Yoga Nidra - Float Down the River

45:25

45:25

Yoga Nidra - Float Down the River

by Melanie Dawn

Rated

4.8

Type

guided

Activity

Meditation

Suitable for

Everyone

Plays

1k

Float down the river inside this yoga nidra practice. Journeying through the 5 koshas and symbolically visiting all layers of self. Stay aware to watch the mysteries of your underworld and consciousness unite. You can use this as a sleep practice or a practice to remain aware and welcoming to the possibility of deep and lasting healing.

Meet your Teacher

Black Diamond, AB, Canada

Meet your Teacher

Black Diamond, AB, Canada

Transcript

Welcome to the practice of yoga nidra. Find somewhere quiet, Safe, And relaxing to lay down, Stretch yourself out, Catch yourself in vulnerable areas, And choose padding for the back of the head. Maybe even a soft pillow to the back of the neck. And straightening the head to bring the chin to the center of your chest. Tuck just slightly, But not too much. Enough just to lengthen the back of the neck. And maybe you keep your eyes open, Just glancing ahead, Maybe towards the ceiling, And starting to slow down and create heaviness through each blinking of your eye. And the shoulders that are supporting the back of your heart bridge together at the spine, Lifting the sternum slightly, Creating a buoyancy through the ribcage, Relaxing and releasing every beat of your heart. And you might notice how your arms are laying. Maybe the palms are facing towards the outside of your hip. Maybe they're facing the ground, Or they could even be turned up in a gesture of open receptivity, Creating a long line of energy from your chin down to your pubic bone, Right and left leg, Loosely hanging from midline. Every single toe softening, Becoming more and more spacious. With this soft exploration of your physical body, More space is made for your breath. All the patterns of tension melt away. Whole body melting, Melting, Melting, Turning into the subtler layers of self. The subconscious mind becomes spacious, Open, Receptive to new experience, A new way of looking at the world, A different color of lens. Through what lens do you wish to see the world? I am trusting, I am completely at peace, Letting go of control, Letting go of predictable outcome, Letting go of all attachment. I am valued. I'm seen in the highest light. I see myself from the highest light. What your soul is craving for you to re-remember silently. Let it echo through the chamber, The interior of your body, The intelligence of each cell, Awakening every memory that this is so. I am, I am, I am releasing any control, Attachment, Gripping, Suffering, Desiring, Loosely letting go of your sankalpa, Trusting that it is completely absorbed into each cell and the new memory of your body. The journey through consciousness begins at the head of a river, Where two rivers join and become one, And a red kayak awaits you on the shore. You are completely nude, Non-attachment, Completely free of all past identity. See yourself inside the kayak. How do you move the kayak from shore so that you can journey down deeper and deeper into consciousness, Deeper yet subtler, Less gross, Completely untethered to the world. The first stop where you slow down. This is where you gather your things for your trip, What you're bringing for your feet, Both feet, Feel your feet and what you'll need. Become aware of your lower legs, Both lower legs, What you're taking on your journey. Become aware of your hips and upper legs, Whole legs, And what you'll need to bring. Become aware of your waist, All the way down to your toes, Relaxing, Aware of all the things you'll need from your waist down to your toes. Become aware of your upper body, Shoulders, Chest, Both arms, Right side, Left side, Whole upper body, From your shoulders to your hip bones, Fingernail, Thumbprint, Inside of your elbows. Imagine everything that you'll need, Bring it with you in your kayak. What will you need for the top of your head, Back of your head, Forehead, Your eyes, Face, Ears, Lips, Chin, Whole head, Whole body, The crown of your head, The soles of your feet, Whole body, Left, Right, Whole body. The river is becoming wider, You float fast, And sometimes you float slow. There's bumps all along the way, Floating peacefully, Chaotically, Full-time trusting. On both right and left side of the river is a tall forest, Trees over 60 feet tall, So tall, The sun is hidden behind the trees, The river, The kayak, The shore, All cloaked in darkness. Your hearing awakens, Becoming more and more magnified, Hearing the breath of the trees, Breathing in unison, Your body beating on the life force of the trees, Your breath being breathed by the trees, Complete and total balance, Harmony, Unison, Float with the trees, Uniting in breath, Counting backwards from eight to