Male Announcer: You’re listening to From Pain to Possibility with Susi Hately. You will hear Susi’s best ideas on how to reduce or even eradicate your pain and learn how to listen to your body when it whispers so you don’t have to hear it scream. And now here’s your host, Susi Hately.
Welcome to your practice of yoga nidra. This is a short practice designed to fit into those spaces when you really want to come into your listening, feeling, sensing self and you want to clear out, settle your nervous system, settle your brain, become more alert and you don’t have a lot of time.
I think about those times of picking my kids up and I’ve got my work done and I’ve got myself to their location and I have ten minutes where I can just put the seat back, settle in, breathe, connect. And this is a great way of just clearing the deck and getting ready for their return.
So join me here, getting yourself comfortable. Maybe you’re in your car, stopped, parked. Maybe you’re sitting on the couch, you’re in between scenarios or events and you can settle into your breath to begin with.
And let’s start with just an easy inhale and exhale. Feeling the breath move through your rib cage and your abdomen where the breath feels open in your body, meaning the breath moves your body very fluidly. Softening the inner corners of your eyes, feeling your tongue, feeling your body against whatever you’re laying upon and perhaps the air or the breeze against your skin.
And now is the time to also connect in with your sankalpa or your intention, whether it’s for this particular practice or one that you are working on. Something that you can state in a sentence as if it’s already happened. You’re already being it or received it.
And feel into how that sankalpa resonates in your body, perhaps in your breath. And let’s take it to the next step of tuning into and listening into your body, beginning at the space between your eyebrows, the center there between your eyebrows. And then the center or the middle point of your throat. And the middle of your breastbone, your navel point, your pubic bone.
The center of your right hip, your right knee, the center of your right ankle, and the whole bottom of your foot out to your five toes. So you can perceive and feel those five toes, foot, ankle, knee, hip, pubic bone, and left hip. The center of the left hip. Left knee, center of the left ankle, each of your five left toes.
So there’s the five toes and your foot, the center of the ankle, knee, hip. And then move into your left hand. Palm of the hand, each of your fingers and thumb, the center of your wrist, your elbow, your shoulder, and over to the middle of your collarbones and the right shoulder. The right elbow, the center of the right wrist, palm of your hand, each of your four fingers and thumb.
Noticing now your limbs from the toes to the hips, fingers to the shoulders. Noticing your torso, your neck, the back of your head, and whatever it is leaning against. The inner corners of your eyes. The flare of your nostrils. Your teeth and jaw, the inside of your mouth, the left side, right side, bottom of your mouth, roof of your mouth, the center of your tongue.
Tuning back into your breath now, noticing your breath along with the noticing of your body. Being aware of your body and being aware of how the inhale and exhale move through your body. Feeling your arms and feeling your breath at once. Feeling your legs and feeling your breath at once.
Now is a time to come back to your sankalpa, your intention, with this new state, this new feeling, this new sense of listening. Settling into that deep knowing in yourself, saying your sankalpa three times.
And as you’re coming back, begin to touch your thumb to each of your fingers, wiggling your toes, recognizing the sounds around you. And as you open your eyes, allowing for the light to come and be received.
Thank you for practicing with me and sharing this short amount of time. Every week I provide another practice of nidra, of body scan, of breath, of connecting to and into yourself. Such important factors for settling a nervous system, for clearing out your mind, for tuning in. So important for our own health and for our healing journey.
Have a great, great time exploring this practice and a great rest of your day.
If this episode has resonated and you’re looking to deepen this idea of getting your body back on board, of listening deeply to your symptoms, of listening to the whispers so you don’t have to hear the screams, and you’re looking for one to one support or professional training, then reach out to us at [email protected] where we can customize your learning path. That’s [email protected]. Looking forward to hearing from you.
