Restorative Rest: Yoga Nidra For Therapists

Welcome to this therapist refresh meditation for restorative rest.

Anne Lamott wisely informs us,

Quote,

Almost everything will work if you unplug it for a few minutes,

Including you,

Close quote.

As therapists,

We often encourage our clients to rest,

To meditate,

To seek a full night's sleep,

While at the same time we may push ourselves beyond our own limits.

As healers,

It can be easy to prioritize others' needs before our own.

Yet rest not only allows us to recharge and refresh,

But to heal ourselves.

Taking time to recharge yourself is an essential part of providing healing to others.

So I invite you now to allow yourself to move into a reclining and comfortable position for rest.

Find support beneath you,

Arms at your sides,

Palms facing up,

Welcoming your feet to fall to the sides.

Resting meditation is traditionally practiced in shavasana or corpse pose.

But if a seated posture is more comfortable for you,

Feel free to adapt for what is right for you today.

Wherever you are,

Take a few moments to settle in.

Sensing in to the support beneath you or behind you.

And now perhaps find a way to become even 5% more relaxed.

Feeling your bones becoming heavy.

Today we'll engage in a luxurious meditation practice known as yoga nidra,

Translated literally to mean sleep with full awareness.

This practice provides for a restorative pause in your day.

It counteracts stress and rebalances your nervous system.

All you need to do is follow my voice.

No right or wrong way to practice.

It's okay to drift in and out.

Your unconscious mind will continue to take in my words and whatever it needs.

This practice invites your body to become completely relaxed while your mind remains aware.

Throughout this practice,

Remain still if you can.

There's nothing else for you to do,

Nowhere else to be,

Just to enjoy this restorative pause in your day.

So breathe here for a few rounds,

Simply allowing your body,

Mind and spirit to welcome rest.

If you'd like,

On your next inhale,

Take in your breath all the way from the tips of your toes and feel it fill up all the way to the top of your head.

And then exhale all the way back down from the top of your head to the tips of your toes.

Maybe on your next inhale,

Feel the breath coming in from your right toes,

Traveling up to the top of your head.

And exhale the breath,

Imagining it moving back down the left side of your body from the top of your head to the tip of your toes.

And as you continue to breathe now at your own pace,

Simply allow thoughts,

Judgments,

Lists or discomforts simply to float away.

Feel your breath breathing you,

Soothing you,

Anywhere you need release,

Just let it go.

Now begin to focus your breathing on your heart,

Every inhale and every exhale,

Just allowing your heart space to relax,

To open.

Just breathing in and out of your heart space.

And look now into your heart and let your heart communicate to you your deepest desire.

Maybe it's when related to work or maybe about your life more generally.

Allow whatever arises to become a mantra.

Don't think too hard,

Just be open to hearing whatever it is your heart has to whisper to you now.

And if you'd like set an intention or resolve based on that heart's desire.

Say it aloud to yourself three times now with clarity and confidence in the present tense as if it's already happening now.

For instance,

I am rested and refreshed.

I am loving and open.

I have the support and resources I need.

We are sowing a seed that your unconscious mind will work on without any effort on your part during this meditation.

This is a practice known as sankalpa.

And now bring your awareness to each part of your body as I name it.

Just simply bring your attention with full awareness to any sensation that is there,

Recognizing even no sensation there is something.

We'll not linger long as we rotate awareness through each part of the body.

Bring your awareness now to the tip of your right big toe.

The second toe on your right foot,

The middle toe on the right,

Your fourth toe and pinky toe on your right foot.

Bring awareness to the inside of the right ankle bone,

The back of your right calf,

The back crease of your right knee,

The front of your right thigh.

Resting awareness for a moment on your right hip joint,

Your right side waist and rib cage,

Your right thumb and all the fingers of your right hand.

Bringing awareness to your right forearm,

Your right funny bone,

Your right underarm,

The right side of your chest and shoulder together.

Sensing into any sensation or energy in your chin,

To your tongue where it meets your bottom teeth.

Aware now of the inside of your right cheek.

Now to your right nostril where your breath enters.

It's into your right eyebrow,

Your right earlobe and your forehead where it meets your hairline.

Bring awareness to the space between your eyebrows,

Resting on your third eye.

Shifting awareness now to your left earlobe,

Your left eyebrow.

Feeling the air on your next exhale as it passes between your left nostril and your upper lip.