two. If you haven't reached your second last breath with the trees, Stop counting, Start being, Rest, Let your mind drop back, Soften your whole body, Moving back into the sun, The water gets muddier, It seems to speed up and slow down, You're going right, You're going left, All of this turbulence can be slowed down, This is where you drop off all of your thoughts of the future, All of your thoughts in the past, This is where you become completely present, Watching all thoughts, Watching your thoughts of the future and witnessing your thoughts of the past, The water steadies, Deepens, Becomes more stable, As you are more and more present, Not in the future, Not in the past, Right here, In the mental layer, We hold so many preferences, These preferences dictate our life and the way we see the world, Neutralizing the charge between opposites, Is where freedom is found, Inside the kayak, You become so heavy, The kayak starts to drop more and more below the surface, Settling on the viscous edge of the water, You feel so heavy, So heavy, So heavy, And then lightness comes, The water begins to lift you back up, Onto its tensile surface, Here you float, Floating, Floating, Floating, Feel both heavy and light at the same time, Heavy and light, Heavy and light, Heavy and light, Feel all of your weight shift to the right, And the kayak begin to pull everything over to the right, Feel the right side of your body, Pressing against the right side of the kayak, Now feel shift to the left, The kayak rocks, And rolls over to the left, Your left shoulder, Arm, And leg press against the left side of the kayak, The kayak moves left, And feel the center, As you are righted, Back into balance, Feel yourself come to center, In your body, In your kayak, In your mind, Feel yourself come to center, We are moving quickly, Things go by sight quickly, Draw on awareness quickly, They come and they go, And none of it is attached to the next moment, All of it is experienced exactly as is, Here, A bright blue moon, Three small raccoons, Passing by an upside down turtle, Floating, Floating, Floating, The river is quickly moving you into the ocean, The ocean, The unified field of consciousness, Where all rivers meet, All water joins, The union of the universe, You are moved into total absorption, Whole body relaxation, Dissolution, As you reunite and commune with the wholeness of all that is, All that is, All that is, Wholeness, Union, You may get pulled away, Following a thought or an object, Let yourself drop softly, Back inside the kayak, Relaxing into the unified field, Full awareness, Connection, Totally absorbed, Any answer you seek available here, Feel your body start to collect, Where you separate from all that is, And become an individual expression of all that is, As you piece your body back together, Slowly, In ceremony, Insert your sankalpa, I am, As the right leg begins to form, I am, Left leg, I am, Pelvic bowl, I am, Organ body, I am, The lungs, Through which you communicate and receive life, I am, Your very unique and needed heart, I am, Right arm, Left arm, Every single finger, With a different expression of you, I am, The wisdom of your throat, I am, The beauty of your face, I am, The entire skull, I am, I am, Your whole body, As though I am, Was a color, Glowing, Radiating, Illuminated, Transcendent, I am, Floating, Slow, Long circles, Beginning at the head of the river, Where the two rivers join, You have returned, Release the kayak, Step back to shore, Lay down on the grass, Pause, This is the sacred pause that happens at the beginning and the end, The in-between, There is nothing to do here, Begin to scan the body, This body that has carried you into the unknown, Without this tool, We remain at the surface, Unable to see what experiences, What stories, What we tell ourself, And how we see the world, Through the lens of our past, How we see ourself, Through the lens of rejection, Unworthiness, When the truth is, The truth is, We are infinite, When you can begin to slowly start to move the wrists and ankles, In yoga nidra, We move a lot of energy, And it happens without moving the body at all, But energy can become blocked in your wrists and your ankles, So moving them clockwise, And then counterclockwise, Before you fully awaken, And then after moving through multiple rotations of your bigger joints, Come back into complete stillness, And feel the heat as it moves through the joints, And you're connecting with your energy there, That is how much power you carry in your body at all times, And now we'll take a bend through the knees, And if you have enough space, And you're physically cleared to do this, I'd like to move the body just a little bit, You can opt out and stay in shavasana or sit, But to fully release the energy through the spinal cord, If you take a bend