Hello,
This is Pavlina and welcome to Yoga Nidra,
Designed to ease you into rest by creating an inner sense of safety.
To begin,
Take your time to prepare your space.
That means finding a comfortable space where you are able to either lie down,
Maybe sit up with support for your back.
Surround yourself with all the comfy pillows,
Cushions,
Blankets.
Maybe putting on some cozy layers and warm socks so that you are warm enough throughout the practice.
Open or close the doors or windows and slowly start settling down.
You might even want to take time to look around,
Unhurried.
Allowing for your eyes to wander and take in the space you are in.
Letting the eyes look behind you,
Above,
Below.
Noticing what you notice,
Even if you are in a space that feels very familiar to you.
Giving your system the information that there is no immediate danger around.
Once you feel like you have scanned your environment,
You might be ready to settle down.
Either lying down on your back or perhaps on your side.
Or maybe even sitting up propped against some support in any way that feels like you might be able to unhold your physical body.
What do you need to do so that you can be that 1% more comfortable?
And here is now an option for you to close your eyes,
Starting to invite the attention inwards.
Knowing that you always have the choice to open and reconnect with the outer environment.
If closing your eyes makes you feel a certain level of intensity,
Then allow them to be softly open.
Unfocused.
Invite your attention to remain present and softly aware throughout the practice.
There is no need to achieve anything,
To strain or focus.
You can't do this wrong.
Remember that my guidance is a simple invitation.
You may always find a way to settle in your own experience and then return back to my voice whenever you're ready.
If you feel settled in relative stillness,
You might want to imagine yourself surrounded by a circle of protection.
That circle could take any shape,
Have any colour.
It could be a circle of light,
A circle made out of people,
Your guardians holding hands or a simple line.
That circle surrounds your entire body,
Resting in whichever shape you find yourself.
And know that this circle is magical in a way that it doesn't allow any harm to enter your space.
You're safe right here,
Right now.
In your circle of protection.
Let's welcome conscious breath.
Noticing each inhalation and exhalation coming and leaving your body.
No need to strain or focus too hard.
Simply observing this natural process happening.
And you might want to join me by taking the next couple of breaths a little bit more intentionally.
Feeling the inhalation enter through your nose and travel all the way to your lower belly and the sides of your lower ribs.
And each exhalation coming out slow,
Long through the nose.
Each exhale a little bit longer than the one before.
And then the next breath,
Let's inhale together through the nose,
Feeling the belly and the lower parts of your chest expanding.
And then exhaling through the mouth,
Nice and slow.
One more like that,
Inhaling through the nose.
Exhaling through the mouth.
And the next one,
Inhaling through the nose.
And then as you exhale through the mouth,
Allow for some sound,
Maybe a sigh to escape as well.
Ahhhh.
You might want to take a couple more.
Or simply closing your mouth and settling to the natural rocking motion of your inhale and exhale.
Knowing that each exhalation is almost untying any knots in your body and allowing for you to be able to unhold a little bit more.
Can you bring your awareness,
Your presence to your heart center now?
You might rest there in the presence of your heart or perhaps there is a sankalpa,
Your heart's deepest desire or your heart's vow that comes to you in a shape of words maybe.
You may simply be present in your heart,
That's more than enough.
Or you might want to join me by repeating this simple sankalpa.
I am safe,
Held and supported.
We might repeat it together silently three times inside your heart.
I am safe,
Held and supported.
Letting these words or this simple resting in your heart to soften and dissipate,
Knowing that this presence is infusing your practice with deep meaning.
We will now allow for the awareness to rotate through your physical body.
Your body is remaining still if possible and comfortable.
And it's your mind that travels from one body part to another.
And as you land in the different parts of your physical body,
You might want to invite a sense of glowing ball of warm loving light.
Lighting up in each of the parts of your body.
To begin,
Let's take a swallow,
Mindful swallow to travel inwards into the body.
And now bringing your awareness to the tip of your tongue.
A glowing ball of awareness on the tip of your tongue.
The tip of your tongue.
The root of your tongue.
Your lips.
The tip of your nose.
Space between your eyebrows.
The top of your head.
Your right eye,
A glowing ball of awareness.
Your right ear,
Open and listening,
A radiating ball of awareness.
Your left eye,
Glowing ball of awareness.
Your left ear,
Open,
Listening,
A radiating ball of loving awareness.
Pit of your throat,
The space between your collarbones.
Your right shoulder.
Right elbow.
Wrist.
The palm of your hand.
