Yoga Nidra For Complete Relaxation

Welcome to your yoga nidra practice.

This practice of deep relaxation can be used as a reset to recharge during your day or as a way to unwind at the end of the day or prepare yourself for a good night's sleep.

All you will need for the practice is anything that will allow you to be comfortably lying down.

So at this stage you may want to grab an extra layer of clothes or socks,

Some pillows,

Blankets,

Something to cover your eyes.

And then as you set yourself up,

Also allow yourself to eventually dim the lights around you,

Preparing yourself for practice.

So giving yourself all the time you need to really set up a comfortable savasana.

If you do use pillows or bolsters under your knees,

Make sure that your heels are still resting on the ground.

Making the last adjustments that you need in your posture,

Lying down on the floor,

Letting the heels drop down,

Your toes naturally open out to the sides.

Letting your buttocks rest on the floor.

And you can choose to have your arms by your sides,

Turning your palms up towards the ceiling.

Or you may choose to have your hands rest on your lower belly,

Whichever feels intuitively right for you.

Taking a moment to adjust everything in the posture,

Your body,

The position,

Maybe your clothing,

Your blanket,

Anything that needs adjusting so that you can be completely comfortable.

In our yoga needle practice,

The aim is to allow the body to be completely still,

Avoiding any movement.

If you haven't already,

Allow for the eyes to close.

And same thing here,

Just keep your eyes closed until the end of the practice.

Once you feel settled,

Take a deep breath through the nose,

Filling up the belly,

The chest.

As you breathe out,

Just feeling the body land a little bit more on the ground.

Once again,

Take a deep breath in through the nose,

Fill up the belly,

The chest.

And with the exhale,

Just feeling the cares,

The worries of your day,

Of your week just flow out of you.

Do this one more time.

Breathe into your belly,

Your chest.

Hold it for a moment.

And then release in all out.

Let your breath settle down to your natural breathing.

And in this practice,

You're going to develop that feeling of relaxation in the body.

So it doesn't require any movement.

It also doesn't require you trying to relax.

You can simply let yourself be guided.

It's a little bit like this feeling you have before sleep,

When relaxation becomes deep.

Except in our yoga needle practice,

You want to keep yourself completely awake.

And that's an important part of the practice.

You can make that resolution to yourself.

I will not sleep.

I will remain awake throughout the practice.

I will not sleep.

During yoga nidra,

You're functioning on the levels of hearing and awareness.

The only important thing is just to follow the voice.

There's no need to think or analyze.

Just follow the voice with awareness and attention and feeling.

And if thoughts arise,

Just let them flow away.

Come back to the practice.

Allowing yourself to become calm and steady.

Bringing that intention of effortlessness.

Now bringing that feeling of inner relaxation to the whole body.

Feeling your whole body on the ground.

Becoming aware of that importance of complete stillness.

Become aware of the body on the floor from the top of your head to the tips of your toes.

Complete stillness and complete awareness of the whole body.

Complete stillness and awareness of the whole body.

The whole body.

Become aware of the fact that you are going to practice yoga nidra.

You can repeat mentally to yourself.

I am aware.

I'm awake.

I'm going to practice yoga nidra.

I am aware and awake.

I'm going to practice yoga nidra.

And our practice of yoga nidra begins now.

In this moment,

You can make your resolve.

What we call your sankalpa,

Your intention.

And this can be a short,

Simple,

Positive statement that you set in the present time in a simple language.

And you can allow it to arise naturally without needing to think.

Once you have that intention,

That sankalpa,

Repeat it three times in your mind with awareness,

Feeling and emphasis.

And knowing that this resolve,

This intention that you make during your yoga nidra practice is bound to come true in your life.

Rotation of our consciousness.

Rotating our awareness by taking a journey through the different parts of the body.

Again,

There is no need to move.

Simply follow the voice and repeat the part of the body in your mind as you hear it.

While simultaneously also becoming aware of that part of the body.

Keeping yourself alert and awake without needing to concentrate too much.

Bringing your attention to your right hand.

Feeling your right hand.

All the fingers of your right hand.

The palm of your hand.

The top of your hand.

Your right wrist.

Your forearm.

Your right elbow.

Upper arm.

Your right armpit.

Your right shoulder.

Feeling your whole right arm.

Heavy and relaxed on the ground.

Becoming aware of your left hand.

Your whole left hand.

All the fingers of your left hand.

Your palm.

The top of your hand.

Your left wrist.

Forearm.

Your left elbow.

Upper arm.

Your armpit.

Your left shoulder.

Feeling your whole left arm heavy and relaxed on the ground.

Becoming aware of your right hip.

Your right buttocks.

Your right thigh.

Your knee.

Your right lower leg.

Your right ankle.

Your right heel.

Your right foot.

And all the toes of your right foot.

Feeling your whole right leg heavy and relaxed on the ground.

Becoming aware of your left hip.

Your left buttocks.

Left thigh.

Your knee.

Lower leg.

Your left ankle.

Your heel.

The left foot.

All the toes of your left foot.

Feeling your whole left leg heavy and relaxed on the ground.

Becoming aware of your lower back.

Your middle back.

Your upper back.

The left shoulder blade.

The right shoulder blade.

Feeling your whole back heavy and relaxed on the ground.

Keeping yourself alert and awake.

Become aware of your belly.

The right side of your waist.

The left side of your waist.

Become aware of your chest.

Feeling the whole front of your chest,

Your upper body,

Relaxed.

Become aware of your throat.

Your chin.

Your right cheek.

Your left cheek.

Your lower lip.

