Welcome,
My name is Natalie.
This yoga nidra is to support you if you are dealing with insomnia or trouble sleeping due to stress or having a busy mind.
Yoga nidra will support you in learning and teaching your own body and mind how to really slow down and find true rest.
As your body starts to regularly go into a restful state,
Your sleep rhythms will start to restore.
So rather than seeing sleep as a goal that you have to rush towards or run towards,
Instead make it your goal to rest and it's in that state of rest where we can let go and we can soothe insomnia and we can really allow our body to effortlessly fall asleep.
Begin to invite in a sense of softness,
Relaxation,
And calm into your body,
Into your mind.
Begin to take a few slow deep breaths,
Filling up,
Letting the breath out effortlessly.
A few more breaths,
Aware of the inhale,
And softly releasing the exhale.
Now see if you can allow your breath to become completely effortless.
Allow yourself to settle into the support,
Settle into the space,
And taking any last movements that you may need here.
And then you can allow yourself to be still.
Take a moment to sit with a sankalpa,
A heart's intention for the practice.
If you have a regular intention that you prefer to use,
Feel free to choose your own words here,
Or you can use the following.
I allow myself to settle and feel relaxed.
I allow my body to truly rest.
And repeating this statement to yourself three times,
We'll move through a gentle and slow body scan.
You could imagine a gentle warm breeze filling each part of your body as we move through,
Or healing water,
Light,
Whatever you prefer,
Whatever brings you a sense of softening and relaxation.
We'll begin at the top of the head,
And you can slowly move your awareness down the back of your head,
And grounding down,
Sensing your neck,
Slowly down to your shoulder blades,
Allowing softness and relaxation to fill the center of your back,
And sensing the space around your sacrum and tailbone.
Slowly down the backs of your legs,
And the backs of your knees,
Ankles,
And the soles of both feet.
Sensing into all of your toes,
And the toe joints,
And the tips of the toes,
And even sensing into the space around your toes.
Allow this sense of calm to slowly begin washing up through the tops of your feet,
And back up through your ankles,
Fronts of the knees,
And the space around your pelvis and lower abdomen.
Sensing the solar plexus,
And the space around and inside of your ribcage.
And moving up slowly through the front of your chest,
Sensing both shoulders,
Upper arms,
Wrists,
The palms of both hands,
And the tips of each finger,
And even the space around and in between.
Slowly moving back up the backs of your hands,
Back up through your wrists,
Elbows,
Upper arms,
Shoulders,
And sensing the sides of your neck,
The front of your throat,
And softness moving into the area around your jaw,
Cheeks,
Forehead,
And the top of the head.
And now slowly beginning to sense just the right side of your body,
Sensing into the right side of your face,
Slowly down the right side of your neck,
Shoulder,
And arm.
And coming down the right side of your waist,
Down to your right hip,
And slowly at your own pace moving down your right leg,
Down to your right foot.
And allow your attention to spread through all parts of the right side of your body.
And we'll sense the left side starting at the top of your head.
Slowly move your attention down the left side of your face,
Down to the left side of your neck,
Through your shoulder,
Left arm,
And down the left side of your waist.
And slowly down your left leg,
Down to your left foot,
Let your attention spread throughout the entire left side of your body,
Sensing the whole left side of your body.
Begin to shift your attention back to your right side,
And inviting in calm,
Rest,
Relaxation into the right side.
And inviting that same feeling of calm into the left side,
Balancing both sides of the body.
And you can allow your awareness to softly move through your whole body,
Allowing a calm and quiet presence to slowly fill you.
Sense the natural rhythm of your breath exactly as it is.
And without changing anything at all,
Simply imagine the inhale provides you with what you need and nourishes you with life.
And the exhales guide you a little further onto the path towards rest and sleep.
And begin to count each breath,
Starting at the count of 20.
Allow the inhale and the exhale to be a count of 20.
Inhale and exhale 19,
And so on.
Continue counting down.
And in your mind's eye,
Imagine small leaves falling from a tree,
Sweeping the air as they fall slowly,
Gently down.
A gentle breeze guiding each leaf to the ground safely and softly.
Imagine each thought in your mind riding and slowly gliding down with each leaf.
And landing softly to settle on the ground in the bed of leaves.
Each thought gliding and you can watch from afar,
All the little leaves gliding down side to side through the gentle breeze.
Landing as softly as a feather in the soft bed of leaves.
And let your awareness take a spot on one of these leaves.
And allow this presence and awareness to slowly glide down into a state of flow.
And into a state of effortless rest.
And eventually landing to settle in a place of stillness.
To settle in a place of eternal bliss and peaceful rest.
And your awareness and your presence continues to soften.
The images may fade.
And now you can sense all of the small intricate parts of your being,
Gently gliding slowly into relaxation,
Just like the leaves of the tree,
Taking their time,
Effortlessly flowing with the breeze until they land softly,
Softly supported.
And you allow yourself to let go and trust,
Trust in the nourishing rest.
Trust in the effortless calm.
Trust that your body and mind can walk that path towards rest.
And trust that your awareness can glide and flow effortlessly down the path towards rest.
You