The palm of your hand with a glowing ball of awareness.
And all five fingers on the right hand,
The tips of the fingers with little balls of glowing awareness.
The first finger,
Second,
Third,
Fourth and fifth.
Wrist.
Elbow.
Shoulder.
Pit of your throat.
Glowing ball of awareness in your left shoulder.
Left elbow.
Wrist.
Palm of your hand and the five fingers.
Tips of each of the fingers with a glowing ball of awareness.
First,
Second,
Third,
Fourth and fifth.
Left wrist.
Wrist.
Elbow.
Shoulder.
Pit of your throat.
Behind your breastbone.
Right side of your torso,
Little balls of glowing awareness.
The left side of your torso.
Belly button.
The pubic bones.
Right hip.
Right knee.
Ankle.
And the right foot with five toes,
Each of them a little glowing ball of awareness.
First toe,
Second,
Third,
Fourth and the fifth.
Ankle.
Knee.
Hip.
The pubic bones.
Left hip.
Left knee.
Ankle.
Foot and the five little toes in turn,
Each glowing with awareness.
The first toe,
Second,
Third,
Fourth and fifth.
Left ankle.
Knee.
Hip.
Pubic bones.
Back to your heart centre.
Pit of your throat.
Space between your eyebrows.
Top of your head.
Pit of your throat.
Your heart centre.
Your entire body.
Glowing.
Saturated with your loving awareness.
The left side of your body.
And the right side of your body.
The front of your body and the back of your body.
Your entire body.
Glowing with your loving awareness.
Can you invite each natural inhalation without trying to control or change it?
Simply notice how each inhalation brings a sense of expansion.
Radiation outwards,
In space,
In all directions.
And each exhalation brings a certain return.
Certain return back to centre.
Stay with this radiating,
Glowing expansion with each inhalation.
And then this return,
Almost like the glowing was a little bit dimmed with each exhalation.
This pulsation.
Inhalation brings expansion and radiation.
Exhalation.
Exhale dims and returns back to centre.
Can you now feel both at the same time?
The expansion and the inner centre.
Without overthinking,
Feeling both simultaneously present in your body.
And then inviting a sense of heaviness.
Feeling your bones being pulled by gravity towards the centre of the earth.
This heavy release,
Resting.
This release,
This unholding of your physical body.
Giving in to gravity.
And now can you feel lightness,
Almost floating.
This feather-like sensation in your body.
Could be present in the body as a whole,
Or in a specific place.
This spacious lightness.
Returning back to the grounded heaviness.
And then the spacious lightness.
Can you now feel both the heaviness and the weightlessness simultaneously?
Without trying too hard.
Softening into the two qualities at the same time.
And then releasing any effort at all.
Allowing for yourself to simply be present here.
In your circle of protection.
Exactly as you are.
Nothing in particular to do.
Knowing that welcoming your experience as it is,
Is the practice.
And in this state of receptive awareness,
You may want to return back to your heart.
Reconnecting with your heart's desire.
Whichever shape it might take for you.
Perhaps repeating with me,
I am safe,
Held and supported.
And feeling the energy of these words vibrate in every cell in your body.
And starting to welcome back your physical body by noticing any touch points between the support beneath you and the physical body.
So maybe your buttocks touching the pillow.
Maybe your clothing touching your body.
Starting to deepen each inhale.
And lengthen each exhale.
Allowing for the breath to travel all the way into your fingers and toes.
And here's an invitation to gently start waking up your fingers by touching the thumb to the index finger,
The middle finger,
The ring finger and the pinky finger in turn.
Gently rubbing the finger pads against each other.
You might want to give yourself a nice big full body stretch.
Or maybe rubbing the palms against each other,
Creating a little bit of heat.
And placing the warm hands onto your eyes that might be still closed maybe.
Opening your ears towards the sounds of the environment that you're in and to this recording.
Then for a moment,
Allowing for your eyes to open and look through in between your fingers,
Welcoming the world outside.
And then closing them down for a moment to return back to your inner felt sense.
And then opening the eyes again.
Maybe starting to look around a little bit more.
One more time,
Closing the eyes,
Returning inwards to the felt sense inside.
And now finally open your eyes nice and wide,
Taking the space in.
Maybe maintaining both the inner and outer awareness.
Knowing that whatever sense of spaciousness and safety you might have cultivated is always present for you.
And remember that this is a practice that you can return to on a regular basis to continue building this sense of inner comfort.
So that you may welcome spacious rest.
Thank you for practicing with me and I hope to see you soon again.
