Yoga Nidra For Deep Restorative Rest

So lying down here on your back in a position that feels completely comfortable,

In a position where you can stay still,

Peaceful,

At rest for our entire practice.

And again,

Making any last final adjustments you might need,

Any last movements,

So that you can really drop down into stillness and allow the body to find complete rest.

In the practice of Yoga Nidra,

All you have to do is follow the sound of my voice and follow my instructions.

The body can remain completely still while you follow the sound of my voice.

If you find yourself drifting away or falling asleep,

Just relax and know that's completely normal,

It's completely natural,

And just bring yourself back to the sound of my voice and to following my instructions.

The practice of Yoga Nidra begins now.

Bring your awareness to your mouth.

Feel the shape of your lips,

The place where your two lips meet.

Bring your awareness to your teeth,

Your top row of teeth and your bottom row of teeth,

Your gums and your jaw.

Awareness of the mouth.

Bring your awareness to your cheeks,

To your temples,

To your forehead.

Feel your way into both of your eyes,

Your left eye,

Your right eye.

Feel your eyelids,

Your left eyelid and your right eyelid.

Feel your eyelashes and the whole socket of your eyes.

Bring your awareness to your nose,

To your left nostril and your right nostril,

To the tip of your nose,

To the bridge of your nose and up to the space between your eyebrows.

Relax your hairline,

Relax the skin of the scalp and have that sensation that the fist of the brain is slowly opening to an open palm as the brain relaxes back into the skull.

Bring your attention to your right ear.

Feel the channels and shapes and curves of your right ear and bring your attention to your left ear,

To the channel and shapes and curves of your left ear.

Be aware of the top of your head and the back of your head and the whole of your head together.

Awareness in the whole of the head.

Then let your awareness travel to your neck and your throat before you send it down to your right hand thumb.

Become aware of your right hand thumb,

Then your second finger,

Third finger,

Fourth finger,

Fifth finger.

Aware of your right palm of your hand and the back of your right hand,

Your right wrist,

Forearm,

Elbow,

Upper arm,

Armpit and shoulder.

Aware of your right arm.

Bring your awareness to your right ribcage,

The right side of your waist,

Your right hip,

Your right thigh,

Knee,

Calf,

Ankle,

Heel,

The bottom of your right foot,

The top of your right foot,

Your right big toe,

Second toe,

Third toe,

Fourth toe,

Fifth toe.

Aware of the whole right leg and the whole right side of the body.

Then take your awareness to your left hand thumb,

Second finger,

Third finger,

Fourth finger,

Fifth finger,

The palm of your left hand,

The back of your left hand,

Your wrist,

Forearm,

Elbow,

Upper arm,

Armpit and shoulder,

The whole of your left arm together.

And aware of your left side ribs,

Your left waist,

Hip,

Thigh,

Knee,

Calf,

Ankle,

Heel,

Bottom of the left foot,

Top of the left foot,

Your left big toe,

Second toe,

Third toe,

Fourth toe,

Fifth toe.

Aware of your whole left leg together,

The whole left side of your body together.

Bring your awareness to your hips,

To your right buttock and then to your left buttock,

To your lower back,

The middle of your back,

Your upper back.

Awareness of the right shoulder blade,

Of the left shoulder blade,

The back of the neck,

The back of the head,

Your right inner ear,

Your left inner ear,

Your right collarbone,

Your left collarbone,

Your right chest,

Your left chest,

Your navel centre,

Your lower belly,

Your pelvis,

Become aware of your spine,

The whole length of your spine,

The whole of your head,

The whole right arm,

The whole left arm,

Both of your arms together,

The whole right leg,

The whole left leg,

Both of your legs together.

The whole front body,

The whole back body,

The whole body together.

Become aware of your whole body together.

And as that whole body together rests back into the welcoming earth,

Bring your awareness to your breath.

Without effort,

Just notice the breath flowing in and out of the body,

Like waves lapping at the shore,

Rolling in and rolling out.

Without any effort,

The breath rolling in and out of the body.

And I invite you to rest your awareness on the exhale of the breath leaving the body.

And I want you to count your breaths,

The exhale of the breath down from 19 towards 1,

Counting the exhale.

