Yoga Nidra: Body of Joy

[Music] Tantra illuminated with Dr. Christopher Wallace is a journey through the depths of the human experience. As viewed through the lens of the tradition called Nondual Shiva Tantra. This multi-format podcast delves into the fascinating world of classical Tantra and its intersections with philosophy, neuroscience, psychology, human development and the broader world of spirituality. [Music] Well, we've completed 50 episodes of the Tantra illuminated podcast and I hope we'll keep it going for a long time. We will never monetize this podcast or run ads or anything like that. So please do support us by subscribing and sharing episodes of the podcast with your friends. Today's episode is a meditation and it's a different kind of meditation from others we've offered before on the podcast. It's a yoga nidra. Some of you may be familiar with this practice, but not everyone is. So this is a practice that you do lying down in Shavasana. But it is not for going to sleep a lot of people listen to yoga nidra these days to fall asleep. But it is actually a meditation practice, not a sleep practice. And so when you adopt your prostrate posture, your Shavasana, it's important not to have a pillow under your head. You could put a blanket under your head, however. And if you do have a pillow, it can go under your knees. So this helps cue the body that this is not sleep time, but a practice. In this practice, it's important that you don't move. So relax as much as possible and relax out of the impulse to move or scratch every itch. It's important that you cultivate physical stillness for this practice and resolve neither to sleep nor to move while relaxing as much as humanly possible. Okay, with that orientation, here is the yoga nidra practice called Body of Joy. Welcome and let's prepare for yoga nidra. Please adopt a comfortable prostrate position also known as Shavasana. Lie comfortably on a mat on the floor. Perhaps not a bed because we don't want you to fall asleep in this practice. It's okay to come very close to sleep, but ideally you want to hover in the liminal space between sleep and waking. The space where dreams are almost possible. A space of deep relaxation and yet awareness. It's often a good idea to put a pillow under your knees, but not under your head unless it's a very thin pillow. Because we want the head aligned with the spine, not pressed forward. Once you're comfortable, let's begin the practice of yoga nidra. And the first thing to do is to make a commitment not to sleep and also not to move. So shake or wiggle or jiggle if you need to before you settle down because you're committing to not move for this period of about 24 minutes. Now we are practicing yoga nidra. Let the breath come in a little bit deeper so that the belly rises and let the breath move out a little bit longer and slower. Breathing all the way down into the low belly. Let the breath be deep but without any significant effort. And let the breath be a little bit slower and longer than usual. And settle into the floor, settle into the body, let everything melt and go limp. Just relaxing, deeply relaxing. Let the toes be limp. Let the feet relax. Let the ankles be limp. The calves relax. The knees relax. The thighs relax. The hips relax. The buttocks relax and melt into the earth. The fingers and hands go limp and relaxed. The wrists relax. The forearms relax. The elbows, the upper arms, the shoulders all relaxed and limp. Surrendered into the earth. The back body, surrendering and melting into the earth. The jaw relaxes. All the muscles of the face relax. So that your face resembles the face of a sleeping three year old child. Let your face be like that of a sleeping child. Totally relaxed and surrendered. All the muscles go slack. Jaw relaxes, forehead relaxes, ears and behind the ears relax and the head surrenders itself to the earth. Right now there's nothing to do and no one you have to be. Rotating consciousness through the body. Touch the left foot with your awareness. Feel the aliveness of all the cells in the left foot. foot. Perhaps it tingles, perhaps it's a little numb, it doesn't matter. You can still feel it's aliveness. And then the right foot, now focus entirely on the right foot, feeling its aliveness. Now the left calf and ankle, feeling the subtle life force energy there, and then the right calf and ankle, and then the left knee, right knee, left thigh, and please don't linger behind nor anticipate what comes next just totally be with each body part as it's named. Left barak, right barak, front of the left hip, front of the right hip, pelvic floor, genital area, low belly, navel, upper belly, the whole belly, left ribcage, right ribcage, sternum, part, left breast, right breast, the whole of the front side of the torso, head of the throat, left shoulder, upper arm, elbow, lower arm, left hand, fingertips of the left hand, fingertips of the right hand, whole of the right hand, lower arm, elbow, upper arm, right shoulder, back of the neck, back of the head, crown of the head, forehead, left ear, right ear, eyebrows, bridge of the nose, upper lip, lower lip, left cheek, right cheek, chin, the whole face, left eyelid, right eyelid, both eyes together, back of the head, base of the skull, back