Guidance Towards Deep Rest & Sleep

Today we'll do our adapted yoga nidra to support us to fall asleep.

So making yourself comfortable and resting back.

So for the beginning of this practice,

Try your best to keep still and as you feel that you might be ready to drift off to sleep,

Feel free to then just get into your comfortable sleepy position.

Allow your eyes to close.

And again for the beginning try to stay in contact with my voice without concentrating too much on it.

And when you're ready to fall into sleep,

Just letting go of the sound of my voice.

If the mind is busy just coming back to my voice.

Let's start with some extra deep inhales and exhales.

Breathing in the belly full.

And breathing out,

Let the out breath fall out like a sigh.

Breathing in the belly full.

And breathing out,

Letting go.

Breathing in the belly full.

And breathing out,

Sighing out.

And if you find yourself at any point during this meditation,

Finding that your mind is getting busy,

Just sending a big breath out,

Sighing it out and then coming back to the sound of my voice.

Bringing your awareness now to your ears.

Becoming aware of any sounds you can hear in this moment.

And letting the sounds just come to you.

Focusing on any of the sounds you can hear from outside of the room.

Having the sense that you don't at all have to try to hear the sounds.

That the sounds simply come to you.

And you might feel into the possibility that you can hear with your whole body,

As if your whole body could receive sound.

Perhaps it's possible to feel how your body responds to sound.

Without trying too hard,

Without getting into whether you're doing a good job or whether it's difficult or easy.

If it doesn't work for you to feel the sounds,

Just hearing the sounds as best you can.

Letting the sounds come,

Letting the sounds go.

You don't have to label the source or have an image of what the sound might be necessarily.

If that comes to mind,

Let it be there.

And then drawing your awareness in to closer sounds,

To the sounds inside the room.

What are the sounds you can hear inside the room?

Feeling if your body can receive the sounds,

If you can feel how your body responds to sound.

If you can't,

It doesn't mean you're not doing a good job,

No need to get into any thinking or analysis about this.

Just listening as best you can.

Allowing the sounds to come,

Allowing the sounds to go.

And when can we wind the awareness of sound inward,

Leaning into the sounds inside of your body?

Can you hear the breath?

Can you quieten down enough to hear the breath?

Can you quieten down enough to hear the sound of your heart beating?

Without opening your eyes,

Can you visualise the room,

Visualise yourself,

Lying on the floor,

Lying on the bed?

Feeling and visualising at the same time,

Your body lying here,

Resting.

Becoming aware of your body lying on the floor,

Lying on the bed.

Let's bring our awareness to the breath now,

Just the natural breath as best you can.

Let's start off with our awareness at the nostrils and feel if you can feel the breath flow in through the nostrils.

And then flow out again through the nostrils.

Maybe you can feel the coolness of the breath as you inhale.

Maybe you can follow this feeling through the nose,

The sinuses,

The back of your throat and into your lungs.

And maybe you can feel the warmth of the out-breath as you exhale.

Maybe you can feel the coolness of the in-breath on the top lip as you breathe in.

Maybe you can feel that the breath is warmed by its journey through your body as you exhale,

Feeling it at the top of the lip.

And let's follow the breath again,

Breathing in through the nostrils,

Following the breath through the body.

Now let's feel if we could imagine again that the lungs are in the belly and that we can pull the breath down into the lowest part of the belly.

And then feel the breath travel back up through the belly,

Through the lungs,

The chest,

The throat,

The mouth,

The back of the throat and the nose.

How deep can the breath be?

How slow can the breath be?

And let's start to pull the breath in all the way down to the lowest part of the belly.

And pause for a moment in that fullness,

Just quietening down,

Feeling how it feels to pause with the breath inside.

And then exhale,

The breath travelling back out,

Pausing for a moment in that emptiness,

Before the in-breath pulls back in all the way down to the bowl of the pelvis.

Take a pause and rest there.

And then exhaling,

Pausing at the end of the exhale,

Before inhaling,

Pulling the breath down again to the lowest part of the belly.

And then exhaling out and pausing.

Then you could let the breath return to its natural easy state as best you can,

Releasing any control over the inhale or the exhale.

