Beauty of the feminine- Heather Ivany

With so much care and so much love to your own self , come into the familiarity and comfort of the position of Savasana. Allow your feet to be a comfortable distance apart, hands alongside the body.  Align your spine neck and head forming one long line of energy. Soften your breath, acquaint yourself with your breaths rhythm and tone. Ensure that your body is totally comfortable. Feel supported and remember that you are totally safe here.  Totally safe to explore these realms of the unseen. Spaces that we have all witnessed before.

The practice of yoga nidra begins now.

ENTRY

Begin to feel the places where your body making contact with the ground. Sense the floor spreading out around you, in all directions, supporting your weight. Now imagine the foundations of this building encasing you reaching deep into the heart of the earth.  Let your body soften and spread to meet the ground that is holding you. Feel the boundaries of your skin opening to receive the touch of the earth and atmosphere.

Now observe the movement of your breath flowing gently in and out, connecting your inner space with the outer surrounding space.  Notice where in your body the rising and falling rhythm is deepest. Allow for the mechanical manipulation to recede and the inherent pranic life force to be given voice. Breathe like  tides turn…with ease and acceptance. (Pause) Now sense the texture, impetus, and scope of your breath. Give permission for the breath to compliment the body’s desire to relax. Your breath is the gateway for the physical body to communicate with the soul. Listen to your oceanic sounds of the inhale and exhale. Like the tides rising and falling, each breath to breath, moment to moment, is in absolute balance and synergy.

As you are listening your breath may give rise to the pulse of your physical body. Witness your physical sensations arising more fully into the present moment. See where your attention is being pulled. Gravitate here. Your body is speaking in its language of feeling sensation… immerse yourself into this communication frequency.  From this place of attention begin to expand your awareness into the attics and basements of your body. Draw these deep hidden pockets into presence. With your next exhale share those pockets, attics and basements into the entirety of your being. With ease allow all areas of your body the opportunity to befriend these unknown spaces.

Allow this ease to travel into the pure wonderment of your emotional energy. Allow for any augmented emotions to be given a pause of admiration … now deeply breathe in…and with infused presence exhale through your emotional body dissolving it back into the vastness of the fabric of the earth.  Repeat this several more times if needed. Know that you are safe you are protected and you are loved.

SANKALPA

Deepen the expansive state so that you start to become aware of the vastness that is you. Sense the sparkling emptiness of this space.    

Now from this vastness pull into focus your Sankalpa.  See the energy of your Sankalpa. I am… Hold a solid focus. Hone in on your Sankalpa.  This thought right now becomes more real than anything else. Now fully embody your Sankalpa take it in.  Repeat it now 3 times with everything that you are. Believe it deeply on all levels of being. (LONG PAUSE)

Every quanta in your body has received your San Kalpa, received the transparent and succinct instruction. The field around your body has received your San Kalpa.  Now observe your self releasing it out into the field of consciousness. Disengaging and trusting that source intelligence will take over.

Tell yourself that you are practicing Yoga Nidra.  Stay linked to my voice and remind yourself that this is a practice of active observation. You will stay awake and present.

ROTATION OF CONSCIOUSNESS

I will now take you through a journey in your physical body. As I guide you through specific map points of the body infuse your whole presence into that space and become the consciousness of those cells.  Feel it, mentally repeat it, and deeply relax it. Your body remains still but your inner sensitivity increases. Move your awareness in sync with my voice and begin to create new and intelligent body/mind pathways.  Stay engaged and awake as you Consciously explore the physical sheath…Anamaya kosha.

Begin with the right side of the body.  Bring your awareness into the right thumb, index finger, middle, ring finger and small finger, palm of the hand back of the hand wrist, forearm, elbow, upper arm, shoulder, arm pit, R side of ribcage, thigh, knee cap, shin, ankle, top of the R foot, sole of the foot, big toe, 2nd toe, 3rd toe, 4th toe, 5th toe, whole the entire R side of your body in strong presence.

Float your awareness to the Left Hand thumb, left index finger, middle finger, ring finger, small finger, palm of the hand, back of the hand, wrist, forearm, elbow, upper arm, shoulder, armpit, left side rib cage, thigh, knee cap, shin, ankle, top of the Left foot, sole of the foot, the big toe, 2nd toe, 3rd toe, 4th toe, 5th toe, feel the entire left side of the body.  Stay present and awake.