of the neck, between the shoulder blades, behind the heart, middle of the spine, lower back, coc six, sacrum, the whole spine, sacrum once again, the whole back, both legs together, both arms together, the whole body, the whole body, the whole body lying on the floor. Now imagine the body becomes very heavy like wet clay, very heavy, sinking into the earth, emerging with the earth, sinking down, what a relief to merge with the earth. And come back to neutral, neither heavy nor light. And then imagine or feel, if you can, the body becomes ever so light, light as a feather, light as cotton wool, light as a cloud. In fact, it's almost about to float up off the floor or so it feels. Perhaps it does float up off the floor, and gently floats on a warm summer breeze. How delightful, what a relief to be so light. Light is a bit of down floating. And come back to neutral, neither heavy nor light, the body lying on the floor. Now, remember a time you felt cold. Remember what it's like to feel very cold with the icy wind biting you to the bone. Remember and experience that cold like being outside on a winter's day with no coat or jacket. And be okay with it. It's okay to be cold. And come back to neutral. And remember a time you felt very warm, perhaps lying on a beach on a hot sunny day or by a blazing fire. Remember what it feels like to be warmed all the way through, perhaps in a sauna. Even a little bit too warm, as when that sun is blazing down. But notice you're okay. It's okay to be warm, even hot. And come back to neutral, neither cold nor hot. And please continue to stay with the instruction. Don't go into a reverie, a memory. That's not what we're doing now. Remember a time you felt pain in the body, wherever it was in the body. Real pain. Get in touch with that feeling of pain. Somatic pain, not emotional pain. And notice you're okay. It's okay to feel pain. Now remember a time you felt great pleasure in the body. Again, don't go into the specifics of the memory. Just remember the feeling of pleasure as acutely as you can. And activate that feeling in the body if you can. Where was it? What was it like? Any kind of pleasure that you felt in the body. Get in touch with it. Feel it. It's okay to feel pleasure. There's no shame in it. And it's also not necessary for your happiness. Enjoy it and let it go. Come back to neutral, neither pain nor pleasure. And now please remember a time you felt sublime joy. This is different from pleasure. Pure happiness. Sublime joy. Radiant beattitude. Or profound well-being. Again, don't get into a memory. Just remember as vividly as you can how it felt. This sublime joy or pure happiness. Even if you've only felt it once in your life, that's enough for this exercise. Now when you're in touch with that sublime joy or at least the memory of it, ask yourself these questions. If it had a color, what color would it be? Just let it come. No thought needed. If it had a texture, what texture would it be? If it had a temperature, what would it be? If it had a movement, a vibration or an undulation of some kind, what would it be? Does it sparkle and dance? Or does it sinuously undulate? Does it sway? Does it jump? Let it come to you organically. You're investigating the energetic qualities of this joy or happiness. The qualities merely symbolized by the color, texture, temperature, vibration. and so on. Now once you have those qualities as vividly in mind as possible, you're going to install this energy of joy in your body. First in your belly, install this energy of joy with its color and temperature and texture and vibration in your belly. But it fill your belly, imagine this as vividly as you can. From your belly it pervades your low back and sacrum. And then it spreads to your hips. Much like a fire spreads, but this is something much more beautiful and subtle than a fire. And it spreads to your chest and behind your heart and your shoulder blades. The whole torso is filled with this energy now. This energy of joy. The buttocks, the pelvic floor, the whole pelvic bowl filled with this energy. It spills into the legs, spreading through the legs, all the way down to the feet, all the way down to the soles of the feet. It spreads into the throat and neck as well. Spills down the arms, filling the arms, all the way down to the hands, all the way to the fingertips. And it flows into the head, the whole head is full of it. Now the whole body is full of this energy of joy or well-being. It spreads into the head, the whole head is full of joy or well-being. And now it inundates all the tissues of the physical body. It's in your bones, your ligaments, your muscles, fascia, blood, fat, skin and hair. Become aware of your body lying on the floor. Become aware that you have been practicing yoga-nidra. Please offer the benefit of this practice to all beings, including yourself. And please repeat this practice until you can make it all the way through without sleeping and without moving. Be deeply relaxed yet aware. The practice of yoga-nidra is complete. And you can wiggle your fingers and toes, slowly begin to reactivate the body. And when you're ready, bring the knees to the chest and then roll over onto your side before coming up. Thank you. Thank you for your presence. Thank you. Thank you.