Yoga Nidra For Depression & Emotional Healing

Take a minute and get comfortable laying down.

Traditionally,

Yoga nidra is done on your back in shavasana,

But if this is not comfortable for you,

Find another position that you can hold for the duration of the practice.

It's important to be still during the practice and only move if you are suffering.

Then by all means move.

Remember to always be gentle and listen to what your body needs.

It's always trying to communicate with you.

You may want to roll your shoulder blades down your back and make any other adjustments to make sure you are as comfortable as possible.

Take a moment and just get comfortable.

You deserve this.

Just notice how it feels to be laying down,

To be taking a break,

To be giving your mind and body this gift.

Notice your breath as it moves through the body.

Feel your breath move through your nose and into your stomach,

Noticing the rise on the inhale and the fall on the exhale.

You can continue with this breath,

Just noticing the rise and fall with the inhale and exhale.

Or if you would like,

You can try this breathing practice.

You're going to breathe through your nose into the bottom of your belly and then push the air out of your belly through your mouth.

It's like the breath of fire but instead of breathing out through your nose,

You'll be breathing out through your mouth.

So you have a passive inhale into your belly and then a forceful exhale by contracting your abdominal muscles to push the air out of your belly.

The inhale and exhale are the same length without any pause in between.

Continue with this breath for a few moments.

Take five more and then let this breath go.

And just notice the energy inside the body.

Become curious about how it's moving different than when you first laid down.

Feel your body.

Move your awareness from your toes through your legs,

Your toe or so,

Your arms,

Your neck,

Your head.

Awaken your focus and consciousness.

Commit to staying awake during this practice by focusing on my words and your body.

Just letting your body know that you are safe to feel whatever arises in this space.

I will lead you in and out of each experience.

Bring your awareness to your heart center.

Notice the sensations around your heart.

Notice how open it is or how guarded it is.

Then ask your heart if you have permission to enter this space.

Whatever the answer is,

It's okay.

If your heart gives you permission,

You may enter.

If not,

Just stay around the heart space.

This is where you can begin to develop a relationship and trust with your heart.

It is here that we'll place our sankalpa,

Which is the intention for this practice.

Your sankalpa should be a short present tense statement that uses positive language such as I am whole or I am alive or I am loved.

Your sankalpa can give you direction and intention around your practice.

It can also help to transform limiting beliefs into liberating ones as you plant this new one in your subconscious mind where it can grow and flourish in your life.

State your sankalpa now three times and feel it as already being true.

The practice of yoga nidra begins now.

We'll begin with a rotation of consciousness around your body,

The anamaya kosha or a body scan.

This body scan helps to strengthen the mind-body connection,

Which facilitates deep healing.

If you can feel it,

You can heal it.

This is a safe place to practice.

As I guide you to each body part position,

Allow this space to fill up your whole conscious awareness.

Get curious about each part of the body and let it fill up your mind.

If your mind wanders,

Just bring it back to my voice and your body.

Get really curious about each step of this process.

Visualize a star on your brow center.

We're going to move this star throughout the body.

Moving the star to the center of your throat,

To your right shoulder,

Right elbow,

Right wrist,

Tip of the right thumb,

Right index finger,

Middle finger,

Ring finger,

Pinky finger,

And to the right wrist,

Right elbow,

Right shoulder,

Center of the throat,

Left shoulder,

Left elbow,

Left wrist,

Tip of the left thumb,

Index finger,

Middle finger,

Ring finger,

Pinky finger,

Left wrist,

Left elbow,

Left shoulder,

Center of the throat,

Star at the center of your chest,

And then moving it to the right nipple,

Back to the center of the chest,

Left nipple,

Back to the heart center,

To the solar plex,

Navel center,

Two inches below the belly button,

Right hip,

Right knee,

Right ankle,

Right big toe,

Tip of the second toe,

Third toe,

Fourth toe,

Fifth toe,

Center of the right ankle,

Right knee,

Right hip,

Navel center,

Left hip,

Left knee,

Left ankle,

Left big toe,

Tip of the second toe,

Third toe,

Fourth toe,

Fifth toe,

Left ankle,

Left knee,

Left hip,

Navel center,

Solar plex,

Heart center,

Center of the throat,

Brow center.