Come to settle at the soles of the feet. Gently move your focus from the soles of the feet to the crown of the head, using the back body circuit. Simultaneously feel both sides as you ascend from the soles of both feet travel up back of the heals, back side of the ankles, calves, back of the knees, hamstrings, buttocks, low back, mid back, R and L shoulder blades, back of the neck, back of the head, crown of the head. Hold the entire back body in your attention.  

Stay present and awake.  Come to the forehead, R eyebrow, L eyebrow, centre of the eyebrows, R eyeball, L eyeball, R cheek, L cheek, R ear, L ear, R nostril, L nostril, Nose,  tip of the nose, Upper lip, lower lip, both lips together, chin, the whole face, throat, R and L side of the chest, Belly, pelvis, root to the pelvic floor, entire R leg from the crease of the hip to the furthest edge of the toes, the whole L leg hip to toes, whole R arm shoulder to fingers, whole L arm

Now feel your whole spine from the tip of the tailbone trace up through each vertebrae, lumbar, thoracic, cervical until making contact with the brain inside of the skull.  Feel the wholeness of your body legs arms torso face head. Feel your whole body… whole body… whole body….Anamaya kosha. Homogeneous awareness of your entire body. Crown to the head to the soles of the feet.

Pranamaya Kosha

Resonate back into your sweet life-giving breath, Pranamaya Kosha.  Witness your body being breathed by the inherent life force that is acquainted with us all.  Stay with your breath….your natural breath… witness your breath without manipulating it in anyway. Stay awake and linked to my voice.

Now begin to trace your breath cycles backwards from 17 to 1. Both sides of the breath will receive the same count and you will be fully aware and connected to this breathe and this count the entire time. I will do the first few with you, inhale 17, exhale 17, inhale 16, exhale 16, inhale 15, exhale 15, continue with this counting of the breath (pause).  If you get lost in your count, go back to 17.

MANOMAYA KOSHA:

Anchor back into my voice.  Know that you are practicing yoga nidra.  Begin to recede away from breath awareness and bring to the forefront the kosha of mind and emotion,  Manomaya kosha.

Feel your body becoming very heavy.  Go into your body and feel your heaviness as your bones ground. The weight of your muscles peels them away from your bones and anchor into the earth.  Allow all liquid sensations to pool and thicken like a deep morass. Your whole body is heavy. Whole body heavy. Whole body heavy.

Now acquaint yourself with the sensations of lightness.  Sense the change in pressure as you begin to conjure the sensations of lightness.  Witness your water like substances rising up like steam from a river. Feel your muscles as supple and smooth.  Go deep into the hollowness of each bone and ask their effervescent energy to provide a light and buoyant hullabaloo. Your whole body is light. Your whole body is light.  Your whole body is light.

Now like an evolutionary leap that you prior your body may not have thought possible feel both light and heavy all at once (x3).

Now release into a state of neutrality. Move into the experience of pain.  Feel pain in your body.  Where is pain showing up in your body.  What is your response, your reaction to feeling pain?  (pause). Now let go of pain and move into pleasure.  Allow pleasure to wash over your entire body.  Where do you feel pleasure the most within you? Stay with experience of pleasure in the body.

Shame. Shame. Could you recall a time in your life where you experienced shame?  In This remembrance see where you were. See who was there with you? What was your emotional response to experiencing shame?  Feel it as if that moment is happening agin right now. How does shame express itself in your physical body? Now release shame and move into pride.  remember a time in your life when you felt proud.  Remember this time like it is happening in this moment.  See where you were. Who you were with. In this moment when you felt so proud of yourself.  where does pride show up in your body?

Now shift your attention to the space between the eyebrows, the point of Consciousness from which the universe originates. The mystics and the yogi’s call this Chidākāsh, the heart space of the mind.  As you linger here feel as though someone you love is applying a gentle pressure to this point. Chidakash is both the silent point that is the source of all sacred sound and where creative centres merge with the conscious field through the screen of pure awareness. Enter through this screen now as we  prepare for rapid visualization. Know that there is no right or wrong within this practice. Allow yourself to be free and simply witness what arises.

