Jewish Yoga Nidra For Rainy Season: Clear The Cloudy Mind

Hello and welcome to Nali Yoga,

The podcast with Yoga Nidra journeys for deep rest and more.

I'm Ruthie Eisenberg and I'm grateful to be here with you.

Let us prepare for deep healing rest in the practice of Yoga Nidra.

Lie down comfortably with all the supports you need such as a blanket and a thin pillow under your head,

Perhaps a bolster under your knees.

Place your feet naturally apart,

Your arms loosely by your sides or over your heart or belly.

Tilt your forehead slightly forward to elongate the back of your neck.

Arrange yourself to ensure maximum comfort and stability where you can remain still for a while.

Make any adjustments that you need to create comfort and safety for yourself.

Take your time here.

This is your time and your safe space that you are creating for yourself where you can give yourself the gift of rest.

And once you've found your shape of choice,

Extend your fingers and toes to create some tension in your hands and feet.

Inhale with it.

Now relax back to neutral.

Exhale.

Once again,

Extend your fingers and toes.

Spread them out in all directions as you inhale.

And let them go,

Naturally curving back to baseline.

And one last time,

Extending your fingers and toes.

Inhale.

Exhale.

And relax back to neutral.

You may close your eyes for the duration of this practice if you feel safe doing so.

And now you may soften your eyes and their sockets,

Allowing your brows to slide to the sides,

Allowing your ears and shoulders to soften,

Allowing the lower back to relax,

Sinking into the surface beneath you,

And bringing awareness to your breath now.

Just following the arc of your inhales and exhales naturally and organically.

There's nothing to change here.

Just follow the leadership of your breath.

And the practice of yoga nidra,

Deep rest healing,

Begins now.

As you rest here and the external world recedes to the background,

Begin to sense the exhale of the turning season.

As we enter the rainy season,

We begin this descent into the warmth of nurturing darkness where the hidden blessings of the universe gather in the unseen layers.

And now,

At this time,

We begin to pray for rain.

May the wind return and may the rain fall.

Our sages teach that rain is not just water from the sky.

It is divine abundance.

It's the flow of blessing that connects the heaven and earth.

It's the outpouring of compassion that sustains every living thing.

Whether your mind is feeling clear today or if your mind is feeling cloudy or your thoughts are gray and bleak,

Know that you are not alone and even the sky carries the weight of heavy clouds before it rains.

When the waters of life evaporate from the earth,

They ascend to the clouds where they're stored until the time is right to shower the earth with nourishing rain of blessings and abundance.

So,

As the outer world darkens,

This practice is an invitation for you to turn inward.

And to remember that every cloud,

No matter how dense,

It's gathering blessings that we cannot see yet.

As the Qabbalistic work of the Zohar states,

When the lower waters rise in yearning,

The upper waters respond in blessing.

So,

As we enter this rainy season for the earth and perhaps this rainy season in your life,

Let this practice be your prayer.

Let's begin with raising one drop from the lower waters in the form of your intention.

This is your kavana or sankalpa.

It is your resolve that is like a drop of water reflecting your most authentic truth.

Once it is declared,

It is sent out into the universe like a letter that you put in a mailbox.

Your intention can be a short,

Positive,

Simple statement starting with I AM.

If you're already working with an intention or a kavana,

Bring it to mind now.

And if you don't yet have an intention,

Here are some examples you may consider.

I am a vessel for divine blessings.

I am abundant.

I am peaceful in my body and mind.

I am calm and clear.

Or simply,

I am here,

Hineni.

Go ahead and say your chosen intention three times in your mind with feeling.

I AM.

Your intention has been sent.

For now,

Let it go and just keep resting further along the path of your breath,

Letting the stress of tension melt away a little more and a little more with every exhale.

We now begin the body scan by bringing awareness to different parts of your body in rapid succession.

Repeat each part that I say in your mind and simultaneously sense that part in your body.

Bring awareness to the top of your head.

You can sense a very delicate ether hovering over the top of your head,

Descending down to the forehead and out to both eyebrows,

Allowing the eyebrows to soften.

Sense the ether hovering over the eyes very gently,

Allowing the eyes to relax in their sockets,

The nose,

The mouth,

The sides of the face,

And the jaw.

Sense how the ether gently covers the terrain around the ears and then gracefully descends from the jaw to the chin.

And to the neck.

And now perceive the sensation of ether on your right hand.

In the palm of your right hand,

Sense this warm,

Gentle puff of ether hovering above your right hand and sense how it ascends up your right arm to your elbow,

The upper arm,

And the right shoulder,

Proceeding to the collarbone and dipping down to the chest and heart space.

Sense the ether,

This very soft wind enveloping your heart space,

Allowing your heart to soften.

And then ascending up to the left collarbone and continuing to the left shoulder,

Descending down the left arm,

Elbow,

The lower arm,

And the left hand.

Bringing attention to this energy of soft ether hovering over your left hand,

Barely perceptible.

Now bring awareness to the entire arc from your right hand to your left hand.

And sense the ether traveling back and forth between the right and left hands,

Like the arc of a rainbow.

And now bring your awareness to the back of your head.

And allowing this soft whisper of ethereal air energy travel down the back of your head to your spine.

And then descending down the spine all the way from the upper back to the mid-back to the lower back.

And perceiving the terminal of the spine,

The glutes,

And continuing to the back of the legs.

And descending your awareness to the back of the knees and the lower legs and both heels.

