Welcome to your Nidra practice.
Today's Yoga Nidra was created to support you through self-liberation,
To gently uncover any stickiness or discomfort that might be holding you back from your most brilliant self.
Go ahead and set yourself up either on your bed or your yoga mat.
Add support under your knees with a bolster or a pillow and gently support the back of your head so it's slightly higher than your chest.
Fully cover yourself with a blanket and prepare with an eye pillow or something to cover the eyes.
Begin to settle in.
Soften the webbing between your toes.
Allow your feet to flop open like the pages of a book.
Feel your big thigh muscles drape off the bones as the back of your pelvis melts into the bed or the floor.
Notice the softness across the abdomen and your chest.
Allow your jaw to be heavy.
Even your teeth separate slightly.
Relax the tiny muscles around your eyes and allow your pillow to cradle your head in full surrender.
Without having to change anything,
Notice the arrangement of your body in space.
Hear your heartbeat and notice its rhythmic pattern that is only specific to you in your body.
Notice the quality of your breath.
Is it smooth and deep?
Is it soft and subtle?
No need to change anything about your breath.
Can you simply feel it as it is?
Feel the cool air on your upper lip as you inhale and the warm air on your upper lip as you exhale.
Feel yourself breathing.
We'll start the practice by calling in a Sankalpa.
In Sanskrit,
Sankalpa means deeply rooted intention or vow.
It is a contract or oath you commit yourself to.
Sankalpa is a positive simple sentence with today's focus designed to propel you towards self-liberation.
You might have something that comes to mind.
You can use I am passionate,
I have purpose,
I am worthy,
Or I pursue my dreams.
I am Repeat your Sankalpa as a mantra.
Hear it in perpetuity in your head.
Feel it in the deepest fibers of your being.
In a moment,
As we move through what's called a rotation of consciousness,
A deep body scan,
You may feel varying sensations.
Try not to become too attached to anything in particular and do your best to stay with the sound of my voice.
Bring attention to your mind's eye,
The space between your eyebrows.
Begin to see a brilliant gold ball of light shining through your mind's eye.
See the gold ball of energy move to your right thumb,
Your right index finger,
Your middle finger,
Ring finger,
And the pinky of your right hand.
Become deeply aware as the gold brilliant shining ball of light moves into the palm of your right hand,
In the back of your right hand.
And you watch as the gold ball of light moves through your wrist,
Into your right forearm,
Shining into your right elbow,
Your upper arm.
And your gold light is illuminating the right shoulder,
Your right armpit.
And you bring the attention and awareness to the gold light emanating from the right side of your body and into your right waist,
Through your right hip.
The front of your right thigh is brilliantly luminescent into your right knee.
And the front of your right shin.
You become deeply aware of the right ankle shining bright and the heaviness of your right heel.
And you see the gold shining light through the sole of your right foot,
The top of your foot.
And its luminosity travels to your big right toe,
Your second toe,
Third toe,
Fourth toe,
And the pinky toe of your right foot.
Feel your entire right foot shining bright.
Bring your attention back to your mind's eye,
The seat of the mind.
And come back to your Sankalpa,
Your mantra.
Hear it in perpetuity in your head and feel it in the deepest fibers of your being.
From your mind's eye,
You start to see the brilliant gold ball of light shifting into your left thumb,
Your left index finger,
Middle finger,
Ring finger,
And the pinky of your left hand shining bright.
See the energy of gold ball of brilliant light moving into the palm of your left hand.
In the back of your left hand,
Your wrist illuminating the gold light into your left forearm,
Your elbow,
And your left upper arm shining brightly.
Moving into the left shoulder,
The shimmering light into your armpit,
And the entire left side body shining bright.
The light travels into your left hip,
The front of your left thigh,
Your left knee,
And the entire left shin illuminating with light.
You see the shift into your left ankle and the heaviness of your left heel shining brightly.
You see the light illuminate from the sole of your left foot into the top of your foot,
Left big toe,
Second toe,
Third toe,
Fourth toe,
And the pinky toe of your left foot.
See the sole of your right foot and the sole of your left foot.
And then see the shining luminescent light shooting out of both feet together.
See your right heel,
Become deeply aware of your left heel.
Feel the heaviness of both heels together.
