Yoga Nidra: The Crystal Cave Of Bliss

This is a guided yoga nidra meditation. The sleep of yogis – a mystical liminal state in which you venture into the space between slumber and wakefulness – is a deeply relaxing state that is good for both body and mind. It frequently leaves you feeling rested and refreshed, but can also be a gentle pathway into sleep.

Transcript

As we begin the practice of Yoga Nidra, We find as comfortable a position lying down on our backs as we can. The traditional posture is Shavasana, So lying on your back with your legs extended out on the ground in front of you, Feet roughly hip-width apart and dropping off to the sides, And the arms somewhere on either side of your body on the ground with the palms facing up. If this is a lousy position for you, Constructive rest is a good alternative. That's with your feet on the floor, Knees bent, Pointing up towards the ceiling. But I'm going to guide this practice today as if for the Shavasana position, And if you need to adapt what I'm saying to any other posture you've taken, Please just do that. So take a few moments now to settle, And close your eyes if you're happy to do that. If you don't want to close your eyes, A soft gaze down the angle of the nose. And as you settle, Notice the ground beneath you, Notice the points of contact that your body makes with the ground. So starting off with the heels, The backs of the feet on the ground, Notice what you feel there. The calves, Notice the contact that your calves make on the ground. Your thighs, Buttocks, The sacrum, Whatever parts of the back are in contact with the floor, Shoulder blades, The shoulders, The arms, Notice the contact between the arms and the ground, The hands, And the back of the head. Simply feeling that contact. Returning to the feet again, Now looking at the contact between the feet and the ground, But trying to take your attention to the space between the feet and the ground. It may not necessarily be like open space, But look at whatever is between the feet and the ground, Just sense it. With the calves as well, Feel what you can feel between the calf and the ground. And the thighs, The buttocks, The sacrum, Looking at the space between the body and the ground. Into the back, Same thing, Notice what's between the body and the ground. Into the arms and the hands, Noticing that same thing again, What's between the body and the ground. Back of the head, Final one, Notice what's between the head and the ground. There are any small things you can do to make yourself even a tiny bit more comfortable, Releasing into the ground. Allow yourself to become heavier, Allow the ground to hold you. Let's take seven big breaths now, So really filling up with your inhale, As full as you can, And then really trying to make the exhale last as long as you can, Really extending the exhale. Just take seven big breaths like that, With long exhales, And when you've taken the last of your big exhales, Just allow your breath to fall into its own natural rhythm. At this point in the practice, We say to Sam Kalpa, Or an intent, A resolve, And it's expression of your deepest wishes relating to your health, Or your well-being, Or your development. It's a positive statement, Expressing your deepest, Most positive wishes for yourself. So examples like, And you state this resolve, You state it in the present tense, Not, I wish for something, You state it as a present tense thing, Like, I am happy, I am calm, I'm full of peace, Etc. And you repeat your resolve to yourself three times, Short, Simple statement, Present tense, And if you have nothing like that, You don't want to make one, That's fine, Just relax, And observe, Maybe something will come up from your mind as a resolve. But now is the time to make your Sam Kalpa, Repeat it to yourself three times. And now we'll move our awareness through the body. All you need to do is relax, Listen to my voice naming the various parts of your body, And let your awareness move from one part to the next. So begin by bringing awareness to the crown of your head, Centre of the forehead, The right temple, The left temple, The whole forehead, Space between the eyebrows, The right eyebrow, The left eyebrow, The right eye, The left eye, The left ear, The right ear, The bridge of the nose, The tip of the nose, The right nostril, The left nostril, The right cheek, The left cheek, The top lip, The bottom lip, Both lips together, The top row of teeth, The bottom row of teeth, The tongue, The roof of the mouth, The floor of the mouth, The chin, The right jaw, The left jaw, The throat, Both sides of the neck, Space between the collarbones, The notch at the bottom of the throat, Right collarbone, Left collarbone, Right arm pit, Right shoulder, Right upper arm, Right elbow, Right forearm, Right wrist, Back of the right hand, Palm of the right hand, Thumb, Forefinger, Middle finger, Ring finger, Little finger, All fingers and thumb of the right hand, Left armpit, Left shoulder, Left upper arm, Left elbow, Left forearm, Left wrist, Back of the left hand, Palm of the left hand, Left thumb, Forefinger, Middle finger, Ring finger, Little finger, All fingers and thumb of the left hand, Right side of the chest, Left side of the chest, Middle of the chest, Right rib cage, Left rib cage, Abdomen between rib cage and the bottom of the pelvis, Right hip, Left hip, Left thigh, Right thigh, Right knee, Left knee, Left shin, Right shin, Ankle of the right leg, Ankle of the left leg, Left heel, Right heel, Right sole, Left sole, Top of the left foot, Top of the right foot, All the toes of the right foot together, All the toes of the right foot together, All the toes of the left foot, The toes of the left foot together, Returning back up the body now, All the toes of the left foot, The whole left foot, All the toes of the right foot, The whole right foot, The heel of the right foot, The heel of the left foot, The left calf, The right calf, Back of the right knee, Back of the left knee, Back of the left thigh, Back of the right thigh, Right buttock, Left buttock, Sacrum, Low back, Middle back, Upper back, Right shoulder blade, Left shoulder blade, Space between the shoulder blades, Right arm, Left arm, Right leg, Left leg, Both arms together, Both legs together, Whole body, Arms, Legs, Head, The whole body, Coming inside the body now, Bring your awareness to a point just above the perineum, Bottom of the, Right at the bottom