Yoga Nidra For Connecting To Your Knowing Place

Hello and welcome.

My name is Brienne Elise Miller and I am honored to share this practice with you.

The inspiration for this yoga nidra comes from a poem I will be reading you by Skylar Brown called The Knowing Place.

We have been taught to seek everything outside of ourselves,

Love,

Worth,

Belonging,

Purpose,

Safety,

Certainty.

And in this practice,

We'll reconnect,

Remember and return to the place of truth that lives inside of us,

Our knowing place.

Take a moment to create a comfortable space for your practice.

Lying down,

Supporting yourself with pillows,

Grabbing a snugly blanket.

Use an eye mask or maybe even just the sleeve of a shirt to cover your eyes.

And as you sink it in,

Allow the contents of your day to melt and drip down the sides of your body like honey through the earth below you.

And this golden warm honey pools around you,

Expanding and creating a warm golden ocean where you feel held and supported as you float.

Become conscious of your breath and notice how naturally it grows slower and longer with every inhale and every exhale.

And as you continue breathing,

Notice how your breath feels at your heart center.

With every inhale,

Your heart expands,

Opening like a delicate rose.

The petals of your rose,

Your beautiful rose heart continue to open slowly,

Gently with every single breath.

As you allow your body to soften into this breath,

Continue expanding from your heart center until your energy expands beyond your body.

It expands beyond your room.

It expands beyond the building that you're in.

And it goes beyond your neighborhood.

And it expands to cover the entire earth.

Breathe,

Expand and feel into the sense of infinite energy and wholeness.

Continue breathing as I read for you the poem that inspired this very practice.

The Knowing Place written by Skylar Brown.

Most women spend a lifetime looking outside themselves for certainty and never find it.

They're looking in the wrong place.

Inside every woman,

There is a knowing place.

No one has access to this precious garden but her,

Not her mother,

Not her lover,

Not her children.

The gates only open to her touch with her key at her command.

Inside this fortress,

Which rumor has it lies in the vicinity of the heart and hasn't much to do with the head,

She finds answers to all life's questions.

Inside,

All mysteries are revealed,

Confusions calmed,

Anxieties alleviated.

Because this place contains all the medicine she needs to see her through the seasons of her life,

To carry her across the turbulent waters.

When a woman is in her knowing place,

Nothing can shake her certainty and conviction.

Data point,

No well-reasoned argument.

She cannot be swayed when she is safe inside this sacred spot because she is standing on solid ground.

What makes sense is of no interest.

There is no figuring it out.

Here,

She is in her knowing.

When a woman is in her knowing place,

She can whisper her worries into the wind or throw her frustrations into the fire.

From this vantage point,

She sees the path clearly.

She hears a response to all of life's laments,

The why-me's,

The what-ifs,

And what-now's that plague her.

The answers come on the breeze and she must be very still to hear them.

She waits sometimes for hours,

Days,

Years,

Because time is irrelevant here and answers come when they have been earned or when they are needed most.

Mercy is here along with grace.

Sometimes there are visions.

She is shown the way by her own highest self and then re-emerges into the world rid of her overwhelmed and blocked vision,

Rid of self-pity and self-hatred.

Heaving sighs of relief and conviction,

She wipes her tears and lifts her head and moves ever onward and upward.

What's sad is that most women have forgotten the way to their knowing place.

Indeed,

Many women aren't even aware it exists.

We're all born with this gift,

But it is slowly taken away from us by the doubts and denials of others,

By a culture crippled by reason,

And a fear of all that makes a woman wild and magical creature.

Some intrepid seekers recover their knowing place before it is completely eroded.

And though it can be sad to encounter a once splendid place in a state of ruin or atrophy,

Take heart.

It can always be restored.

Sisters healing power is unleashed in the light of awareness.

Here is a secret,

Sisters.

Your pain is the gateway.

Stop numbing it,

For it is the source.