If you feel it's helpful to take some more of those extra deep inhales and exhales into the belly and then sighs out.

You could do that if you feel the mind is still a little busy or there's still some tension in the body.

It can be a good way of clearing space.

Before we go on this journey through the body,

I'm going to name different parts of the body.

And as I name them,

Can you bring your awareness there?

I will go through fairly quickly so there isn't so much time to get lost and distracted.

If it's helpful for you to repeat the name of that part of the body to yourself,

You can do that as well if that supports you.

And as best you can,

Keeping still.

Feeling as best you can that it's possible to feel the body from the inside of the body.

Very often we have the sense of our self located up in our head,

Looking down at the body,

Going through the different parts of the body.

Let's see if you can settle with your sense of self and awareness in the different parts of the body as I go through and name them.

And now let's feel the whole body lying on the ground.

Being aware of the whole body lying on the ground.

Lying on the bed,

Wherever you are.

And then feeling the right hand side of the body.

Bringing your awareness specifically to the whole of the right hand side of the body.

And then drawing our awareness in to the right hand thumb.

Feeling the right hand thumb from the inside as best you can.

Drawing your awareness over to the second finger.

The third finger.

The fourth finger.

The fifth finger.

The palm of the hand.

The back of the hand.

Feeling into the wrist.

Drawing your awareness up the forearm.

Towards the elbow,

Feeling into the elbow.

Feeling the upper arm.

The shoulder.

Drawing your awareness around to the armpit.

Down to the side of the right rib cage.

Allowing your awareness to flow to the right side of the waist.

The right hip.

The right thigh.

The right knee.

Awareness travelling down to the right calf.

Flowing into the ankle.

The heel.

Feeling into the sole of the foot.

And then drawing your awareness over to the top of the foot.

Feeling into the right big toe.

As best you can,

Feeling from the inside the second toe.

The third toe.

The fourth toe.

The fifth toe.

Feeling into the left hand thumb.

The second finger.

The third finger.

The fourth finger.

Feeling into the fifth finger.

Drawing your awareness to the palm of the hand.

And around to the back of the hand.

Feeling the wrist.

The forearm.

Feeling into the elbow.

Travelling up to the upper arm.

Feeling around to the shoulder.

The armpit.

The left side rib cage.

The waist.

Travelling down to the hip.

The thigh.

The knee.

Feeling the calf.

The ankle.

Feeling to the heel.

The sole of the foot.

The top of the foot.

Feeling the left big toe.

Feeling into the second toe.

The third toe.

The fourth toe.

And feeling into the fifth toe.

Now let's draw our awareness to the back of the body.

Feeling the right heel.

Feeling the pressure of the right heel resting into the bed,

Into the ground.

Drawing our awareness over to the left heel.

Feeling the pressure of the left heel.

Feeling the right calf resting back.

The left calf resting.

The right thigh.

The left thigh.

Feeling the right buttock.

The left buttock.

Feeling into the lower back.

The middle back.

The upper back.

Feeling the whole of the spine.

Feeling the right shoulder blade.

The left shoulder blade.

Drawing your awareness to the back of the neck.

And feeling the back of the head as it rests into the pillow,

The ground.

Feeling into the top of the head.

Flowing your awareness to the forehead.

Over to the right temple.

The left temple.

Feeling into the right ear.

The left ear.

Feeling the right eyebrow.

The left eyebrow.

The middle of the eyebrows.

The right eye.

The left eye.

The right nostril.

The left nostril.

Feeling into the right cheek.

The left cheek.

The upper lip.

The lower lip.

Feeling how both lips rest,

One against the other.

Feeling your chin.

The right side of the jaw.

The left side of the jaw.

The throat.

The right collarbone.

The left collarbone.

The right side of the chest.

The left side of the chest.

The upper abdomen.

The navel.

Feeling the lower belly.

The right side of the groin.

Feeling the left side of the groin.

Feeling into the pelvic floor.

Bringing your awareness now to the whole of the right leg.

Feeling the whole of the left leg.

Feeling the whole of the right arm.

The whole of the left arm.

Feeling your face.

Feeling your head.

Feeling the whole of your body.

The whole of your body.

Coming into a sense of the breath.

In the belly,

As you breathe in the belly swells.

