Visshudha Nidra

Lindsey Park

Settle into the natural position of savasana and ensure your body feels supported and comfortable so to avoid any possible physical distractions throughout the practice.   Seek to create symmetry in your form, and feel even balanced weight through the pressure points on the left and right sides of your body.  The heels, the sit bones, the shoulder blades and the back of the head.  Note the position of your head and neck and make little micro adjustments so that your neck can remain in a neutral alignment, maintaining the natural curve in the cervical spine, while keeping the throat open and even on all sides.  Take a deep breath in through your nose, then release it out of your mouth with a “ha” sound.  Take another deep breath in through your nose, and release it out with a sigh.  Take one more big inhale through the nose and release the breath with any sound that naturally falls out of the throat.  Relax your breath and simply observe as the air moves through the nostrils, the sinuses and the throat, expanding and releasing the lungs.  

Check in one more time with your comfort level, and make any final adjustments, and then commit to your practice.  Commit to stillness and silence.  Commit to remaining fully relaxed in your body, but alert and awake in your mind.  

The practice of yoga nidra begins now.  

Tune into your sense of hearing, and listen.  Listen for the farthest away sounds you can hear.  Try to release the need to label the sound, or identify its source, just listen.  Move your faculty of hearing one step closer, and listen to the sounds in this room, what can you hear?  Bringing your sense of hearing now to your own self, can you hear your heart beat?  Can you hear your breath?  Begin to count your breath down from 9, giving both sides of the breath the same count.  I am breathing in 9, I am breathing out 9, I am breathing in 8, I am breathing out 8….  When you reach that last breath feel your whole body release, soften your brain into the cradle of your skull, and release all tension from your face.  You are safe and supported.  

It is now the time in the practice where we lovingly place our sankalpa with deep purpose and intention.  Take a moment to allow your “I am” statement to surface in your mind, and look upon it with an unconditional appreciation for its potential and teachings.  Now envision your life living in the light of your sankalpa, see it fully as if it is happening right now.  Repeat your sankalpa now in your mind 3 times with feeling and faith.  

We will now massage the brain and the central nervous system as we connect with our physical layer of being through a rotation of consciousness.  Listen carefully to my instructions and follow my guidance with your subtle awareness.  As a call out a body part, feel it, repeat it in your mind, and relax it completely.  

Move first to the center of the palm of your right hand, right hand thumb, fore finger, middle finger, ring finger, small finger.  Back of the hand, wrist, forearm, elbow, upper arm, shoulder, armpit, right side ribs, side waist, outer hip on the right side, thigh, knee, shin, ankle, top of the right foot, big toe, second toe, third toe, fourth toe, fifth toe, all five toes.  

Move now to the palm of your left hand, thumb, forefinger, middle finger, ring finger, small finger, back of the left hand, wrist, forearm, elbow, upper arm, shoulder, armpit, side ribs, side waist, outer hip on the left side, thigh, knee, shin, ankle, top of the left foot, big toe, second toe, third toe, fourth toe, fifth toe, all five toes together.  

Bring your awareness to the soles of your feet, feel the right sole, left sole, both soles together, right heel, left heel, right calf, left calf, back of the right knee, back of the left knee, back of the right thigh, back of the left thigh, right buttock, left buttock, lower back, middle back, upper back.  Right shoulder blade, left shoulder blade, both shoulder blades together.  Back of the neck, base of the skull, back of the head, crown of the head, forehead.  Right eyebrow, left eyebrow, space between the eyebrows, right eyeball, left eyeball, bridge of the nose, tip of the nose, right nostril, left nostril, right cheek, left cheek, upper lip, lower lip, teeth, tongue, jaw, chin, whole jaw and mouth together.  Right ear, left ear, right inner ear, left inner ear, right ear lobe, left ear lobe, right side of the neck, left side of the neck, front of the throat, space inside the throat, vocal chords, windpipe, right lung, left lung, stomach, lower abdomen, pelvis. Whole torso together.  Whole right arm.  Whole left arm.  Whole right leg, whole left leg.  Whole body, whole body, whole body. 

Hold your awareness here, feel your whole body, from the tips of your toes to the top of your head.  Whole body together.  

Move your awareness now back to your breath, and notice the gentle rhythm of your natural breath.  Feel the temperature of your inhale, and the temperature of your exhale.  Notice the texture of the breath as it moves through the throat, and notice where the breath touches the inner lining of your windpipe.  Listen to the sound of your breath.  Tune in even deeper to the listening of your breath and see if you can hear the vibrating qualities of the air as it moves through the atmosphere in this room and around your body.  

