Becoming An Awareness: Deep Yoga Nidra For The Higher Self

Welcome to this meditation.

To start the practice,

I would like to ask you to get as comfortable as possible by laying down on your mat in a Shavasana pose,

Meaning laying on your back,

The whole body is centered and straight,

Legs are slightly apart,

Arms away from the body,

Palms facing up,

Head in one straight line with the spinal cord.

Find the comfort in this pose,

Adjust your body and your clothes if necessary and gently close your eyes.

From this moment and until the end of the practice,

Stay still and avoid any movement.

As we begin this yoga nidra practice,

Give yourself a few deep breaths,

Breathe into the nostrils and out the mouth.

This will relieve any tension you may have as you arrived.

Consciously relax your whole body,

Relax your face,

Relax your tongue,

Relax your expectations.

Remember that your entire work during this practice is to simply welcome,

Recognize and witness anything and everything that comes into your awareness.

One more deep inhale and exhale.

Relax your breathing and continue breathing naturally through your nostrils.

Breath is relaxed and spontaneous.

Say mentally to yourself,

I am going to practice yoga nidra,

I will stay awake and alert,

I will not sleep.

Open up to whatever you can hear in this moment and simply welcome the sounds,

Recognize them as sounds and simply be the witness to the sounds you hear in this moment.

They are neither good nor bad,

They are simply sounds.

Let your awareness of the sounds travel from one sound to another,

Starting from the most distant sounds to the sounds closest to you,

Inside you.

Now come back to the sensation of your breath moving in and out of your body.

There is no more control of your breath,

Simply notice yourself breathing naturally and easily in and out through your nostrils.

Return back to the sounds you hear.

Now back to your breath.

Now become aware of your breath and sounds at the same time.

Feel yourself becoming sounds and breath.

Notice your level of attention to those simple yet direct sensations of sound and breath.

Those two sensations are beginning to reveal the thing about us that does not change,

That is always calm and happy and which can hold any emotion.

This is awareness,

Become awareness itself.

Now from this state of awareness think about anything you might need or be searching for in your life right now.

What is your purpose for doing this yoga nidra practice?

Create your sankalpa or resolve with a phrase that is positive,

Specific and in a present tense.

With a statement that starts with I am or I am on the road towards and feel the blank or possibly I have everything inside of me for and feel the blank.

Play with the words the way it feels most comfortable for you.

Once you've decided on your sankalpa practice,

This plants a seed of intention deep in your awareness,

A seed that will continue to grow and bloom even if you forget that you planted it.

By developing awareness through our full yoga nidra practice you are creating the optimal conditions for that seed to grow and to bloom.

Now we will establish your sanctuary,

Your personal safe heaven.

Visualize a known to you or imaginary place,

A place where you love to be and begin to fill in the details of the place using your senses.

What does your sanctuary look like?

Is it a day or a night?

Are you inside or outside?

Choose a few objects you see in your sanctuary and notice their shapes,

Their colors and textures.

Now what do you hear in your sanctuary?

Pick up a few different sounds.

Notice if they are close or far,

Loud or soft.

What do you smell in your sanctuary?

As you breathe in,

Allow the scent to fill up your entire being.

What are the tastes in your sanctuary?

Notice where you feel those tastes on your tongue and how that sense mixes with your sense of smell.

What do you feel on your skin?

Notice the temperature,

Textures and feeling of your skin.

Are there any other people,

Animals or objects around you?

What emotion do you feel in your sanctuary?

Invite that emotion to come to the surface.

Notice where you feel that emotion in your body.

You can come back to the sanctuary anytime that you wish.

This is a resource that is always there.

In this moment feel the sensation of your body laying on the floor.

Feel your entire body.

Feel the entire front side of your body.

Feel the entire back side of your body.

Now feel your entire body front and back.

Just feel your entire body.

Simply welcome,

Recognize and witness the feeling of the body on the floor.

Now bring your attention to the sensation of your mouth.

Feel your teeth,

Tongue,

Lips,

Insides of cheeks.

Feel your entire mouth as a sensation.

Bring your attention to your eyes.

Feel your eyeballs resting in their sockets.

Feel the place where your eyelids touch.

Now feel your ears.

Notice the inside of your ears.

Notice the outside of your ears.

Feel your entire face,

Forehead,

Eyebrows,

Eyes,

Bridge of your nose and nostrils,

Cheekbones,

Upper lip,

Lower lip,

Chin and jaw.

Feel your entire face.

Now notice the sensation of the crown of your head.

Feel the back of your head.

Feel your entire scalp,

Your crown and back of the head.