And as you breathe out letting go.

Side out.

Feeling that the breath comes into the belly as if the lungs were in the belly.

And exhale let go.

Now let's start to imagine as you breathe in a feeling of lightness comes into the body.

And breathe out letting go.

Breathing in the body becomes light.

And breathing out letting go.

Feeling as you breathe in that your body could float away from the floor or the bed towards the ceiling.

As you breathe in the head is light,

Weightless.

As you breathe out is as if you cut the ties that are holding you to the ground.

Breathing in the limbs are light.

And breathing out cutting the ties that hold the limbs to the ground.

Breathing in the torso is light.

Breathing out feeling the torso get lighter as you cut the anchor.

That holds the body to the ground.

Feeling as you breathe in the whole body light and weightless.

With every exhale cutting any tie that holds you to the ground.

Breathing in rising higher and higher away from the ground.

Floating higher and higher.

Feeling that the head is weightless.

The arms are weightless.

The mind is weightless.

The toes weightless.

Breathing in there's a sense of expansiveness and lightness as you breathe in.

And as you exhale you now start to feel the body become heavier and heavier.

With every inhale there's a sense of space.

And with every exhale you drop the weight of your body.

Give the weight of your body to gravity.

And it might help you to do this strong exhale.

Sighing out the breath or sounding the breath.

Feeling heavy in the hands as you breathe out.

Feeling heavier in the feet as you breathe out.

Feeling heavier in the limbs as you breathe out.

Feeling heavier in the torso.

In the head.

The bottom jaw.

The eyes.

The tongue.

The whole of your body just sinking.

Collapsing,

Resting into the ground.

Every part of your body is heavier and heavier with every exhale you take.

Breathing out,

Surrendering the weight of your body to gravity.

Feeling the body soften.

As if the body could soften and melt into the ground.

So heavy.

So soft.

Feeling yourself falling into deeper and deeper rest.

Feeling the body become more and more relaxed.

You might feel if you can relax the toes anymore.

You might feel if you can let the feet relax a little more.

Feeling if the ankles could relax a little more.

Feeling if the legs could rest a little more into the ground.

Feeling if you can let the pelvis nestle and rest a little more into the ground.

Feeling if the back body could rest and soften into the ground a little more.

Feeling if the shoulder blades could soften and open.

Relax.

And feeling if the shoulder blades relax into the ground.

Does that allow more space in the chest?

More openness across the collarbone?

A sense that you could let go of any tensions in the shoulders.

How are the arms?

Could we let the arms rest a little more into the ground?

How are the fingers and the toes?

Could we allow the fingers and the toes to soften and relax?

Is there any sense that you're holding the head with the neck?

Sometimes there's a subtle sense that we're not allowing the head to roll to the side.

So there's this tension in the neck as we try to keep the face upright.

And now you could let the head roll to the side if that would be more comfortable.

Let the neck relax,

Give the weight of the head to your pillow.

Let the bottom jaw fall away from the top jaw.

Let the inside of the mouth relax,

The tongue relax.

Let the lips fall away from each other.

Let the chin relax and the cheeks soften.

Allow the eyelids to rest,

Soft yet heavy,

And the eyes to drop back.

Feel that the temples can relax.

Feel that the forehead can relax.

Feel that the big muscle of the brain can relax.

And feel that the gripping of the mind around the thoughts can soften and relax.

And feeling that the belly softly rises like the belly of a sleeping child rises when they breathe in.

And feeling that your belly softens down as does the belly of a sleeping child when they breathe out.

A very soft natural breath in the belly.

And feeling that with every exhale you can let go and let go of the thoughts.

You can let go of any little tensions in the body.

You can let go of any of your anxieties as if you could just breathe them out and let them go.

With every exhale allowing yourself to fall deeper and deeper into rest.

Resting and softening.

Resting and letting go.

Letting go of your thoughts.

This sense that you're falling back into rest.

And that the thoughts are getting further and further away.

The sound of my voice getting further and further away.

And you can drop down into rest with every exhale relaxing a little more.

A little more and a little more.

Feeling that sleep is waiting for you with her arms open wide.

With every single breath just exhale fall deeper and deeper into sleep.

Thank you.