Lies, lies, lies.  Remember a specific time when you lied to someone, or when you were lied to.  Who were you with?  How did it feel to be in the experience of a lie?   Allow the emotional reaction of the lie to permeate your entire being as if you are experiencing it in your reality right in this moment.  Where do you feel the emotional reaction of lies in your body? Lies.  

Truth.  Settle into the energy that truth holds.  Recall a time when you were truthful, even when it wasn’t easy to tell the truth.  Who were you with?  What was the situation?  Remember this moment of truth and draw it into your present experience now.  Where do you feel truth radiate in your body?  Truth.  Truth.  Truth.  

Judgment.  Remember a time when you felt judged.  You were not accepted for who you are, or your ideas were not received, and you were judged and even ridiculed by others.  Remember the feeling that was the result of being judged and experience that feeling as if it is happening right now. 

Acceptance.  Acceptance.  Recall a time now when you were completely accepted.  Accepted for who you are and what you do, totally embraced and accepted. Feel the emotion that coincides with being accepted.  

Now experience judgment and acceptance both at the same time.   What does it feel like to be judged and accepted at the same time?  

Shift away from emotional experience, and move now to a blank screen of awareness.  I will call out various images to trigger memories, visions, and experiences in your subconscious.  Allow your subconscious mind to draw froth these images, memories and experiences with no resistance.

The sound of ocean waves

A newborn baby crying

The full moon

An opera singer

The Flower of Life

The Mona Lisa

An elderly couple dancing

Crickets chirping at dusk

The eyes of someone you deeply love x 3

Your own heart beating

Adolf Hitler

Treble clef

Blue banana

An ancient tribe chanting 

Stay with the ancient tribe and listen deeply to their song.  Just close your eyes, and listen.  There is no need to understand what they are singing about, just listen to the sounds, feel the rhythm, and receive the vibration.  Now open your eyes and see that you are standing in the middle of a forest, it is night and the moon is full and shining her light brightly on you and the forest that surrounds you.  Look around at the forest.  There are ancient trees towering over you creating a canopy of lush and vibrant leaves full of life.  The ground is soft and decorated with small plants and flowers, and you can smell their sweet nectar as you carefully step through their bed.  Off in the distance you see a light flickering amongst the trees and you begin to walk towards it.  Look down at your feet and notice that you aren’t wearing any shoes.  Feel the texture of the ground beneath your feet, slightly cooled from the night air, the small plants and flowers brushing against your toes.  As you walk closer to the light, the sound of the tribal chanting becomes louder, and you soon realize the light is from a bonfire, and the tribe is in ceremony around the fire.  As you approach the fire, a grandmother from the tribe greets you and takes you by the hand.  Her hand is soft and warm.  She guides you to circle with the rest of the tribe members in traditional ceremony to sing around the fire.  Soon you are chanting with the tribe, singing their song as if you have sung it a thousand times before.  The rhythm of the song begins to move through you and you along with the tribe members begin to dance around the fire.  Soon the whole forest is vibrating with frequency of sound and song.  Suddenly the tribe stops chanting.  It is perfectly silent and still, yet the vibration of the song continues to reverberate through you and the forest around you.  Stay here with your eyes closed, and receive the healing resonant frequency of the song. The grandmother that initially greeted you comes to you and asks you to sing.  You open your mouth and allow the purest sound to flow from your heart, out your throat and into the surrounding forest.  The tribe kneels down around the fire, and you continue to sing your song with full truth and feeling.  As you are singing the words of your sankalpa begin to resurface in your mind.  It is now the perfect time to implant your sankalpa into your open heart and receptive mind.  The tribe is holding space for you to bring this healing light into your being.  Sing your sankalpa 3 times now.  

It is silent once again.  The tribe still kneeling around the fire, offer their blessings to you through gesture, and you receive it fully and show them gratitude and honor in return.  The grandmother takes you by the hand one more time and guides you to a bed of grass and green moss.  You lay down in the embrace of mother nature and find the symbolic position of savasana.  Allow yourself to release into the ground fully.  Surrender the weight of your physical body, and move your focus to your breath.  Connect with the texture of your breath as it passes through your throat, and notice how it feels, what is the sensation of your breath moving through your throat.  Then begin to connect with your body once again.  Remember where you are, feel the floor beneath you, notice the position of your body, stay relaxed here until I call you to move.  

The practice of yoga nidra is now complete. 

Hari Om Tat Sat