through your knees and plant the soles of your feet into the earth, And then arms could come out to a T, So the fingers reaching away from each other at shoulder height, And dropping the knees softly over to the left really slowly, And just before they meet the ground, Or the extent of their mobility, Come back through center and over to the right, And we'll do this with longer, Slower breaths, Inhales to rise, Exhales to fall, And eventually, After the spine has been warmed enough times left to right, We'll land knees over to the left, And if you're there, And it feels like you have enough space in your neck, You could turn your gaze, Your eyesight to the right, And whenever you feel complete there, We'll come back up through center with an inhale, Realign the hips, Because they'll often go off on one side or the other, And then drop the knees over to your other side, And this time, Once you land there, Gaze turns left, And if you have any hovering of the knees or legs, That's completely and totally common, I do too, You can always put a pillow between the knees or just underneath the bottom leg, And now settling into your breath once again, So becoming really aware of how your belly is moving and your rib cage is moving, And we're just slowly waking up our awareness, We want pretty deep inside the practice, But coming back out, It's almost like rising up from the bottom of the ocean, And we'll come back to center with an inhale, And you can take a hug of the knees over your heart if you have the space, And then slowly make your way up to seated, We'll be closing our yoga nidra in seated meditation tonight, And this is not something that happens all the time, But it is a really great practice to slowly bring your awareness back to your body. A good comfortable meditation seat is the sit bones connected to the earth, And if you have tight hips, You might want to put a pillow underneath the sit bones so that that's your anchor, Your connection, And a block or two underneath each knee is sometimes needed and necessary, And sometimes people can't even sit with their legs crossed, So you could take whatever seat is comfortable, And if a wall works, That's good too. Once you arrive wherever you're comfortable, You'll just gently tuck the chin towards the clavicle once again, And option to close the eyes or have them looking softly in front of you. There were no hand cues, So notice where your hands are, And if this is in some way an energetic protection or a guard, Or if you're actually holding your hands in a position or a place that is creating tension, And we might want to even hug the shoulders up to the ears and take a deep breath in, And then hold the shoulders at the ears, Hold the breath for three, Two, One. Big exhale out, Subtle lift of the heart, Gentle tuck of the chin, Eyes closed or gaze softened, Starting to turn attention only towards the breath. Notice the external energies that are happening around you, And from the energies go into sounds, What sounds are happening around you. Take sound to a subtler level, What sounds are happening within you, And this might be hearing the heartbeat in your ear, Maybe attuning the hearing enough to hear it in your wrist, And becoming aware of the weight of gravity resting on your shoulders, Crown of your head, The tops of your knees, Whole body weighted, Heavy in gravity, And this is a beautiful opportunity to bring with you your desire for how you wish to see the world and be seen. I am, Your I am statement, I'm loved, I'm valued, I'm seen, I'm worthy, I'm safe, I trust, I surrender, I am will resonate with your heart, You'll recognize it, And bring it into your body once again, And if you remember in the Nidra, This I am sound created a color, If you want to see that color again, And maybe even just inquire why that color, It's a good time to do that deeper inquiry. Symbolism is so much more than surface, Color can mean a whole lot of things that you can unlock, And then before you go, If you want to ask your highest self if there's anything that you need to know or take away from this practice, If there's anything the highest self feels called to share, What do I need to know, And even noticing if there is like a really loud inner voice I need to get going, Slow that right down, And ask it why, And we'll close our practice with three full deep breaths in through the nose, And out through the mouth, Breathing in nice and slow, In through the nose, Down into the belly, And a big empty out, Another breath in, Filling the belly, Expanding in all four directions, Widening the rib cage, And open mouth release, You could even sigh that one out, And last full breath here, Your biggest breath, The one that is gonna set you off as you unwind for your evening, Big release, And the practice of yoga nidra is now complete.