Welcome to this yoga nidra meditation for pain relief.
Please have on hand for this meditation something you can place in your palm,
A pebble,
A crystal,
A coin perhaps,
And if you don't have anything,
No worries.
Find a position that feels most comfortable for you sitting or lying down,
And then as you settle in,
Just bringing a little extra care or comfort to your body where it is feeling discomfort,
Even pain,
Perhaps an extra blanket or cushion snuggled into that area,
And then settling into this position,
Letting your body settle in and begin to notice your body breathing.
As you feel the inhale,
Say to yourself,
I'm breathing in.
As you feel the exhale,
Say to yourself,
I'm breathing out.
I'm breathing in.
I'm breathing out.
Simply this.
Let these words cut through any busyness in mind,
Any distractions arising.
I'm breathing in.
I'm breathing out.
Let your awareness come to what is in your palm,
A touchstone that is in your palm,
And if you like,
You could simply place the back of one hand in the palm of another,
And just begin to notice with your awareness,
Your inner eye,
The shape,
The form of what is resting in your palm.
Whatever it is that is resting here,
Feel the shape,
Feel its form.
We call this a touchstone.
You might move your fingers around the surface to notice if it's smooth or there's indentations,
There's an edge that you can feel.
Let your awareness take in perhaps the weight of the touchstone,
Or perhaps it feels very light.
As your awareness rests on this touchstone,
Like an anchor point,
Awareness is resting on the touchstone.
Just notice what else comes to your awareness.
Let go of any judgment,
Any expectation.
Simply be within the experience you're experiencing of this touchstone.
Now please know you can return here at any time through this meditation.
If a little discomfort arises as we move through the body,
Come back here to this touchstone and simply be present with it,
Breathing here.
Now let's go through a breath practice to let go,
To let go of what we might be holding.
We're going to inhale through the nose and exhale through soft lips.
So as you're ready,
Inhaling through your nose,
Through soft lips,
Exhale,
Feel the letting go.
And inhale through your nose,
Through soft lips,
Exhale,
Feel the letting go.
Please enjoy a few natural breaths.
And as we do this one more time,
You might choose to name what you are letting go of.
Perhaps this discomfort,
This pain,
Perhaps it's simply the essence of letting go of what no longer serves you.
So as you're ready,
Inhaling through your nose,
Exhaling,
I'm letting go.
And return to natural breath.
I'm breathing in,
I'm breathing out.
Now please consider an intention for this meditation,
A positive affirmation of what you choose to experience within the meditation in your life.
Perhaps it's the easing of discomfort,
The releasing of the pain.
Perhaps it's how releasing this pain,
Easing it,
Might inform your life.
Setting your intention here and repeating it to yourself three times.
Turn your awareness now to your body.
Breathing,
Breathing in,
Breathing out.
Now begin a journey through the body,
Just noticing the body in turn.
In each area,
As I guide you,
Awareness coming to your feet.
To take in both feet simultaneously.
To first notice the shape or form.
Perhaps to feel where they are contacting some support or they feel the air.
Notice if they feel heavy or light.
Do you feel any sense of warmth,
Heat,
Or tingling moving through your feet?
And be unwilling to judge it.
Simply notice the experience you are having in your feet.
Invite your awareness to flow up through your legs to your hips.
And to feel the form,
The shape of your legs,
Your hips,
However it arises.
Not forcing anything,
Just inviting this awareness of the shape of your legs and hips.
And then notice any sensations,
The aliveness inside your legs or lack thereof.
Do you feel tingling or not?
A pulsing,
A throbbing?
Awareness now flows up to fill your pelvis.
Again,
Notice the shape of your pelvis.
The sense its form,
Perhaps where you feel some support underneath you or over you.
And the sensation of this.
To notice if you feel some of the movement inside the pelvis,
A warmth,
A coolness,
A pulsing.
Invite your awareness now to flow up through your abdomen and low back.
Take in your spine to flow up your spine through each vertebra.
Awareness takes in your shoulder blades,
Your ribs,
Your chest,
To feel the shape of your torso.
And to perhaps begin to notice the aliveness within the inner landscape,
This huge cavity of the torso and all that it holds.
Can you perhaps feel the breath flowing?
The lungs filling and emptying,
Heart beating.
What else do you notice?
Maybe a sense of heaviness or restriction,
An achiness,
Perhaps a lightness,
A spaciousness.
Taking in the experience as you are experiencing it.
Bring your awareness to your hands,
Through your fingers and thumbs.
And take in the shape of your hands,
The structure,
The bones giving shape to your hands.
And then maybe to go a little more inward to the inner landscape of your hands to sense perhaps the soft tissue,
A tingling,
A throbbing.
Awareness flowing up through your arms to your shoulders.
To take them in simultaneously,
Left and right.
To notice their shape,
Where the bones give shape to the arms and shoulders.
Notice this.
