30-Minute Yoga Nidra ~ Loving Your Body

Welcome,

I'm Jocelyn.

This is a yoga nidra to connect with your body.

I originally was recording this yoga nidra for people who are grieving,

And that is because when we're going through grief and we're traveling through grief,

It's so important to honor our body,

Not only for self-care,

But also for clarity in our feelings,

To be able to connect to our higher self and our soul,

And to hear the very quiet whispers of impulse as we grieve.

So welcome.

If you could find yourself in a comfortable place,

Either laying back or sitting back,

Just allowing yourself to settle into your body,

Letting your bones just rest,

Letting your tissues and your muscles settle in,

Allowing your heartbeat to gently slow down,

And finding yourself any support that you need,

Maybe a pillow,

Blanket,

Eye pillow,

Or anything you need to bring comfort to yourself,

To begin to listen to your body as it asks for support.

So you might start by laying down and do a quick body scan,

Just allowing your awareness to run all over your body to see if there's any piece of your body that's holding on that you could support with a rolled towel or a pillow.

And then giving your body that support,

Allowing your body to feel your support,

Building that trust with your body.

And when you find yourself in a nice,

Comfortable,

Effortless,

Supported place,

Either on the ground or in a bed or in a chair,

I invite you to close your eyes and allow your awareness to settle in your bones,

In that ancient part of ourselves,

And just feel whatever rhythm or cadence is present in your body.

It might be your breath.

You might feel your blood pulsing.

You might feel a little bit of the wiggles coming out.

And then just bring your awareness to your heart center,

The center of your chest.

Just a gentle invitation to let go,

To relax,

To sink back into its support.

And bring your awareness to your shoulders with a gentle invitation to sink back and down into the support beneath them.

And bring your awareness to the back of your head,

Allowing the back of your head to melt into the support beneath it,

Sinking back.

And bringing your awareness to your hips,

Just allowing them to sink back and down into the support beneath them.

And just now bringing the awareness to each inhale and each exhale in and out of your body,

Just noticing each inhalation.

You might notice the temperature of air.

You might notice the flow of air.

In and out each exhalation.

You might notice how your chest rises and falls or your belly rises and falls.

You might notice how your ribs,

Your back ribs,

Expand a bit and contract.

Beginning to breathe in through your nose as you inhale and as you exhale,

Blowing the air out through your lips.

And you can imagine as you inhale that you're pulling up all of the stuff in your body that you no longer need.

And as you exhale,

You're blowing it out of your body.

So as you inhale through the nose,

You're pulling up all the stuff you don't need that no longer serves you.

And as you exhale,

You're blowing it out through your lips.

And as you inhale,

Inhaling with the awareness on all of the things you no longer need,

Known or unknown.

And as you exhale,

You're blowing it out through your lips.

Inhaling through your nose.

Exhaling through your mouth,

Blowing it out through your lips.

As you inhale,

It's like gathering all that no longer serves you,

Known or unknown.

And as you blow it out,

You're releasing it.

Inhaling through your nose.

And blowing it out through your lips.

Exhaling through your mouth.

Inhaling through your nose.

Pulling up everything that's no longer needed and then blowing it out gently through your lips.

And as you're continuing this breath,

You might begin to notice that you're able to sink,

Release,

And let go deeper into the supports beneath you.

Inhaling through your nose.

And blowing out everything that doesn't serve you.

And just releasing that.

I'm going to take you on a short rotation of consciousness,

A journey through the body with your awareness.

You might imagine as I bring your attention and awareness on this journey across the body that each place your awareness is drawn,

There's a warm breeze of unconditional love that brushes past each place.

Top of the head,

A gentle breeze that brushes past unconditional love.

Back of the head.

Back of the neck.

Center of the neck.

Center of the neck.

Chin.

Lips.

Tip of the tongue.

Back of the tongue.

Roof of the mouth.

Tip of the nose.

Right cheek.

A gentle breeze of unconditional love on the right cheek.

Left cheek.

Right eye.

Left eye.

Right eyebrow.

Left eyebrow.

Right temple.

Left temple.

Right ear.

A gentle breeze of unconditional love.

Left ear.

The space between the ears.

A gentle breeze of unconditional love.

The center of the throat.

Center of the chest.

A gentle breeze of unconditional love on the center of the chest.

Right shoulder.

Elbow.

Right arm.

Wrist.

Palm.

All five fingers of the right hand.

A gentle breeze that brushes past the left shoulder.

Elbow.

Wrist.

Palm of the hand.

All five fingers of the left hand.

A gentle breeze that brushes past the ribs.

Belly.

Pelvic bowl.

Right hip.

Knee.

Ankle.

Bottom of the foot.

All five toes of the right foot.

Left hip.

A gentle breeze that brushes past knee,

Ankle,

Bottom of the left foot,

And all five toes.

