Yoga Nidra For Deep Rest

Hello and welcome to Yoga Nidra or guided meditation yogic sleep.

For this practice,

It's going to be done lying on your back.

So I encourage you to set up your space.

You might want to light a candle,

Take a hold of your favorite crystals,

Maybe light some incense or put on some essential oils.

Really just doing whatever you need to set up the space so that you feel super supported for this journey.

I encourage you to take a hold of an eye pillow if you have one to cover up your eyes,

Turn off your lights,

Shut your door,

Turn your notifications off.

Really just make sure you are boundaried in this space that you can receive the full benefits.

So if you need a couple moments to get that together,

Now is the time to pause this video or this recording and click play when you're ready to begin.

All right,

Go ahead and lie down on your back and allow yourself to really take up some space.

Adjust your pillows,

Your blankets until you feel like you can really settle in.

Maybe moving a little to the left,

A little to the right and start to become aware of your breath now.

Breathing in and out through the nose.

Take a deep breath in.

Hold at the top.

Exhale,

Sigh out through the mouth.

Breathing in.

Holding it at the top.

Sigh out the mouth.

And remembering throughout this process,

If your breath feels fuller or more shallow than mine,

It's okay and definitely meet yourself where you are.

My cues are just a suggestion and it's always important to take care of yourself,

Adjusting as necessary.

Breathing in again.

Hold at the top.

Exhale,

Sigh of relief.

Breathe in.

Imagine the air is coming all the way from the lowest lobes of your lungs,

Filling up all the way,

Feeling your collarbones lift,

Holding at the top.

Exhaling,

Release,

Let go.

Do two more nice deep breaths.

Breathing in,

Imagining like you're pulling the energy from the bottoms of the feet all the way up your spine,

Crown of your head.

Holding at the top.

Exhaling.

Letting go,

Releasing,

Checking your jaw,

Your forehead.

Are you relaxed or are you tense?

Maybe opening and closing the mouth.

One more nice deep breath from the bottoms of the feet,

Up the spine,

Filling the lungs to the top of the head.

Hold.

Breathing full,

Exhale,

Sighing it out through the mouth.

Beautiful.

Allowing yourself to let go of this prescribed breath pattern.

Allow your eyes to be closed,

Letting the eyeballs rest in the sockets.

Coming to this place of stillness,

Maybe noticing any differences that you feel now from when you started the practice.

A sense of surrendering to gravity,

Surrendering to the journey of this yoga nidra.

Beautiful.

We're going to go through a body scan now.

And there's no need to move your body when I talk about the different parts of the body,

But simply be aware,

Holding each point of the body in your mind's eye as I speak about them.

So beginning with the eyes.

Start to become aware of your eyes.

Left eye,

Right eye,

Both eyes.

Notice the back of your eyes,

The center of your eyes,

Surface of your eyes.

Left eyelid,

Right eyelid,

Both eyelids.

Feel each eyelash.

Bring your awareness now to your ears.

Left ear,

Right ear.

Noticing both ears.

Following the ears into the inner ear,

Noticing eardrum,

Ear canal.

Feel your ears listening,

Receiving sound right in this moment.

Feel your ears hearing.

To bring your awareness now to your mouth.

Noticing upper lip,

Lower lip.

Noticing the space where the lips touch.

Roof of your mouth,

Bottom of your mouth.

Noticing upper teeth and gums,

Lower teeth and gums.

The root of your tongue,

Center of your tongue,

Tip of your tongue.

Feel your tongue resting in your mouth.

Noticing space between your molars.

Left cheek,

Right cheek,

Both cheeks.

Bring your awareness now to your head,

Back of your head,

Top of your head,

Left temple,

Right temple,

Feeling your whole head resting on the earth,

Heavy,

Supported.

Noticing each and every muscle in your face,

Letting it relax,

Letting it rest now.

Nothing to do here but simply be and feel the miracle of your body.

Moving your awareness now to your neck.

Notice left side,

Right side,

Both sides.

Notice your throat,

Feel it relax.

Noticing your nose,

Your left nostril,

Right nostril,

Both nostrils.

Follow the nasal passages all the way into the head,

Into the body.

Feel your nose and your body receiving the air,

Air that flows through the nostrils,

Into the lungs,

Oxygenating the whole body,

Each cell,

Receiving what it needs.

Breathing it in,

Breathing out,

Marveling that there's nothing you need to do,

That this process started with your first breath and that you will continue breathing until your last,

Continuing to be nourished by air that's all around you,

Plentiful,

Always present for you,

To be nourished,

To be filled with energy.

