Welcome to WorkMinded.
We're so glad to have you with us for this Yoga Nidra inspired practice to help soften the Sunday scaries.
Whether you relate most to a general work rhythm or a rigid work schedule.
Or a collection of various work obligations,
Or anything else in between.
The start of a new work cycle can prompt and stimulate all kinds of sensations for the nervous system.
However your work rhythm or schedule shows up in your experience,
Our nervous systems can really brace for what might be coming.
And a constantly braced nervous system can have all kinds of downstream and long-term effects.
With this practice,
We can gently ease the system back toward a sense of softening related to our work.
Especially when these sensations feel intense enough to interfere with our time apart from work experiences.
You're invited to begin your practice by setting up a space that suits your personal circumstances and feels as safe and comfortable as possible for you.
This is your practice,
And you get to make the call around what is or is not okay for you.
Here are a few examples.
Traditionally,
Yoga Nidra is done with the eyes closed to help the mind tune inward.
But if that's not comfortable for you,
You can keep your eyes open and aware to the space around you.
This practice is often experienced solo,
But if having support available would make it easier to settle into the practice,
You might want to have resources on call or in your space with you.
And the practice usually encourages cushions and covers to guide your physical body into total ease.
But you're also welcome to stay seated or keep your space a little bit cool if complete relaxation doesn't feel okay right now for any reason.
Go ahead and craft the personal Yoga Nidra space that feels best to let you tune into this Yoga Nidra experience to soften and soothe your system in whatever way is most available to you right now.
Your will invite the nervous system to start to soften from the pace of your experiences outside of this practice.
You can engage whatever senses feel most available here to help bring or even welcome a gentle sense of softness into your awareness and your current experience.
You might let your exhale slowly grow longer than your inhale.
You might focus a gentle gaze on a single object in your field of view.
You might connect to a gentle sound that you hear or a soft texture that you feel in the space around you.
You might envision organic shapes or soothing colors in your mind's eye.
You can check in here to gauge how comfortable your system feels right now with the idea of being supported.
Is it available to you in this moment to find some deeper ease for your system?
If so,
You might let gravity take on even more of the work of supporting you to help unbrace.
Maybe you identify some existing tension that can begin to slowly dissolve and melt away.
You might sense some dis-ease around a sensation that's been trying to come through to your awareness.
If it feels safe and comfortable for you,
You could welcome it briefly and then let that dissolve too.
Or if there's anything specific you've been wanting to call in around softness and support,
This could be the moment to cultivate it.
Where can you open to the space and possibility of softening?
Go ahead and take some time here to let your system soften even further toward the safe and comfortable space you've created for your practice.
And now if it feels comfortable for you,
Here we can start exploring setting an intention to guide your system's softening around work.
Sometimes the idea of setting an intention can come with a lot of pressure.
So we like to think of this more as creating a personal tool that's useful to you in the here and now.
You don't need to boil the ocean to try and find the perfect,
Aspirational,
Long-term intention for this tool to be effective.
In fact,
Choosing something that feels authentic and approachable and available can actually help avoid adding stress for the nervous system.
And sometimes the subconscious mind prefers to communicate with symbols and sensations over words.
So you can use a mantra,
An affirmation,
Or,
Our favorite,
An if-formation.
Or an image or an internal video clip might also appear in your mind's eye.
Or maybe a sensation or even an emotion might present itself in your experience.
What's most useful here is identifying something that you feel can support you as you move deeper into this practice and on into your work experiences for this new cycle.
Here's some inspiration that you can borrow and build on,
Or you can go in another direction entirely.
I am making the time to soften and soothe my system related to work.
My system is learning to create space between my working and non-working time.
What if I cultivated more softness around my work experiences?
We'll take some time here to explore whatever ideas are arising into your awareness or asking to be elevated as an internal resource that could be most supportive to tap into going into your upcoming work.
And next,
We'll start to really embody whatever you might have identified for this session.
Will circulate this intention to key energy centers in the body to really reinforce it as a felt internal resource that you can carry with you throughout the coming work cycle.
Traditional Yoga Nidra recommends not moving these parts as they come into our awareness.
Or we also like to offer the option to move or shake or wiggle if you feel called to.
And if any of the sensations around any of these parts ever feel uncomfortable or just too much,
That is completely okay.
You can try moving your attention a little further away from that area.
Or maybe focusing on something like the temperature of the air around the area instead of the physical part itself.
Or you can even disengage from the area entirely and choose to find ease by engaging with this intention through your other senses.
This is your practice of softening to cultivate in a way that makes you feel the most comfortable.
So you're invited now to gently and slowly circulate your attention and your intention around each energy center that we mention in whatever way feels most accessible and soothing for your system.
Will flow the energy of this intention through and around the very crown of the head.
The forehead right between the brow bones.
The Curve of the Temples the joining of the ears and the jaw.
The intersection of the spine and the head.
The center of the neck and throat.
The indentation between the collarbones.
The points of both shoulder blades.
The full shoulder joints.
The center of the upper arms.
Inside the crease of the elbows.
The center of the lower arms.
The inside of the wrists.
The center of the palms.
Back up to the heart center of the chest.
The solar plexus at your sternum.
The area of your belly and navel.
The entire pelvic floor.
The joint of your hip bones at each leg.
The center of your upper legs.
Circling all around your knees.
The center of your lower legs.
The join of your feet and ankles.
The center of the soles of your feet.
And here you can let your intention continue to circulate however it's most comfortable.
With the breath.
The energy or the senses of your body.
Softening and soothing.
And now we'll start to bring this practice full circle.
Giving your system a deeper chance to integrate your embodied intention from the session.
You can call fully back to mind the internal resource you want to carry along to support you in your next work cycle.
And you might tune into its energy still circulating all throughout your system.
If this intention were a roadmap,
What thoughts or actions or practices would you want to highlight with it as you move through the journey of your work experiences?
And how does it feel to know that you can keep this tool close by and available to help navigate work situations that might arise?
As we start to bring this practice to a gentle close,
You might choose to continue toward deeper rest or even sleep here.
Or,
If you choose to return to Presence and Awareness,
You can start by taking a deep,
Deliberate breath,
In and out,
To start to reactivate your system.
Easing your way toward presence first by just imagining yourself beginning to move.
And then gently starting to make tiny little micro movements.
And now letting those movements grow more intentional and more expansive as your awareness of the space and the place around you grows.
You might want to linger here with a few more moments of feeling wholly present and aware before thinking about transitioning fully out of the practice and moving on to whatever is next for you.
We hope that your system feels softened and soothed by this practice,
And that your newly created internal resource feels supportive as you head toward your work to come.
You're invited to return to this practice whenever you want to cultivate some softness in your system around heading into a new work cycle.
Or anytime your nervous system is calling for soothing and support around work.
Thank you so much for joining us and we're excited for our next session together.
