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What is Yoga Nidra and why do I love to teach it?

 

Around 10 years ago, I started attending yoga classes at a local gym after finding a deep connection with the style the teacher offered. She also offered a gentle, restorative yoga class on Sunday mornings, that I started to join when I could. After the 60-minute class, there was an option to stay for a further 30-minutes of Yoga Nidra.

 

Most members opted to leave after the first hour, but quite a few chose to stay behind for Yoga Nidra. I quickly learned that these regular yogis made this extra 30 minutes an essential part of their weekly yoga programme. I attended quite a few of the Yoga Nidra sessions and found them to be incredibly calming, restorative and beneficial. During the Yoga Nidra session, my breathing and heart rate would slow down and I found myself often drifting between wakefulness and sleep. I remember Geraldine telling us – “Try not to fall asleep, but if you do, I will wake you up at the end of the session.”

 

After a number of years, I opted to embark on Yoga Teachers Training and after completing the course, Geraldine asked me to fill in for her on Sunday mornings when she had other commitments. I enjoyed the slower pace of the Sunday yoga sessions and looked forward to guiding the yogis through the Yoga Nidra session too.

 

I could see the immediate benefits of these sessions, with people often sitting up with a smile or a deep sigh after their Yoga Nidra session. But there are many deeper, longer-term benefits too that I'll list towards the end of this article.

 

 

So, what is yoga Nidra?

 

Yoga Nidra can be practiced by anyone.  It is usually practiced lying down with a teacher guiding the session.  A Yoga Nidra practice may last anywhere between fifteen minutes to an hour.

 

Yoga Nidra is also known as “yogic sleep” or “effortless relaxation”.   It is an ancient technique where the practitioner enters the deep states of conscious relaxation.  Yoga Nidra may benefit anyone who suffers from lack of sleep, trauma, burn-out, and anxiety. 

 

It is a systematic practice of moving awareness from our external world to the inner world, but it is not hypnosis.  Yoga Nidra aims to induce complete physical, mental and emotional relaxation with awareness.

 

It looks a lot like Savasana – isn’t it just a long Savasana?

We settle our bodies into the same relaxed position, on our backs, with arms and legs extended; but where Savasana focuses on total relaxation of body and mind, Yoga Nidra involves a lot more.

 

Yoga Nidra has been practiced for centuries and can prepare a person for deeper meditation practices.

 

Yoga Nidra is a specific state of internal awareness. It’s a powerful technique in which you learn to relax consciously.

 

Throughout the practice, you must try to maintain awareness. You are relaxed, but you do not sleep.

 

It is also not hypnosis – where hypnosis requires a person to sleep, so that the subconscious can be reached, during Yoga Nidra, the brain is completely awake. It receives a higher quality of stimuli and develops a different type of awareness than in our normal wakeful state. During hypnosis, the subject is led into a deep sleep in which certain parts of the brain are completely shut down. The consciousness is confined to a small area and the capacities are limited.

 

 

What happens during Yoga Nidra?

 

Guided by a teacher, the practitioner learns to induce his / her own state of relaxation by following the spoken instructions. The instructor or teacher is only a guide.

 

The practice draws our attention inwards, where our mind fluctuates between states of wakefulness and sleep, where the breath becomes quiet, and we fall into an innate state of deep, blissful awareness.

 

A guided visualization might sometimes be used in the practice of Yoga Nidra, but the purpose of Yoga Nidra is to shift the awareness from the external world to the internal world.

 

Yoga Nidra is not a state of dreaming. During Yoga Nidra, the mental processes cease, our senses rest and the mind becomes clear and calm. The practitioner remains awake. Right and Left hemispheres of the brain comes into balance.

 

Swami Satyananda said -

“It is a state in which you are neither asleep nor awake. If you fall asleep, it is not Yoga Nidra. If you remain awake, then it is also not Yoga Nidra. If dreams overtake you, it is not Yoga Nidra. Yoga Nidra is a state in which there is awareness of the conscious, subconscious and unconscious fields of your mind all at one time. It is a perfect therapy. It removes all psychological abnormalities and sanskaras, and helps you to become your normal, natural self.”

 

 

 

Some of the benefits of Yoga Nidra include:

• It is a deep healing technique for body, mind and soul, by promoting deep rest and relaxation that isn’t found in an average meditation practice,

• Yoga nidra helps to improve sleeping patterns,

• It can help to rejuvenate the body (One hour of Yoga Nidra is said to be as restful as four hours of conventional sleep),

• It can help to reduce stress on a physical, mental and emotional level,

• It can assist in reducing anxiety,

• It can assist with improved memory and concentration,

• Yoga Nidra also provides support for our autonomic nervous system (ANS) 

• The sympathetic nervous system (SNS) provides energy and resources to our muscles and heart. It is activated during physical or mental stress activities. These activities range from exercising, running, arguing, fighting, worrying or any other kind of activity which puts us in stress. The main purpose of this subsystem is to help us cope with stress.

• The parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) provides energy and resources to the brain and the internal organs like the liver, kidney, intestines, etc. It is activated during calm and peaceful periods. The purpose of this subsystem is to give the body the tools to heal, grow and digest. When our nervous system is in the parasympathetic mode, our brain functions improve and repair at cell level takes place.

• During the practice of Yoga Nidra, we activate the parasympathetic nervous system. We train our subconscious to release stress and stay in a peaceful and observant state. That is why Yoga Nidra helps to rejuvenate the body. With the regular practice of Yoga Nidra, you will be able to improve the overall ANS regulation and response. (Ram Jain)

 

 

I love to teach Yoga Nidra as part of special, longer yoga classes, where we can focus on deeper relaxation, or as part of a workshop or mini retreat. I also offer it as an alternative meditation method on occasion.

 

I'd love to hear from you if you practice Yoga Nidra, or have attended a Yoga Nidra session. Let me know what you  love or don' like.

 

If you would like to experience more regular Yoga Nidra sessions with me, also drop me a comment and we'll chat more.

 

Sources:

Bodsphere. 2022. 30-hour Yoga Nidra Teachers Training Manual

Yinsitute. 2019. Yin Yoga Teachers Training Manual.

Ekhart Yoga “What is Yoga Nidra”. https://www.ekhartyoga.com/articles/practice/what-is-yoga-nidra 

Ram Jain, Arhanta Yoga “ What is Yoga Nidra” https://www.arhantayoga.org/blog/what-is-yoga-nidra/