Now feel each star that you've placed around your body light up at once.

Now feel the space between the stars.

You may imagine your whole body lighting up like a starry night,

Solar system.

Feel your whole body as part of this universe.

Notice yourself expanding in all directions on the inhale,

And then on the exhale,

Coming back to your heart center,

And then expanding out again on the exhale.

Continue just noticing this natural expansion and contraction of energy.

Then notice yourself in complete wholeness.

Begin to notice the breath moving through the body,

And without changing anything,

We'll begin to count the breath backwards from 28 to 0.

An inhale and an exhale counts as one breath.

It does not matter if you lose track,

Just simply start again at 28,

And if you hit 0,

You'll just start again.

So inhale 28,

Exhale 28,

Inhale 27,

Exhale 27.

Continue on your own.

Exhale 28,

Exhale 28,

Inhale 28,

Exhale 28,

Exhale 28,

Exhale 28,

Exhale 28,

Exhale 28,

Exhale 28.

And let the counting go.

We're now going to move into pairs of opposites.

By allowing yourself to feel each feeling with its opposite,

You'll begin to clear out old stuck emotions that we have denied ourselves from feeling.

The practice helps you learn that it's safe to feel and then release an emotion and that we're able to feel two opposite emotions at the same time.

As you move through this practice,

Work to experience the emotion in the body.

Notice the sensations,

The texture,

The movement,

The energy,

The density,

The lightness of each emotion.

I will lead you into and out of each emotional state.

Invite in the feeling of heaviness.

Notice where you feel heaviness in the body.

Invite this feeling in.

Noticing where you feel it most in the body.

Noticing the density and the sensations connected to heaviness.

Now let that go and come back into wholeness.

Now invite in the feeling of lightness.

Invite lightness into your body.

Noticing the sensations connected to lightness.

Where do you feel it most in the body?

How does it move through the body?

Now invite both heaviness and lightness at the same time.

And let them both go and come back into wholeness.

Invite in the feeling of numbness.

Get curious how numb shows up in the body.

Focus on its texture,

Its weight,

Its energy,

Its movement.

Now let go of the feeling of numbness and come back into wholeness.

And then invite in the feeling of thriving.

Notice how the feeling of thriving moves through the body.

Noticing the sensations as you invite this feeling in.

Where do you feel it most?

How does it move through the body?

Get curious about thriving.

Feel them both at the same time,

Numbness and thriving.

And let that experience go and come back into wholeness.

Get in the feeling of broken.

Where does brokenness show up in the body?

How do you feel it?

It's the texture,

The energy,

The movement.

And let that go and come back into wholeness.

And let yourself feel wholeness.

Does it feel like to feel whole,

To just be?

We're now moving into visualization.

Bring your awareness to your heart center and notice there is a door at the back.

Imagine yourself walking up to the door and opening it up.

And on the other side is your emotional body.

You may imagine or just feel or sense your emotional body.

What do you notice about your emotional body?

As you notice your emotional body,

You feel a sense of curiosity and compassion for this part of you.

You sit down and invite your emotional body to share whatever it wants to share with you so you can understand it better.

Just send out this invitation and listen to the messages from your emotional body.

Then I want to share with you why they're stuck where they are,

How old they are.

You may ask your emotional body what it needs from you.

And if you can,

Offer this support.

We thank your emotional body for the work it's doing and for sharing with you what it has.

If it feels all right,

You can give your emotional body a hug.

And when you're ready,

Slowly walk back towards the door you came through.

And as you enter the other side into your heart space,

You can feel that sense of openness and compassion.

Your body feels lighter.

And it is here in your heart space that you will again plant your sankalpa,

Your heart's desire,

Stating it three times now.

You may also wish to set an intention for the rest of your day.

And the practice of yoga nidra is now complete.

You may begin to notice your breath and how it moves through your body.

Slowly deepening the inhale,

Noticing your belly rise and fall on the exhale.

You may want to bring some movement to your hands and feet if this feels good.

Taking a nice stretch as you awake from your yogic sleep.

And as you awake and move into the rest of your day,

You may wish to just journal or write down some things your emotional body shared with you.

In doing so,

Know that you can continue to dialogue and become curious and get to know your emotional body better.

Haryam Tatsat Manishakarikam here.

Thank you.

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