Lying relaxation audio recording

[Kit_L]

Recorded at Greenwell Point, on the occasion of the Stretch Therapy Teacher Intensive, just finished.

https://s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/lying-relaxation-scripts/2016-LyingRelaxationGPTT2016.mp3

Click on this link and save it to your recording device. This is about 24 minutes in duration.

[Rik]

So did this for the first time in a while, pretty marvelous experience. The sensation I get while exploring bodyparts feels like a combination of visualization and feeling and is quite clear; a very large difference from my initial experience with this exercise! The description of a tidal wave while breathing is also interesting: I tend to have a lot of trouble not getting involved in my breathing, this seemed to help.

Good shit.

[Kit_L]

Hahahahahahaha! Thanks Phi; it is good shit! It needs repetition; if you commit to a lunar month of daily practice, you will see/feel changes; if you commit to three lunar months, deep permanent change will occur.

I have two gigs in Malaysia this year (a bit over three weeks in total); I should be able to record all sessions and will make available here. 

[[DW]]

Dave has recently re-visited the lying yoga nidra practice after a number of years focusing upon other practices.  A very nice, deep relaxation (and other more interesting things) occurred in one I did a few days back. I might play with it on and off over the summer (depending upon time after other practices).  A great thing to add to one's training if one does not have access to other things of this nature. Simple and profound. 

[Olga]

Sorry I missed it, but are the eyes supposed to be open or closed? tried both ways so far, sometimes I am struggling with sleep when I close my eyes, so I keep them open and do the relaxation in the first part of the day. Would like to hear Kit's instruction though.

[Kit_L]

Eyes closed. Struggling with sleep is usually an indication of a need... for sleep. Getting 20–30 minutes of deep rest this way will benefit the system immensely. What's interesting is that even when people fall asleep at some point in this practise, everyone wakes up when the finals instructions are given. 

The time of day for the practise is not so important; doing the practise at roughly the same time each day is thought to be beneficial—but this is not set in stone either. For example, doing the practise lying on the floor (not on your bed) just before you sleep has extremely beneficial effects on 'real' sleep.

Different instructions for sitting practise.

[jaja]

I've seen a picture of you doing yoga nidra on a mattress, I believe. Is that a good option? I've found the hardness of the floor really helps my muscles to let go, but I sometimes I can't lay on the ground (e.g. when I'm abroad).

[Kit_L]

I wonder if you could link to the image you refer to? Perhaps surprisingly, I have never seen an image of me doing this practise on a mattress—unless you are talking about the image Olivia took of me practising on one of out two day-beds (with our cat asleep on my chest!). That bed has a thin base pad (75mm?).

If you find a hard floor or surface helps, continue with this.

Yoga Nidra can be done anywhere, in any physical position, and on any surface. The task becomes only, 'how can I relax more?'

[jaja]

Yes, it was precisely that picture! It's a thin mat, but it doesn't look very firm.

[Kit_L]

It's firm enough; thanks for reminding me of this!

[p6l-richard]

Hey Kit,

What I struggle with is to wake up early because my mind is running off with things. 
It interferes with the later part of my sleep which makes me not feel rested and also feeling emotionally less stable. 
 

These phases come and go and I‘ve tried numerous things to improve that (mainly integrating more mindfulness and relaxation throughout the day). 
 

However, I still to tend to end up in phases where my mind gets a bit restless. This also comes with an ease to make bad decision like screen time late in the day, later bed times, more sugar in my diet etc. 

 

I‘m ready to commit to a lunar cycle of daily practice of your recording now to see if that makes a difference. 

You mentioned that it doesn’t make a difference when to exercise this.. anything else you’d recommend given the above?
 

Or is it „simply“ do whatever keeps you consistent with the practice over the month. 😬

[Kit_L]

56 minutes ago, p6l-richard said:

What I struggle with is to wake up early because my mind is running off with things. 

When you write this, do you mean that in a normal night sleep, you wake up before you want to? Because you're thinking about things – or you wake up and then you find yourself thinking about things? This is extremely common these days and the three things that you mention are three things that you need to address – in other words stop doing them!

It is better to do the practice at the same time every day but that exact time is not significant, it seems. Some people find it very helpful to do it as the last thing they do before they go to sleep – but if you do that, do the practice on the floor rather than on your bed.

And one lunar cycle is excellent and three lunar cycles is even better! Of course, start with one.

[p6l-richard]

1 hour ago, Kit_L said:

When you write this, do you mean that in a normal night sleep, you wake up before you want to? Because you're thinking about things – or you wake up and then you find yourself thinking about things?

The former. I wake up before I want to or before feeling fully rested because I’m thinking about things. 
 

1 hour ago, Kit_L said:

in other words stop doing them!

Okay! Thank you.

 

1 hour ago, Kit_L said:

do the practice on the floor rather than on your bed.

Is that for better muscle relaxation? Or to not associate with unconscious sleep?

Good that you mention that, I defaulted to bed. 

[Kit_L]

23 hours ago, p6l-richard said:

Or to not associate with unconscious sleep?

This. Experience has shown that the best results are obtained by separating the practices – even if you set an alarm to wake yourself up from your sleep the next day, if you go to bed in a genuinely relaxed state, you should have better sleep.