Yoga Nidra To Connect With The Heart

This is a practice for you to get comfortable.

So get comfortable.

And when I say comfortable,

I mean really comfortable.

Get your pillows.

If you're any amount cold right now,

Grab an extra layer.

And so as you get yourself comfortable and you're in your reclined position,

Just kind of notice where you've initially placed your bones.

Where have you initially found yourself situated?

And is it possible for you to make yourself a little bit more comfortable?

And that might be a little shift in how you position the back of your neck to make it longer.

And it might be a little shifting in your shoulders to slide the blades underneath your heart.

And you might hook your tailbone downwards in order to lengthen and open through the fronts of your hips.

And you might allow your feet to flop or splay in whatever direction they do.

And as you find yourself in a position that does feel comfortable and supportive for you for this practice,

Notice now from your head to your toes,

This body of yours that you reside in lying in stillness,

Lying in comfort.

And with your awareness on this body of yours,

Start to widen your attention to the space that you are resting in.

You might be in your bedroom,

You might be in your living room,

You might be in another room of your house or of someone else's house.

But just notice the space that you're in.

You can even recreate it as a vision in your mind's eye.

Notice the space that you're in with all of your senses now,

Noticing how it smells to be where you are.

And even as you take that smell,

The feel of cool air coming in through your nostrils.

Notice what this space that you're in tastes like in your tongue.

Maybe even give yourself a swallow now to soften tension in your throat.

Notice with your eyes closed the way that light shines through your eyelids.

See if it's possible for you to allow your eyes to widen into the sockets so they roll just so slightly out to the periphery.

Observe texture by way of the ground that you're lying on.

The feel of anything that's on your skin,

Whether it be clothes or blanket.

And observe sensation as it touches your skin.

The sensation of air,

Of space.

Guide your awareness and your consciousness now up to your ears and observe sound.

An observation of the sound that resides around you,

The sound of your space.

This might be sound occurring in the room you're in.

It might be happening in the building or even the street or the area outside of your space.

As all of your senses are open to the outside world,

You can allow them to be somewhat of a snapshot for you.

And so you're just taking note of the outside world from your position inside of it.

And recognizing that wherever you lie,

All that's going around you,

In this moment,

You are safe.

You're safe.

You're here.

There's nothing you have to do.

There's nothing that needs to be done.

You don't have to show up in any particular way at all.

You needn't hold any expression or personality in your face.

Your mind doesn't have to solve any problem or do any calculation.

Everything,

All of your needs are taken care of right now,

Already.

You're here.

And see if just allowing yourself permission to be here without anywhere else to be can open you up to the potential of softening your body into the ground even more.

And now you'll observe through your breath a journey inwards,

Noticing how air moves from the outside world into your body through your nose or through your mouth.

There's no force,

There's no control,

There's no doing of this breath that is simply there for you.

A continuous and forever companion from the first breath you take until your journey takes you into another realm.

We use this breath to make space within the inner body here in this practice.

And so as you and your awareness and your breath journey inside,

You are in a journey in a portal of space.

And the invitation now is to set an intention for your practice.

What I'll offer as a collective intention is a simple and short mantra,

Which is,

I am healed.

And the basis of this mantra is the open understanding that we are all in a process of growth,

Of healing and of awakening at every given moment through our lives.

We don't necessarily have to specify what we're healing,

Whether it's physical or mental or emotional or spiritual or any other realm that healing can occur.

We simply allow for the potential of a full and complete and transformational,

Transcendent healing to occur.

I am healed.

And should another intention feel more authentic to you today,

You can create your own.

The parameters that I invite you to use as you craft an intention would be to make it a positive statement,

Make it a personal statement and make it a statement spoken in the present tense.

I am whatever it may be in your own inner world.

Create your mantra,

Whether it's our collective intention,

I am healed or a personal and authentic intention of your own.

Repeat it three times.

And we begin the practice of yoga nidra with that.

This practice begins in the outermost shell of your spacious container and will journey through the body.

I'm following the sound of this voice.

Just listen along and feel along pausing at each body part named.

And this pause will allow you an opportunity to see that mantra,

That intention really oriented toward that specific part of you.

And so this becomes somewhat of a blessing,

Blessing different parts of the body.

Giving attention and validation to all parts of you.

Welcoming yourself home.

We start in the space of the heart,

The true home,

The true center of the body.

