The Joy of Yoga Nidra
I have been reminded these last few months of the many benefits that a regular Yoga Nidra practice gifts. It was practice that blew my mind – quite literally – when I first experienced it in Australia about 18 years ago now.
To set the scene - when I first started practising yoga, almost 22 years ago, I simply could not relax. It was impossible and desperately uncomfortable to the extent that I found any excuse I could to leave the class early so that I didn’t have to endure Savasana.
It wasn’t that I didn’t want to rest, as I desperately did – and needed to – but my mind was just too restless with the relentless thoughts and all the tick lists and many things I felt I should be doing instead.
I will never forget the first two hour class I took in Australia, a year later. I had travelled to Byron Bay, the yoga capital of Australia at that time to immerse myself in yoga such was my passion for this spiritual discipline. While I loved every minute of the dynamic yoga class, when it came to the 20 minutes of Savasana - in complete silence, as is the traditional way -I was flummoxed. This felt like the longest 20 minutes of my life!
Still, attending these two hour classes day in and day out over the course of a few months, I soon learned techniques to calm my mind and enable me to sustain the longer relaxations. However, it wasn’t until I discovered Yoga Nidra a couple of years later, also in Australia, that I truly learned to let go into relaxation and began enjoying it as a stand-alone practice.
I can still remember that first experience, lying with a group of teacher trainee students who I was assisting, at Govinda Valley, a Hare Krishna retreat centre just outside Sydney. We were all wrapped up under the weight of blankets, a bolster under our knees, lying perfectly still, as the teacher’s voice soothed us into a state of cosy bliss.
I’d never experienced such a practice where I was asked to make a Sankalpa, a resolution or intention, and then slowly relax each part of my body in turn, noticing sensations and then being guided on a deeper inner journey, as I was encouraged to experience different states of being, hot/cold, pain/pleasure and rapid visualisation of various objects, even a trip into the chakras.
It was a journey like no other I had experienced previously. Time lost all meaning; what was actually 30 minutes felt like 5, and before I knew it we were back in the room, on our mats, in our bodies, feeling much more centred and grounded than I had felt in a long time.
Especially noticeable was the lack of mental chatter – I had managed to drift beyond it into that wonderful liminal space where you are neither here nor there, between wake and sleep, the hypnotic state, where real healing takes place. I felt brighter, lighter, rested and renewed.
Essentially Yoga Nidra is a powerful meditation technique inducing complete physical, emotional and mental relaxation. During Yoga Nidra one appears to be asleep but the consciousness is functioning at a deeper level of awareness so that you are prompted throughout the practice to say to yourself mentally, “I shall not sleep, I shall remain awake”.
Before beginning Yoga Nidra the Sankalpa is made. This is an important stage of Yoga Nidra as it plants a seed in the mind encouraging healing and transformation in a positive direction. The Sankapla is a short positive mental statement established at the beginning of the practice and said mentally to yourself in the present tense, as if it was already reality.
A Sankalpa is more than just a goal; it’s a deeply felt desire that resonates with one’s authentic self, specific to one’s individual needs and aspirations. For example, a Sankalpa could be, “I am happy, healthy and pure light”, “I am whole and healed”, “I open to abundance”, “I am courageous and confident”, “I am worthy of receiving love”, I believe in myself and recognise my worth”, “I love and accept myself just as I am”.
A Sankalpa can also be used to encourage us to let go of something in our life like smoking or overeating, focusing on the underlying feeling that leads us to smoke or to overeat such as “I love and care for myself and my body”, or “I choose to eat foods that support my health and wellbeing” or “I am relaxed and contented”. Simply having the opportunity to establish a Sankalpa is powerful in itself as it gives a focus and enhances self-awareness.
It is actually in connecting with ourself that we come to realise all the deep seated tensions that Yoga Nidra helps us to release. These are all the unconscious and unresolved issues that are playing a role in some of our unwanted habits and behaviour patterns - the things that we resolve to change at the beginning of the year but that will alone will not shift as we need to get deeper to the root and Yoga Nidra helps enormously with this.
Furthermore, with the letting go that Yoga Nidra encourages on all levels of being, including the emotional, and the space it gifts for processing, one feels lighter after a session and more energy is then available to be used in a more positive manner. We waste a lot of energy maintaining the status quo and holding onto old emotions and memories, not least physically (the body keeps score) but also mentally and of course physically too. This shows up in our energy body and we can feel constantly tired – carrying around the weight of our past.
So this, the resting and space to process and let go, let alone the power of intention in the form of Sankalpa, means our life undoubtably changes when practise Yoga Nidra regularly. It is in this way that Yoga Nidra offers us so much potential for transforming our lives in an even more positive direction than we can ever imagine.
There are of course physiological benefits too, such as lowering of the heart rate and blood pressure, the release of lactate from the muscles that can cause anxiety and fatigue, a more restful night’s sleep and, ultimately, a calming and unwinding of the nervous system, which is basically the foundation of the body’s wellbeing - our physical health and sense of wellbeing can improve too.
Over the years Yoga Nidra has helped me in so many ways. At times of crisis, when I have been tired and exhausted, sick and stressed, it has helped to restore, renew and heal me. At confused times in my life when I have been unclear of the way forward then it has provided me with much needed clarity. At other times it has helped me to let go of unhealthy addictions and behaviour patterns, the most profound was changing my relationship to myself and therefore enabling me to effortlessly let go of the need to smoke tobacco after many years of battling with nicotine addiction.
Without doubt Yoga Nidra helped me navigate IVF and working with the Sankalpa of “I am pregnant with a healthy baby”, helped me remain positive and I am pretty sure this enabled me to conceive at our first attempt – or maybe that was destiny – but regardless, it gave huge encouragement, self-belief and positive energy.
These days relaxation comes more easily to me and I positively seek out and embrace any opportunity for Yoga Nidra for it is just such an amazing practice. In this stressful and fast paced world we live, where we can feel so disorientated and fragmented, it really helps to bring us back together and connect with ourselves again - - rest is so undervalued by our society and yet is much needed.
Needless to say, I cannot promote the benefits of Yoga Nidra enough. But of course reading about Yoga Nidra doesn’t change things. This is a practice, like yoga and Reiki, and to experience the benefits, we must literally practice, and regularly.
To make this easier there are a number of free Yoga Nidra recordings on my website here. Furthermore I offer monthly Breathe and Rest sessions where we enjoy the many benefits of breathing consciously, before resting into Yoga Nidra.
In the autumn I am intending to offer a Yoga Nidra immersion, a four-week course to enable students to work with the same Sankalpa and invite positive change in their lives through rest. Keep an eye out on the website and join the newsletter/Facebook page.
Love Emma x
