Deeply Calming Sleep Meditation: Yoga Nidra
Yoga Nidra is a technique of self-exploration of inner growth through deep relaxation. This powerful practice guides you deep into your unconscious and allows you to process deep unresolved tension and emotions. All you have to do is wear your most comfortable clothes, find a quiet space, lie down in a corpse pose, and can play your sleep meditation soundtrack.
Benefits Of Yoga Nidra
Yoga Nidra or Sleep Meditation offers extensive benefits. Join our 200 hour yoga teacher training in Rishikesh to know the benefits of Yoga Nidra. Yet, it is one of the easiest yoga practices and has been gaining popularity in recent years due to its positive effects on health and the mind.
- Yoga Nidra practice can improve thought processes and reduce stress.
- It promotes self-esteem and confidence.
- This yoga practice enhances sleep quality and relieves various physical health associated with sleep.
- It will diminish symptoms of mental illness, anxiety, and depression
- It can treat chronic pain and post-traumatic stress disorder.
- It encourages waking mindfulness.
- It will enhance cognitive performance and memory recall speed.
Stages Of Yoga Nidra
A typical Yoga Nidra session contains a few steps: Preparation, Body Awareness, Visualizations, Sankalpa, and Breath Awareness.
Settling Or Initial Relaxation
The practice of Yoga Nidra relaxes us, but to practice Yoga Nidra, we must also be relaxed. Limiting caffeine and stimulants before practice is recommended. The moment we do become relaxed, there are two paths. The first is sleep, and the second is meditation. The two really aren’t much different; Yoga Nidra is not sleeping but conscious sleeping. When we become relaxed, we can increase our awareness and become aware of many deep-rooted emotions. Many emotions are possibly stored in our unconscious, which we can gently bring to the surface.
Body Awareness
Body awareness is typically one of the first steps in practice. We are guided through a body scan to ground ourselves and build awareness. So much tension we absorb through our lives is stored in the gross physical body, and a body scan allows us to become aware of this tension. We become sensitive to this pain, and as we progress through yoga Nidra and our spiritual practice, we become more sensitive to the baggage we hold in us. With practice, we draw out these old sanskaras. Each time we are tearing apart layers and identifications and learning to surrender.
When we do surrender, we drop the act of control. Instead of seeking to “control” the mind, we surrender and become friendly with it. This type of surrender is internal and a sign of mental strength. When you surrender and acknowledge your Sanskaras, only then are we able to come out of these burdens.
We are constantly absorbing tension throughout the day. For example, if we are walking down the street and a car flies by too fast, we get angry and typically bottle that tension up. We must take time daily to empty this tension in our bodies. Yoga Nidra allows us to do this.
If we don’t make a habit of taking out the trash, then the bin fills up and starts to overflow. The same thing occurs in us. We must take time each day to empty ourselves. There is often no need to be overly analytical over this, just as you don’t typically look at every piece of trash you throw out but dump it and move on.
Visualizations And Sankalpa
Visualizations can be a very powerful practice to empty negative tension as well. Our eyes are constantly taking mental pictures throughout the day. Through practice, we learn to dis-identify from situations. Chanting of OM can be helpful with this. When we take the 2-3 second pause between chants, we are preparing ourselves to be more reflective than reactive in our actions.
Acknowledging or finding your Sankalpa is another area of the Yoga Nidra practice. Sankalpa can be difficult to explain, but it is your will, resolve, or life’s purpose. This is the seed of our transformation. This seed has been there all along, but we must dig deep into ourselves to bring it up. Through practice, we dig deep into the ground and go past all that is not needed. Eventually, our Sankalpa will flower and flourish.
Breathe Awareness
A simple breathing practice or breath awareness based on Yoga Nidra basically means sleep with awareness. It helps to calm down the nervous system, especially if you’ve had a busy day or have stress. A few minutes of practice of active breathing techniques during a Yoga Nidra session is equivalent to a few hours of quality sleep, and compared to sleep is a restorative as well as rejuvenating yoga practice.
To Conclude
Yoga Nidra is a powerful technique that allows us to become more sensitive, aware, and rejuvenate the mind and body. Through Yoga Nidra practices, deep internal healing can occur.
To learn this art of self-healing, Contact Tattvaa Yogashala. We have certified yoga teachers and instructors who will help you in your daily practices and keep you updated with the correct methodologies to practice yoga and its various asanas.