Bring your awareness now to your left shoulder,

Imagining it as a point of light,

Like a star in the sky.

Left shoulder,

Right shoulder,

Point of light.

Feel the point of light of your right shoulder shining,

Glowing.

Left shoulder glows,

Right shoulder glows,

Both shoulders glow.

You can imagine in your mind's eye what color,

What color is glowing from your body.

It's a bright white,

Pink,

Sparkly,

Dark color,

Picking whatever color suits you best.

Allow your awareness now to drift to the left elbow,

Imagining it as a point of light,

Shining,

Glowing with that same color.

Feeling left thumb,

Pointer finger,

Ring finger,

Middle finger,

Pinky finger.

Feel your back of your hand,

The palm of your hand,

Your wrist.

Feeling each fingertip be a point of light,

Like a star in the sky.

Feel it buzzing with radiant vibration.

Feel how alive your hand is.

Allowing your awareness to move now to your left hip,

Lighting your left hip up in your mind's eye like a star in the sky.

Noticing your left glute,

Upper thighs,

Your knee.

Notice your left knee,

Kneecap,

Back of the knee.

Feel your knee glowing with that bright light.

Following down the left leg,

Tracing down your shins,

Calves,

Moving to your left ankle.

Feel the buzzing vibration of the white or whatever bright light chosen in your mind's eye for your left ankle.

Heel.

Feel the sole of your foot,

Top of your foot.

Imagine tracing the bottom of your foot in your mind's eye.

What would your footprint look like?

Feeling the intricacies of the sensitive skin of your feet.

Big toe,

Second toe,

Third toe,

Fourth toe,

Pinky toe.

And then feel your whole left foot glowing alive with this vibrant energy.

Exhale.

Moving to the base of your spine.

Relaxing through the glutes,

Through the pelvis.

Breathe into the base of the spine.

And imagine there is a bright light at the tip of your tail,

Your tailbone.

With each breath in,

The light glows a bit brighter.

Bring your awareness now to your right foot,

Right pinky toe,

Fourth toe,

Third toe,

Second toe,

Big toe.

Notice the top of the foot and the bottom of the foot.

Breathe in.

Feel the glow of your right foot alive and filled with energy.

Imagine your right footprint following the sensitive skin of the foot.

Breathing into the right ankle,

The right heel.

Delicately bringing your awareness up the right shin,

The right calf.

Imagine the back of your right knee,

Your right kneecap,

The sides of your knee.

Breathing in.

With each breath in,

The light glows just a bit brighter in this right knee joint.

Feeling up the right leg,

Feeling the back of the right thigh,

Inner thigh,

Outer thigh,

Top of the thigh.

Tracing with your awareness,

Delicately,

Sensitively feeling each part of you as you move up towards the right hip.

Notice the back of your hip,

Front,

Sides.

Breathing in,

Feel the right hip glowing,

Supporting you.

Bring your awareness now to your right hand.

Feeling the back of the hand,

The palm of the hand,

Right thumb,

Pointer finger,

Middle finger,

Ring finger,

Pinky finger.

Might notice energy pulsing in your hand.

Enjoy the sensation.

Feel the pleasure of witnessing your body in this moment.

How alive you are.

Feeling your blood pumping.

Move your awareness now to your right wrist.

Delicately tracing up the forearm to the right elbow.

Feeling front of the arm,

The back of the arm,

Elbow and the crease of the elbow.

Imagine your right elbow glowing in space,

Lighting up with energy and pulsation.

Breathing into the right upper arm.

Feeling the back of the arm,

Front of the arm,

The right shoulder.

Feel your right shoulder glowing with energy.

Take your awareness now to your rib cage.

Feeling your ribs expand in the back,

Sides and front.

Each breath in and as you're breathing out,

Notice that your rib cage comes closer together.

Every breath out.

Breathing with the breath in,

Contracting with the breath out,

Protecting your beautiful lungs.

Now imagine that each point of light were to glow together like a constellation in the night sky.

Lighting up each star of your body at once.

Left eye.

Left shoulder.

Left elbow.

Left wrist.

Left palm.

Left fingertips.

Left hip.

Left knee.

Left foot.

Left toes.

Face of the spine.

Right foot.

Right toes.

Right ankle.

Knee.

Right hip.

Right hand.

Right fingertips.

Point of light glowing all at once.

Constellations in the night sky.

Right wrist.

Right elbow.