Orange sand bucket

A broken limb

A blanket of snow

An orangey yellow fuzzy peach

Traffic jam (x2)

A basketball swooshing through a hoop

Checkered pyjamas

An empty bank account

Fist fight on the street

Your own naked body in a mirror

Raindrops splashing on a pond of water

A brick wall (x3)

Mary Magdalene weeping

Sitting in a doctors office

A child throwing a tantrum

A cup of warm milk and honey

A magic carpet

LONGER VISUALIZATION.

Hold the image of a magic carpet. Notice your breath. We will now embark on a magic carpet ride through the manomaya kosha of the body.  Climb aboard. When you feel your comfort zone reaching to far come back to the safety and security of your familiar and present breath.

Imagine arranging yourself into a comfortable seat on your carpet. Stay present with the buoyancy of your energetic state and the carpet that floats softly up and down beneath you. Imagine yourself floating through a sea of  divine honey. Off in the distance you see a pinpoint of stillness. Allow yourself to float on your carpet through the honey like nectar of divinity towards the pinpoint. Notice the pinpoint expand to the size of a needle hole as you come nearer. You are just the right size for your magic carpet to carry you through the eye of the needle and enter into stillness.(PAUSE).

Invoke an image of a life form located in the space of your third eye. As your awareness sharpens so does this image.  You begin to understand that this image is feminine. She embodies all the miraculous qualities of Goddesses, angels, priestesses and heroines.  Allow her shape to take form. Take in as much detail as possible. Now infuse her image with 3 boons…Unconditional love….Protective grace….and Infinite possibility.  Stand back and see her now in her fullness and light.  Her name is Amirita (Pause).

Now begin to float her presence with you as your drift on your carpet down from the third eye, through your centre channel of sushumna swirling and swooping just as far as your heart space.  See the fortress of your heart open and permit her grace to enter alongside yourself. Release the power of her first boon… Unconditional love.  Watch as her unconditional love softens even the most hardened areas of your heart.  Breath deep. Bathe in the presence of her unconditional love. Realize that any outdated walls built for protection and preservation of the self are no longer needed.(pause)  

Breathe in and as you exhale watch as she whispers her second boon….  Protective grace. Draw protective grace into the scope and span of your newly formed heart. Notice the sensations and feelings as you indulge in protective grace. (PAUSE) With your highest self bow and give thanks for her grace, her protection and her love. (pause).

Begin to see the inner and outer beauty of the feminine energy.  Tune into the sensation and vibration that knows without a doubt that she is an incarnation of you.  Her inner beauty is your inner beauty. Her outer beauty is your outer beauty. She is all that was…all that is….and all that will ever be.

Come back to your heart.  Know that she has one final boon to offer.  The gift of infinite possibility.  Pulsate the chambers of the heart to open and receive and mirror infinite possiblity.  The possibility that is felt when we are in concert with oneness. Merge with her…entangle with her…dance with her….laugh with her….she is joy….Free spirited…uninhibited joy. (2 minute pause)

Amrita is the sweet divine nectar of the soul.  Imagine yourself in your highest form savouring the succa… the sweetness… the honey like  nectar within ever lasting life. There is no time no space only pure unabashed indulgence of Amrita.

SANKALPA:

Move into formlessness.  Draw into the sensation and presence of San Kalpa.  See your San Kalpa. Feel your San Kalpa. Form your San Kalpa into an I AM statement.  Repeat it now to yourself 3 times.

RE-ENTRY:

Now climb back on your magic carpet and begin the journey from the heart back into the whole body.  Feel the light remain as your body becomes more and more dense. More and more dense. Until eventually you can begin to feel where the layer of the skin ends and the external energy lies.  Open the inner ear and begin to take in any sounds that are filling this room. Recognize that your inner odyssey is coming to a close. Your body has been balanced, recharged, and connected back from which it rose.  This inner entrainment will continue even after your body begins to move and awaken.

The practice of Yoga Nidra is now complete

Har Om Tat Sat X3

Begin to draw in small movements and embrace wholeness as you do. Again reflect so much care and attention inwardly to yourself and when ready gingerly making your way onto one side, pause here in reflection.  Keeping the eyes closed if available tune into the inner landscape as you gently make your way to seated, lingering here in silence.