Yedid Nefesh - A Jewish Morning Practice

A gentle Jewish themed morning meditation to attune the three soul levels of Nefesh, Ruach and Neshamah with your goals and gratitude. Nefesh is the more physical aspect, Ruach the emotional energetic aspect as well as connected to breath, and Neshamah is breath and self consciousness.

Transcript

Good morning to this Jewish morning meditation.

Please get into your meditation position either sitting in half lotus or sitting cross-legged on the ground or maybe sitting on a chair.

Just make sure that your seating bones are well grounded and your spine is straight.

Your shoulders relaxed,

Your jaw relaxed and feel your eyeballs relaxed and rounded in space gently covered by your eyelids.

First we connect to the aspect of soul called nephesh.

Give thanks to this high intelligence inside your body which has provided you since you were born and takes care of thousands of operations in each second without you having to consciously control them.

Give some gratitude to this infinite intelligence inside of you.

Feel the sensations on your skin if you close off all other senses.

How much of the world can you perceive only through your skin?

The skin in your hands,

On your arms,

In your face.

And now connect to your sense of hearing.

How much would you know about this world if you could only perceive it through your ears?

And now connect to your sense of smelling Imagine this would be the only sensation you would have.

What would you know about this world in this moment?

And now connect to the taste in your mouth.

And ask yourself who is the one in you that perceives?

Who is the one that feels?

Who is the one that hears?

Who is the one that smells?

And who is the one that tastes?

Scan your body.

Is your spine still straight?

Are your shoulders relaxed?

Is your jaw relaxed?

And are your eyes relaxed?

Now close off all other senses,

All outward senses,

And move with your attention inside.

Which emotion do you meet inside?

Who is this being that you meet when you look inside of you?

We connect now to the aspect of Ruach,

The Holy Spirit,

Which was blown from the Divine inside of us,

Giving us life.

Which every emotion is prevalent inside of you in this moment,

Deeply embrace it,

Knowing that you were created exactly the way you are for a purpose,

And everything you need for your future path you have right now in this moment.

Ruach is also connected to breath,

So breathe with me together.

We breathe in and out through the nose.

We breathe in and hold.

We breathe out.

We breathe out and hold.

We breathe in and hold.

We breathe out and hold.

We breathe in and hold.

We breathe out and hold.

We breathe in and hold.

We breathe out and hold.

We breathe in and hold.

And with the out-breath we return to our natural breathing,

Rescanning our body is our spine still straight,

Our shoulders relaxed,

The spine relaxed,

The jaw relaxed and the eyes relaxed.

Now we connect to the aspect of Neshamah,

To the very mind and conscious aspect of our soul.

See yourself,

Maybe not in your final life purpose,

But three years from today.

What would you like to have reached by then?

Which goal,

Private or professionally,

Are you pursuing in three years?

But try to not approach it too rationally.

Try to approach it emotionally.

How would you feel if you had already reached that goal?

In the moment you have reached that goal,

How would your inner monologue look like?

How would it make you feel?

And connect this with the why am I sentence.

Why am I so successful at building up my company?

Why am I so successful at founding a family?

Why am I so blessed that I can travel the world?

Find your very own why am I statement.

And now we connect to the energy of the day ahead of us.

See yourself going through this day,

How you commute to your workplace,

How you hold meetings,

How you have lunch,

All the way until you return home and connect it to wouldn't it be wonderful sentences.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if my drive to work would happen without any complications?

Wouldn't it be wonderful if I could have a common lunch with my team?

Wouldn't it be wonderful if I got home back in time to do my favorite activity?

Wouldn't it be wonderful if I fell asleep gently?

Find your very own wouldn't it be wonderful sentences for your day.

Rescan your body,

Is your spine straight,

Your shoulders relaxed,

Your jaw relaxed,

Your eyes relaxed?

And are you breathing deeply into the stomach?

Now think about someone or something in your life for whom or for what you're grateful for.

It can be a person,

It can be a talent you have.

What are you grateful for?

And now we build on that.

Think about one thing you're grateful to yourself for.

Maybe you did something for somebody else or for yourself,

Maybe even committing to this morning meditation.

What are you grateful to yourself for?

And now we bring this concrete image of gratitude into the abstract.

Say to yourself silently,

I am gratitude itself.

I am gratitude itself.

Keep this intention throughout your day.

In Judaism gratitude is connected to wisdom,

Connected to chochma.

That's why we give blessings over foods and drinks.

Maybe set the intention of going conscious through your day.

Take a few more deep breaths in and out.

I wish you a wonderful day,

Have a meaningful week,

And then a relaxing Shabbat.

Bye bye.

Reviews

What a kind and great man and his words deliver life made easy

I have followed you for years on insight timer and this has become one of my favorite morning meditations. Todah Rabah!

I could feel your integrity in what you do ~ thank you ~ what a blessing

Really enjoyed this Martin and will do it again. Piqued my interest to learn more on Jewish spiritual practices. Thank you for sharing this. Love you 💛

I really enjoyed it. I loved learning about the various levels of the soul. Fantastic last name; Schubert, like the famous musician.🌟
Thank you! Toda.

Cool. You don't have to be Jewish to enjoy this. I love the idea of being the embodiment of gratitude.

So beautiful! I am truly grateful for this offering and to you for providing it!🙏 להתראות

Wonderful, spiritual Jewish morning meditation. Thank you for the blessing of this experience.

As a former Christian, I miss the connection to the ancient faith and heritage of Judaism, but I simply cannot continue to remain connected to the hateful cult that modern American Christianity has become. Thank you for helping me to transcend this divide and rediscover Yahweh in a meaningful way. I will continue this practice to restore this vital relationship.

I am grateful for Martin and this wonddful meditation. I have added it to my daily morning meditations. It’s calming, powerful and filled with awareness and intention . Thanks so so much !!!!

Wonderful soothing start of the day. I feel blessed en grateful. Thxxx for this meditation 🙏🏽😇

You are taken to all the aspects within you that prepare you for that which is outside of your body. I am new to meditation. This title will be one of my “go to” meditations as I start my day.

Beautiful, focusing, grounding, and enriching. Thank you 🙏

What a beautiful meditation. It moved me to tears. Thank you so much for sharing this.

This was a very meaningful meditation. Thank you. I’ll use it again until my fear of flying in a small plane has dissipated. I’ll be island hopping in the Galapagos this spring!

This is a wonderful way to begin the day and a reminder to live in gratitude! Thank you.

Mr. Yedid ! This is so beautiful. When I was six years old I wanted to become Jewish because I was captivated by the Jewish family nearby ....... the love, the joy, the devotion to family and to humankind.

I am gratitude today ⭐️. Because of you ....... bless you.

In kindness,
Hope

Awesome way to try and restart my day, thanks so much!

I am so glad I did this meditation today. It was perfect. Thank you!

Wonderful meditation. Setting intentions and focusing on gratitude is just what I needed to ground myself and refresh my soul in the morning. Thank you.