Shoulder.

Right eye.

Face of the throat.

Crown of the head.

Breathe in,

Feeling every point of light glowing.

The deeper you breathe,

The brighter the light is glowing.

As you breathe out,

The light comes a bit dimmer.

Beautiful.

Bring your awareness now to the whole backside of your body.

Feel each part of your body as it touches the earth.

Noticing the back of your head.

Shoulder blades.

Lower back glutes.

Back of your legs.

The bottoms of your feet as they rest comfortably on the earth.

Feel how heavy your body is against the earth.

Allow yourself to surrender.

Surrender to the earth.

Now notice how light you feel.

Your light body practically floating on the ground as if you were on a cloud.

Notice the lightness in your body and the heaviness.

Light.

Heavy.

Both.

Bring your awareness now to the front side of your body.

Side of your body that's facing the sky.

Feel your face,

Your heart,

Belly,

Pelvis,

The fronts of your legs.

And the warm glow of the sun shining down on you.

Feeling how the air meets your skin.

Noticing all the skin of your body.

How it protects you.

Feeling how it contains you.

It envelops you.

Imagine as if you could dissolve the barrier that separates your skin from all the air that's around you.

If you could just merge,

Merge with the air and the molecules around you.

What it feel like to be a part of everything around you.

And then coming back,

Back into the body.

Letting your awareness fall into your physical body.

Breathing.

Beautiful.

Now bringing to your awareness your heartfelt desire.

Asking your heart,

What is the truest,

Most beautiful thing that you desire?

Saying it to yourself as an I am affirmation statement three times.

For example,

I am expansive.

And as always,

If nothing comes to mind in terms of an affirmation,

It's a beautiful thing to let the space be open to receiving something from the practice.

Just surrendering to the unknown of what you might receive from this practice.

Good.

Breathing in and out through the nose.

Imagine like your breath is the tide of an ocean.

Every breath in the wave crashes to shore.

With every breath out,

Receding back into the fullness of the sea.

Breathing in,

Wave crashing.

Breathing out,

Receding back,

Back,

Back out to sea.

Each breath in,

You see the single wave crash in your mind's eye.

Breathing out,

The wave is called back to the whole,

To the ocean,

To the expansiveness.

With each of your breaths,

Remembering that you can always come back to the sacred,

Safe,

Serene place within your heart and that it's always available to you.

So to bring your awareness now to your mind,

Noticing what's present in the mind.

Are your thoughts moving quickly?

Are they repeating?

Is there something that's very present,

Calling your attention?

Or perhaps it feels a little more slow,

Open.

Whatever is present for you in your mind,

Simply notice and allow it,

Letting it go.

Releasing it.

Being aware now of any emotions that are present in your body.

Noticing the part of you that is happy,

Part of you that is sad.

Noticing any anger,

Any grief.

Noticing joy,

Noticing exhaustion,

Noticing rest.

And allowing whatever emotion might be present within your body and mind,

Just letting it be without judgment,

Without needing to analyze.

Simply being in the state of the observer.

Beautiful.

Bring your awareness back into your breath,

Breathing in and out.

Coming to the end of our beautiful yoga nidra practice.

Let's repeat again,

Once more,

Your affirmation,

Your heartfelt desire.

Imagining like you're a gardener planting a seed deep within the soil,

Watering it.

Knowing that the more intention that we place on this beautiful seed,

Watering it and nourishing it,

The more it will grow and blossom within us beyond our wildest imaginations.

So repeating again your I am statement.

Or simply calling to mind again that openness,

That surrendering to receive something.

And letting it go.

Noticing the backside of your body,

The front.

Start to call your attention back into the physical space.

Great wiggle fingers,

Toes,

Perhaps you even like to take a deep stretch with the hands above the head.

Gently rolling over onto one side,

Curling up in the fetal position.

Turning your heart towards the earth.

Staying as long as you like,

Knowing there is no rush,

Preserving this beautiful state that you've taken the time to create over the last few minutes.

You're ready to move on with your day.

Use the strength of your arms to press you up into a supported seat.

Putting your hands onto your body,

One hand on top of the other on your heart.

Cultivating some gratefulness for your body for constantly supporting you,

Your beautiful heart beating.

So thankful for this life.

Getting some gratitude for the self,

Taking time to nourish yourself in this way.

Finger hands to your third eye.

Namaste.

Thank you for sharing your practice with me.

The light in me sees and honors the light within each and every one of you.

I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day or a great night's sleep.

See you next time.