Hello,
Welcome to your yoga nidra practice.
My name is Megan.
Lie yourself down on your back with your legs soft and splayed out.
You may want a blanket to stay warm and a pillow for your head or under your knees.
I invite you to adjust your props and your body so that you feel safe and comfortable.
Rest your body and allow your bones to be as heavy as they are.
Sink down into the earth.
Yoga nidra is a practice in total systemic conscious relaxation.
By resting the body in stillness,
We journey through the phases of our existence and all the layers of the self may renew and rejuvenate.
Your sensory experience retreats as you tune into your hearing and your awareness.
No effort,
Just follow my voice.
You don't need to try and do anything.
You can't do this practice wrong.
Develop the feeling of relaxation in your body.
If at any time you need to move or adjust,
You may do so.
Notice the back of your body on the earth.
Melt your shoulders,
Your hips,
Your neck into the ground.
Smooth your forehead and soften your jaw and tongue.
Intentionally breathe,
Taking two sips of air and a long exhale.
Again,
Two sips of air and a long exhale.
Lying softly,
Notice the room you're in.
Now become aware of your entire home.
I invite you to zoom out through your geographical existence.
Become aware of your community,
Your entire city or town,
And the entire state or province where you are resting.
Continue to expand out in your cosmic address.
Sense your entire country and the entire continent you lay upon.
Sense the Northern Hemisphere and the Southern Hemisphere until you are aware that you are dwelling in stillness on the entire planet earth.
As you lay in stillness,
Bring your awareness to the movement of our planet,
Spinning and orbiting around the sun.
Our entire solar system,
The sun and eight planets,
Is spiraling through a universe so astoundingly huge and expansive.
As you rest,
Sense the opposites in our vast universe.
Everything is always moving,
Shifting and changing.
As our planet spins and rotates around the sun,
We are never stationary.
Feel your own movement.
Notice your breath move in your body.
Deep inhale,
Long exhale.
And notice that you are also resting in stillness.
You are in stillness as your breath is a constant ebb and flow.
Change and movement in your breath is always occurring in and out,
While your body also rests in stillness on the earth.
In Yoga Nidra,
We work with sankalpa,
The intention or resolve that is our authentic desire.
In a short,
Positive,
I am statement,
Your sankalpa is worded to express your heart's deepest longing.
Allow your mind to go into the quiet space associated with listening and bring your awareness to the perfect intelligence of your body and heart.
Receive the sankalpa that wants to come through you at this time.
Examples may be,
I am at home in my body.
I am at ease and open to insight.
In the relaxed state of Yoga Nidra,
Your sankalpa holds immense power.
Repeat your sankalpa three times with wholehearted courage and focused attention.
We will begin the rotation of consciousness,
A journey of sensory awareness flowing through the body.
Move your awareness to different parts of your body as you hear me name them.
Your body will remain still as you notice the parts.
We begin with the right hand thumb,
Second finger,
Third finger,
Fourth finger,
Fifth finger,
The palm of the hand,
The back of the hand,
Wrist,
Forearm,
Elbow,
Upper arm,
Shoulder,
Armpit,
Waist,
Hip,
Thigh,
Knee,
Calf,
Ankle,
Heel,
Sole of the right foot,
Top of the foot,
Right big toe,
Second toe,
Third toe,
Fourth toe,
Fifth toe.
I invite your awareness to travel to your left hand thumb,
Second finger,
Third finger,
Fourth finger,
Fifth finger,
Palm of the hand,
Back of the hand,
Wrist,
Forearm,
Elbow,
Upper arm,
Shoulder,
Armpit,
Waist,
Hip,
Thigh,
Knee,
Calf,
Ankle,
Heel,
Sole of the foot,
The sole of the left foot,
The top of the foot,
Left big toe,
Second toe,
Third toe,
Fourth toe,
Fifth toe.
Bring your awareness to the top of your head,
Your head,
Right temple,
Left temple,
Right ear,
Left ear,
Right eyebrow,
Left eyebrow,
The middle of the eyebrows,
Right eye,
Left eye,
Right nostril,
Left nostril,
Right cheek,
Left cheek,
Upper lip,
Lower lip,
Both lips together,
Chin,
Jaw,
Throat,
Right collarbone,
Left collarbone,
Right side of the chest,
Left side of the chest,
The heart,
The whole right side of the body,
The whole left side of the body,
The whole body,
The whole body.
Bring your awareness to your breath and as you inhale,
Sense or imagine or visualize an ocean wave incoming onto a beach and as you exhale,
Notice the wave returning to the ocean and as you do,
Feel your body empty out.
As you inhale,
Imagine the wave flowing onto the beach and as you exhale,
Feel the beach and your body empty as the wave returns to the ocean.
You can allow your breath to move naturally.
You are not the breather.
You are being breathed and as you are,
You're aware of the ocean wave coming onto the beach when you inhale and empty from the beach as you exhale.
You are not the breather,
Just as you are not the mover of the waves in the ocean,
But how peaceful it feels to watch it.
Dwell in your awareness of the ocean waves moving in time with the breath that's breathing you.
Let the imagery of watching the ocean wave fall away.
Continue to be aware of your breath breathing you and now welcome the feeling of spaciousness in your body.
Imagine the body expanding.
Sense the body expanding and flowing into the universe.
You are everywhere.
And now welcome the feeling of smallness in your body.
Imagine your body shrinking.
Sense the body decreasing in size,
As tiny as a grain of sand.
Return to the feeling of spaciousness,
Feeling all the areas that are expansive.
Then welcome in the feeling of being small again.
Sense both opposing sensations at the same time.
Bring your awareness to the space between your eyebrows,
The screen of your mind.
With your feeling and awareness,
I invite you to visualize the images that I will name.
Moving from one image to the next as I name them.
Dew covered grass in the spring.
Flower petals.
The sun setting over the ocean.
A summer thunderstorm.
Fireflies.
Leaves on the ground.
The autumn harvest moon.
Winter.
Snowflakes falling.
A red cardinal.
A red cardinal.
Dwell in the awareness of being wrapped in the morning sunrise.
Your whole body resting in peace.
In the flow of pure awareness.
From this place of still awareness,
Return to your sankalpa.
In the relaxed state,
The state of yoga nidra,
Your sankalpa holds immense power.
Repeat your sankalpa three times with wholehearted courage and focused attention.
Notice where the edges of your body meet the air.
I invite you to deepen your inhale.
And bring your awareness to the space on the earth where you rest.
Sense or imagine the room you're in.
Bring your awareness to where you are in the room and the space around you.
As you feel ready,
Bring small movements to your fingers and toes.
Take your time waking your body.
The practice of yoga nidra is complete.
My name is Megan.
Thank you so much for practicing with me.
