Yoga Nidra-Inspired Practice For Deep Relaxation

This is a deeply relaxing guided practice inspired by the practice of yoga nidra; we gently move our awareness through the body before arriving at a state of open awareness to explore the nature of consciousness.

Transcript

Hey, Hello. This is a guided meditation inspired by the practice of Yoga Nidra, Which is usually described as meaning yoga sleep. The idea here is not to actually go to sleep, But rather to spend some time in a state of relaxed awareness. This form of meditation is conducted lying on your back, On the ground, Usually on a softish surface. For example, A carpet on the floor, Or some kind of a mat. So that's what you want, Is a firm but softish surface. So take a few moments to get yourself placed on the ground, Lying on your back. You can have your legs out in front of you, Flat on the ground, That's one position. You can have your knees bent with your feet on the floor, Roughly hip width apart, In front of you on the ground, That's another position. You can let your arms just lie on the ground, On either side of your body, Close to you, All the way out to the sides if you wish, Or you can have your hands on your belly with your elbows on the ground. But take a few moments now to settle into a comfortable position, Lying on your back, On the ground. I'm going to be here for a little while, 24 minutes or so, So if you've got any twitching or stretching that you want to do before you settle in, Do that while you're finding your position. Now bring yourself to stillness, And settle down now as you prepare to begin the practice. I invite you to gently close your eyes now, And let your mind range external, Listening to sounds beyond the room that you're in. If you happen to be in a place that's super silent and there are no sounds, That's something to notice, Then just notice it. Otherwise, Just listen out for whatever you can hear, Birds, Cars, People, Whatever. Not trying to analyse the sounds, Not specifically trying to identify them, Just listening to them, And it's fine to let your mind move from one sound to another, Or simply to settle on one, And listen to it for a bit. Let's bring your attention inwards now, Right into the room where you are, Listen to any sounds you can hear directly around you, As you lie there on the ground now. Again, Not analysing, Just noticing the sounds. Finally bringing your attention all the way into your body, See if you can notice the sound of your own breath. Don't worry if you can't, Don't worry if you're breathing so quietly that you can't hear your breath. The practice is simply to look for it. Take a moment now to visualise how your body is lying there on the ground. Imagine you could step away and look down at yourself on the floor. See if you can form an image of how you are there. And then bring yourself wholly into your body now. Take a few moments to observe the points of contact that your body makes with the ground beneath you. So just bring your attention to the back of your head where it touches the ground, Your shoulders where they touch the ground, Your back on the ground, Back of your pelvis or your buttocks on the ground, Your legs or your feet, Your arms or your elbows, Wherever you can feel your body contacting the floor. Just notice that for a moment. Take a few moments to relax the muscles of your face, Really soften your face now. Relax the muscles around your closed eyes, Let your jaw release. See if you can soften the palate of your mouth, The roof of your mouth. Relax your chest, Be soft. Let your belly soften. Let your buttocks soften. Relax the legs. Soften the feet. Release the arms. Let your body be really soft. Using your imagination, See if you can conjure up a sense of heaviness in the body. Imagine your body is getting a little bit heavier. So heavy you could maybe sink down into the ground an inch or so. Bring some heaviness into your body, Using the power of your mind. Now create the opposite feeling, Lightness. Imagine yourself super super light, Light as a feather that could just be blown away on the breeze. Use your imagination to feel light, Lightness in the body. Now hard, See if using your mind you can bring a sense of hardness to the body. You don't need to contract your muscles or tense up. See if it's possible to imagine yourself hard as rock. Now soft, Allow your body to be soft and use your mind to bring softness to your body. Soft as cotton wool. Bring softness into your body, Soft as you can be. Gaze now into the darkness in front of your closed eyes. Notice that it's not pitch dark, Notice that there's a certain aliveness, Perhaps swirlings, Hints of colour. Gaze into this darkness in front of your closed eyes for a few moments. Allow your gaze to be soft, Wide. Even though you're looking into it with closed eyes, Think of it as a soft, Relaxed gaze into the space in front of your closed eyes. See if you can develop a sense of the space enveloping you. Maybe feeling as if the space is all around you. And as you gaze softly into the space, Now bring your attention to your breath, Noticing how each inhale and each exhale results in a movement in the body, A gentle expansion with your inhales, A gentle contraction with your exhales. Simply noticing how your body softly moves each time you breathe. Wherever you feel that movement of the breath most strongly in your body, Just let your attention rest there for a little while, Noticing your breath. We're going to work more actively with the breath now through the practice of counting down. So counting down from the number 108 with each breath that you take. For example, Breathe 108, Breathe 107, Breathe 106, Breathe 105 and so on. Slowly counting down, You can count down on the inhales, The exhales, Just before, Just after you breathe, Doesn't matter. Just pin your breath to this process of counting down for a little while. We're not counting down from 108 all the way down to zero. We're just going to count for a little while. If you let go of the counting now and just let your breath settle into whatever pattern it wants to settle into, Just relaxed, Natural breath. Let your breath be now. We're going to bring our awareness to all parts of the body now through a pretty detailed scan. I'm simply going to name parts of your body. Each time I name them, Let your attention rest on the part that I name. If there's any possibility that you're able to relax the part a tiny bit when I name it, Go for it. But don't make too much of a fuss about this. We're just, It's moving quite fast this body scan. So just let your awareness move from one part to the next as I name them. Sometimes simply bringing your attention to the various parts of the body will do the job of relaxing them. So start off by bringing your attention to your right thumb, Right forefinger, Right middle finger, Right ring finger, Right pinky, Arm of the right hand, Top of the right hand, The right wrist, The right forearm, The right elbow, The right upper arm, The right shoulder. Move your attention