Yoga Nidra For Year End Gratitude

Welcome dear one to this practice of yoga nidra for year-end gratitude.

This nidra is best practiced at the end of a calendar year or any time throughout the year when you want to review the last 12 months.

As always we practice yoga nidra laying down on your back.

In a comfortable position you can rest and be still in for the duration of this practice.

Take a moment now to set yourself up as comfortable as possible supporting your head with a thin cushion perhaps also with some support under your knees and cover yourself with a blanket.

Let your legs and arms fall to the side and rest in the place it feels most relaxing for them.

And then once you have found maximum physical comfort in your body allow the other layers of your being on an energetic mental and emotional level to begin to find rest.

This is your time to rest.

This is your time to rejuvenate and this is the time to drop deeply into the nervous system of rest and digest.

Deep rest begins with us giving ourselves permission to do so.

So find a way to make a simple yet profound inner gesture of giving yourself full permission to relax,

Simply be here and become one with the practice.

And then with full permission guide your senses of seeing,

Of tasting,

Of smelling and of touch to turn inwards.

Your eyes rest back into the warm periphery of the middle of the head and find a soft internal vision.

Your sense of taste,

Smell and touch are given permission now to take a break from the stimuli coming in.

And your sense of hearing withdraws from perceiving all kinds of sounds in the environment to resting on the sound of my voice.

Trust that the combined wisdom of your inner intuition and my voice will guide you towards deep rest and peace and connect you with an infinite source of love and gratitude for this life you are living.

Take a deep breath,

Relax and enjoy the practice.

And in dedication to the theme of this Nidra we will now take a moment to review your last year.

We'll move through the year month by month and I invite you to just invite the felt sense of this month.

So if you are doing this practice at the end of the calendar year your first month will be January.

If you are at another point in the year your first month is the same month plus one month a year ago.

So if you are in June for example the first month would be July the previous year.

And there's absolutely no need to remember all the things that happened.

An event here or there may occur in your awareness and that is fine.

However the invitation here is to connect to a felt sense per month and the different energetic facets of the year.

So let's begin with the first month.

Bring the first month of your last year into your awareness and invite in a felt sense of the month.

Perhaps it is the season of the month that comes to mind.

Perhaps a particular event,

An emotional experience you had,

A meeting,

An encounter or a circumstance that colored this time.

There's no need to remember details.

Just connect here with the spontaneous felt memory of this month.

Then move to the second month.

Connect to the felt experience of the second month.

Third month.

Fourth month.

Fifth month.

Sixth month.

Seventh month.

Eighth month.

Ninth month.

Tenth month.

Eleventh month.

Twelfth month.

Beautiful.

And then take a deep breath here and just acknowledge the last 12 months and notice the overall felt experience that arises as you connect with the entire year at once.

As if you are looking at it from a bird's perspective.

Noticing the overall felt experience of the last year.

Now based on this review of the last 12 months I invite you to formulate a Sankalpa for this practice and perhaps even for the next 12 months to come.

Based on how you are feeling reviewing the past year,

What is an intention you are with right now?

So for example if you had a challenging year your Sankalpa could center around bringing more ease,

More health,

More love,

Grace.

If you had a beautiful year your Sankalpa could focus on expanding more into what you are already experiencing or just connecting with a deep sense of gratitude.

Sankalpa is a short,

Concise,

Positive statement starting with the words I am.

Reflecting not just an attribute to work with but an inner attitude that shapes how you live life.

I am gratitude,

I am ease,

I am love are some examples.

So choose your Sankalpa now and then repeat it three times silently in your mind.

Then with the next exhale let it go.

It is now time to rotate your awareness through your physical body and as you do so you can simply relax the body and or invite the feeling of your Sankalpa into the different areas of your physical being.

So if we for example focus on the fingers you can invite in a feeling of gratitude or ease or love whatever it is that you chose for your Sankalpa.

We will begin with the right hand thumb.

