Yoga Nidra On Possibilities And Becoming

Now,

Let's begin our Yoganidra practice.

Resting on your back,

Let your eyes close.

Bring your awareness to your breath and feel the breath flowing in and flowing out.

Notice how gentle the breath has become.

Tune into the gentleness of your breath.

Now,

Bring your awareness to the sensations you are experiencing in this moment.

Tune into any sounds around you,

Either in the room you're in or in the house or apartment,

Or even beyond that,

Maybe out on the street.

And try not to push those sounds away.

Just allow them to be and allow yourself to experience those sounds.

Now,

Bring your awareness to your sense of smell and see if there's anything that you're smelling at this moment.

And just as we did with sounds,

Try not to judge any smells.

Just notice that they're there.

Do you now any tastes?

Anything that you can feel in a physical sense?

Do you feel pressure anywhere on your body?

Do you feel movement of air across your bare skin?

Do you feel temperature on the skin?

Say to yourself,

Now I am going to practice yoga nidra.

I will not move.

I will not sleep.

I will remain alert and awake as I practice yoga nidra.

Now,

Draw a deep breath in through your nose and feel the coolness at the base of the nose.

Imagine the breath circulating in your body and then let the breath flow out through both nostrils.

And do that a second time,

Breathing in through both nostrils,

Feeling the coolness at the base of the nose and then exhaling the warm air.

Now we come to the part of yoga nidra where I'll invite you to adopt an intention,

A sankalpa for this practice.

If you have one that you're working with,

Go ahead and use that.

If not,

I have one I'm suggesting for you today.

That intention is,

I am the manifestation of what has gone before me.

Again,

My suggestion is the intention.

I am the manifestation of what has gone before me.

Now repeat silently to yourself your intention for this practice.

Now we begin the rotation of consciousness.

We'll move through different parts of the body.

And I'll direct you as we do.

No need to move the parts as I name them.

Just imagine them,

Just bring your awareness to whatever part it is that I name.

Let's begin with awareness of the right hand.

Become aware of your whole right hand.

Now remember your right hand when you were a young child.

As young as you can remember.

Bring to mind a vision of your right hand when you were very young.

Keep your awareness on your young right hand.

Now still visualizing the young right hand.

See that the young right hand contained the possibility of becoming the right hand you have today.

See how your right hand is part of the process of becoming,

Unfolding and changing.

Bring your awareness now to your right elbow.

Keep your awareness on your right elbow.

And now imagine your right elbow as a young child.

See how your young right elbow contained the possibility of becoming the right elbow you have today.

See your right elbow as part of the process of becoming,

Of unfolding,

Of changing in to the right elbow you have today.

Bring your awareness now to your right shoulder.

And now remember your right shoulder as a young child.

Keep your awareness on your young right shoulder.

And see that young right shoulder as part of the process of becoming the right shoulder you have today.

Bring your awareness now to your right hip.

Imagine your right hip when you were a young child.

Now see in that young right hip,

The hip you have today.

Awareness to the right knee.

Keep your awareness on your right knee for a moment.

Just imagine what it looks like today.

You've probably seen it recently.

Your right knee.

Now remember your right knee as a young child.

And the direct connection between the right knee as a young child and the right knee you know today.

Awareness now to the right foot.

Visualize your right foot as it looks today.

The toes.

The creases.

The whole right foot.

And now remember back to when you were a child.

And remember or imagine the right foot you had as a young child.

Now see how that right foot you had as a young child held within it.

The possibility of becoming the right foot you have today.

Awareness now to the left foot.

Imagine your left foot as it is today.

You have seen it recently.

Remember what it looked like.

Now remember back to the left foot you had as a young child.

And see the connection between the left foot as a young child and the left foot you have today.

See your left foot as part of the process of becoming,

Of changing into the foot you have today.

Move your awareness to your left knee.

Imagine your left knee as it is today.

Now remember the left knee that you had as a young child.