into your right armpit, The right side of your body from your armpit down to your right hip, Top of the right thigh, Back of the right thigh, The right kneecap, The back of the right knee, The right shin, The right calf, Right ankle, Top of the right foot, Sole of the right foot, Right big toe, Second toe, Right foot, Third toe, Fourth toe, Little toe on the right foot. Moving your awareness to your left thumb, Left forefinger, Left middle finger, Left ring finger, Left pinky, Palm of the left hand, Top of the left hand, Left wrist, Left forearm, Left elbow, Left upper arm, Left shoulder, Into the left armpit, Left side of the body from the armpit to the left hip, Top of the left thigh, Back of the left thigh, Left kneecap, Back of the left knee, Left shin, Left calf, Left ankle, Top of the left foot, Sole of the left foot, Left big toe, Second toe on the left foot, Third toe, Fourth toe, Little toe on the left foot. Bring your attention to the sacrum, The lowest part of your back, On the floor beneath you. Moving your attention to your low back, To the middle of your back, To the top part of your back on the right where the right shoulder blade is on the ground, To the top part of your back on the left where your left shoulder blade is on the ground, To the front of your body, Right side of the chest, Left side of the chest, Middle of the chest, Whole belly area beneath the ribcage, Front of the pelvis. Now to the back of the head, Top of the head, The forehead, Right temple, Left temple, Right ear, Cavity of the right ear, Left ear, Cavity of the left ear, The space in the middle of your forehead between your two eyebrows, The right eyebrow, The left eyebrow, Right eyelid, Left eyelid, Right eye socket, Left eye socket, The right eyeball, The left eyeball, The bridge of the nose, Right nostril, Left nostril, Right cheek, Left cheek, Right lower jaw bone, Left lower jaw bone, Top lip, Lower lip, Top row of teeth, Bottom row of teeth, The tongue, The roof of the mouth, Whole cavity of the mouth, Moving to the chin, Front of the throat, The right side of the neck, The left side of your neck, The back of your neck. Now bring your attention to the whole head, Awareness of the whole head. Move your attention to the right arm, The whole right arm, Awareness of the whole right arm, Right leg, Attention moves to the right leg, Awareness of the whole right leg, To the left arm, Awareness of the whole left arm, Attention moves to the left arm, To the left leg, Attention falls on the whole left leg, The whole left leg. Be aware of the whole torso, From the bottom of your pelvis all the way up to your collar bone, Awareness of the whole torso. Bring your awareness to the whole top surface of your body, Your face, Your chest, Your belly, Front of your pelvis, Tops of your legs, All the way down to your feet, Awareness of the whole top surface of your body. Now move your attention to the whole undersurface of your body, Back of your head, Your back, Your buttocks, The backs of your legs, Your feet, All the way down from head to feet, Awareness of the whole underside of your body. Now be aware of the whole body, The whole body lying on the ground. Bring your awareness to the whole body. As you bring your awareness to your body, See if you can slowly let go of the idea of the shape of your body. See if you can be aware of your body as a field of sensation. You can't see the body at this moment. See if you can be with the direct experience you have of your body as sensation emerging in awareness. Tinglings, Twitching, Pulsing, Whatever you happen to feel. See if you can just be with your body as sensation. Return your attention to the darkness, The space in front of your closed eyes. Gaze again softly into this space. Notice that you can't see the eyes that are doing the gazing. Notice that you can't see the brain that's processing all of this. Notice that you can't see the head containing the brain. Notice that you can't see the body that the head is attached to. Notice that you can't see the awareness that is aware of all of this experience. You might be able to intellectualize it and know that your brain is processing these instructions as you go through this experience. But there is something that's aware of the brain doing all of this, Something behind any idea you might have of what's happening, Something that's simply aware. See if you can see that awareness isn't there to be seen at all. Continue your relaxed, Wide, Soft gaze into the space, The darkness in front of your eyes. Can you see an end point in that space? Is there an end to it? Can you see any sides to the space? Is there a top to it? Is there a bottom to it? Is this space delimited in any way at all? I mentioned looking into the space in front of your closed eyes. What if you're able to look out the back of where you know your head is? Is the space the same there beneath where you know your body is? Is it possible for you to be aware of the space that's all around? Again, Trying to see where you are aware from, Not in an intellectual way, Really simply trying to feel the awareness, The awareness that's aware of everything, The space all around you, The sounds that might emerge into the space, Sensations of the body that might present themselves to your awareness, Thoughts that might pop into this space. Simply watch it all. You're not specifically trying to observe the sounds or the sensations or the thoughts, Rather trying to observe or look for the awareness. Not too hard, Relaxed, Simply see if you can be awareness, Pure awareness. Open, Wide, Relaxed. I invite you to repeat to yourself two or three times the words, I am followed by your name. I am and then your name. Say this to yourself two or three times. Now release your name, Simply say the words, I am. I am. Say this two or three times to yourself. Release the word, I am and just drop the word, I. Drop the word, I into this empty open awareness, Two or three times. Repeat to yourself the word, I, I. And finally, Let go of I and simply be awareness. Don't worry if thoughts come and go. See if you can notice them as things that emerge into your awareness and then dissipate back into where, Who knows. If you find your mind wandering off or getting engaged in rumination, Getting involved in your thinking, This is a good result, You simply notice that, Be aware of it and return to that sense, Wide open awareness all around you. As we draw towards the end of the practice, I invite you to bring some movement back into your body, Having a little wriggle if you want to, Stretching if you want to, Gently opening your eyes, Allowing the light to return. You can simply lie here for a little while, Feeling the after effects of the practice. Whenever you are ready, Make your way up as easefully as you can, Go off and have a lovely day or a lovely evening. Thank you very much for joining me in this practice today. Take care.

Reviews

Love Martin’s voice, his sentiments, and am not a fan of meditations with music, so this works on every level. 🌱💚