Become deeply aware of your right calf shining bright and your left calf shining bright.
Both calves together.
The back of your right knee and the back of your left knee and the luminosity of the gold light behind both knees together.
Become deeply aware of the back of your right thigh,
The back of your left thigh and both thighs together.
Become aware of your entire base of your pelvis and how the gold light just cradles your pelvis on the bed or the floor beneath you.
And how that gold light moves into the support of your tailbone and your sacrum and the spaciousness of your low spine,
Your lumbar shining brightly.
Become aware of the light as it moves beyond the lower back into the middle back,
Traveling up the spine,
Getting brighter and brighter as the light reaches into your shoulder blades,
The left shoulder blade and the right shoulder blade.
Eventually illuminating the space between the shoulder blades,
The back of your heart,
Shining bright into earth beneath you.
And the light moves up through the base of your neck and your skull into the back of your head.
And the light just shines brilliantly through the crown of your head.
A limitless shine coming out of the top of your head,
Moving to the right side of your head.
And you see the light moving to the left side of your head.
Coming to the front of your forehead.
Lighting up your right eyebrow,
Your left eyebrow,
And the space between your eyebrows.
Feeling the light heavy on the right eyelid,
The left eyelid.
Awareness to the right eyeball and the left eyeball.
The whole right cheek lights up with the brilliant gold luminescence,
As does the left cheek.
Your right nostril is just breathing in that brilliant gold light.
And that gold light moves to the left nostril,
Through your right ear and to your left ear.
You watch this brilliant luminescent gold ball of light travel to your top lip,
Your bottom lip,
And your whole mouth together.
You see your chin light up.
Your entire jaw is shining bright.
Even your tongue becomes luminescent.
You bring the attention to the inside of your mouth,
Shining brightly.
Even the roof of your mouth is shimmering.
Swallow.
Feel the gold light move down your throat,
The right side of your neck,
The left side of your neck,
The right side of your chest,
And the left side of your chest,
Just beaming with gold light.
Beaming gold shining light.
And it moves to the heart space.
The heart is just lit up brilliant luminosity.
You see the right side of your rib cage,
The left side of your rib cage,
And the gold light moves deep into the solar plexus,
Where you come back to your Sankalpa,
Your mantra.
See your mantra shining brightly in your solar plexus.
Feel it in the depths of your soul.
Without having to change anything,
Notice the arrangement of your body in space.
Become deeply aware of your breath.
Bring attention to the expansion of your belly with each inhale,
And the surrender of your entire body with each exhale.
Without having to change your breath,
Begin to count backwards from the number 11.
So one inhale and one exhale is one breath.
And you count your breaths.
And if you lose the number,
You just go back and start again at 11.
And if you finish before me,
Simply go back and start with 11 again.
And now let that go.
In a moment,
I will take you through a pairing of opposites.
It's possible you may feel sensation,
A thought may pass you by,
A visual may touch the mind's eye.
No need to overthink these moments.
They are fleeting.
Try not to attach,
But instead to simply acknowledge and stay with the sound of my voice.
Call in a feeling sensation of heaviness.
The heaviness of your heels on the earth beneath you.
The heaviness of your bones melting towards the center of gravity.
The heaviness of the backs of your hands melting towards the earth.
The heaviness of the base of your skull surrendering to the pillow.
So heavy,
In fact,
You feel like you're sinking towards the center of the gravitational pull.
You are heavy.
Now let that go.
Call in a feeling of lightness.
Your whole body feels suspended in space.
So light,
In fact,
You feel like you're levitating.
So light,
You're like a feather blowing in the wind.
You are light.
Now let that go.
See if you can move between sensations of feeling heavy,
And feeling light.
Heavy.
Light.
Heavy.
Light.
Now let that go.
Begin to call in a sensation or a feeling tone of oppression.
What is the visceral reaction in your body to a feeling of oppression?
Perhaps a time in your life that you have felt held down or silenced.
Oppression.
Now let that go.
Call in a feeling tone of liberation.
A moment in time where you felt complete and utter freedom.
So free,
In fact,
That you are limitless.
Liberation.
I am liberated.
Now let that go.
And see if,
Just for a moment,
You can go between the feeling of oppression and liberation.
Oppression.
Liberation.
Now let that go.