Bring your awareness to your right hand thumb,

Relax your right hand thumb and then extend your awareness to all fingers,

All fingers on the right side.

Bring your awareness to the palm of the right hand,

Your entire hand,

To your wrist,

Forearm,

Elbow,

Upper arm,

Right shoulder.

Awareness and relaxation flowing through your entire right arm,

Your entire right arm and then the right side body merging with the inner space of the right side of the chest,

Waist,

Hip,

Thigh,

Lower leg,

Ankle,

Right foot and into all five toes and then come back to the entire right side of your body at once.

Being and relaxing the entire right side.

Now we move to the left hand thumb.

Bring your awareness to your left hand thumb and extend your awareness to all fingers,

All fingers on the left side and the palm of the hand,

Your entire hand,

Wrist,

Forearm,

Elbow,

Upper arm,

Right shoulder,

Left shoulder.

Awareness and relaxation flowing through your entire left arm,

Your entire arm and then the left side body merging with the inner space of the left side of the chest,

Waist,

Hip,

Knee,

Lower leg,

Ankle,

Into your left foot and into all five toes and then come back to the entire left side of your body at once.

Relaxing and being in the entire left side and then come to the back side of the body.

From the heels upwards let awareness and relaxation flow along the back side of the body.

The legs to the buttocks,

At the back to the shoulder blades and the back of the head and bring awareness to the top of your head.

From here to the whole face,

The whole face,

Eyes,

Ears,

The space between the ears,

Nostrils,

Lips,

The entire mouth,

Chin and throat.

From the throat move to the inside of the body,

Connect with the skeleton and all the bones.

Connect with the muscles around the bones and bring awareness to the organs,

The blood,

The veins,

The fascia and connective tissue.

Bring awareness to the nervous system,

The glands and your brain and feel gratitude for all their service,

For their never-ending work to support,

To keep this body alive.

And then once more feel both arms,

Both arms,

Both legs,

Both legs,

The entire torso,

The entire head and now the entire body,

The entire body.

Notice the entire body,

Relaxed and at ease.

You are relaxed and at ease.

You are practicing yoga nidra.

And as your physical body is resting,

Bring your attention to your energy body and your breath.

Notice your breath.

Inhale and exhale.

Let it be as it is,

No effort,

No change.

The breath is completely natural.

It is now time to move into the mental and emotional body,

Manomaya Kosha.

Here we bring attention to opposite sensations in the body and continue to feel completely relaxed.

First I invite you to bring to mind a situation of the last year where you felt a grudge against something,

Someone or a situation.

Perhaps you felt bitterness,

Sadness,

Disdain,

Resentment about an event that happened.

And without going too much into the story of it all,

Try to connect to the feeling underneath it,

The sensations as you reconnect with the situation.

Without any judgment of yourself or anything that contributed to what happened,

Allow yourself to feel the pure sensation in your body.

Notice life force expressed as sadness,

Bitterness,

Maybe even resentment,

Flowing and expressing itself in your body.

Take a breath,

Stay relaxed and allow the experience to be as it is.

And then from here connect with the opposite,

Connect with a deep sense of gratitude.

If you can,

Bring to mind a situation of the last year that left you with deep gratitude,

An event,

A person,

A circumstance.

And again,

Without going too much into the details of the situation,

Just let gratitude,

Thankfulness spread in your body.

Notice the pure sensation,

Life force expressing itself as gratitude in your body.

Really making yourself familiar with how gratitude feels in your body.

And then bring both together,

Gratitude and a feeling of grudge or sadness,

Resentment.

Move back and forth between the two until they are existing next to each other.

Let go of any judgment around the right or wrong feeling and slip underneath the feelings until you perceive both as simply an expression of life in your body.

Life force is flowing through you and you are having an experience of different emotions at the same time without any resistance.

Staying relaxed,

You are having a human experience,

You are alive.

Life is flowing freely through you.

And now take a deep breath and release this experience.

Let go of any sensations and perceptions and rest deeper into the space you are in.

