Flowing Awareness In Chakras Into Stillness In Yoga Nidra

Come down into your body.

You might take a few deeper breaths,

Move your body around however you would like to get ready.

As we're preparing to go into the practice,

Let yourself rest for a moment in your heart center and bring forward your sankalpa,

Your intention for this practice.

If you have something that you're worried about right now,

You might set an intention that my mind will have ease and stillness.

Let yourself come into an awareness of what is your intention.

Let that rest in your heart for a moment without words.

And then let go of the sankalpa,

Let it move to the background and bring your awareness to your physical body from head to toes.

Notice what it feels like to be in whatever position you're in.

Just do a little mini body scan.

Notice your forehead,

Eyebrows and eyes,

Mouth and jaw,

Your tongue,

Your throat,

The sides of your neck,

The back of your neck,

Large muscles of your upper back,

Through your mid back,

Lower back.

And notice the back of your arms,

Back of your legs.

And then bring your awareness along the front of your body back to your face,

Your mouth and jaw,

And then into the front of your arms,

Down to your hands,

Large muscles of your chest,

Stomach area,

Front of your legs,

Down to your toes.

And then imagine that you're standing in a warm tropical waterfall and let your awareness start to sweep from the top of your head down through your body.

If you're in the tropics here,

Warm,

There might be birds,

There's the scent of flowers.

You could really bring yourself into that using your senses,

Visualizing that.

Or you might remember standing in a shower,

The warmth of the water coming in from the top of your head down through your neck and shoulders.

Bring your awareness into some experience of softening from head to toes.

And when we're feeling the warm water,

We often notice that our shoulders start to soften,

Large muscles of our upper back.

Maybe the water is flowing along the sides of your neck,

Over your shoulders,

Down through your arms and hands,

And let any tightness or tension flow out of your body.

And the front of your body,

The face again,

The chest,

The front of your legs,

Down to your toes.

And for a few breaths,

Let your awareness flow from the top of your head all the way down to your feet on an exhalation.

Deep inhale,

Long exhalation,

Let your awareness flow from head to toes.

And each time you breathe out,

Let your body become softer,

Steadier.

Bring your mind in from other times and other places.

And then start to be aware of the interior space in your body,

The physical body.

We have the pranamaya kosha,

The layer of energy and the breath.

And the layer of energy and breath is the layer that we're working with with this practice.

We're going to start to breathe just through the interior space of your body,

Your physical body.

And then there's this energy field.

And begin to let your awareness sweep from the top of your head down through the interior space.

Your head and throat,

Your chest and belly,

Arms and legs.

We're kind of combining an awareness of the physical body and of the energy body,

The pranamaya kosha.

Deep inhale,

And each time you exhale,

Start from the crown chakra and let your awareness flow down through your body.

Now let your awareness come to rest in the crown chakra,

Sahasrara.

We're going to slow things down now and go from the energy field into the chakra system.

So exhale from the crown chakra.

Just that very short distance to the ajna chakra,

The eyebrow center in behind the forehead,

Just above the physical eyebrows.

And as you're breathing,

Let your awareness flow very gently from the eyebrow center up to the crown chakra,

From the crown chakra breathing down to the eyebrow center.

Relax your forehead,

Let your breath be smooth.

Some people visualize the chakras as a thin glass tube or a stream of energy,

A stream of light.

However that comes for you,

Don't struggle with it,

Just let it be what it is.

And let your awareness flow from the top of your head,

Your crown chakra,

Through to your eyebrow center,

Inhaling back to the crown chakra.

Begin to really focus your mind,

There's no other thoughts in the mind.

And now extend this down to your throat chakra,

From the crown through the eyebrow center to the throat center,

Inhaling from the throat center up through the eyebrow center,

Back to the crown.

And just as you're finishing inhaling,

You've arrived at the top of your head.

Start your exhalation,

Smooth,

Even flow from the crown through the eyebrow center to the throat center of a Vishuddhi chakra.

Let your breath be continuous and smooth.

And if other thoughts come in,

Just let them move to the background.

Let all of your awareness flow in this Ashumna channel,

Right now from the crown chakra through the eyebrow center to the throat center and back.

And then on your next exhalation,

Come down to your heart center,

Anahata chakra.

Same smooth flow of awareness.

