Refilling Your Inner Reservoir

This yoga nidra practice offers you time to refill your inner reservoir. Building and sustaining our resilience is essential to maintaining the strength and focus to persevere through challenge and change. In our practice, we use body and breath sensing to refill our pool of energy to the brim. Originally delivered to a group of wildlife conservationists, this practice is relevant for environmentalists and nature stewards who are feeling drained and need time to recharge.

Transcript

Start to become aware of your body,

Of all of your senses,

The air on your skin,

The breath moving through your body,

Any little residues in your body that might be asking for just 1% more of a shift to make you comfortable and allowing your open senses to bring you here in this moment with us together.

And as we practice together,

Just know that every organic experience is right.

So if you feel your puppy walking over you or some noise in the room,

No need to push it away,

Just allow it to be in the space with you.

And so today our practice will offer you some time to recharge and to refill your natural reservoir.

Our world is so full of uncertainty right now and especially in our field of conservation,

We are collectively committed to an essential and yet very challenging goal to protect our planet's wildlife.

And so building and sustaining our resilience is really essential to maintaining the strength and focus to persevere on this goal.

And so by joining us here,

You're giving yourself these precious few moments to recharge your reservoir of passion.

And today we're going to be using body sensing and breath to refuel ourselves until we're overflowing with energy.

In Yoga Nidra,

Our approach is to welcome sensations and emotions and thoughts just as they arise.

And so there's no right or wrong experience.

And wherever you are is perfect,

Even if you drift off to sleep.

We observe every sensation and emotion as a messenger that is presenting an offering.

And so by inviting in our thoughts with curiosity and openness,

We're more fully acknowledging the authentic sensations,

Emotions and thoughts that are arising within us.

And so we're more able to truly be ourselves,

Perfect as we are.

So I invite you to reflect for a moment on an intention for today's practice.

What led you here to be with us?

Maybe it's to build your reserve of passion and energy.

Perhaps to just have a few moments of calm and stillness in a busy day before a busy weekend.

Whatever your intention is,

Welcome that intention in with your entire body and affirm that you've given yourself this time as a precious gift to fulfill this intention.

And imagine for a moment with me a place of absolute security where you feel safe and fulfilled kind of an inner oasis.

You could envision a favorite place in the world or being with a person or an animal that brings you comfort.

Take a moment to identify that inner oasis,

Not thinking too hard about it,

Just wherever you drift spontaneously.

Now channel this resource,

This inner oasis inward and see if you can feel that warmth,

That joy,

That security in your body as a felt sense of absolute protection and safety.

You might even try letting go of the image and letting the sensation of security and joy just linger in your body.

That sweet feeling of having everything you need being completely at ease in your inner oasis.

Affirming this oasis,

This place where you're totally protected and fulfilled.

Know that you can return to it anytime during or outside of this practice.

Become aware of your body,

Starting with your jaw.

Bring awareness to this area as though a spotlight is lighting it up,

Activating a sparkle or a hum of aliveness.

From your jaw,

Feel into your mouth,

Your left and your right cheek,

Your lips,

To your forehead and your eyebrows.

Feeling the top of your head and the back of your head.

Shifting that spotlight to your neck,

To the back of your neck and your collarbones,

To your left shoulder,

Your left upper arm and your elbow,

Your forearm and your palm.

Noticing the body breathing itself as you feel into your body,

Your collarbone rising and falling gently as the inhale enters and the exhale exits.

Feeling that breath flowing in and out,

Almost as waves,

As if waves were gently washing over you,

Bringing life,

Water gently flowing in and out.

Feeling into your right shoulder and your right upper arm,

Elbow to the forearm and the palm.

Feeling both right and left hand at the same time,

Feeling that shimmering aliveness.

As thoughts arise as they certainly will,

Simply welcome and acknowledge them and set them gently aside to visit with later.

As you find yourself observing these thoughts,

Give yourself permission to interrupt their story,

No need to follow it through all the way,

And to set them next to you.

You'll come back to them later.

Feeling into the upper back and the lower back.

Breathing into the front,

The upper chest,

The abdomen.

Feeling that vibrant hum of aliveness into your hips and your pelvis.

Feeling the breath fill and empty like water gently flowing in and out.

That sparkle,

That aliveness coming into your left hip and your left thigh,

To your knee,

Down to your calf,

And the ankle and the toes.

Feeling now the hum of aliveness in your right hip and thigh,

The knee,

The calf,

Into the ankle,

Down to the toes.

And feeling both legs at the same time,

That hum of aliveness.

Broadening now that spotlight to your full body,

Feeling it alive on the inside,

That sparkle shining through.