And we will now move into the last body of the yoga nidra practice,

Vijnanamaya Kosha.

For this I invite you to bring your awareness to your heart center.

Let your awareness rest in the middle of the chest and let your heart become soft and gentle,

Maybe even more tender.

Let your heart open gently.

It is safe,

It is protected here,

It can trust.

Allow your heart to become soft and open.

From here I invite you to go on a short visualization journey with me through the chakra system,

The system of energy centers along the energetic midline of the body.

And stay connected with your heart and at the same time begin to connect with your root chakra,

Muladhara chakra at the base of the spine.

The root chakra which is connected to the element of earth and qualities such as groundedness stability,

Safety.

From your heart connect with these qualities of groundedness,

Stability and safety and offer them your gratitude,

Your gratefulness for any time you had these experiences in the last year.

Thankfulness that these qualities can exist in our life and even if they feel less present to you at this moment in time,

Trust that your practice of gratitude for the inherent existence will open your life to the opportunity of their manifestation.

Then move to the second chakra.

Connect your heart and your second chakra,

Swadhisthana chakra in the middle of the lower abdomen.

This chakra is connected to the element of water,

Our creative forces and reproductive capacities.

Offer a sense of gratitude to these energies in your life.

Whether they are present in the last year or you invite them in for the year to come.

Then continue with the third chakra on the level of the navel,

Manipura chakra.

This chakra is connected to the element of fire and represents qualities such as willpower,

Determination,

Clarity of knowing where we are headed.

And also here connect the felt sense of gratitude to these elements in your life.

From your heart feeling grateful for the qualities of Manipura chakra and also trust that connecting with them will invite them to show up more in your coming year.

Then unite your awareness of your heart with your heart chakra in the middle of the chest.

The element of air and the qualities of love,

Compassion,

Forgiveness and gratitude.

Your heart,

This precious organ of knowledge.

Offer it your sincere gratitude for all it has done for you this year.

Inviting it also to shine forth in the year to come.

We then continue up to the throat and Vishuddha chakra.

The element of ether or space in our communicative qualities.

The center of speaking your truth.

Offering your thankfulness to these qualities that are available in abundance whether in manifested or yet to manifest form.

We then move further to Ajna chakra in the middle of the forehead.

The third eye chakra.

Connect here with the qualities of intuition,

Clairvoyant seeing,

A spacious and open mind and your inner wisdom and your higher self.

From your heart offering gratitude.

And then the last chakra on the level of the crown Sahasrara chakra.

Connect to qualities of transcendence,

Luminous light,

Interconnectedness,

A liberation of spirit and an opening to the divine.

Connect with gratitude to these qualities.

May they be present in abundance in the time right now and the time to come.

Now connect with all the chakras from the base of the spine to the top of the head and energetic line energy centers.

Now connect with all chakras from the base of the spine to the top of the head.

An energetic line of energy centers,

An energetic line of gratitude.

A deep connection to Mother Earth through the root and Father Sky through the crown.

And rest here for a few moments.

There's nothing to do,

There's nowhere to go.

Just rest in the energetic field of being in your natural state.

And in the state of meditation,

In the state of deep peace and quiet.

Bring back to mind your Sankalpa.

Come back to the intention you planted earlier in this practice.

Take the opportunity of this auspicious moment of stillness and presence and repeat your I am statement one more time silently in your mind.

And slowly slowly begin to come back to your individual form and your body.

Feeling your body rested,

Deeply at rest.

Connect with your breath,

A life force and begin to reconnect with your environment,

The room you're in,

The sensations you can notice,

Your senses.

And we will close this yoga nidra with the five principles of gratefulness given by the Benedictine monk Brother David Steingel Bast.

Life is a gift.

Everything is surprise.

The ordinary is the extraordinary.

Appreciation is generative.

And love is transformative.

May life,

The ordinary and extraordinary,

Appreciation,

Love and deep gratitude prevail in your year to come.