Now feel your entire face.

Now scalp and face again and scalp.

Now feel your entire head at the same time.

Adapt the feeling of largeness in your head.

Your entire head is large.

Now your head is small,

Large again and small again.

This does not need to make sense but at this moment your head is both large and small.

Feel your head as both large and small simultaneously.

What are you aware of at this moment?

What are you aware of changes but awareness stays the same.

Changing sensations eliminate your unchanging awareness.

Be the unchanging awareness yourself.

As awareness bring your attention to the sensation of your arms from shoulder to fingertips.

Feel both arms.

Now feel your left hand.

Feel only your left thumb.

All your attention is simply witnessing the sensation of your left thumb.

Now feel your right hand.

Feel only your right thumb.

All of your attention is simply witnessing the sensation of your right thumb.

Left and right.

Now feel both thumbs.

Feel both thumbs as the ends of one thing.

Bring your attention to the sensation of your chest and collarbones.

Feel your belly and notice it as it breathes.

Feel the sensation of your back on the floor.

Feel your entire back.

Now feel the front of your trunk,

Your chest,

Your belly.

Feel the back of your trunk,

Your entire back.

Front and back.

Now feel your entire trunk.

Notice how changing sensations eliminate your unchanging awareness.

Be awareness itself experiencing itself as a body on the floor.

You are awareness experiencing itself as a body laying on the floor.

As awareness bring your attention to the sensation of your pelvis.

Welcome any thoughts,

Sensations or emotions that may be associated with your pelvis.

Recognize anything that arises for what it is and simply be the witness.

Feel your entire pelvis as a sensation.

Now feel your legs from hips to toes.

Feel both legs from hips to toes.

Feel only the left leg.

Feel only the right leg.

Left and right.

Feel both legs.

Now feel the entire left side of your body as a sensation.

Feel the entire right side of your body as a sensation.

Left side.

Right side.

Feel both sides of your body.

Feel your entire body laying on the floor.

What's aware of the body laying on the floor?

Notice what is observing the body laying on the floor.

Be the unchanging awareness.

Without trying to control or do anything,

Simply notice your level of relaxation.

If there is any way you could relax more,

Please do so.

As awareness notice your breath moving in and out of your lungs.

There is nothing to change.

Simply witness your breath moving in and out of your body.

Notice how you feel energy in your body at this moment.

Choose a part of your body that feels alive with this vitality.

Which part of you feels energy?

Does it have a color?

Describe to yourself how this energy feels in your body.

Now choose a part of your body that feels low in energy,

Weak or tired.

Notice where in your body you feel that energy.

Does it have a color?

Describe it to yourself.

Feel the part of your body with the vital energy and remember the color if that helps.

Now bring your attention only to the part that feels low in energy and remember the color if that helps.

Now feel both energies at the same time.

Feel both at the same time.

Energy is always changing.

Your awareness is constantly aware through energy changes.

As awareness notice which emotion you have in this moment or which emotion you have been working with lately in your life.

You are simply welcoming,

Recognizing and witnessing the emotion.

You don't need to fix it or change it.

You are only witnessing.

If ever an emotion gets too difficult to work with,

Go back to your sanctuary by using your senses.

If you feel ok witnessing the emotions that you feel in this moment,

Be curious about the emotion.

Where do you feel it?

Does it have a color or a texture?

Are there any images that spontaneously arise and you feel this emotion?

If this emotion could speak,

What would it say to you?

What is the opposite emotion?

What does it feel like?

Either remember or imagine what that feels like.

Again you can go to your sanctuary if that doesn't feel comfortable to work with the opposite emotion.

Otherwise what does that emotion feel like?

Notice what arises spontaneously and simply welcome,

Recognize and witness everything about that emotion.

Now let go of that emotion and go back to the first emotion.

Now let go of the first emotion and go back to the opposite emotion.

Now feel both emotions.

What is the part of you that is large enough to hold both emotions simultaneously?

Emotions are constantly coming and going.

Be the thing that can simply witness emotions.

Though you have emotions,

You are much larger than those emotions.

Be awareness itself.

As awareness notice your thoughts.

You're not trying to control or change your thoughts.

Rarely be curious about your thoughts.

Are your thoughts moving fast or slow?

What is the subject of your thoughts?

Notice if your thoughts evoke memories,

Other thoughts,

Words or emotions.

Simply notice your thoughts as they come and go.

Come and go.

You are witnessing thoughts.

Allow your thoughts to be unrestrained as you watch them as they stay fixed on one thing or move around like it be in the garden of thoughts.