And see within that young child's left knee the possibility of unfolding,

Of changing to become the left knee you have today.

Bring your awareness to your left hip.

Imagine the hip you have today.

Now cast your mind back to when you were a young child,

As young as you can remember.

And imagine your left hip as that young child.

You can see in that left hip of the young child the hip that you have today.

Bring your awareness now to your left shoulder.

Imagine the left shoulder of the child you once were.

Now see the left shoulder you had as a child.

Become the left shoulder you have now.

See the unfolding and the becoming inherent in that left shoulder as a child.

Bring your awareness now to your left hand.

Visualize the left hand you have today.

Deepen that visualization.

Try to see what that hand looks like today in your mind's eye.

Now imagine the left hand of the young child you once were.

See in the left hand of that young child the possibility of the left hand you now have.

Now bring your awareness to your whole face,

The face that greets you in the mirror each morning.

See the face in all its beauty and all its flaws.

Be visualizing your face today.

And at the same time,

Begin to form a picture of your face when you were a young child.

You can see in the face of that young child the face that you now have.

Let the two faces coexist.

Keep both of them in mind at the same time,

One superimposed on the other.

And realize that both are your face.

Now bring your awareness to your breath and inhale and exhale gently.

Do that again,

A gentle inhale and a very gentle exhale.

The next time you inhale,

Become aware that the inhale sets the stage for something to follow.

Let the inhale become an exhale.

Now repeat that a couple of times,

Inhaling and becoming aware that the inhale is setting the stage for something that will follow.

And then allow the inhale to turn into an exhale.

One more time.

Inhaling.

Becoming aware that the inhale is setting the stage.

And then notice the exhale following the inhale.

Now inhale with the awareness of the possibilities that may follow.

And instead of an exhale,

Let the inhale be followed by retaining the breath for two counts.

Do that a second time.

Inhale.

With the awareness of the possibilities following the inhale.

And now retain the breath in for two counts.

And let it go.

Do that again.

Inhale.

With awareness of the possibilities of what may follow the inhale.

And let it go.

Now exhale with awareness of the possibilities that may follow the exhale.

After the next exhale,

Instead of allowing the inhale to follow immediately,

Hold the breath out for two counts after the exhale.

Now allow the inhale to occur with awareness of the possibilities that may follow your exhale.

Now hold the breath out.

Two counts.

And then allow the inhale.

One more time,

Exhaling with awareness of the possibilities that can follow.

Now hold the breath out after the exhale.

And now inhale.

Now continue to become aware of each part of the breath.

Experiencing the breathing process as a cycle of unfolding,

A cycle of becoming.

Follow the inhale.

Notice the possibilities.

Feel the breath turn in the body from an inhale into an exhale as you feel the possibilities.

Then the exhale.

And hold the breath out before a new cycle begins.

Continue with awareness on all four parts of breath.

Staying continually aware of the possibilities of the unfolding of the cycle of breath.

Now release the breath practice.

Tune in to where you are on the spectrum of hot and cold at this moment.

Now deepen that awareness of the temperature of the body.

Become aware that the temperature you feel at this moment can stay the same.

Or you could begin feeling hotter or feeling colder.

Notice the possibilities.

Now allow your body to begin to feel hotter.

Feel heat in the hands and the arms and the legs.

Let the heat move into the chest and the back and the feet.

Begin to feel hot all over.

Maybe imagine that you're walking in the desert at noon.

Feel that the heat has arisen from what went before it.

Feel that the heat contains the possibility of a different temperature state.

Feel the heat completely as what went before and whatever may follow.

Deepen your awareness of heat in the body.

Now let go of heat in the body and begin to feel colder.

Feel cold like walking barefoot on Arctic ice.

The wind is blowing.

You don't have a coat or a hat or gloves.

Your feet are cold.

Your hands are cold.

Your head is cold.

You're cold all over the body.