So as you start to rest here with your attention on the center of the breath,

What would it be like for you to breathe from the center of your heart rather than from your lungs?

And can you witness yourself breathe from this heart centered perspective?

Can you see it?

Or can you feel it?

And for the duration of this practice,

Consider this place home,

This heart home.

From your heart,

Travel with your conscious attention all the way down your right arm through the shoulder,

The bicep,

The upper arm bone,

The elbow and into the forearm until you arrive with all of your attention into your right thumb.

This might require a few scans from your heart down your arm through your elbow all the way down into the palm and eventually landing in your right thumb.

And after you've done that scan,

Maybe one or two times rest fully and slowly into your right thumb.

And take a pause in a moment here to repeat your mantra and deliver a message or a blessing into this right thumb.

Right hand thumb.

From your right hand thumb,

Begin to widen your awareness to encompass not just your right hand thumb,

But your first finger,

Your second finger,

Third finger and fourth finger.

Feeling all four fingers and your right thumb completely.

Let your awareness expand now into your whole right hand from the fingers to the palm and from the palm to the back of the hand.

Feeling your entire right hand.

You'll continue to hold steady awareness in your right hand as you lift your awareness to feel your right wrist,

Your right elbow and everything in between the two.

And from your right elbow to your right shoulder.

As you feel your entire right arm,

Repeat your mantra,

Your intention or take pause to become aware.

Your attention expands to fill your right collarbone,

Your right armpit and all the way down through your right ribs and waist to your right hip.

And feel from your right hip to your right knee and from your right knee to your right ankle.

And as awareness moves through your whole right leg,

You land your attention into your right heel.

Awareness moves from your right heel into your right foot.

Your awareness moves into your big toe,

Second toe,

Third,

Fourth and fifth toes.

Your attention now runs through your entire right side.

Whole right side.

And journey back to your heart,

Make yourself at home here in your heart.

And making a witness,

A steady stream of your attention move down from your right heart to your left shoulder,

From your left shoulder down your left arm,

Streaming you all the way down into your left thumb.

From your left hand thumb,

Begin to move your awareness into your first finger,

Second finger,

Third finger and fourth finger,

Feeling all four fingers and your left thumb together.

Let awareness now pool into your left palm and shine through the back of your left hand.

So you're feeling now your entire left hand.

Awareness expands into your left wrist,

Up your arm into your left elbow,

Journeying upwards into your left shoulder.

And you feel your entire left arm.

From your left arm,

Awareness moves into your left collarbone,

Armpit,

Ribs,

Waist and into your left hip.

From your left hip,

You move into your left thigh,

Knee,

Down the leg and into the left ankle.

Your consciousness gathers in your left heel and into the sole of your foot,

The top of your foot.

And your attention streams into your big toe,

Second toe,

Third toe,

Fourth toe and fifth toe.

As life moves through your entire left side.

Take pause back home in your heart.

From your heart to steady streams travel downwards,

Bringing your awareness now into the soles of your feet and feel the life move in the soles of your feet together.

Taking pause in the soles of your feet to repeat your mantra and intention.

Remember to leave a little blessing.

Begin to draw your attention from the soles of your feet into the backs of your ankles,

Feeling both of your calves together.

Backs of your knees together.

Backs of your thighs together.

Both sides of your buttocks together.

And the tension meets right into your low back.

Journeying up the vertebra of your spine through your low back,

Middle back,

Upper back,

Both shoulder blades.

Getting your attention move into the curve of your neck and pull you up into the back of your head.

And you feel the entire backside body.

And from the backside body now find your attention on the crown of your head.

And take a pause to bless the crown of your head with your intention or your mantra or just your pause.

Guiding your awareness now from the crown of your head into your forehead.

A quick sweep of the forehead with your attention.

Down into your brows.

From your brows to your eyes.

Fully aware of both of your eyes,

Both of your eyelids,

Even your eyelashes.

And touch awareness down your nose,

Nostrils,

Tip of your nose,

Your whole nose.

Your upper lip and your lower lip,

Your chin.

Take time to become aware of your tongue,

Your teeth,

Your lower jaw and your upper palate.

As you move into your mouth you become aware of your cheeks,

The strength of your jaw,

The bone structure of your face,

All the way to the sides of your face at your temples.

And journeying from inside of the mouth into the face,

Feel the structure of your face.

