Yoga Nidra: To A Special Place Within

This is a half-hour yoga nidra practice in which you take plenty of time to relax the body completely and connect with the breath before coming to a self-led visualization to settle into the deep calm of awareness.

Transcript

Beginning the practice of Yoga Nidra most important thing is to lie down on your back as comfortably as you can and the traditional posture is Shavasana with your legs long out in front of you on the ground, Your arms either side of your body a little bit away from the body with the palms facing up but if this position is anything other than very comfortable for you, Don't force yourself to do it, It might be better to try something like constructive rest position with your feet standing on the floor and the knees bent and up towards the ceiling. So that's the first thing to do is just find your comfortable posture for Yoga Nidra, Allow any small movements that might help you become a little bit more settled, There's a gentle intention through the practice to remain still but never, Not dogmatically, If you need to move of course you move but for now is there anything you can do, Any movements you need to get out of you that are going to allow you to be still for a little while now. Check the placement of your head, Is your head tilting back, Can you lengthen your neck a tiny bit. We'll quickly go through and look at the various points of contact between our body and the ground so start off by bringing your awareness to the backs of the heels on the ground if you're in Shavasana and all the feet if you if you are in a constructive rest position so bring your here, Bring your bring your attention to where your feet make contact with the ground, Be aware of the ground beneath the feet, Be aware of the feet and then notice what's between the feet and the ground, Is it space, But put your awareness into, Let's call it space, Put your awareness into the space between your feet and the ground and briefly contemplate can you notice precisely where your body ends and the ground begins at that point. Coming up into the legs now, The calves and the thighs, Again notice the body, Notice the ground beneath the body and notice the space between the ground and the body and can you directly sense as you lie here, Can you directly sense where your body ends and the ground begins. Coming to the sacrum now, The back of the pelvis on the ground, Same exploration, Can you sense where your body ends and the ground begins, Where the ground ends and your body begins, Just looking into that space between the body and the ground. Up into the back, Feel the contact between your back and the ground and bring some awareness to space between the ground and your back. I'm not even sure if space is quite the right word but there's something between the body and the ground, Just look into it and your arms on the ground and hands, Same thing, Contact between arms and ground, Hands and ground, Awareness of what's between the body and the ground. The back of the head, Same thing, As you lie here you're not looking at anything, Where exactly does your head end and the ground begin or where does the ground end and your head begin. Closing your eyes unless you've already closed your eyes, Nice way to practice yoga nidra but if you don't want to practice with closed eyes that's fine, Just a gentle downward gaze but if you're happy to close your eyes, I invite you to do so now and just notice your whole body lying on the ground. Bring your awareness to your ears, Feel, Notice, Become aware of the physical components of your ears, Yeah just be aware of the sensations in your ears and then notice sound, Whatever sound you can hear in your environment, Whether it's nearby or wider, Just listen to sound for a short while. Bring your awareness to your eyes and feel the sensations around the eye sockets, Feel the sensations of the eyes and gaze into the darkness in front of your closed eyes, Even though your eyes are closed there's something to see, See what you see. Bring your awareness to your nose, Just sense, Feel the sensations associated with your nose and see if you can smell anything, Just engaging the sense of smell and coming to the mouth now, Notice sensations in the mouth, Both lips, The inside of the mouth, The tongue and engage the sense of taste, Can you taste anything, Something you ate or drank earlier, Some natural taste in the mouth, See what's there and then bring awareness to the skin and we are looking at touch, So where your clothing touches your body, Notice how that is, Where the air and whatever space you're in touches the open parts of your body, The face or the hands, Whatever is not covered, Notice the sensation of touch there. We now move into the next stage of our yoga nidra by making a sankalpa if you'd like to, A sankalpa is a resolve, It's a short and simple statement to yourself of your heart's deepest desire for yourself in terms of your development and it's a simple statement stated in the present tense along the lines of I am happy, I am relaxed, I'm calm, I'm love, I trust my own judgments, The possibilities are endless, We will all have something and if nothing immediately comes to mind, Just wait and see if something emerges and you don't have to make one if you don't want to either, 100% fine not to to set a sankalpa but now is the time to pause and consider whether you'd like to make a sankalpa and if there is something there you state it to yourself quietly inside three times. We'll now travel through the body bringing awareness to different parts of the body in different ways and all you need to do is let your awareness move as I guide us from one part to the next, So start off by bringing your awareness to both hands and see if you can generate a feeling of warmth in the hands, Maybe say to yourself my hands are getting warmer my hands are getting warmer, Can you feel warmth in your hands, Is it possible through the mind to bring warmth to the hand, My hands are getting warmer, Coming now to the forehead, Is it possible to feel the forehead getting cooler, You can maybe say to yourself my forehead is getting cooler, My forehead feels cooler is it possible for your forehead to