Regulate your nervous system through a body scan, breath counting, and calming visualizations of light and sea.

English

The breath, the mind, and the body are all connected.

When we slow the breath, the mind slows down.

When the mind slows, the body follows, softening, settling, releasing.

This calming network sends a message to the nervous system that says:

“Hey, we’re good here. You can turn off the alarm.”

And so it does.

This is why breath is such a powerful tool for healing.

Not a quick fix, but a long-term one.

A gentle path back to regulation, again and again.

This is what we call regulating with breath...

And it’s the focus of Day 4 of this 5-Part Yoga Nidra Series: Grounding & Safety, designed to help you root deeply into your body, find steadiness, and feel supported, no matter what life brings. 

This Yoga Nidra practice focuses on the breath as a powerful tool for calming and balancing the nervous system.

By slowing down and tuning into your natural rhythm, you’ll discover how the breath can anchor you in the present moment and gently guide the body and mind into ease.

Yoga Nidra: [Day 4] Regulating With Breath

Enjoy your practice! Any final adjustments that you might need for your yoga nidra practice, go ahead and make them now. And begin by noticing the body on the floor. Notice the sensation of your body touching the floor. And notice all of the meeting points between body and floor. And start to find that state of effortlessness where you're not trying to concentrate, you're not trying to keep up, but you're in that state of effortless listening and effortless welcoming. Now bring your awareness to the right hand, the tip of the right thumb, the tip of your index finger, the tip of your middle finger, the tip of the ring finger, pinky finger, the palm of the right hand, the back of the right hand, right wrist, right lower arm, the right elbow, right upper arm, right shoulder, right armpit, the right waist, the right hip, right thigh, right knee, right shin, right ankle, top of the right foot, the sole of your right foot, the heel of the right foot, your right big toe, second toe, third toe, fourth toe, and fifth toe. And move your awareness to the left hand, the tip of your left thumb, tip of the index finger, tip of the middle finger, the ring finger, pinky finger, the palm of the left hand, the back of your left hand, left wrist, left lower arm, the left elbow, left upper arm, left shoulder, left armpit, left waist, the left hip, left thigh, left knee, left shin, the left ankle, the top of your left foot, the sole of your left foot, the heel of the left foot, left big toe, second toe, third toe, fourth toe, and fifth toe. And then move the awareness to the back of your head, back of the neck, feel the upper back, the middle back, the lower back, feel your entire back, the right butt cheek, the left butt cheek, the back of your right leg, the back of your left leg. Move your awareness to the top of the head, the scalp, forehead, right ear, left ear, feel the insides of your ears, the outer rims of your ears, right cheekbone, the left cheekbone, right nostril, the left nostril, the tip of the nose, upper lip, bottom lip, feel the insides of your mouth, feel the tongue, your upper teeth, the bottom teeth, the roof of your mouth, feel your entire mouth, feel your throat, right side of the chest, left side of the chest, the center of your chest, the navel, lower abdomen, right leg, left leg. Now feel both of your legs together, the right arm, the left arm, feel both of your arms together, the right hand, the left hand, feel both of your hands together, now feel your entire body, become aware of all of those parts at the same time. Feel your body and notice your body breathing, your effortless inhales and effortless exhales. Your body is effortlessly breathing. Bring awareness to your nostrils. Observe how the breath goes in through the nose and out through the nose. Then observe, visualize at the nostrils, two beams of white light going in through the nose as you inhale, two beams of white light coming out of your nose as you exhale. No effort to breathe, no effort to visualize. As you breathe in, two beams of white light go in through the nose, two beams of white light coming out of the nose as you exhale. Keep breathing like this, in and out through your nose. Now let go of the visual, keeping your attention at the nose. Count your breaths 11 to 1, so you're counting effortlessly on each exhalation. If you lose the count or finish, you go back to 11 and start over. No rush, no effort to count. Count your breaths 11 to 1. Now let go of the count. Move your attention to the center of your chest. Visualize a warm golden light at the center of your chest. As you breathe in, visualize the light expand like a bubble coming out of the chest. As you breathe out, the light comes back to the heart. No effort to breathe in, the light expands. To breathe out, the light comes back to the heart. Warm soft golden light expanding like a bubble as you breathe in. Drawing back to the heart as you breathe out. And now let go of that visual, keeping your attention at the center of your chest. Count your breaths 11 to 1, counting on the exhale. And now let go of your count. And now visualize a dark blue ocean in the middle of the night. Quiet, peaceful night. Dark blue ocean. Notice the bright shining stars in the sky. Full moon and the sound of the waves gently rolling towards the shore. Now as you happen to breathe in, visualize that soft gentle wave rolling towards the shore. And then as you breathe out, visualize the wave crashing on the shore. As you breathe in, soft gentle wave rolling towards the shore. As you breathe out, visualize and listen to the wave crashing gently on the shore. Keep breathing like this. Soft gentle wave rolling towards the shore. And notice the sound of that wave, the same sound that the breath makes when you breathe effortlessly. Now let go of that visual. Count your breaths 11 to 1, counting on the exhale. And now let go of your count. Just observe your body on the floor. Your body, breath and mind effortless. All working together as one here. Mind, body and breath. Now slowly and gradually we'll start to bring the awareness back. And just begin to wiggle your fingers and toes. Just add a movement back into the body. Bend the knees one at a time. And then settle into fetal position for a few seconds. And come up to sit when you're ready, keeping the eyes closed. You're going to take your hands together at the center of your chest, lower the chin. And we'll take a deep breath in through the nose, inhale. And out through the mouth, exhale. One more like that, breathe in. And exhale. Thank you.