And perhaps it's even possible to feel the streams of movement within your sinuses.

You'll start to travel your attention now out to your ears,

Feeling your outer ears.

And the outer ears present a pathway,

A tunnel inwards to your inner ears.

And feeling the smallest bones of your human body here in the inner ears.

They facilitate your most subtle sense of hearing,

Of balance.

And as you journey beyond them you start to access the inner skull.

And so you journey from the inner ear straight in to find the point where the ears would meet right in the center of your skull.

And as you locate yourself here we attune to the pineal and pituitary glands which connect here.

These master glands of the body asking for your attention now.

As you rest,

As you place yourself in the center of the skull.

And we enter into a new realm of space here.

So notice with your awareness and your attention all of the space that is here inside of your skull.

You can even feel to the left and you can journey to the right.

Exploring forwards and backwards and up and down.

360 degrees of space here right in the center of the skull.

And you are placed right in the middle.

This moment of pause at the pituitary and pineal glands,

You're offered an opportunity to repeat your mantra or your intention.

You are acknowledging with your presence this space.

Beginning now to move downwards from the center of the skull all the way through the skull and the palate of the mouth and the jaw until you arrive now in the center of your throat.

Become aware of the center of your throat.

Here your thyroid gland.

A moment of pause or a blessing of this gland,

This master gland.

When your spacious awareness continues to journey downwards until you find yourself into the center of your chest where we meet the thymus gland.

This master gland of immunity of inner strength.

And from the center of your chest you are able with your spatial awareness to move all the way to the left side of the torso where you meet the ribs.

Moving through the lungs,

The heart,

All the way to the right side of the ribs.

From your place in the center of the chest you feel in both directions.

And traveling down by way of your spine,

Find yourself in the center of your abdomen.

And you're kneeing down into your pelvis,

Into your hips.

This bowl of your torso.

Becoming aware of your bladder,

Your sex organs,

Your genitals.

And expanding your awareness out to the sockets of the hips where you begin to feel down your thighs.

Through the fronts of your thighs to the fronts of your knees and from the fronts of your knees down to your shins,

Ankles,

And the tops of your feet.

And into all ten of your toes.

And as you feel into the tips of your ten toes you become aware of both legs completely from these tips of toes all the way up to the sockets of the hips.

And as you edge to the sockets of the hips your thighs connect into your torso and you feel not just your legs from the toes to the hips but also your torso all the way up to the tops of the shoulders.

And feeling all the way up to the collarbones and then from the collarbones down the arms.

Feeling the entire body from tips of toes to collarbones from collarbones to tips of fingers.

And experience the connection of your body into your head by way of your neck and throat.

And allow the face to lay on top of the head without expression just full facial awareness,

Ear awareness,

Crown awareness.

Feeling the entire body from the crown of your head pouring down the front of your body lifting up the back of the body and wrapping around the sides of the body.

Become aware of your entire body.

Having your space your awareness to be fully embodied.

And this presents another opportunity to repeat your mantra or intention.

Full body awareness.

With your attention on your body you can allow its form to dissolve it is now the container that your whole life exists in.

And start to observe that life move through you now notice your breath.

Notice yourself breathing.

Perhaps you even notice now that your breath is breathing you.

It's a subtle shift in awareness to notice this but you are being breathed.

And this breath has its own course it has its own life and so now can you notice where your breath moves.

And everywhere within yourself that you notice this breath move to is an energy healing in itself.

Wherever your breath goes wherever your breath moves a blessing takes place.

And perhaps you simply witness this as the breath moves into the chest and into the belly and maybe even down into the ankles and the toes everywhere it travels a healing occurs.

And you needn't do a thing no force no control no effort.

From a simple and beautiful necessity of life this breath.

And as this beautiful breath occurs all around you you find yourself now right in the center of your heart.

Almost a floating island in itself this heart that you rest on a cave or a shell that you can exist in as you watch this breath being breathed throughout the spaciousness of your body.

As you find yourself on this island inside of yourself you are given an opportunity to explore and experience senses or states of being that are meant to be experienced now.

And so offering yourself full permission to explore and experience from here on out.

Releasing any extraneous thoughts like you are releasing stagnancy out of a room by opening a window.

And so you find yourself here in the island of your heart and just notice yourself holding on if there's any part of you that's holding on watch it and amplify it and go into it.

