TRADITIONAL YOGA NIDRA – Floating

1. Preparation
   1. Relaxation
   1. Rotation of consciousness: Right side, left side, back, front, major parts
   1. Resolve
   1. Body/floor awareness
   1. Breathing: Throat to navel
   1. Awareness of sensations: Heaviness/lightness, cold/heat, pain/pleasure
   1. Inner space: Chidakasha
   1. Visualization: Park/temple or Floating Body

10. Resolve

11. Finish

1. Getting Prepared: Prepare yourself for yoga nidra. Settle into shavasana, the corpse pose, ensuring maximum comfort. Your feet should be slightly spread, perhaps allowing them to fall outward a bit. Keep your arms loosely positioned away from your body, palms facing skyward. (pause) Make any necessary adjustments to your covering, attire, and general posture so you can engage in yoga nidra undisturbed by physical discomfort or the need to move. Kindly close your eyes and maintain them shut. (long pause) Yoga nidra’s essence lies solely in the act of hearing and the act of sensing; these alone are the crucial elements. (pause) Within yoga nidra, your functioning occurs at the intersection of awareness and the capacity to listen. Unlike dreams, where you lack control, here you function as the architect of the experience. (pause) Affirm to yourself internally, ‘I commit to staying awake; I will only attend to the voice’… reiterate internally, ‘I will not sleep.’ (pause) Allow a moment for achieving stillness and composure… draw a deep breath, and as you inhale, perceive calmness permeating your entire physical form. (pause) As you exhale, internally state, ‘R-e-l-a-x.’ (pause)

2. Easing In: Become conscious of sounds originating from afar… focus on perceiving the most distant auditory inputs available to you. (pause) Let your hearing operate like a sensory beam, reaching out for remote sounds and tracking them briefly. (pause) Transition your focus sequentially from one sound to the next… without trying to label the origin point of each sound. (pause) Systematically draw your attention toward nearer sounds… sounds originating outside this structure, and subsequently, sounds within this structure. (pause) Now, cultivate awareness of this present space… keeping your eyes closed, mentally sketch the four boundaries, the overhead surface, the ground beneath, and the form of your body resting there, picture your body situated on the floor. (pause) Acknowledge the presence of your physical form reclining on the floor… achieve complete recognition of your body in absolute repose. (pause) Your physical self rests upon the floor… intensify your perception of all points where your body makes contact with the floor. (pause) Tune into your ordinary respiration… become aware of the effortless, spontaneous flow of your breath; refrain from forceful concentration, as this disrupts the natural rhythm. (pause) Continue to heed my guidance, realizing that respiration is occurring. (pause) The yoga nidra practice commences hence… state quietly to yourself: ‘I am entering the yoga nidra process. I will remain alert. I am commencing the yoga nidra.’ (pause)

3. Intention Setting: This juncture is designated for establishing your resolution. (pause) A clear, uncomplicated intention… state your chosen resolve with distinct feeling and awareness three times. (pause) Shifting Focus Through Body Parts: Guide your awareness rapidly across various bodily locales… your attention must dart from one location to the next. Mentally echo the designation of each area after me, concurrently developing sensation within that spot. The tracing always commences with the right hand…

4. Shifting Focus Through Body Parts:

Sensation of Discomfort: Focus upon the experience of pain… concentrate and endeavor to recall the sensation of discomfort. (pause) Any ache, whether emotional or purely physical, that you have ever known, bring that feeling of pain back to mind. (long pause)

Sensation of Enjoyment: Recall the feeling of delight… any type of pleasant feeling, physical or emotional. (pause) Re-experience this sensation, make it vivid… actively bring forth the feeling of pleasure. (long pause) Verify that you are attentive. Are you becoming heavy-lidded or sleepy?… Ensure you are not drifting off. Affirm to yourself: ‘I am alert.’ (pause)

8.Inner domain: Withdraw your mind and focus on the expanse before your closed lids, the area we term chidakasha. (pause) Picture before you a clear screen through which you can view endless expanse…an expanse that stretches as far as the eye can see. (pause) Concentrate on this dim expanse and become cognizant of any event that appears within it; whatever you observe is the emerging condition of your psyche, (pause) Maintain your cognizance of this domain but do not become engaged, practice only detached perception, (long pause)

9.Park/shrine depiction: Picture yourself in a garden in the early morning…the sun has not ascended and the park is empty, save for yourself, (pause) It is a lovely garden, tranquil and serene…stroll across the soft turf…heed the birds chirping and calling as they greet the dawning day. (pause) There are flowerbeds, roses, golden, pale red, ruby, violet…inhale their perfume and notice the early morning moisture upon their petals. Close to the rose beds is a water feature…koi swim in and out among the floating leaves, see their fluid motions, (pause) You proceed between timbers, gorgeous timbers…bare timbers and trees with foliage, broad stretching timbers and tall noble timbers. There is an opening amongst the trees…in the opening is a petite sanctuary with an aura of luminosity surrounding it. (pause) Approach the entryway, it is cool and shadowed within…inside on the structures there are images of revered sages. You settle onto the ground, close your eyes and grow still…a feeling of profound calm and accord surrounds you as the outside sounds diminish into the distance, (pause) Sustain your perception of repose within the sanctuary…remain there for a while until calm and accord saturate, (long pause).

10.Resolve: Now recall your pledge, your sankalpa. State the identical pledge you made at the onset of the exercise in the same phrases and with the identical disposition. State your pledge now thrice distinctly, with feeling and emphasis, (pause)

11. Coming Out: Become mindful of your respiration, become mindful of your natural respiration, (pause) Awareness of breathing… and awareness of ease, (pause) Foster awareness of your corporeal presence, (pause) Become mindful of your upper limbs and lower limbs and your form resting extended on the ground, (pause) Become mindful of contact points between your form and the ground, (pause) Foster awareness o f the chamber, surfaces, overhead…sounds in the chamber and sounds outside…guide your mind out, become totally outward-directed. (pause) Rest still for a short duration and keep your eyes shut. Begin to move your form and extend yourself…kindly take your duration, do not rush, (pause) When you are certain that you are fully alert, rise gradually and unseal your eyes. The session of yoga nidra is now concluded.Hari Om Tat Sat.