A gentle breeze that brushes past the right side of the body.

The warm breeze of unconditional love that brushes past the left side of the body.

The whole body.

The whole body.

A gentle breeze of unconditional love that brushes past the whole body.

And you can release that.

I invite you to bring your awareness to your breath.

And just like we traveled with a breeze of unconditional love touching different places of the body,

Might you imagine as you inhale,

You're inhaling into the heart from that same ocean of unconditional love.

From that same breeze of unconditional love inhaling it in.

Into the heart.

And exhaling it out from the heart.

In your own time.

Allowing your body to breathe you.

Not trying to control it.

And yet,

Sipping from the unconditional love that's all around you into your heart and out from your heart in your own time.

In your own space and time.

Sipping from the air all around you that's filled with unconditional love.

Might you just imagine that as you inhale and exhale that unconditional love expands within your body with each inhale and it contracts with each exhale.

Inhaling that unconditional love into your heart and expanding across your chest.

And on the exhale coming back from the outer edges of the chest into the center of the heart.

And each breath you take it expands further.

All around your body.

All around your body.

And each exhale it comes all the way back to that center of the heart.

Just imagining each intake of unconditional love spreads wide across your body.

And each exhale brings it back in right to the center of the heart.

In your own time.

Might you bring your awareness to places in your body that you love.

Even if it's a tiny place.

Or a birthmark.

Or if it's large swaths of your body.

Might you bring your awareness to all the places in your body that you love.

It might be parts of your body that do things that are amazing.

Or it might be how they look or feel.

They might be parts of the body internal or external.

But bringing your awareness to all the places in your body that you love.

And might you now bring your awareness to all the parts of your body that you do not hold that same love for.

They might be parts of your body that you judge or dislike.

They might be parts of the body you say you hate.

They might not feel good.

They might not do things the way you want them done.

Can you bring your awareness to the parts of your body that you don't love?

The parts that have been hard on you.

The parts that have been stubborn.

The parts that ache.

Bring your awareness,

Invite your awareness to these places in your body.

And might you bring your awareness now back to the places that you love.

And it is okay if you have more places that you don't love than you do love.

Or vice versa.

Bringing your attention now to the places that you love.

Maybe it's a place in your body where you store memories.

Maybe it's the womb that made your children possible.

Bring your awareness to the places that you love.

And might you bring your attention back to the places in your body that you do not feel love for.

They might be a struggle for you or they might be stubborn.

They might be in pain.

These places might not look like you expect them to look.

They might be internal or external.

Bring your awareness to all the places in your body that you do not love.

And might you now bring your awareness to both places in your body.

Both the places that you love and the places that you might not love.

Can you bring your awareness to both of these places simultaneously.

At the same time.

Releasing that.

A child spinning barefoot in the grass until they're dizzy.

A child crawling for the first time.

A child walking for the first time.

Wrapping your arms around someone in a bare hug.

Holding hands.

A shower with the perfect temperature.

A morning stretch.

A soft touch.

A child eating a ripe peach in an orchard.

Holding a newborn child.

Catching lightning bugs in your palm as the sun sets.

A hand over your heart.

I'm going to stay quiet for a minute.

Gently deepening your breath.

Allowing your belly and your ribs to gently waken to this deepened breath.

Inhaling through your nose.

Exhaling through your nose.

Inhaling through your nose.

Exhaling through your nose.

Inhaling through your nose.

Exhaling through your nose.

Inhaling through your nose.

Opening your mouth and exhaling through your mouth.

Feeling more of the movement in your ribs and your chest and your belly.

Inhaling.

Opening your mouth and exhaling.

Feeling the sensations of breath in your body.

Opening your mouth and exhaling.

Releasing.

Wiggle your toes and fingers as you begin to waken up the body.

Rolling your shoulders and head side to side.

Stretch one leg at a time or do a full body stretch.

Sit up or lay down.

Bringing your hand to your heart or belly.

Giving your body a bit of gratitude.

Forgiving yourself for any feelings you have about your body.

You are human after all and we are in this human experiment.

Thank you so much for joining me on this yoga nidra.

I'm so honored to offer these meditations to you.

This one was created for those grieving because as we go through grief we begin to mistrust our body or distrust our body.

We don't like the cues it's giving us or it's too hard to go into the body so we begin to shut it down.

When I was first dealing with the grief of my parents I completely dissociated and have no memories.

For five months I completely left my body.

The first thing I did when I started moving into my grief was to begin breathing,

Meditating,

Speaking to my body,

Building trust with it again so that I could be safe when I got curious with my grief and how it might transform my life.

So this actually is the 30 year interval of grief for me as my parents died in 2021 and I am recording a bunch of different yoga nidras and meditations.

I'm working on a course on grief so I'm so honored to be doing this.

It's quite amazing.

Thank you for hanging in there with me and I hope to see you again.

Namaste.