Welcome,
We are about to practice Yoga Nidra,
Which is a systematic practice to deep relaxation.
It is important to make sure that you are completely comfortable.
You might want to use a blanket underneath your knees or even a small pillow underneath your head.
Go ahead and lie onto your back and take a few moments to make sure you are going to be as comfortable as possible.
If there is anywhere where you feel discomfort,
Make all the adjustments now.
So once we start the practice,
You don't have to move.
Relax your hands down by the hips,
Away from the body,
Palms facing up.
Separate your feet a little wider than your hips and close your eyes.
And again,
Adjust anywhere you might need,
So you are completely comfortable and you remain still through the process.
Begin to feel the body and the mind settling in this moment.
You sense your body open.
You sense the clothes against your body.
Now allow the jaw to slightly soften,
The tongue to get wide,
And the eyes to sink into your eye sockets.
Sense the whole body opening,
Effortless.
Take four breaths.
As you exhale,
Lengthen and smooth out the breath.
As you inhale,
Feel as if you draw in strength,
Nutrients.
And as you exhale,
Feel the body and the mind relaxing more and more.
With each exhale,
The body becomes softer and the mind more empty.
Gyanidra is a unique place between sleeping and dreaming.
You are awake,
Resting in the state between sleeping and dreaming.
Take a moment now to become aware of the sounds,
Initially the most distant sounds,
The sounds that are the furthest away.
Without judging what you're hearing,
Listen for the sounds.
And step by step,
Sound by sound,
Come back to yourself.
We are now going through a process of moving our awareness through the body.
I'll say a point and you'll bring attention to that point while you continue to cultivate perfect effortlessness,
Complete effortlessness.
Bring your awareness to the point between your eyebrows.
Feel or see the point of light between the eyebrows as you relax the whole body.
Center of the throat,
Relax.
Center of the right shoulder,
Point of light.
Right elbow.
Right wrist.
The tip of your right thumb,
Relax.
The tip of your right index finger.
The tip of your right middle finger,
Point of light,
Relax.
The tip of your right ring finger.
And the tip of your right little finger,
Relax.
The whole body is effortless.
Right wrist.
Right elbow.
Right shoulder,
Point of light.
Center of the throat,
Relax.
Left shoulder,
Point of light.
Left elbow,
Relax.
Left wrist.
The tip of your left thumb,
Nice and relaxed.
The tip of your left index finger.
The tip of your left middle finger,
Relax.
The tip of your left ring finger,
Relax.
And the left little finger,
Relax.
Left wrist.
Left elbow.
Left shoulder,
Point of light.
The whole body is effortless.
Center of the throat.
Center of the breastbone.
Left chest,
See,
Point of light.
Middle of the breastbone.
Right chest,
Point of light.
Middle of the breastbone,
Relax.
Center of the throat,
Point of light.
The point between your eyebrows.
The whole body is effortless,
Relaxed.
Now see all those points at once,
As if you're looking up at all those points at once,
Dropping in into that rhythm between dreaming and sleeping.
Bring your attention to the stream of air moving through your nostrils.
See the air moving from the tip of the nose to the bridge of the nose,
And from the bridge of the nose to the tip of the nose.
Now to that,
Add a kind of mental alternate nostril breathing.
So as the body breathes in,
You'll see the breath rising through the left nostril.
As the body breathes out,
You'll see it moves down through the right.
Your mental awareness rises on the inhale,
Descends on the exhale.
You're not forcing your breath.
The whole body is effortless.
And finally,
One last step,
Add counting,
Starting at count of 27.
You'll mentally repeat something like this.
Inhale right nostril 27,
Exhale left 27.
Inhale left 26,
Exhale right 26.
Inhale right 25,
Exhale left 25.
Please continue like this towards zero.
There is no rush,
No goal,
Just resting in the space between sleeping and dreaming.
Pure awareness,
The breath and the counting.
If the mind drifts,
Simply go back to number 27.
If you finish early,
Go back to 27 again.
Please continue.
And now relax the breath,
Relax the counting.
Let all the effort dissolve into depressed.
Now notice as your body breathing that there is a sense of renewal,
A sense of being revitalized.
And as you breathe out,
There is a sense that fatigue has been released.
So when you inhale,
There is a sense of being restored.
When you exhale,
You feel that stress has been dissolved.
Sense your chest relaxed,
Your belly soft,
Gently moving on the flow of the breath.
And with time,
There is less and less movement.
At the end of the exhale,
Relax.
At the end of inhale,
Relax.
Be aware that your breath flows in an effortless way.
Sense that you are not the breather,
Your body breathe,
But you are not the breather.
Your body and your mind resting.
As your breath flows,
You follow that flow in effortless awareness.
You are in the space of witnessing the breath coming and going,
Observing the breath coming and going,
Remaining effortless.
Now sense the space around the body to be charged,
Energized.
Now each time you sense your body breathe in,
Sense this ocean of subtle energy of healing and light move through your body towards the spine.
And as you breathe out,
See it floods your spine.
Each time you breathe in,
It moves inward.
Each time you exhale,
It floods the spine.
As you become more absorbed in it,
Eventually the spine become to vibrate or glow or feel incredibly full and resilient.
Now you can relax your technique and allow your mind,
Energy and spaciousness to meet at the spine.
Energy flooding your consciousness and consciousness merging with energy,
Sensation and light.
Now slowly begin to find your breath again.
Gradually deepen your breath.
And slowly bring yourself back.
Gradually move into your body.
The practice of Yoga Nidra is complete.
