Welcome to the practice of Yoga Nidra.
Please lie down,
Close your eyes and prepare to relax.
Give yourself a few breaths out of your mouth and tell your body,
Mind and heart to let go completely.
If there is any way that you can prepare to relax deeper or more effectively,
Please do that now.
As we go through the process of Yoga Nidra,
I invite you to welcome anything and everything that comes into your awareness.
From this point on and throughout the duration of our Yoga Nidra practice,
Abandon all assessment of things and become the observer or the witness only.
Consider your intention or sankalpa,
Your purpose for practicing Yoga Nidra.
In your own mind,
Repeat,
My intention for practicing Yoga Nidra is and fill in the blank in your own head.
Again,
What is your intention for practicing Yoga Nidra?
Repeat that to yourself and your own mind one more time.
Now I invite you to relax 10% more than you are currently relaxed.
Relax your face,
Relax your entire head,
Relax your arms,
Your chest,
Belly and back.
Relax your pelvis and legs.
As we go through this process,
Don't try to control your experience.
Simply pay attention to my words and welcome and recognize and witness everything that comes into your awareness without the need to change or fix anything.
Today we are going to explore sensations and feelings in our body to practice experiencing ourselves as awareness,
As the witness.
Begin by noticing everything you are aware of in this moment.
Notice sounds,
Smells,
The temperature,
Notice any emotions,
Thoughts and internal sensations.
Simply welcome,
Recognize and witness everything in your awareness without any judgment,
Just awareness.
Begin to identify as awareness itself,
Awareness manifesting itself in the form of body,
Thoughts,
Emotions,
Sounds or anything you are aware of in this moment.
Simply allow yourself to welcome,
Recognize and witness all things as a way of experiencing yourself as awareness.
Remember,
Sensations will come and go and reveal your underlying awareness,
Be awareness itself.
As awareness,
Experience yourself as sensation.
Follow my words as you become more aware of your body and as awareness,
Allow yourself to become increasingly more relaxed,
Bring your awareness to the sensation of your mouth.
Simply notice its presence,
Welcome,
Recognize and witness the sensation of your mouth,
Eyes,
Ears,
Entire face,
Entire head.
Now feel the sensation of your neck and throat,
Your shoulders,
Arms,
Feel your left arm as sensation top to bottom,
Feel your right arm top to bottom,
Left arm,
Right arm,
Feel both arms as sensation,
Feel both arms at the same time.
Now bring awareness to the sensation of your trunk,
Your chest,
Feel your breathing,
Your belly,
Your back,
Simply welcome,
Recognize and witness the sensation of this part of your body,
Simply notice its presence as awareness.
Now bring awareness to the sensations of your pelvis,
The front,
Back and sides of your pelvis,
Simply notice it as sensation,
Simply welcome,
Recognize and witness anything that arises spontaneously such as thought,
Emotion or sensation.
Bring awareness to the sensation of your legs,
Feel your left leg hip to toes,
Feel your right leg hip to toes,
Left leg,
Right leg,
Left,
Right,
Now feel both legs,
Both legs as sensation.
Now feel the entire left side of your body head to toe,
Feel the entire right side of your body head to toe,
Left side,
Right side,
Now feel both sides,
Feel your entire body.
Now begin to feel as if your entire body is very large,
Adopt the feeling of being very small and then very large again,
Now small and now adopt the feeling of being both large and small simultaneously,
This doesn't need to make sense,
Simply feel both large and small at the same time.
What are you aware of in this moment?
Sensations will come and go,
In one moment you may feel small and in another,
Large,
What is the part of you that can be both small and large?
Sensations reveal your unchanging,
Underlying essence of awareness.
Be awareness itself,
Become extremely aware of all things in this moment as awareness itself,
Simply welcome,
Recognize and witness all things in this moment as awareness itself.
As awareness I invite you to begin to feel your body lying on the floor,
Feel the sensations of your legs,
Feet,
Pelvis,
Arms and head as awareness become acutely aware of the sensations in your hands and feet.
Now I invite you to remember your intention or sankalpa for practicing yoga nidra and in a moment we'll be ending our yoga nidra practice.
Because we have practiced experiencing ourselves as deep awareness,
You'll find yourself moving back into your everyday life with more clarity,
Purpose and focus.
You'll find answers to your questions and presence in your relationships and you'll be more compassionate and you'll feel less stress in your life and be less reactive to stress through our practice of experiencing ourselves as awareness,
Of strengthening ourselves as witness our lives become richer and more vibrant.
In a moment I will invite a bell and that will signal the end of our yoga nidra practice.