In a moment,
I will take you through what's called rapid visualizations.
It's possible you will feel sensation.
A thought may pass you by.
A visual may touch the mind's eye.
No need to overthink these moments.
They are fleeting.
Try not to attach,
But instead to simply acknowledge and stay with the sound of my voice.
Fresh garlic simmering in hot oil.
Warm apple cider on Christmas morning.
The feeling of a hot blanket fresh from the dryer.
A Balinese sunset.
A Balinese sunset.
Six-pointed Jewish star.
Hollywood Boulevard.
Sidewalk chalk.
A coloring book.
A purple tree.
The sand between your toes.
Your favorite gemstone.
Your favorite gemstone.
Your favorite gemstone.
Begin to see yourself lying on your bed or on your yoga mat.
And as you see yourself,
You start to levitate up out of your body.
As you come out of your body,
You start to walk towards your entry door.
You walk towards your entry door.
You prepare to open the door.
As the door starts to peep open,
There's this brilliant shining light coming right into the door.
And as you open the door all the way,
The light just pours into your space.
You crave more of that light,
So you start to step outside.
When you step outside,
The light is just more luminescent than you could have ever imagined.
And the light guides you to a hole in the ground.
And as you look at the hole in the ground,
It's just shining even brighter.
You make your way to the hole.
You become curious.
You start to climb down this hole that is shining bright,
Knowing full well that you are safe and held in the space of Mother Earth.
And you follow this brilliant shining light down into the earth.
And what once was a small space that you crawled through now becomes a spacious cave in Mother Earth.
When you get inside the cave,
You look back up and you still see shining,
Brilliant light all around you.
It's luminosity is amazing.
You look around the cave and you can smell Mother Earth.
Inside the cave is a small tool,
And it has a sharp edge like a pick.
It calls to you,
So you pick it up.
And without missing a beat,
Your immediate instinct is to start digging.
And you instinctually dig in this one spot where all of these beautiful gemstones live.
You keep digging and more gemstones are coming out of Mother Earth.
And they're brilliant and they're lustrous.
And they're polished.
And these gemstones are shining bright.
And you start to collect them.
You're filling your pockets with all of these amazing gemstones from Mother Earth.
And you continually dig until you can dig no more,
Collecting as many gemstones that will fit into your pockets.
You place the tool back down.
You have a look around the cave,
A little smile to yourself.
And you start to climb your way back up through the small hole,
Following the brilliant light of the sun shining down,
Climbing back on top of Mother Earth.
When you arrive back to the top of the hole,
You crawl out and you stand on the earth.
You look back down into the cave you just crawled out of,
Becoming deeply aware of your connectedness to the brilliancy that is Mother Earth.
You make your way back into your space.
Arrive back onto your yoga mat.
And just before you lay down,
You plant all of your gemstones around your mat.
Then you lay all the way back down,
Surrendering completely to the earth,
Bringing your attention back to your mind's eye,
The space between your eyebrows,
The seat of the mind.
Repeat your sankalpa,
Your mantra.
Hear it in perpetuity in your head.
Feel it in the deepest fibers of your being.
Begin to invite some bigger breath back in.
Perhaps a very gentle movement.
Maybe it's just the head at first,
Moving left and right a couple of times.
Waking yourself slowly.
There's no rush,
There never is.
You'll start by wiggling your fingertips and your toes.
Then perhaps some greater movements,
The arms over your head,
Your legs long,
Taking the maha stretch,
The great stretch.
Again,
You'll take your time,
Hugging your knees into your chest,
And rolling into a fetal position.
And either side is correct,
Your body knows intuitively.
The left side or the right side,
The yin,
The yang.
But when you arrive in the fetal shape,
Pause.
Pause and allow the floor to support you or your bed to support you.
The fetal shape,
The primordial shape,
The way you are in the womb.
So consider this an opportunity to step into the world with a new set of lenses.
It's the rebirth of who you are.
Taking with you your brilliancy,
Your lustrous,
Polished gemstones that live in the center of your heart space.
When you're ready,
Press down through your top palm and travel to a comfortable seat,
Sitting upright.
When you find your comfortable seat,
Pull your hands through your heart,
Gently bow your chin,
Just acknowledging the teacher inside.
Have a wonderful day.
Namaste.