Inhale through your heart center,

Up through your throat center,

Eyebrow center to the crown chakra,

The thousand-petaled lotus.

From the crown chakra,

Letting go,

Letting your awareness flow smoothly down through this channel,

The Ajna chakra,

Vishuddhi chakra to the Anahata chakra.

Just as you're finishing your exhalation,

You've reached your heart center and then smoothly moving into this upward flow through the channel.

You might notice if you need to soften your muscles of your neck and shoulders,

Your chest,

Your back,

But let your awareness be flowing right in this central channel,

Crown of the head through the chakras to the heart center and then back to the crown.

Your mind completely still except for this flow of awareness.

Your next exhalation,

Let your awareness flow down through to Manipura chakra,

The navel center.

Smooth flow through this channel of light,

Of energy.

Let yourself be aware of each of the chakras as you pass by them,

Pass through them.

And then from the navel center,

Inhaling up through the heart chakra,

The throat chakra,

The eyebrow chakra,

And the crown chakra.

Exhale from the crown through to the navel center,

Smooth continuous flow,

Breath,

Awareness.

And then your next exhale,

Come down to Swadhisthana,

The second chakra,

Through this smooth flow of awareness through this channel,

Crown through the eyebrow center,

Throat center,

Heart center,

Navel center,

And Swadhisthana chakra,

The second chakra.

And then just as you reach that,

Move back into the upward flow.

Let your mind be completely absorbed in this flow.

Some people might have a visual awareness of the chakras,

Might be more like a thin stream of light or of awareness,

Whatever has ease for you.

And exhaling from the crown to Swadhisthana chakra,

The second chakra,

Inhaling back to the crown.

And then on your next exhalation,

Come down through that channel to Muladhara chakra,

The root chakra,

And rising back up through that channel on the in-breath,

Smooth,

Easy rhythm and flow.

Let go of awareness of your physical body,

Except for the rhythm of your breath.

Let your awareness flow from the crown to the root chakra and back.

And the next time you're at your eyebrow center,

Pause there and imagine that you're breathing in and out through the Ajna chakra,

The eyebrow center.

Same smooth,

Continuous breath.

Now,

Instead of moving your awareness,

Let your breath move in and out through the chakra.

The eyebrow center is the state of being awake.

Let your mind be awake and alert.

And then bring your awareness down to your throat chakra,

Vishuddhi chakra,

The state of dreaming,

And allow your breath to move in and out through that chakra.

Let your mind be still,

Just aware of the breath,

As though you're breathing in and out through the throat center.

Bring your awareness to your heart center,

Anahata chakra.

Imagine that your breath is moving in and out,

Smooth,

Continuous flow of breath in the heart chakra.

And then let go of your breath awareness.

Come into stillness now in your heart chakra.

The state of deep,

Non-dreaming sleep.

And bring to mind your sankalpa,

Your resolve,

Your intention.

And there might be words,

More of a felt sense in your heart chakra.

What is your sankalpa for this practice?

And then let go of that.

And let's come into the stillness of yoga nidra.

All of your attention focused in the heart chakra.

Mind awake and alert.

No thoughts,

Just this awareness of stillness.

If your mind is distracted,

Just bring it back,

Come back into the heart chakra,

Back into the stillness.

Let your mind be awake and alert and focused.

Rest your attention in the stillness in the heart chakra.

As we're coming out of the practice,

Bring your awareness back to your intention,

Your sankalpa,

And let that arise in your heart center.

And then begin to let your awareness flow from the heart center through the throat center to the eyebrow center and back.

Come aware of your breath and allow it to flow.

Allow your awareness to flow smooth,

Continuous in coordination with your breath.

Take our time as we're coming into movement again.

And then begin to let your breath flow from the eyebrow center through the nostrils to the base of the nose and back.

And as you're breathing,

Notice if there are any insights or anything that came to you during the practice or that's coming to you now.

So remain aware of that flow of breath.

Might bring some movement into the fingers and the toes.

And if you're lying in shavasana,

Turn over onto your left side,

Bend your knees and support your head and focus on the breath in your right nostril.

Let the energy in the right side of your body wake up.

The energy in the right nostril,

In particular,

The pingala channel.

Bring yourself back.

If you're sleeping or if you're just in a deep state of stillness,

You could also stay in the practice.