It is a lucky woman who is sent searching inside herself for this forgotten treasure.

No doctor,

No teacher,

No sage can tell a woman where to find it.

She must venture in on her own because all else outside has failed.

The motivation can be severe.

Heartbreak,

Grief,

Despair,

Pain.

Something about which others will say things like,

Oh,

I'm sorry,

And that's just awful.

But they don't understand that what she's been given in that lost love,

That last goodbye,

That diagnosis is a key.

The key to a world of knowing once again what she needs and how she wants to be cared for.

That's the key to healing and the alchemy that transforms suffering into pure light.

Because the knowing place composes even the gravest doubts,

It transforms this food into tolerance,

Resilience,

Forbearance,

And acceptance.

It transforms her from what others want her to be into what she has always known she is.

This is why a woman retreats when she is in pain,

Not to hide,

Not to unburden the world,

But to seek a place of solace and beauty inside where she knows how to heal and hold it all.

Breathing in,

Connecting to your heart center,

Generate the elevated emotion of gratitude.

Feel the gratitude and grace fill up your heart,

Your knowing place.

And from this space,

Filled with infinite gratitude and grace,

Plant the seed of your San Calpa.

A San Calpa is a truth that emerges from within,

From your knowing place.

It's a brief,

Powerful statement that uses positive language in the present tense.

If you don't yet have a San Calpa,

That's okay.

You can use an I am statement such as I am strong or I am magic,

Whatever works for you,

Or you can allow a resonant truth to emerge from your knowing place in this moment.

With the feeling of gratitude,

Plant the seed of your San Calpa by repeating it to yourself at least three times.

Imagining every cell of your body,

Finding resonance in this truth as it emanates throughout your entire being.

Allow your San Calpa to expand in and beyond your body into the universe.

The practice of yoga nidra begins now.

Return to that beautiful space of your heart and now travel up until you reach that spot up your throat,

Behind your sinuses,

That spot in the center of your head between your eyebrows and return to your heart.

Feel your right temple and return back to your heart.

Now feel your right cheek and return to your heart.

Feel your right shoulder and come back to your heart.

Feel the right side of your chest and return to your heart.

Feel your right upper thigh and return to your heart.

Now feel your right ankle and return back to your heart.

Feel your whole right side.

Feel the entirety of your right side.

And return back to the space of your heart.

Feel your left ankle and come back to your heart.

Your left upper thigh.

Return to your heart.

Feel the left side of your chest.

Back into your heart.

Your left shoulder.

And back into your heart.

Feel your left cheek.

And return to your heart.

Your left temple.

And return to your heart.

And now feel that space between your ears.

And come back to your heart.

Feel your entire left side.

Feel your whole left side.

And return to your heart.

Now ripple out and feel your entire body at once.

Feel your whole body.

And return back into your heart.

You've created this beautiful map of your body connecting all these dots.

And now I want you to feel into all of the space between these points.

Feel into all of the space between these dots.

Feel the 99.

9% of you that is the space between things.

We are now going to feel into each of your wisdom centers,

Continuing with and expanding on this idea of a knowing place residing inside of you.

Beginning with your root center located at the base of your pelvis.

Feel into this center,

Sensing the wisdom of safety.

The wisdom of belonging.

Of prosperity.

The wisdom of self-worth.

And a feeling of home.

Moving up the center of your body,

Feel into your sacral center located in the womb area just below your navel.

Here sense into the wisdom of your sacred sensuality.

The source of your creative life force.

Continue rising up your center channel and feel now into your solar plexus center located at the bottom of your ribcage.

Just hear the wisdom of brilliance and shining,

Of confidence and the seat of your power.

Continue rising until you reach your heart center,

Your knowing place.

Seeing here the wisdom of compassion,

Peace,

Love and grace.

Rise further and feel your throat center where your chest meets your neck.

Feeling and feeling into the wisdom of truth and self-expression,

Your pure voice.

