Sleep/Restorative Yoga Nidra

Welcome,

It's Julie.

Please get comfortable lying down.

Cover your body with a cozy blanket and start to let the body relax.

Flutter the eyelids closed and let's take three deep breaths.

Start to gaze into the center of the eyebrows,

The mind space.

Keep your eyes closed.

But as you gaze there,

Start to scan the phase of life that you are living in,

In this present moment.

And you will naturally find an aspect of your life that you may want to improve upon.

When you find that,

Start to mentally formulate a short positive phrase for it.

That could be,

I am relaxed,

Rejuvenated,

And I sleep deeper at night.

When you find this,

Repeat it in the mind three times.

We will now take our awareness to each part of the body.

Whichever part of the body my voice says,

Mentally repeat it and take your awareness to that part of the body.

Everything remains still,

Only the mind moves.

Take your awareness to your left foot,

To your big toe,

Second toe,

Third toe,

Fourth toe,

And fifth toe.

Take your awareness to the soul of your left foot,

To your right foot,

To the soul of your left foot.

Take your awareness to the top of your left foot,

And to your ankle,

Your calf muscle,

Knee,

Your thigh,

And your left hip.

Just become aware of your entire left leg grounded.

And then move your awareness to your right foot,

To your big toe,

Second toe,

Third toe,

Fourth toe,

And fifth toe.

Become aware of the soul of your right foot,

The top of your right foot,

Your ankle,

Your calf muscle,

Knee,

Thigh,

And then your right hip.

Become aware of your entire right leg.

Now take your awareness to your left hand,

To your thumb,

First finger,

Second finger,

Third finger,

And fourth finger.

Take your awareness to the palm of your left hand,

The back of your hand,

Your wrist,

Your forearm,

Your elbow,

And your upper arm.

Become aware of your left shoulder and left collarbone.

Become aware of your entire left arm.

Now let's move our awareness to our right hand,

Our thumb,

First finger,

Second finger,

Third finger,

And fourth finger.

Become aware of the palm of your right hand,

And the back of your hand,

The wrist,

The forearm,

Elbow,

Upper arm,

The right shoulder,

And the collarbone.

Become aware of your entire right arm.

Now take your awareness to the base of your spine.

Run your awareness from the base of the spine to the nape of the neck.

Become aware of the left side of your back,

And then the right side of your back.

Move that awareness to the front of your body.

Become aware of the left side of your chest and rib cage,

And then the right side of your chest and rib cage.

Become aware of the front of your neck,

The sides of your neck.

Become aware of the back of your head and the top of your head.

Take your awareness to your left ear,

And then your right ear.

Bring your awareness to your forehead,

To the left eyebrow,

The right eyebrow,

The left eye,

The right eye.

Take your awareness to your left cheekbone and your right cheekbone.

Become aware of your nose and your lips and your chin.

Become aware of your entire face.

Then just become aware of your entire body relaxed,

Lying here.

Bring your focus now to the breath at the entrance of your nostrils.

No need to control the breath.

Just observe as you feel the cool air coming in and the warm air going out.

Allow any thoughts to come up.

Let them go and then bring yourself back to the breath.

And now bring your awareness to the breath in your abdomen.

And with each breath,

Feel your navel rise and fall.

There is nothing to do or control,

Just be a witness to the breath.

Become present with the breath and explore how your body feels.

Start to count your breath backwards from 27 to 1.

If you lose count,

Just start all over again.

Try not to fall asleep,

But if you do,

When you come back,

Just follow my voice.

And we'll start this together.

27 navel up,

27 navel down,

26 navel up,

26 navel down.

Just continue this on at your own pace until you hear my voice.

And then bring your awareness back to the breath.

And then with each breath,

Start to count your breath backwards from 27 to 1.

You You You You You You You can now let go of the counting And we will start to use the creativity of the mind By imagining that your entire body is becoming extremely heavy As if you are sinking down down down into the floor or bed that you were lying on As you do this start to imagine letting go of anything that no longer serves you Just allowing any stress or fear Anything that is not there for you Letting go of anything that you need to let go of Allow it to gently sink down down down into the floor beneath you You And once you've let go of anything that no longer serves you,

Imagine that your entire body is as light as a feather.

Almost as if you were floating on a big fluffy cloud.

Now in your mind,

Start to visualize a time in your life when you were extremely happy.

See who is around you,

See the colors,

The people,

And feel the emotions of that positive moment in your life.

Goodluck.

Now let go of that visualization and now mentally think of the following symbols as I say them.

A candle flame.

A book.

A beautiful piece of art.

Green grass blowing in the wind.

A beach.

Calm ocean waves.

The stars in the sky at night twinkling.

The moon.

White fluffy clouds.

Blue blue skies.

The sun.

A mirror.

See yourself in the mirror.

See yourself standing in front of the mirror.

And now start to gaze into the centre of the eyebrows,

Into the mind space.

Try not to think of anything in particular,

Just allow thoughts to come up and as they do let them go one by one and bring yourself back to the breath.

If no thoughts arise,

Just enjoy the silence of the mind.

Let go of it all and accomplish.

I am happy.

As we start to close the meditation,

Let's repeat the positive phrase that we started our meditation with in the mind three times now.

Bring your awareness back to your body.

Keep your eyes closed.

If you would like,

You can continue resting.

Turn off the audio.

Otherwise,

Start to wiggle your fingers and your toes.

Slowly roll onto your right side and just take a moment to notice how you feel.

How does your body feel?

What's the quality of the breath,

The heart rate,

And the muscles?

Very slowly,

Use your left arm to push yourself up into a comfortable,

Seated position.

Take this feeling with you and know that you can come back here any time that you choose.

And may you always be peaceful on your journey.