Start to feel colder and colder.

Notice you stay aware of cold in the body.

Notice that the cold contains the possibility of a different temperature state.

Feel the cold completely as including what went before and whatever may follow.

Now release your awareness of cold in the body.

Bring your awareness now to where you are on the spectrum of sadness and happiness.

How do you feel in this moment?

Now begin to deepen that awareness,

Exploring your emotional state on the spectrum of sadness and happiness at this moment.

Now accept that how you feel at this moment contains the possibility of feeling sadder or happier in the future.

Bring your mind now to a time when you felt very sad.

Let the feeling of sadness deepen.

Allow yourself to feel sadder and sadder.

Try not to push the feeling of sadness away.

Just let it be what it is.

Now become aware that the feeling of sadness contains many possibilities.

The feeling of sadness may deepen and linger or it may lighten and abate.

Become aware of the possibilities contained within the feeling of sadness.

Now remember a time when you felt very,

Very happy.

Supremely happy,

Overjoyed.

Recall the experience of overwhelming happiness.

Let that feeling deepen,

Allowing yourself to feel happier and happier.

But try not to grasp the feeling of happiness.

Just let it be whatever it is.

Now open to the awareness that the feeling of happiness contains many possibilities.

It may deepen and you may feel even happier or it may fade and be replaced with another emotion.

Let your awareness rest on the indelible truth that happiness is not a single feeling,

But a thousand possibilities.

Begin now to visualize the whole vast universe.

Imagine trillions of galaxies and stars and planets expanding outward,

Moving apart from one another.

Imagine how the galaxies and stars and planets have been moving apart from one another for 14 billion years.

See that process as if you were watching a movie.

Now allow time to move in reverse,

Like a movie playing backwards.

See all the galaxies getting smaller and smaller and closer together.

See the universe getting hotter and hotter as everything comes closer together.

Let the reversing of time speed up.

See planets crashing into other planets and planets crashing into suns.

See stars getting closer and closer until they touch.

See galaxies collapsing into super dense balls of light and energy.

See the whole universe compressed into a huge,

Dense sphere.

Now see that sphere collapsing in upon itself,

Getting smaller and smaller and smaller.

Until 14 billion years ago,

The universe is an infinitely small point of light.

Let's call this point of light a singularity.

Now stop the movie from playing.

Freeze time.

Keep watching the singularity.

Keep it in view.

Nothing in your awareness but the singularity.

There is nothing else to see.

The singularity in front of you is all that there is.

The singularity.

Keep it in view.

Now allow yourself to become aware of the true nature of the singularity.

See that it is more than what you hold in your gaze.

So much more.

This speck of nothingness is possibility.

This speck of nothingness holds the infinite possibility of becoming.

Now return to your intention and repeat it three times to yourself.

The intention I suggested was I am the manifestation of what has gone before me.

Repeat it three times.

Now begin to visualize the room that you're resting in.

Keep your eyes gently closed.

But imagine the walls,

The ceiling,

The floor upon which you rest.

Now visualize your body resting on the floor in the room.

Now bring your awareness to your right hand and allow the fingers on the right hand to begin to move almost as if they were moving on their own.

Bring your awareness now to the left hand.

And allow the fingers on the left hand to begin to move again almost on their own.

You can rotate the wrists and the ankles if you like.

Allow your awareness to return fully to your body.

When you're ready,

Bend your knees and roll to one side or the other.

Feel free if you like to cradle your head and your arm.

Pause here for a moment on your side.

And remember all that has gone before.

When you're ready,

Slowly come to a seat.

Once you're seated,

Bring your hands together at heart center and press your palms together.

Draw a deep breath in now.

And then open mouth as you exhale.

I offer you loving kindness.

May you be happy and well and may you be safe.

May you be peaceful.

And may you be at ease.

Namaste.

Well,

Thank you,

Everyone.

I hope you enjoyed that Yoga Nidra.

Take care.