Your upper lip.

Your nose.

Your right eye.

Your left eye.

Your forehead.

Your temples.

Your right ear.

Your left ear.

The crown of your head.

The back of your head.

Your neck.

Feeling your whole head heavy and relaxed on the ground.

Feeling your whole body on the ground.

Your whole body.

Keeping yourself alert and awake.

Staying aware.

Not sleeping.

No movement.

Feeling the whole body lying on the floor.

See your body lying perfectly still on the floor in this room.

Visualizing this image in your mind.

Your whole body relaxed on the ground.

Now become aware of your breath.

Feel the flow of your breath.

In and out of the body.

There's no need for you to change the rhythm.

Just keeping the breathing natural.

Automatic.

There's no need to do it.

No effort.

Just keeping that simple,

Innocent awareness of your breath.

Every inhale.

Every exhale breath.

Every inhale.

Every exhale breath.

Keeping that awareness on the breathing,

Become aware of the movements in the belly.

Notice the natural rising and falling of the belly with every breath.

With every inhale expanding.

Every exhale releasing.

Notice the synchronicity of this movement with the breath.

Keeping yourself alert and awake.

And bringing your awareness from the belly up into the chest.

Noticing the movement in the chest as you're breathing in and out.

Notice the rising and falling of the chest with every inhale and every exhale.

Expanding with every inhale.

Releasing with every exhale.

Become aware of the synchronicity of the movement in your chest and the rhythm of your breath.

Now moving the awareness from the chest up into your throat.

Become aware of how the breath is moving in and out of the throat.

Every inhale.

Every exhale breath.

Moving your awareness from the throat up into the nostrils.

Become aware of the breath moving in and out of the nostrils.

Notice the sensations around the nostrils,

The temperature.

Every inhale.

Every exhale breath.

Every inhale.

Every exhale breath.

Keeping yourself alert and awake.

Feeling the whole body on the ground.

And become aware of the sensation of heaviness in the body.

The sensation of heaviness.

The heaviness.

And then become aware of the sensation of lightness in the body.

The sensation of lightness.

Feeling the sensation of cold in the body.

The sensation of cold.

And feeling the sensation of warmth in the body.

The sensation of warmth.

The warmth.

Becoming aware of the sensation of pain in the body.

The sensation of pain.

The pain.

And then feeling into the sensation of pleasure in the body.

The sensation of pleasure.

Feeling the whole right side of your body.

The whole right side.

The right side.

And feeling the whole left side of the body.

The whole left side.

The left side.

Keeping yourself alert and awake.

Present in the practice.

We're now coming to visualization.

A number of different things will be named.

And you can try to develop a vision of them on all levels.

Feeling,

Awareness,

Emotion,

Imagination.

As best as you can.

A burning candle.

Burning candle.

A burning candle.

Endless desert.

Endless desert.

Endless desert.

An Egyptian pyramid.

An Egyptian pyramid.

Egyptian pyramid.

Torrential rain.

Torrential rain.

Torrential rain.

Snow-capped mountains.

Snow-capped mountains.

Snow-capped mountains.

A Greek temple at sunrise.

A Greek temple at sunrise.

A Greek temple at sunrise.

Birds flying across a sunset.

Birds flying across a sunset.

Birds flying across a sunset.

Across above a church.

Across above a church.

Across above a church.

Red clouds drifting.

Red clouds drifting.

Red clouds drifting.

Stars at night.

Stars at night.

Stars at night.

The full moon.

A smiling Buddha.

Wind from the sea.

Wind from the sea.

Wind from the sea.

Waves breaking on a deserted beach.

Waves breaking on a deserted beach.

The restless sea.

Eternal restless sea.

Eternal restless sea.

Waves breaking on a deserted beach.

Keeping yourself alert and awake.

Now is the time to repeat your resolve.

Your sand kalpa.

Your intention.

Repeating the same resolve that you made at the beginning of the practice.

And once again repeating it three times in your mind.

With full awareness,

Feeling and emphasis.

Three times.

Relaxing all your efforts.

Drawing your mind outwards and becoming aware of your breathing again.

Become aware of your natural breathing.

Become aware of the whole body.

Aware of your natural breathing.

Feeling your body lying totally relaxed on the floor.

Breathing quietly and slowly.

Become aware of your body from the top of your head to the tips of your toes.

Become aware of the floor under you.

The position of your body lying on the floor.

Become aware of the space around you.

Visualize the room around you.

Become aware of where your body is in the space.

Realize how your body is on your mat.

Softly awakening your body.

Bring your soft movements into your toes.

Into your fingers.

Maybe rolling the head gently from side to side.

That feels good you can send your arms over your head for a soft stretch.

And then in your own time drawing the knees towards your chest and rolling over onto one side whichever side feels intuitive for you taking your time and staying there for a couple of breaths.

Eventually in your own time slowly bring yourself back up keeping your eyes closed if you can as you settle back into a comfortable seat.

Your practice of yoga knee dry is now complete.

We can take a moment to observe once again how you feel in the body.

Noticing what is the state of you in this moment.

The sensations in your body.

The state of your mind.

The state of your heart.

The state of your breath.

And here maybe observing what is the first word that comes to mind.

If I ask you what is the state of you right now?

How do you feel?

Just staying with that word for a moment before letting it go.

You may join your hands together at your heart center.

Softly bowing your head down towards your hands in a moment of gratitude for the practice for what it brings to you what it means to you.

And a moment of gratitude for yourself for showing up for taking a moment for yourself.

Thank you very much for sharing the practice with me today.

Namaste.