Awareness to the inside of your left cheek,

Your tongue where it meets the roof of your mouth.

To energy or sensation in the space between your bottom lip and chin.

Bringing awareness to your left shoulder,

Your left chest and heart space.

Your left underarm,

Your left funny bone,

Your left forearm,

Your left thumb and fingers together.

Sensing into your left waist and rib cage.

Bringing awareness to your left hip joint.

The front of your left thigh,

The back of your left knee crease.

To your left shin,

The outside of your left ankle bone.

Your left big toe,

The second toe of your left foot,

Your middle left toe,

The fourth toe,

Your left pinky toe.

The whole left side of your body together.

The whole right side of your body together.

And now the whole body,

Tiptoes to top of your head.

And again,

Feel your breath breathing you.

Sense the breath at your nostrils,

In your chest,

In your belly.

Feel your breath as it moves all the way down,

Perhaps to your toes.

And maybe all the way back up again.

Find a place to center your mind on your breath and allow it to rest there gently.

Bring complete attention to the breath wherever you feel it most easily or comfortably.

Simply observe the breath.

And then begin to let your exhales become slightly longer than your inhales.

As each exhale sinks you deeper and deeper into rest.

Now imagine the whole body becoming light.

As though your body could float away from the floor and toward the ceiling.

The head is light and weightless.

The limbs are light and weightless.

The torso is light and weightless.

The whole body light and weightless as a feather.

You are rising higher and higher away from the floor or your chair.

And now imagine your body becoming heavy.

Feel the heaviness in all parts of the body.

Each part is becoming heavier and heavier and heavier.

The head heavy.

The limbs are heavy.

The torso is heavy.

The whole body heavy and weighted down.

Knowing that of course you could move.

But feeling so weighted it is comfortable to remain still.

Sinking down to the surface beneath you that supports you.

Focus now on a perception of seeing light.

Perhaps awareness of light even through closed eyelids.

Or as a memory of a bright and sunny day.

Soak in the colors of light you sense or imagine.

The array of a rainbow.

Light refracting through a prism.

Or through the atmosphere at sunrise.

Or the sparkle of stars in the night sky.

And now shift your attention to the canvas of the night sky.

And the perception of the darkness surrounding the stars.

Sense into the darkness behind closed eyes.

Recalling now a time from your healing work of feeling distress.

A memory of something worrying you or making you anxious.

Sense the distress in your body.

Perhaps the tensing of your jaw or shoulders.

And the quality or pressure of your thoughts.

The constriction or rapidity of your breath.

Feel this distress in your body and mind but do not concentrate on its source.

And now shift awareness to a sense of satisfaction with your work.

Recall a memory of feeling proud or fulfilled.

Manifest this sense of satisfaction in your entire mind.

In your spirit.

And in your body from the tip of your toes to the top of your head.

Feel the movement of energy in your body as you recall an experience of satisfaction.

Bring awareness to the expansion of your chest.

The alignment of your spine.

Or maybe a slight rising of the corners of your mouth into a smile.

And now begin to expand your awareness from the space in your immediate surroundings to the wider world outside.

A world filled with healing and healers.

Begin to sense into the presence of healers nearby.

Perhaps in the same building or clinic as you.

Or maybe within your town or city.

Imagine their faces.

Feel their warmth.

Sense the openness and generosity of their hearts.

And expand your awareness further to healers in your country and around the world.

Healers from all traditions.

People who like you are dedicated to offering hope,

Skills,

Support,

Loving kindness and compassion to the people who come to them with their struggles seeking solace.

And expand your awareness across time.

Recalling mentors,

Role models,

Or loved ones who have shared or inspired these healing attributes in you.

Feel what happens inside you as you sense this generous and loving community to which you belong.

Return now to the intention or resolve you set at the beginning of this practice.

Repeat it again to yourself with clarity and confidence three times in the present tense as if it is happening now.

We have planted a seed.

Now we water it.

Ready now to return refreshed.

Slowly bring your awareness back into your body.

Feeling where it makes contact with the surface beneath you.

Reintroduce small movements into your body.

Beginning with wiggling your toes.

Moving your fingers.

Your ankles and wrists.

Perhaps turning your neck gently side to side.

Bringing awareness slowly and gently back to the environment surrounding you now.

And as we close our practice I invite you to rub your hands together creating some warmth and energy.

And if you like to place them over your face.

Feeling their warmth and honoring the restorative power of rest.

We wish you good healing.