Sensing your entire back of your body,

From the back of your head all the way to the back of your heels,

Resting in the soft embrace of ether.

And now concentrating your awareness on your right foot,

The right foot,

And the toes of the right foot.

And ascending up the right leg to the right kneecap.

Bringing awareness to the right thigh and the pelvic region.

And then tracing your awareness to the left thigh,

The left kneecap.

And then descending down the left leg to the left foot.

And perceiving all the toes of the left foot.

And now bringing awareness to the entire arc between the right foot and the left foot.

Sensing the energy traveling along the curve of this arc.

And now bringing awareness just to the front of your body,

From the top of your forehead to the tips of your toes.

And now just the right side of the body.

And now just the left side of the body.

And now the whole body all together.

And the whole body all together.

Feel the whole body resting in complete stillness.

In the cloud of ether.

We now continue with breath awareness.

So you're going to breathe and count down from 27 to 1,

Like this.

Inhale,

Navel rises.

Exhale,

Navel falls,

27.

Inhale,

Navel rises.

Exhale,

Navel falls,

26.

Continue counting on your own until you reach 1.

And if you lose track,

Then just go ahead and return back to 27.

Try to stay awake while you're counting.

Are you still awake?

If you're not finished counting yet,

Or wherever you are in your counting,

Now is the time to stop and let it go.

And let the counting and the numbers dissipate and dissolve into the background.

Let's now move into experiencing polarities.

I will serve you opposite experiences.

And I invite you to simply notice,

Like a neutral,

Non-judgmental witness,

How these sensations and experiences affect your body.

There's nothing you need to do to change them,

Just to welcome them and observe them from a state of curiosity and neutrality.

Notice any areas in your body where you're feeling clear and how they affect you.

Observe areas of clarity in your body.

Now let it go.

And now notice any areas in your body where you're feeling cloudy,

Dense,

Or confused.

And how these areas affect you.

Just witness them and experience them on a physical level,

Without getting attached to any stories.

Now let it go.

And now experience the clarity and the cloudiness at the same time.

Noticing the areas that feel clear and the areas that feel cloudy or dense at the same time.

Allowing them to synthesize and blend until they become indistinguishable.

Now let it go.

And now recall the taste of salt,

Like tears or ocean spray.

And sense the taste of salt.

Experience the saltiness and how it feels for you.

And now shift to recalling the taste of sweet,

Clear waters.

And taste the sweet,

Clear,

Pure water.

Notice its temperature and notice how it feels for you.

And how it affects you.

And now taste the salty and the sweet both at the same time.

Without getting attached to either one.

And allow them to synthesize until they become one,

Unified,

Indistinguishable experience.

And now let it go.

And now just stay in the space of your mind and be a witness to the workings of your mind.

Simply observe your mind like it is a screen.

And you are observing it from the outside.

Simply observe your mind like it is a sky and you are above it.

Riding on an airplane,

Looking down,

Hovering above the clouds.

Hovering above the clouds,

Looking down.

And observing what is in the state of your mind.

If your brain is like a cloud,

Just observe it curiously.

From the outside and the inside.

Explore the cloud of your mind just as it is without trying to change it.

What kind of cloud is it?

What color is it?

How dense is it?

What is the shape of it?

Observe the size of this cloud and how big or small does it feel?

See curiously and kindly what the cloud of your mind contains.

Allowing images,

Thoughts,

Feelings and memories to arrive organically and be received with welcoming.

And now feel a drop of rain from above falling onto the top of your head.

And the raindrop gracefully rolls down your forehead to your nose,

Your mouth.

Take a moment to taste the raindrop and see how it tastes,

Whether it is salty,

Sweet or something else.

And it continues rolling down your chin,

Your torso and all the way down to your toes.

Now more raindrops begin to fall,

Each one containing a blessing.

Receive these raindrops and feel how they land on your body.

Now the rain falls more rapidly,

Washing away all the debris,

Clearing away all the grime,

Letting it disappear into the earth and showering you with blessings.

Feel the temperature of the rain on your skin and let it immerse you completely.

Just stay here and relax into the rain of sweet blessings.

There is nowhere else to be and nothing else to do right now.

Just be here.

And now from the space of the third eye,

It is time to call in your kavana,

Your intention,

That drop of lower waters from the beginning of the practice.

Up until now,

Your intention,

Your kavana has been getting nurtured and irrigated in the background and now it's time to bring it forward again.

Repeat it three times with conviction in the present tense,

Declaring I am.

And let it absorb and water every cell and fiber of your body.

And now it's time to return from the realm of the skies back to the ground and reconnect with your breathing and just follow your breath effortlessly at its own natural pace and rhythm.

Sense the position of your body and notice how you're feeling as you approach the end of this practice.

Slowly and gingerly becoming more aware of your surroundings and dialing up your conscious awareness.

And at this point,

You can choose to drift off to sleep or continue dialing up your conscious awareness,

Starting to bring back some small movements to your fingers and toes.

Perhaps extending your fingers and toes the same way you did at the beginning of this practice and bringing the mist of the clouds and the residue of the rain with you to illuminate your eyes and bring calmness upon your mind and graciousness upon your heart.

And now slowly returning to your whole body,

Taking all the time that you need.

You may open your eyes here if you're choosing to stay awake.

Einad Milvado,

Einad Milvado,

Einad Milvado.

And the practice of yoga nidra,

Deep rest healing,

Is now complete.