Bring yourself into a comfortable place.
Could be sitting,
Could be laying down.
Someplace you can relax,
You won't be disturbed.
Someplace you feel safe.
As you settle in,
Notice where you are.
The surface that you're sitting or laying on,
The position of your body.
Maybe the sensations of the clothes or blanket you have on or the pillow or surface behind your head.
I'm going to check in on a bunch of different levels here.
So the physical body,
The room you're in,
Temperature,
Sounds you might hear.
Then moving inward to our mind.
Notice the thoughts that are coming and going in our mind.
Maybe like clouds passing in the sky.
Going back to your physical body,
Relax your shoulders,
Probably.
Relax your face.
If it already feels relaxed,
See if you can relax it 10% more.
Notice your jaw,
And if you're clenching that,
Relax it.
Let there be space between your teeth.
Now bring your attention to your breathing.
Is it shallow,
Deep?
As you focus on it,
Just bring a little more depth.
Take a few deep breaths.
With every exhale,
Letting your whole body soften.
Your whole system.
Again,
What's happening in your mind?
Are you getting carried away in a train of thought?
That's so normal.
Our primitive brain brings forward thoughts for us to focus on,
To stay safe.
And when it alerts us,
We can get carried down a train of thought.
Just bring yourself gently back in,
And try to be kind and compassionate with yourself.
It's totally normal to have thoughts.
And just stay in that awareness so you can bring yourself back to the practice.
Our thoughts are not all that's here.
There's something behind them or underneath them that's observing.
So we tune into our body,
Deepen our breathing.
Just notice those thoughts.
And then notice the deeper parts of the mind,
The stillness,
The knowing,
The presence or consciousness that is aware of all these things.
That's not a verbal mind with thoughts in the form of pictures or words.
There's something less tangible.
There's also our heart and our gut,
Which have their own intelligence,
Not just our brain.
Bring your attention to that knowing,
To your being.
That sense of what's there always and never changing.
So we're going to move into a yoga nidra practice,
Cave of the heart.
We're going to have awareness on all of those different levels.
Yoga nidra is a state of calm,
Alert and relaxed.
Similar to deep non-REM sleep,
But we aren't sleeping.
We are alert and yet totally relaxed.
So again,
Bring some awareness to your whole body.
And to your energy body,
Space the body is occupying,
The subtle body,
The energy.
Starting at the head,
Notice the eyebrow center,
The ajna chakra,
Just behind the forehead.
Maybe you picture a flame there in your ajna chakra.
Then bring your attention to your throat center,
The vishuddha chakra.
Maybe you picture a bright full moon shining there in your throat chakra.
Imagine for a moment that you're breathing in and out through that full moon shining through your throat chakra.
Now bring your attention down into the heart center,
The anahata chakra.
We're going to work for a moment with the breath from the heart chakra through the throat chakra up to the eyebrow center and back.
A smooth flow.
A smooth flow of awareness and breath from heart to throat to our third eye.
Let that awareness flow.
Bring your mind in from other times and places.
Focus on what's here.
Right now.
Let your breathing become quiet and smooth.
You might be noticing the flow of air,
The sensations in your nostrils.
But mostly you're focusing on this awareness flowing from the eyebrow center down through the heart.
And back.
If you get distracted at any point,
Just come back to this awareness.
You can start at the body and then notice your breath.
And then let your awareness flow in this channel again.
Eyebrow,
Throat,
Heart.
And smoothly turn and go back up through the heart to the eyebrow.
Again,
Your awareness is flowing in this channel between your eyebrow center,
Your throat center,
And your heart center.
Now let your attention come to rest in the heart center.
Imagine you're walking into a cave in the heart.
Whatever that cave looks like.
Bring yourself down to the size in your mind where you could walk into this cave in the middle of your heart.
This is a spacious,
Airy cave.
And in the center,
There's a brilliant white flame.
You see yourself walking towards that center,
Towards the flame.
And then in reverence,
You come to a seat before the flame in a comfortable position for meditation.
This bright white flame illuminates the whole space of the heart center.
The whole of the cave of the heart.
And as you sit there before it,
You rest in that light.
And it permeates every cell of your body.
If you don't have that visual,
Don't worry about it.
Just feel that light being absorbed into your cells.
And allow yourself to rest here in your heart center.
Noticing the stillness.
Let your mind rest awake and alert.
And any time you find yourself engaged in a train of thought,
Just notice.
Kindly and gently bring your attention to the center of your heart.
And any time you find yourself engaged in a train of thought,
Just notice.
Kindly and gently bring your attention back in to the cave of the heart.
Any thoughts in your mind can just move into the background.
Let your awareness flow.
Again,
Between the heart center,
The throat center,
And eyebrow center.
And get yourself oriented again to this moment in your subtle body.
In the heart center.
Everything else moves to the background.
And you're just aware of this light and stillness in the cave of the heart.
In this cave,
In the heart center,
There are no worries.
No fatigue.
No pain.
No stress at all.
Just the stillness.
That white light radiating from the center.
Permeating your cells.
Just come back to the center.
Let yourself be seated in reverence before this flame.
Let it permeate all of you and the whole space.
Following your mind into deeper and deeper stillness.
Leave any chaos in the mind far behind.
Right now,
We're meditating on this flame,
This light,
In the center of the cave of the heart.
Allow yourself to be fully absorbed.
And if you drift,
If you're attuned to the light,
And if you drift,
If your attention drifts,
Bring yourself back with all the kindness.
Just gently settle yourself again back in front of the flame.
Allow yourself to absorb the light that radiates out from that flame.
And allow your mind to keep turning towards the depth,
The stillness and silence of this cave.
Let yourself take refuge in the cave of the heart,
This light at the center of your being.
You might notice this light permeates the whole space.
It's not limited to the cave,
By the walls,
Or the roof,
Or the ground.
This light radiates,
Fills the whole space,
And radiates outward even more through your whole body.
Let the whole of your attention be absorbed in this light.
Let the whole of your attention be absorbed in this light.
We can come back to this at any moment.
This space is always here.
Throughout the day,
We can touch back into this stillness,
And become aware again of this light radiating out from our center.
This light in the center of the cave of the heart.
If you're visualizing yourself sitting in meditation in front of this flame,
This light,
Imagine that you're standing up and backing away,
Coming out of this beautiful cave,
And back into this flow of awareness from the heart,
Up through the throat,
And to the eyebrow center,
All the way up to the crown.
Now all the way down the center channel of your body,
All the way to your root chakra,
The base of your spine.
Let your awareness flow along this central channel,
Through the chakras.
It's now filled with light emanating from the cave of the heart.
Then without disturbing your concentration,
Your awareness,
Open your eyes.
