Welcome to this yoga nidra practice to unwind from the busyness of your day.
In a world that rewards doing,
This yoga nidra invites you into simply being.
This practice has been specifically designed to interrupt the urgency,
The overwhelm and the internalised pressure to do.
Through yoga nidra deep rest techniques you will be guided to unwind the doing and rest into simply being.
There is nothing to fix,
Finish or prove.
So begin to settle in,
Making your body as comfortable as it can be today.
You can use supports or blankets to make yourself extra comfortable and really attend to the physical body's comfort as this will help you relax much deeper.
And whenever you are ready,
Begin to rest back the eyes,
You can do this by closing the eyes or taking a soft gaze and begin to notice the symphony of sounds in your environment,
There might be a lot of background noise or foreground sounds,
Or it might be quite quiet,
Just notice.
Imagine that you could expand the field of awareness so that you're sensing the sounds,
Almost like a 360 sense of the sounds around you.
And as you're noticing these sounds,
Notice the quality of your mind today,
Notice if you have a lot of thoughts or expectations,
You may have come to this practice for a specific reason and that is okay,
But simply allow yourself to experience this practice however you need to,
However your body and mind need to today,
Without any expectations on how you should feel.
The aim of yoga nidra is to utilize rest to process the emotions and sensations of your day,
So simply allow your body and mind to do this,
Without any expectation,
Any pressure to feel as you begin to allow your mind to soften as you rest back here,
Allow your mind to soften and feel a mental weight lifting,
You may visualize your mind literally softening your brain,
Becoming less tense,
And allow yourself to rest back in an expectationless rest,
Because you are exactly as you are right now and that is okay.
And bring your awareness to your mind's eye in the center of your forehead,
Allowing yourself a moment for your awareness to fully absorb the sensations here at your mind's eye,
And now notice the center of your throat,
Allowing any sensations here at the center of your throat,
Now drift the awareness to the base of your throat,
Your chest,
Your heart center,
Allowing any sensations or emotions that come up as you your heart center,
Your right shoulder,
Elbow,
Wrist,
Your right thumb,
First finger,
Second finger,
Third finger,
Little finger,
Elbow,
Shoulder,
The base of your throat,
Bring your awareness back now to the heart center,
Noticing the tone of sensation here,
And now drift your awareness over to the left shoulder,
Elbow,
Wrist,
Left hand thumb,
First finger,
Second finger,
Third finger,
Little finger,
Elbow,
Shoulder,
The left side of the chest,
Noticing the sensations in the whole left side of your chest,
And now drift your awareness to the right side of your chest,
Allowing your awareness to saturate here in the right side of your chest as you rest deeper into sensing,
Drift your awareness down to your navel,
Notice the somatic tone,
Any emotions or sensations here as you sense into your navel center,
And notice what you experience with compassion and openness,
Simply like you're just watching,
And now drift your awareness to the pelvic center,
Allow your awareness to move to the right side of your pelvis,
Feeling the sensations here,
Pelvic center,
Big toe,
Second toe,
Third toe,
Fourth toe,
Little toe,
Right ankle,
The right side of your pelvis,
Allowing awareness to spread from the right side of your pelvis to the pelvic center,
And now from the pelvic center to the left side of your pelvis,
Allowing your awareness to saturate this area,
Left hip,
Second toe,
Third toe,
Little toe,
Left ankle,
Left of your pelvis,
Pelvic center,
Navel center,
Noticing the sensations here at your upper abdomen,
And allow any energy to settle here,
Notice your heart center,
Base of the throat,
Center of the throat,
Inside the mouth,
Noticing the quality of sensation here in the inside of your mouth,
Both cheeks,
Both nostrils,
And on your next inhale,
Allow the breath to flow naturally through your left nostril,
Just imagining that all the air you're drawing in is being drawn in to your left nostril,
All the way up to the mind's eye center,
In the center of your forehead,
And on your exhale,
Imagine the air is exhaling from your mind's eye center down and out your right nostril,
Inhaling in through your left nostril up to the mind's eye,
And exhaling naturally out through your right nostril,
And now on your next breath,
Switch sides,
Inhale through your right nostril up to the mind's eye,
And exhale out through your left nostril,
Continue breathing this way in your own time with your natural breath,
Allowing your breath to simply be exactly as it is,
Just noticing it as it goes through each nostril,
You may begin to notice as you rest here deeply,
The energetic tone as your energy balances as you switch each nostril,
If this is something that you are noticing,
Allow it into your awareness with curiosity and ease,
Just noticing,
And just trusting that your body is settling however it needs to,
And now release awareness from the breath and place your awareness at your third eye center,
And notice any nourishment and energy that has been exchanged and placed at your third eye center,
Allow your intuition to guide you,
And if you don't notice anything that is okay too,
Your experience will be unique,
So allow whatever is to be,
And simply rest your awareness at this vast expansive space between the eyebrows,
And with your awareness rested at your third eye,
Allow whatever imagery comes to your mind to be almost like you're watching a tv screen,
Simply watch and observe,
As I name these symbols and imagery,
There's no need to refine,
Simply rest back,
And allow yourself to simply notice what you notice,
A sunset over a lake,
A steady candle flame,
A field of lavender,
A flower basking in sunlight,
A golden key,
A circle,
An animal at ease,
Release any awareness on imagery now,
And place your awareness at the top of your head,
The crown of your head,
And just notice what you notice here about this space,
Allowing your intuition to guide you as you rest back,
And notice if you can feel any sensation or energy resting just above the top of your head,
Just above the crown,
Almost as if you can lift your awareness into the space above your head,
Just noticing and imagining,
And now place your awareness back at your third eye center,
And simply rest in the experience that you have created for yourself here,
If your mind begins to wander,
Gently bring it back to the third eye center,
And feel into the gratitude,
Thanks for yourself for practicing today,
And allowing your body and mind the space to process the day,
And now with your natural inhale,
On your inhale,
One,
And exhale,
One,
On your next inhale,
Inhale two,
Exhale two,
Inhale three,
Exhale three,
Inhale four,
Exhale four,
Keeping time with your natural breath,
There's no need to rush,
Inhale five,
And exhale five,
And now begin to bring your awareness back to the sounds around you in your environment,
Noticing the layers of sound,
And take a deep breath in through your nose,
With the intention to pick up any aromas in your environment,
It may be just faint aromas,
That's okay,
And in your mind's eye,
Begin to bring to mind,
With your eyes still closed,
The room around you,
If you're using an eye covering,
You may wish to gently remove that with your eyes still closed,
And notice the light coming in through your eyelids,
And whenever you're ready,
You can open your eyes and begin to make some small movements with your body,
You may stretch or place your hands at your heart center,
Whatever feels supportive,
And as you do this,
Notice that you are still in the restful experience,
And simply hold on to that,
And allow yourself as much time as you need to come back into your waking life,
The practice is now complete,
Thank you so much for choosing to practice with me today,
I'd be really interested to hear about your experience in the comments,
So do share with me,
I enjoy reading each very unique experience of these practices,
And whenever you're ready to practice again,
I will be here,
Take care.