Now remember what it feels like to be sharp and focused on your thoughts.

Now remember what it feels like to feel muddy or confused in your thoughts.

Sharp and focused,

Muddy and confused.

Now feel both,

Like you could think very clearly about one thing and be very confused about another.

Notice your thinking mind.

Be the awareness that watches your thinking mind at work.

Though you have thoughts,

You are much larger than thoughts.

Now remember a time when you felt very happy,

In love or in fear.

Using your senses,

Bring this scene of happiness,

Love or sensuality to life in this moment.

Notice what you see,

Hear,

Smell,

Taste and feel.

What does happiness,

Love or sensuality feel like in your body?

Is there a particular part of your body that feels that emotion or sensation?

Allow that feeling to spread into every part of your body and beyond.

As if your body weren't large enough to contain all the happiness,

Love and sensuality you're feeling in this moment.

Now let go of the memories and simply rest in the feeling in your body at the moment.

What is feeling,

Experiencing and witnessing this feeling?

This feeling was there all along.

You uncovered it with your vision of what made you feel happy,

In love or sensual but even without the vision,

That feeling stays the same.

You don't need anything to feel this.

This is your natural way of being.

Feel free in this happiness,

Love or sensuality.

This is you.

As the truest part of yourself,

Observe yourself laying on the floor,

Having this yoga nidra experience.

Notice all the parts working together from body to energy,

Thoughts,

Emotions and all the rest.

You are simply witnessing yourself laying on the floor having this experience.

Merely observe yourself laying on the floor practicing awareness.

Feel yourself as the observer.

You are the observer watching all of it happening.

It's all happening in this moment and this moment is always happening.

Now visualize yourself walking down a path in the forest.

You're all alone on a small path.

You can see the light filter through the leaves and land on the underbrush.

You hear the sound of the wind blowing through the trees and the sound of birds chirping happily.

There is a small brook running by that you can see and hear.

Your feet are connecting to the soft earth.

You feel the sun on your skin and can smell the pine trees and wild flowers.

There are a few messengers that you will see on your journey.

As you round a corner,

There's a large deer standing on your path.

Notice what the deer looks like.

Notice how you feel when you look at the deer.

The deer can speak or communicate directly with your mind but the deer has a message for you.

What does the deer say?

Pause for a moment and hear the deer.

You thank the deer and continue along your way.

You continue to move down your path and there is a log that has fallen long ago over the path.

As you're stepping over the log,

You see a beaver sitting on top of the log.

Notice how you feel looking at the beaver.

The beaver has a message for you.

Either in a voice or directly to your mind what does the beaver say?

Pause for a moment and hear the message from the beaver.

You thank the beaver and continue along your way.

As you travel for a long time down the path,

You decide to rest by laying down in some of the grasses and wildflowers to the side of the path.

You're comfortable as you look up into the sky.

The sky is clear and blue with only a few clouds.

You see soaring in the clouds a large eagle with its wings spread wide lazily riding the currents.

Soon the eagle flies towards you and lands on the branch not far from you.

The eagle has a message for you.

Either by speaking or directly to your mind,

The eagle communicates its message to you.

Take a moment and hear the eagle.

You thank the eagle and it flies off.

Feeling rested,

You continue along your path and realize that you've made a large circle and you're back to where you started.

Give yourself a moment and repeat the messages of the deer,

The beaver and the eagle.

As the observer,

Notice yourself having the experience of practicing yoga nidra.

Remember the feeling of happiness,

Love or sensuality you feel,

Which is always very close to your surface.

Observe your thoughts without any opinion about them.

You're simply noticing thoughts.

Observe your emotions,

Simply observe emotions.

Now observe energy and breath in your body.

Notice the feeling of your body laying on the floor.

Pay particular attention to the feeling of the soles of your feet and the palms of your hands.

Notice the feeling of your belly.

Bring yourself to feel the sensation of your entire body.

For a brief moment put yourself back into your sanctuary and feel all of your senses.

Repeat the messages from your messengers one more time.

Return to your body laying down on the floor.

Feel your whole body laying on the floor,

Completely relaxed.

It is now time to repeat your sankalpa.

Repeat your sankalpa in the same words that you have stated it in the beginning of the practice.

State it mentally to yourself three times.

In a moment you'll hear me count down from five to one and that will finish this yoga nidra practice.

Because of the works that you have done today in your practice you'll go back out into your life feeling more alive,

Happy and genuine.

You'll feel in touch with the deepest parts of yourself.

You'll be kinder,

More open and willing to love and be loved.

You'll move through your life with wisdom and wonder.

The practice of yoga nidra is over.