving in and out of your body, Allowing it to fill up your belly. I'm going to have a little journey around your body. All you have to do is take all your attention to the part of the body where my voice is mentioning at that time and just follow it as best you can. So we're going to start on your right foot with your right big toe, Taking all your attention and awareness into that toe. Feel the skin, The bone, Any lines that you can sense and then move to the toe after that, The toe after that, The toe after that and your little toe. Feel the top of your right foot, The base, The ball of your right foot, Your right ankle, Your calf, Tracing it from your ankle to the back of your knee, The fleshy bit, The muscle, Your shin, Feeling the skin over the bone from your ankle to your knee, Your kneecap. Maybe just taking a pause to be curious at what's underneath your kneecap. Taking your attention from the back of your knee, All the way up your thigh to the base of your buttock and then the top of your thigh. Noticing any sensations in your skin, Your right hip, Your right butt cheek, Moving around to the front to your right groin, Your lower abdomen, Upper abdomen, Right side waist. Try and trace around that waist as if you can sense from your belly button all the way around to your spine. Noticing where your ribs begin, That front rib all the way up, Tracing your ribs up to your chest and then following your rib cage underneath and around underneath your armpit, Around to the back, Following it to where it meets your spine and coming back under to go underneath your right armpit. Noticing how the skin and muscles feel from your armpit to your inner elbow, From your inner elbow down your forearm to your wrist, Your wrist, The palm of your hand, The lines on the palm of your hand and your fingers, Your thumb, First finger, Middle finger, Ring finger, Little finger, Back of your hand, Your forearm, The bony bit of your elbow, Your bicep all the way to your shoulder, The top of your shoulder, Your shoulder blade, Coming up to your collarbone, Following your collarbone across and then making our way up the front of your neck, Noticing how those collarbones move and that sensation of your neck all the way up to your jaw, The line of your jaw, Your chin, Your lower lip, Your upper lip, Your right nostril, Your left nostril, Your right cheek, Your left cheek, Your right ear, Your left ear, Your right eyeball, Your left eyeball, Where your eyelids and your eyelashes meet on the right eye, Where they meet on the left eye, Centre of your eyebrows, Your right eyebrow, Left eyebrow, Your forehead, Your hairline, Following from your hairline all the way over, Tracing it all the way, Sensing where your hair goes into your head, Following over the top of your head, Down to the back, Noticing where that hairline ends and then following down the back of your neck, Moving over to your left shoulder blade, Your left collarbone, Top of your left shoulder there and following it all the way down your bicep, Feeling the bony part of your elbow, Your left forearm and wrist, Back of your left hand, Your left fingers, Your thumb, Your first finger, Middle finger, Ring finger, Little finger, Palm of your left hand, The lines on the palm of your left hand, Your inner arm, From your wrist to your inner elbow, From your inner elbow all the way up to your armpit, Coming down that left side waist, Tracing around your ribcage, Following it all the way from the back, Trying to notice where all of those bones are, Bring them all the way around to the front and your chest, Moving down the front of your body to your upper abdomen, Lower abdomen, Left side waist, Your left hip, Left butt cheek, Moving all the way down the back of your left thigh, The top of your left thigh, Exploring how that skin feels, The muscles feel, Your left kneecap, Back of your left knee, Being curious as to what's underneath that kneecap, And your left calf, The fleshy bit coming all the way down to your ankle, And then the shin, Moving and just tracing that sensation and feeling an awareness of where that bone is, Your left ankle, Top of your left foot, Sole of your left foot and the left heel, And your toes, Your little toe, The one after that, The one after that, The one after that, And finally your big toe, Your left toe, Moving your attention and awareness to all 10 toes together. As you breathe in, Imagine you can breathe in and feel all 10 toes, And now breathing in, Feeling all the way up the front of your body, From your toes, Top of your feet, Shins, Knees, Thighs, Belly, Chest, Face, Top of your head, As you breathe out, Move down the back of your body, Back of your head, Your shoulders, Your back, Your butt, Back of your legs, All the way down to your ankles, Breathing in up the front body, And breathing out down the back body. Breathing in up the front body, Breathing out down the back body. Noticing your breath, Allowing that breath to slow, Breathing in slowly, Breathing out even slower, Noticing how long it's taking you to inhale, And trying to breathe out for twice as long. As you breathe out, Really allow yourself to melt and let go into your mattress. Continuing to breathe like this, Breathing in slowly, Breathing out even slower, And just allowing that rhythm of your breath to slowly settle you, Settle you into slumber, And allowing yourself to just let go, Just let go and have a restful sleep. Goodnight, Namaste.