This yoga nidra,
Or yogic sleep practice,
Is a guided relaxation to release your body and free your breath,
Bringing you to a state of calm and mindful meditation.
Set yourself up in a comfortable position where you'll be able to fully relax.
Turn your awareness inwards,
Opening to the sensations of your body.
Notice your back against the floor and let your weight release into that support.
Let your neck release,
Let all the muscles between your shoulders and your head soften.
Let them soften all the way up to the base of your skull and around behind your jaw and tongue,
Behind the back of your throat.
As your neck releases,
Let your head release away from the top of your spine.
As your head releases out,
Let it settle back into the padding beneath it.
Let the contents of your head release back,
Your brain settling back into the inner surface of your skull.
Let the back of your head soften and widen,
All of those muscles releasing out,
And let that wrap around past your temples to your brow and to your face.
Allow your brow and face to release and let them settle back.
Let your ribcage settle back,
Releasing into the support of the floor.
Let the contents of your ribcage settle,
Your heart,
Your lungs,
Your liver,
Your stomach,
Your kidneys,
All of those organs releasing back into the inner surface of your ribcage.
And let the back of your ribcage soften and widen,
Spreading out to wrap around to your chest.
Let your chest soften and settle back.
Let your pelvis release back into the support of the floor.
And let the contents of your pelvis,
All your pelvic organs,
Release back into the inner surface of your pelvic bones and your sacrum.
Let the back of your pelvis soften and widen,
Spreading out to wrap around to the front,
To your lower abdomen,
And let all of that release and settle back as well.
Let your limbs release away from your torso.
Let your shoulders soften so your arms can release back into the floor and out.
Let your hips soften so that your legs can release back into the floor and out.
Spend a few moments here resting in the softness of your body.
Let your hips soften.
Notice the movement of your hands.
Notice the movement of your breath.
Notice that movement wherever you can.
Perhaps the air coming in and out of your nostrils,
Perhaps the rise and fall of your chest or your abdomen.
Watch the breath as it comes in and as it flows out of your body.
Let your hips soften.
Notice if you're forcing your breath at all.
Are you pulling it in or pushing it out or holding it back?
If you find that to be the case,
Can you do less?
Can your breath go out and come in softly,
Easefully?
Let your hips soften.
With each exhalation,
Can your whole body soften and release into the floor?
And with each inhalation,
Can your whole body gently expand?
Let each breath come freely so that some breaths might be small,
Some might be big,
Some might come quickly,
Some might come slowly.
Watch each breath as it comes and as it goes.
Notice the movement of your breath.
Notice the movement of your breath.
Let your hips soften.
Find the calm between each breath,
Between the end of the exhalation and the beginning of the next inhalation.
Rest in that calm between the breaths.
Let your hips soften.
Notice the movement of your breath.
Let your hips soften.
Turn your attention to your thoughts and watch them in the same way as you watched each inhalation and each exhalation.
The thought arises and it falls away.
Watch each thought without engaging with its contents.
And if you find yourself getting caught up in the contents of the thought,
Simply acknowledge that that's happened and let the thought go.
Notice the movement of your breath.
Find the calm between your thoughts.
The moment after a thought has gone and before the next thought arrives.
Rest in that calm between your thoughts.
Rest in that calm between your thoughts.
Rest in that calm between your thoughts.
Rest in that calm between your thoughts.
Open your attention once again to the sensations of your body.
With your eyes closed,
Notice also the space around you.
Let your eyes open gently and return to the world.