Feeling it on the surface of the body,

Running along your skin.

And perhaps feeling beyond the body,

Beyond the boundaries,

Out around you to the right and the left,

Front and the back,

Top and bottom.

And sensing the breath,

Recharging the cells in your body,

The fresh air filling your body as you inhale,

Drawing the breath in,

And exhale it out.

As if your body is a natural reservoir filling up with pure clean water until it's full and overflowing with this life-giving resource.

Feeling the breath in and out.

And recall your inner oasis,

That lush place of security and comfort,

That sensation of ease and protection.

And notice that even as the breath shifts within you and your body,

Flowing in and out with its natural rhythm,

Constantly changing,

A deeper sense of constant unchanging aliveness is present within your body.

An unchanging aliveness that is present always,

No matter what comes,

No matter which thoughts,

A hum of life that sets the backdrop to changing sensations.

And bring awareness now to an emotion or a belief that might be present in your life.

Maybe it's an emotion from an experience you had earlier this day or this week.

Or maybe it's a belief that you feel is true about yourself or the world around you.

It could be about a work project or an interaction with a team member.

Or maybe it's a resident belief that just lingers deep within.

As you settle on this emotion or belief,

Simply observe it without judgment,

Challenging as that may be,

Without getting lost in its story,

Just observe.

And sense how this emotion or belief feels in your body.

Where do you feel it?

Is it in your ankle or your stomach?

Maybe as a tension in your forehead?

Does it have a shape?

Maybe a color or a texture?

Simply observe its presence in your body.

Feeling the breath continue to move through you in and out.

And if it feels okay,

If it feels right,

Invite the opposite of that emotion or belief.

Feeling into the opposite.

Don't overthink it.

In fact,

Don't do this with the thinking mind.

Just feel your way.

What comes spontaneously?

What arises naturally as its opposite?

Now sense where you feel that opposite in the body.

Does it have a shape,

A color,

A texture?

Now shift from that opposite back to the original emotion or belief.

Can you feel into that which you had visited just before?

And consider if it feels right,

Alternating back and forth between them,

First sensing one and then really feeling into the felt sense of the other where it is in your body.

Moving between one and the other.

Let go of the thinking mind while you do this.

Really settle into the body,

That felt sense.

Then I invite you to hold the two emotions or beliefs simultaneously,

Feeling into the felt sense of both at the same time.

And notice how this feels in your body and in your mind.

And notice how these emotions and beliefs,

They're all movements within awareness.

How changing perception is arising in unchanging awareness,

Like waves that are rising to the surface of a vast sea and then cresting and returning back to that sea.

And how your inner oasis,

That felt sense of security and utter fulfillment,

How that oasis keeps you strong as you weather the waves of emotion and belief that come.

And as you're feeling into your inner oasis and the vast awareness underlying it,

Become sensitive to sensations of joy that might be in the body.

Can you feel bliss radiating through your presence like sunlight cresting over the horizon and spilling onto the earth?

And if it helps you access joy,

Maybe recalling a moment of a particular moment of a particular person or an animal or a place in your life that invites joy into your body.

Or simply staying with the abstract felt sense of bliss.

Joyful light filling every cell of your body with life.

Feeling that same vibrant hum of aliveness and joy throughout the body.

Feeling breath come in and out.

Thoughts maybe arising and along with those thoughts that utter joy,

That felt sense of joy in your body.

And sensing how that joy is arising in awareness.

Feeling yourself as spacious and unchanging.

Part of the energy of life in our world.

Ever present,

Perfect just as you are.

Feeling that sparkle,

That aliveness shimmer through you and into the awareness that supports you,

That you are.

And as we begin to gradually,

Very slowly transition back to our waking state,

I invite you to reflect on the journey that you've just taken.

The sensations in the body,

The breath flowing through you,

Your inner oasis.

Seeing the room around you,

The sounds,

The touch of air on your skin,

The presence of another next to you,

The rise and fall of your chest as breath moves through you.

Take a moment to revisit the intention that you set for yourself at the beginning of our practice.

And maybe consider if there's a new intention that you wish to set for the next few moments or days or weeks.

Feeling into the joy lingering in your body and giving yourself gratitude for taking this time for yourself to nourish your resilience.

And taking your time honoring what your body's asking for.

Consider beginning to slowly move your toes and your fingers,

Maybe deepen your breath,

Really taking your time as you eventually begin to flutter your eyes open and then close again and slowly open as you come back to your waking state.

And all the while continuing to sense that sweet,

Sweet residue of awareness full to your brim and nourishing you from within.

Take your time with this transition and when you're ready,

You can slowly rise and rejoin us.

Reviews

Lovely and helpful, thank you!