If you lose your place,

Don't worry,

Just go back to the beginning and start again.

Feeling the exhale as they roll out of the body.

You can now release your awareness from the breath.

And I want you to bring a sensation of heaviness into the body,

A sensation of heaviness,

The whole body heavy,

Sinking deep into the welcoming earth,

A sensation of heaviness in the body.

Now bring a sensation of lightness to the body,

As if you're floating as light as a feather.

Create a sensation of lightness in the body.

And aware of your body resting on the floor,

You just start to notice a gentle warm halo at the top of the head,

A soft yellow light,

A warm soft yellow halo sitting at the top of the head.

Feel that warm soft yellow light start to flow down the forehead,

Across the eyes,

Down the head towards the neck,

Warm gentle soft yellow light,

Moving down the throat across the shoulders,

Over the chest,

Enveloping the lower body,

The pelvis,

The legs,

All the way down to the tips of your toes,

So that you're surrounded and bathed in a lovely soft warm yellow halo of light.

And feel that this yellow halo of light is nourishing,

It's rejuvenating,

It has everything you need in this moment,

And you have the ability to inhale it in,

And exhale it back out.

Feeling completely at ease,

Surrounded in that warm nourishing halo of light,

It has the capacity to give you everything you need right now.

And in that golden egg,

That golden halo of light,

Nourished,

You feel safe,

You're held and supported,

You're at ease,

Just breathing in and out.

You can start to bring a sensation of breathing through the entire body,

As if the pores of your skin are able to breathe.

And so that nourishing warm halo of light that you're bathed in,

That it's being inhaled and exhaled through all the pores of your skin.

The inhale is streaming through the pores across the whole body,

And the exhale just flowing gently out through the whole body.

Perhaps you can feel that the border of your body starts to become soft,

And dissolve slightly,

So that the border between you and that nourishing yellow light is hard to place,

As you're breathing in and out through the skin,

That sense of merging,

Of dissolving,

Of softening into something greater than yourself.

Feeling safe,

Supported,

Held and nourished.

While you lie here you can bring your awareness to the space behind your eyes,

Think of it as a dark screen.

You can become aware of anything that may arise in that space,

Maybe it's a colour,

A shape,

An image,

Just watching that screen behind your closed eyes,

Being aware of anything that arises.

Without judgement,

There's no right or wrong,

Just noticing if anything is arising on the screen behind your closed eyes.

Now I'm going to ask you to visualise a series of images on that screen.

We won't hold them for very long,

So I just want you to create a visualisation and then be able to let it go,

As I invite you to find the next one.

So I want you to imagine a golden sun,

A golden sun,

And then I want you to imagine a pale moon,

A pale moon.

Clouds moving across the sky,

Imagine clouds moving across the sky.

A snow-covered mountain,

A snow-covered mountain,

A white sandy beach,

A white sandy beach,

A dense green forest,

A dense green forest,

A deep blue ocean,

A deep blue ocean,

A vast orange desert,

A vast orange desert,

A flying bird,

A flying bird,

A relaxing cat,

A relaxing cat,

A burning candle,

A burning candle,

Stars in a night sky,

Stars in a night sky,

A man playing music,

A man playing music,

A woman dancing,

A woman dancing,

A child laughing,

A child laughing,

A glass of fresh cold water,

A glass of fresh cold water,

A cup of steaming hot tea,

A cup of steaming hot tea,

An empty room,

An empty room,

A flowing river,

A flowing river,

And a flower opening,

A flower opening.

You can now release the visualizations,

And I invite you to say to yourself,

Your son,

Kolpa,

This statement you have,

The intention you have,

What's important in your life right now,

Starts with I am,

And I want you to say it to yourself,

With feeling,

With meaning,

With a sense of commitment,

Say it three more times,

I am.

Then bring your awareness to the body,

Become aware of your body lying on the floor,

Aware of your body breathing,

The body expanding and contracting with the breath,

And start to become aware of the room,

Awareness of the room that you're lying in with your body on the floor,

Awareness of the body on the floor in this room breathing.

When you feel that you've arrived back in the body,

You can take a slightly longer,

Deeper breath,

You can gently start to move the fingers,

The toes,

Because the practice of Yoga Nidra is now complete.