of the body, Just above, Just within the pelvic floor, Bring your awareness there and imagine a bright red point, Bright red point, A point of light, Imagine it's emitting ambient light around it, Right there in the bottom of the body, Staying deep inside the body, Moving your awareness up to a point behind the, Behind the navel and imagining a point of bright orange light there, Bright orange light and imagine it's emitting ambient light around it, So the whole area around it, Bright orange, Bringing awareness still inside the body, A little further up, Coming to a place between the navel and the bottom of the sternum, The breastbone, Point inside the middle of the abdomen, Yellow point, Bright yellow light, A point of light, Ambient yellow light around it, Coming up into the heart space, Deep in the centre of the chest, Between the breastbone and the upper back, Bright green point, Point of light, Ambient green light, Emerald green, Coming to the centre of the throat now, Deep inside the throat, Turquoise, Point of turquoise light, Bright blue, Also light bright blue, Turquoise light, A point of light surrounded by ambient turquoise light, Moving up into the head now, A point of bright indigo light and it's behind the place where the centre of, Where the point between the two eyebrows are, Deep in the centre of the head, Point of indigo light, Dark blue, Almost purple, Finally coming to the crown of the head, Point of bright white light, Bright white light, Point of bright white light, Ambient white light coming into the body and out the body. Release all those points now and notice your breath, Notice what your breath is doing right now. We'll practice alternate nostril breathing without using the hand, So inhaling through the left nostril up to point between the eyebrows, Exhaling through the right nostril, From that point out of the right nostril, Inhaling through the right nostril up to point between the two eyebrows, Exhaling from that point down and out of the left nostril and just carry on breathing like this for a short while, In through the left, Out through the right, In through the right, Out through the left, Find your own natural rhythm. Next time you find yourself exhaling out of the left nostril, Fall into a relaxed natural breathing pattern through both nostrils, Returning to natural breath through both nostrils when you exhale next out of the left nostril. Now shift your awareness to notice the darkness in front of your closed eyes, Gaze at the darkness in front of your closed eyes, Soft gaze. The yogis call this citta kasha, Means mind space or mind sky sometimes, So gazing into the darkness in front of your closed eyes as if into a night sky. Notice whether you can see an end point in that darkness, Is there an end point anywhere in the darkness in front of your closed eyes, Is there a side on the left or the right, Is there an up, Is there a down, Is there a behind, Can you sense the open nature of this darkness, Mind space. We practice a short visualization exercise now, So in this mind space returning your awareness to the point of bright white lights at the crown of the head, Once again imagining a point of bright white light at the crown of the head, Imagine this light getting brighter and brighter and brighter and you find yourself standing in a cave of dazzling bright white light, The ground beneath you, Purest white crystal, The walls around, Purest white crystal, Above white crystal everywhere, Standing in this dazzling cave of bright white light, You look around and wonder you're filled with a sense of absolute bliss, Peace and bliss fill this cave of dazzling white light, You sit down, You close your eyes and you meditate for a short while and even though your eyes are closed the white light is everywhere, You're aware of it the whole time, Dazzling brilliant light shining off, Reflecting off this cave of crystal and you simply sit there feeling bliss, As you sit there meditating you now look into the darkness in front of your closed eyes back where you are now lying in yoga nidra, Return your awareness to the darkness in front of your closed eyes, Just gazing softly into this darkness for a short while and seeing if you can change perspective from looking into the darkness to being it, Seeing if you can for a short while be the space of wide open awareness, Simply receiving whatever passes into it and out of it, Thoughts sensations, Sounds, You are this wide open awareness, Space of consciousness now's the time to revisit the sankalpa, The resolve you made at the beginning of the practice if you made one, You repeat it to yourself again three times, Same sankalpa you made at the beginning of the practice, Simply repeat it and if you didn't make one you simply lie and watch and see what you feel, Feel what you feel, Allow your breath to become a little bit more expansive, Take a few bigger breaths, Breaths that you can hear, So allow your breath to become audible now, Might have dropped down really quiet in deep relaxation but take a few fuller breaths that you can hear, Let your awareness open out and be aware of the space of the room and still with your eyes closed just bring to mind the space that you're in, The ground beneath you, Walls around you, Ceiling above you, Let your awareness open and receive sound now, Whatever you can hear, Whatever sounds there are in your space and beyond, Then gently start making some movements, Small movements with the fingers and toes, Wriggling, Maybe you want to take bigger movements, You want to have a bigger stretch, Give your body whatever it wants, As we return from yoga nidra back to full consciousness, So any movements you want to make, Make them, Roll over onto one of one side of your body, Whichever side you want to go to, Simply roll over and hang out there for a short while, Keeping your eyes closed if you can, Use hands to push yourself up take a comfortable seated position, Rub your palms together, A bit of warmth in the hands and place your palms over your closed eyes, Slowly open your eyes beneath your hands, Allowing your hands to fall away and letting the light back in and that takes us to the end of this practice of yoga nidra

Reviews

Thank you, Martin🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻for this relaxing, restful, and expansive yoga nidra🙏🏻🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟🙏🏻

Very calming
I was asleep before it ended