feel cooler, You can generate a sense of coolness in the forehead, Coming now to the right arm, Maybe saying to yourself my right arm is getting heavier, Can you feel your right arm getting heavier, My right arm is getting heavier, So heavy, My right arm is getting so heavy as if I couldn't pick it up off the ground, Right arm is getting heavy, Coming to the left arm now, Maybe saying my left arm is getting heavier, Can you feel the left arm getting heavier, Can you generate heaviness in the left arm, The left arm getting heavier, So heavy, Moving awareness to the right leg and allowing the right leg to get heavier, Maybe saying my right leg is getting so heavy, Right leg is getting heavy, Heavy right leg, Can you feel your right leg getting heavy, Then the left leg, Can you let the left leg get heavy, Can you generate heaviness in the left leg, My left leg is getting so heavy, Left leg is getting heavier and the trunk of my body from pelvis up to shoulders and collarbones and it's my trunk, I generate a sense of heaviness in my trunk, Trunk is getting heavier, Can you allow your trunk to feel heavier, Sinking into the ground a little bit, And the head, Can the head become heavier, Can you allow the head to get heavier, Maybe my head is getting heavier, Allow the head to become heavy, Notice both arms together, Can they be heavier, Both legs together, Allow them to be heavy, The body, The head, Heavier, The whole body, Legs, Arms, Trunk, Head, Whole body heavier, Settling a little more into the ground, Bring awareness now to the crown of the head, Simply notice what sensations you feel at the crown of the head, Space between the eyebrows, Bottom of the throat, Between the collarbones, The small notch, Move awareness to the right shoulder, The right elbow, The right wrist, Tip of the right thumb, Forefinger, Middle finger, Ring finger, Little finger, Back to the wrist, Elbow, Shoulder, Space between the collarbones, Take awareness to the left shoulder, The left elbow, The left wrist, Tip of the left thumb, Forefinger, Middle finger, Ring finger, Little finger, Wrist, Elbow, Shoulder, Space between the collarbones, Take awareness into the body, Bring awareness to a point in the middle of the chest, Between the back of the breastbone and the bottom of the back, Deep inside the body, Imagine a point here now, Imagine this as a point of light, Let your awareness travel down through the inside of the body, Deep into the low belly, Imagine another point of light, Lowest part of your abdomen, Bring awareness now to the right hip, The right knee, Ankle, Heel, Sole of foot, Top of foot, All the toes of the right foot, The ankle, The knee, The hip, And back into that point deep inside the body in the low belly, Take awareness now to the left hip, The left knee, Ankle, Heel, Sole of foot, Top of foot, All the toes of the left foot, The ankle, The knee, The hip, Back to the point in the low belly, Bring your awareness back up through the body to the point in the centre of the chest, Imagine this point, However it works for you, As a point of light deep in the centre of the chest and the heart space, Imagine another point now outside the body, Just above the crown of the head, I'm going to slowly practise a form of breathing, Imagine that your breath begins at the point just above the crown of your head, And as you inhale, You inhale from that point through the crown of your head down into the point in the centre of your chest, And you pause there a moment, And then when you're ready to exhale, You exhale from the point in the middle of your chest, Upwards through the crown of the head, Out to the point above your head, And you pause, And you breathe like this, Inhaling from the point above the crown of the head down to the one inside your chest, Exhaling from the point in your chest up to the one, To the point above the crown of your head, And if it's possible, Allow little pauses between the phases of the breath, So when you've inhaled down to the point in the heart space, Just pause there for a moment, Wait before the inhale, Before the exhale arrives, And when you get to the point outside the head, Small wait before the next inhale arrives, Release this breathing now, And stare into the space in front of your closed eyes, Darkness in front of your closed eyes, Just let your awareness settle there for a short while, Noticing its open nature, Maybe looking to see if you can see an end point, We'll end with a short visualisation, So I invite you to think of a place anywhere in the world where you feel calm, At peace, Happy, A place you love to be, It might even be an imaginary place if you want, And it can be anywhere from tucked up in your bed to sitting on top of a favourite mountain, But take a few moments now to bring to mind any place in the world, Or indeed in an imaginary world, Where you can feel safe, Calm, At ease, See if you can see it, See if you can bring to mind any smells or flavours, Sensations, See if you can bring to mind the feeling of peace that you feel in this place, And imagine yourself sitting down in this place, Closing your eyes and meditating in this place, Just quietly sitting there, Feeling the energy of this place as you let your mind soften and relax, Let's come back now to the sensations of breath in your body, Lying here on your mat, Be slowly prepared to bring the practice of yoga nidra to an end, Just return to feeling the breath, If you set a sankalpa earlier in the practice, Now is the time to repeat it to yourself three times, Same sankalpa you set at the beginning, Just repeating it three times again, And then slowly allowing your breath to become more audible, Maybe taking a couple of bigger breaths, Maybe a couple of sighs, Just bringing the breath back more noticeably, More strongly, Letting your awareness open up to sound, Noticing any sounds in your environment, And then slowly bringing some movement back into your body, Wriggling your toes, Your fingers, Or anything bigger that comes to you, Stretching, Any movements at all that feel instinctive, Just bring some movement back into your body now, Gently opening your eyes, Letting the light back in, And this brings us to the end of our practice of yoga nidra.