And then perhaps to invite your awareness to go more inward,
To perhaps sense the soft tissue.
Perhaps a sense of movement,
Of blood flowing,
Breath.
Just as it naturally arises for you,
What do you notice?
What are you experiencing?
Your arms and shoulders.
Awareness flows to your neck and throat.
To feel the outer shape,
Perhaps support that is behind or perhaps some clothing touching around your neck.
Notice.
And then perhaps going more inward.
Notice the aliveness within your neck and throat.
No right or wrong,
No good or bad,
Just the experience you are experiencing.
Awareness now flows up to fill your face.
To take in the shape of your face.
And then perhaps to have a felt sense of your lips from the inside,
Your cheeks,
Your mouth,
The cavity of the mouth.
Can you sense the aliveness inside your mouth?
Perhaps even a taste on your tongue.
Let your awareness take in your eyes,
Both eyes simultaneously.
Perhaps feel a heaviness or lightness,
Perhaps softness.
Awareness flows out to your ears to feel the shape,
The form.
And to notice perhaps a softness here too or whatever you are noticing,
Aliveness in your ears.
Awareness flowing through your whole head,
Taking in your brain,
Right and left hemispheres simultaneously.
And now awareness right up to the crown of your head,
The very top of your head.
Let your awareness rest here.
Awareness now takes in your whole body.
Your whole body held in your awareness simultaneously.
Can you sense the aliveness,
The sensations flowing through your whole body where they feel stronger,
More intense?
Where the sensations feel softer?
Perhaps where the sensations feel very large and wide and full?
Or where they feel very small?
Let your awareness take in a constellation of sensations flowing through your whole body,
The experience you are experiencing.
Let your body rest here.
Bring your inner eye to your mind's eye.
Inner eye,
Mind's eye to see a beautiful blue sky.
As far as your inner eye can see a spacious,
Infinite sky.
Take it in as an image,
Perhaps as a thought.
Perhaps inviting yourself to feel the felt sense of spaciousness of infinite sky.
Can you imagine a bird flying through the sky to see the graceful movement of its wings?
To see the freedom of flying through the open sky?
To perhaps feel a sense of this freedom,
This grace,
This beauty?
Let your awareness come down to see an ocean that you are at the shoreline of a beautiful,
Expansive ocean.
Gentle waves are lapping at the shoreline.
You might hear the sound of the waves.
You might feel their gentle caress on your toes.
As you see the movement of the waves gently lapping on the shore,
Can you feel a sense of this fluidity,
This constancy of the waves gently,
Rhythmically lapping at the shoreline?
And then look out to notice there are dolphins at play to see this beautiful,
Fluid movement.
They rise up,
They dive down to have a sense of the joyfulness of their play.
Notice how many there are,
Two or three.
Perhaps one.
Just notice what naturally arises and notice the joyfulness of the play.
And now notice as you step back a little,
You can feel the warmth of the sand.
And as you bend down to sit in the sand,
Feel its warmth.
And let your fingers flow through the sand to feel the softness.
To lay back and feel how the sand embraces,
Shapes your body,
Its warmth,
Its softness,
Shaping your body,
Holding you here.
To feel the warmth of the sun kissing your skin.
Now please invite the sunlight or brightness or warmth to kiss your body anywhere you choose,
Any place that feels uncomfortable.
You're feeling some discomfort,
Some pain,
Let the light,
Like a laser focus on this one area so you feel a beautiful,
Comfortable warmth,
A little more light penetrating the skin here.
And then imagine it goes inside the skin to penetrate into the tissue to feel the warmth of the light,
The illumination of the light inside your body here.
Let your body be absorbed to absorb the light,
The warmth.
Feel the potential of this beautiful warmth and light for healing.
Just allowing your body to receive it as it feels right,
As it feels natural,
Makes sense for you to receive it.
You might imagine the light now moving to another area of your body.
Perhaps to focus at your mind or to your heart,
That there is more warmth of the light,
More light illumination that touches your skin here.
Think about it,
Imagine it,
Perhaps feel it,
The felt sense of warmth of lightness penetrating the skin to go inside to bring the warmth of the light,
The brightness inside your body.
So every cell is touched by the warmth and light and every cell,
Each cell is drinking it in.
Let your body receive it as it feels right,
Makes sense,
Drinking in this warmth and light.
And you might choose to have the light rest here in these places or to now fill your whole body,
To imagine it filling your whole body.
Let the warmth of the light,
The brightness of the light illuminating your whole body,
Warming your whole body from the inside.
Let this light carry anything you choose,
Perhaps healing,
Perhaps understanding,
Inner knowing.
As we rest here for a few more moments,
Simply rest and receive the warmth,
Illumination from this light.
Please bring your awareness back to your body,
To notice your body breathing.
I'm breathing in,
I'm breathing out.
You might rest here a while.
I thank you so much for this time together.
I hope this meditation has brought you ease and comfort.
Namaste.
