For a reflective Savasana at the end of your practice or simply lie down in a restful but alert body shape to inquire into what you need from your Yoga practice during the coming days and weeks. Not just a daily check in (see my weather report meditation for that) but this is a process that you might do about every 6 weeks to review how your practice is going. Tuning into the seasonal changes throughout the year helps to respond to questions such as:
What is happening in Nature right now?
How does that land in me?
What's happening in my life that need supporting right now?
How can my Yoga practice meet the needs of my personal situation in these coming weeks?

SEASONAL SELF-PRACTICE REFLECTION

A recording made early one morning in Venice during my recent travels. This is a simple Yoga Nidra practice that will take just 20 minutes and offers a settling and grounding, body relaxation and then an invitation to be with the sights and sounds of Venice as a way of balancing movement and stillness. I hope this Yoga Nidra practice offers a nourishing pause into your day, wherever you are in the world and however busy your life feels right now.

A Yoga Nidra for busy times or travel

A spontaneous Yoga Nidra for you! Free styling from a forest on the West Coast of NZ I welcome you to sit or lie down for 25 Minutes so that you can centre and connect with the part of you that is always at rest. With a backdrop of forest sounds come on a little Nidra journey to reflect on Solstice and support you through the seasonal energy.

Solstice Yoga Nidra 2022

This live recording from my weekly Yoga Nidra class offers deep relaxation with a focus on the interior body with an invitation to feel into each organ in your body as a way to activate the rest and digest response in your Nervous System. The image is one of my paintings from the 'Soft Inventories' series that is  also an attempt to map and track the inner state of being.

Interior Body Yoga Nidra

This is another Yoga Nidra 'postcard', as I like to call the practices that I record in situ when I'm traveling. Our family was lucky enough to experience being on a remote and beautiful pacific island in Tonga this week. I felt inspired to bring some of the elements and images together to offer you a relaxation using autogenic relaxation techniques, in other words seeing if you might use your imagination to welcome the feeling of restoration and retreat in order to cultivate your own inner island sanctuary.

Yoga Nidra Postcard from Tonga

This is a Yoga Nidra postcard from Bali. When I travel to a place that inspires me to feel a sense of interconnection and awareness I love to share that by recording a freestyle meditation amongst the background sounds of that place. In this case the recording comes from a morning in Bali with waves and birdsong in the background inviting you to tune into a sacred sense of space in your own day. With body and breath sensing you are taken on a journey to tune into the spaciousness of rest.

Yoga Nidra Postcard from Bali

Welcome to this deeply restful Yoga Nidra practice that tunes into the qualities of the solstice, be it summer or winter. You will be guided through body and breath sensing to feel into a feeling of radiance before welcoming opposites within your experience and finishing with a chanted offering to celebrate the sun.

As an option, if you wanted to have a pen and paper nearby, this practice could lead into a reflection and intention setting for solstice.

Solstice Sleep Meditation

A Yoga Nidra brought to you from a native forest clearing in the South Island of Aotearoa, New Zealand. Set yourself up comfortably in a seated or lying down position for a 35 minute deep relaxation to release tension and find ease with the help of the sounds and messages from the forest.

Forest Bathing Yoga Nidra

If we tune in every day to our physical, energetic, mental, emotional and bliss body to see what’s going we can begin to make appropriate actions and supportive responses in our daily lives. It’s like checking for our own personal weather report and then dressing for the day accordingly. 

You can use this ‘Kosha Check-in’ audio clip to connect with your layers right now. You may be guided by my voice initially but as you become more familiar with the sequence, sensations and curiosity you will be able to do this as an internal practice for your Self.

Your own personal Weather Report Check-in process

Practicing Savasana or Corpse Pose regularly will contribute to better sleep, reducing anxiety and depression, relax the nervous system and mind as well as boost the immune system.

So here’s an invitation to lie down today making sure you are very comfortable. Lie on a soft blanket, support the head with a folded towel, place a pillow under your knees, cover yourself with a blanket and if you have an eyebag or facecloth place it over the eyes. The following audio track will guide you into a whole body sensing relaxation. This will take 15 minutes of your day.