Starting again until you reach your agna center,

Your third eye located just above your eyebrows.

And here we sense and feel into the wisdom of intuition,

Of perception and discernment.

And finally we rise until you reach your crown center which blossoms from the top of your head unfolding like a rose with thousands and thousands of petals.

Ever sense into the wisdom of unity,

Your connection to all consciousness.

Feel into the wholeness here as all of your wisdom centers including your knowing place open.

All of them align and your wisdom becomes one with the greater source of wisdom and consciousness.

Return now to the receptive space that is your beautiful,

Magical,

Knowing heart,

Your knowing place,

Your anchor for this practice.

Feel into uncertainty.

Where does uncertainty live?

How does uncertainty manifest mentally or emotionally?

Feel into all of the edges of uncertainty.

Now release uncertainty and return back to the supportive space of your heart following the same path that you've taken so many times in this practice.

And now feel into certainty.

What does certainty feel like?

Where does certainty live?

How does certainty manifest mentally?

How does it manifest emotionally?

Release certainty now and return to your heart space.

Slowly release uncertainty and certainty as you anchor into the space of your knowing heart.

Now feel doubt.

What does doubt feel like?

Where are the edges of doubt?

Where does doubt live?

Release doubt and return to the loving,

Supportive space of your heart.

And now feel trust.

What does trust feel like?

Find the shape of trust for you.

Where does trust live?

Release trust and return to your heart space.

Slowly release doubt and trust as you anchor into the space of your heart.

From the wisdom of your knowing place,

Return to a feeling of wholeness as you gently welcome in every part of yourself.

See yourself standing in a room.

This room is your knowing place.

And allow yourself to design the room and this space to support your unique wisdom.

Notice that there is a table in front of you.

And as you come closer,

You notice that there is a bowl of water sitting on the table.

You bend over and look into the bowl of water and images begin to appear on the surface.

A secret garden.

A gate.

A lock.

A key.

A clear path.

A solid stone among rushing waters.

A soaring eagle.

A new perspective.

A red rose.

A field,

A meadow of medicinal plants and flowers.

A four-leaf clover.

A chest filled with treasure.

A new adventure.

A golden light.

A wise woman.

A prayer.

An answer.

A knowing look.

And now you dive into the bowl.

You find yourself swimming and then floating inside of the warm space of your heart.

The space filled with compassion and forgiveness.

From this space of grace and wisdom,

Re-presence your sankalpa.

Allow it to arise from within,

Feeling it in every cell of your body.

And as you repeat your sankalpa at least three times,

It expands from your knowing place through every layer of your being.

Your truth continues to expand.

It finds a stunning resonance with the truth of the universe.

Inside of this harmony,

You sink into a sense of oneness and your wisdom taps into the wisdom of the infinite source.

Fall in love with this moment.

Fall in love with all of yourself and your wisdom and your truth.

Fall in love with the oneness of the universe.

Begin to gently come back into your heart space.

With gratitude,

Remember that your knowing place is available to you at any moment.

Feel into the back of your heart where your body meets the support of the earth.

Allowing small movements to come back into your fingers and toes as you begin to unfurl yourself.

And with your eyes still closed,

Sense the space and the sounds around you.

Represence yourself in this space,

In this time.

If you fell asleep,

That is exactly what you needed in this practice.

In your own time,

Roll over to the side that feels most supportive and take a moment to give birth to this new version of yourself.

The version of yourself that can connect to your knowing place at any time.

The practice of yoga nidra is now complete.

Continuing to keep your eyes closed,

Take your time to return to a seated position now.

And with your palms together in prayer position,

Right over that knowing place of your heart,

Represence your sankalpa or set an intention for the rest of your day or week.

May you find resonance and wisdom and peace and grace for the ever expanding source of wisdom,

The knowing place that is your beautiful heart.

Thank you for showing up for yourself and joining this practice.