July 5 nidra

a practice for wholeness

The first time I did yoga nidra I fell asleep. Hard. It was different from sleep I’d known, dense and deep.

For the first three years of practicing yoga nidra I fell asleep. I didn’t even know there was more to the practice than the first five minutes of finding a comfortable position and beginning to gather your sense awareness into your body. Every time I lay down and was given the permission to really rest there, I fell asleep.

My well was so empty raising and homeschooling two kids, I didn’t realize how tired I was. But slowly, practice after practice, year by year, I began to saturate my exhaustion with rest. Until there was a day that I followed the prompts all through my body and a new journey began.

Each yoga nidra script is different. Different tracings through the body create different subconscious remedies or structures. Only once I had a sturdy, committed practice that kept me resourced on a daily level was I able to start to explore where they can take me.

This one unifies; reassembles. It starts us in our parts and slowly brings the parts to a whole body / whole being sensation and leaves us there to soak it in. Wholeness. For 10 minutes. No scrolling or driving or planning. No separation from the present moment. Nowhere but right here, right now.

It is a tonic for the dislocation of busy-ness or travel, for days when you have played many roles, when you have negotiated energies that are not your own, when you are ready to put it all down and realize you are still there, sound and steady.

Find a comfortable, quiet place to lie down. Cover your eyes lightly. Support the back of your head and maybe the backs of your legs if your low back is tight. Notice what you need and provide. Need and provide. Need and provide. You can be both.

Then receive the practice.

Maybe you never hear more than the first 5 minutes. If so, enjoy. Keep coming back until your well fills and you can traverse through yourself and back out to the day, replenished.

Enjoy. See you next Sunday for another.

Martha xx