Body Sensing In Savasana

Constructive Rest is a an antidote to a stress filled day. Not only will it's regular practice help to reduce tension, it can relieve backpain, restore good posture, regulate your breath and balance out the 'doing' and 'being 'aspects of your nervous system. 

Set aside 20 minutes right now to restore yourself. A yoga mat and folded blanket set up as seen in the image accompanying this track are ideal, otherwise a rug or carpeted surface will be fine. You may also want a folded towel to place under the head and a blanket to cover you if it's cold. Make sure that you will remain undisturbed for the next 20mins and put your phone on silent!

Constructive Rest

Set up in Constructive Rest and spend 15 minutes connecting with your breath. See http://samloe.yoga/constructive-rest-christmas-30-day-gift-self/
for more info on practicing this posture.

Breath Reset in Constructive Rest Position

The Yoga Nidra that I delivered at the Hauora Yoga Conference in NZ after introducing the main concepts and benefits of iRest. This touches in on all 10 steps of iRest.

HAURORA YOGA NIDRA FINAL

A guided meditation for children. 
Visit your own Tree House to find a sense of calm, peace and safety. 
Use in the classroom to rest and settle busy children or at home, maybe even before bedtime.

Treehouse Meditation for Kids

An iRest Yoga Nidra delivered at a Solstice Sleep Session! This is an opportunity to reflect on your truer intentions of the season.

Solstice Sleep Upload

As we navigate our way through these extraordinary and anxiety provoking times that will impact us all we must finds ways to stay calm and take care of ourselves and our Whanau(family and community). This is easier said than done in times of social distancing, self-isolation, economic strife, and unknown territory.

‘Safe’ is a difficult word to entertain during times of fear and challenge. As a Yoga and iRest teacher and mentor I would love to support you with a free short meditation to cultivate a sense of Welbeing for you (one also available for kids on my soundcloud home page). How could you develop the sense of a secure place or what I call an ‘Inner Resource’? This meditation will invite you to consider and cultivate what this looks and feels like for you.

Cultivating an Inner Resource for Challenging times

Autumn Equinox is a time where light and dark come into balance. These traditionally pagan celebrations are a wonderful opportunity to tune in and listen to what the season may be whispering into your inner ear. The global pandemic situation is so loud and prevalent in our thoughts and experience that we can forget to tune into the ongoing reassuring turning of nature in all its glory from one season to the next. There is so much to gain by observing these changes and tuning into how the season is landing in your life.

Use this breath and reflection practice as a mini ritual and way to set personal intentions for these coming days and weeks. At the end you are invited to journal the thoughts and images that may arise as a result of taking this time to meditate and reflect.

AUTUMN BREATH AND REFLECTION

This Yoga Nidra is a Body Sensing practice that includes sensing into the organ body as a way to invite the Rest and Digest response in your Nervous System. Use this practice to release tension, allow the relaxation response to kick in and fully inhabit the sensations that form the radiance that is your true body.

Rest And Digest Yoga Nidra

Taking time to pause and rest can connect us back to the felt sense of our True Nature. When we remember what it's like to be in a place of 'simply being' we can begin to invite challenging feelings and thoughts as messengers. Use this Yoga Nidra as a spacious and welcoming backdrop upon which to ask some key questions that may give way to a new perspective.

Inhabiting the Pause as a Pointer back to your True Nature

Not sure what you need to do in your Yoga practice today? The suggestion here is to begin your practice with curiosity by allowing your body to briefly inhabit all the main evolutionary or developmental body shapes and postures that you travelled through from being and infant to becoming an upright adult human. This is a beautiful way to begin a practice that I learnt from Donna Farhi. It allows an unfolding that taps into the time of accumulating and learning yoga tools and resources.

I have guided this inquiry for my experienced students as well as relative newcomers to yoga, I have been amazed at how this process can really connect a person to practicing with confidence and allowing inner perception to rule over knowing the 'correct' ways of 'performing' an asana or a sequence.

Try it for your self using this 15 minute audio inquiry into an Evolutionary Practice.

Evolutionary Way to Begin your Self-Practice Today

Cultivating self-care through gentle and restorative yoga practices.

samloe.yoga

Popular tracks