Allow yourself to really experience what is it like for me to hold on.

How do I know that I'm holding on and can I hold on even tighter or even more.

All parts of you holding on to something.

We go right into holding on to notice what does it feel like to hold on.

Are there any sensations?

Are there any feelings or emotions when I am fully holding on.

And slowly release the holding and let go.

Let go let go let go and notice what is it like for you to let go completely.

Fall back into life.

Let go.

What is it like for you to completely let go.

What is it like for you now to come back to this island to be back in your heart.

And can you come back to your heart to come back to a neutral place to come back to full presence of the breath that moves around you.

And there is a whole life that's interacting around you now you're lying on your back.

It's almost as if you were lying on a massive boulder drenched by the sun.

Completely held by this massive foundation that you lie upon.

And this boulder floats in the middle of space.

And as you lie here you are given full permission to rest.

Let go.

Soften.

Comparative modus.

As you lie on your back here,

Supported while suspended,

You open your eyes to look at the air that is moving around you and observe that it is alive and visible to you much like the northern lights.

You see these streams and waves of air moving above you.

A beautiful light show and a vision.

Noticing the colors that are moving in this gentle ebb and flow of air.

Red.

Orange.

Yellow.

Green.

Blue.

Indigo.

Violet.

White.

Observe where they travel.

Red moves downwards.

Settling into a deep red ball of ruby red light.

White moves upwards.

Creating a dazzling ball of white light.

Orange streams down and settles into a deep orange ball of light just above the red.

Violet moves upwards creating a beautiful ball of violet light just beneath white.

Yellow moves just above orange.

Indigo just beneath violet.

Blue just below indigo.

And this green light begins to surround you.

You are now immersed in this green light.

It covers you,

Wraps around you,

Encompasses this foundation you're lying on.

When everything in your vision is green now.

Existing in a beautiful emerald green light field.

This green fills you with a sense that you are safe.

A warm knowing that you are whole.

And a deep blessing that you are left.

The longer you spend in this green healing light,

The more you know.

And this healing green light that holds you now.

Offers you an opportunity to observe appreciation fill you.

Like you were drinking the nectar of appreciation and gratitude.

Just in simply being in this green healing light.

And as you tune into this gift of appreciation,

This gift of gratitude.

And this green light expands and it moves out not just from this place that you lie but all the way up to the upper limits where that white ball of light is.

All the way down to the lower limits where that red ball of light is.

And it fills out in every direction and every dimension.

Pouring itself and filling itself on everything everywhere.

This healing,

Loving green light.

Then it touches not just you but everyone,

Everything,

Every place that has meaning to you.

It moves its healing essence out to everyone,

Everything,

Everywhere.

And as this green light blankets the earth,

It moves into the soil.

It fills the waterways,

The root systems.

This loving energy moves into the core of the earth.

An essential nutrient for all of us,

For all of life.

And as you begin to breathe,

You recognize that you're lying in the center of your chest,

On top of your heart.

And that this is your home.

You're safe here.

You're healed here.

This version of you,

Always there.

And you notice yourself breathing now.

This breath that you've been breathing the whole time.

And this time it starts to deepen,

Awaken.

And in the space in between dream and wakefulness,

You repeat the words of your intention.

I am healed.

I am healed.

Blessing your entire body.

And the practice of yoga nidra calls on you to wake up now as we complete.

And you allow these deeper and deeper breaths to travel all the way down to your toes.

And all the way out to your fingers.

And you can feel your thumb touch on every tip of your fingers until you start to move your palms and your wrists and your ankles and your heels.

And you might even take your arms overhead and give yourself a full body stretch.

Being so gentle and sweet with yourself.

Giving this nurturing breath to travel inwards and around.

Give your legs a squeeze before rolling to whichever side you'd like and pressing yourself up to a seat.

And then find yourself seated right in the center of your chest,

Right at your heart,

Not home of yours.

And see this space glowing green.

A reminder of your healing journey.

Of your healed self.

Of your wholeness.

And take your palms and rub them together at your heart.

Keep going and keep going until you feel them starting to warm up.

And then you'll place your hands either on your heart,

In front of your heart,

Or anywhere else along your body that could use your attention or your healing right now.

And feel that love moving through.

Your conscious awareness to know where you're at.

To care for yourself,

To take a break.

May we all be given the opportunity to heal.

May we all be blessed.

Namaste.