Find your calm place with Yoga Nidra

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Yoga nidra, or ‘dynamic sleep’ as it is sometimes described, is a powerful meditation technique and one of the easiest yoga practices to develop and maintain. It allows the body to relax deeply while the mind stays inwardly alert. Swami Satyananda Saraswati, who pioneered the practice in the 1950s by drawing from ancient Tantric texts, explained it as “reaching the border between waking and sleeping states.” In Western medical terms it can be understood as the confluence of alpha and delta brainwaves.

During the process of falling asleep, the brain waves move from the active, thoughtful beta waves (14-40 Hz), then passes through the relaxed, thought-free state of alpha waves (9-13 Hz), before finally entering the slowest frequency of deep sleep, delta waves (1-3 Hz). Yoga Nidra takes practitioners into the threshold between alpha and theta waves, also knows as a hypnagogic state - the threshold where the body is in a sleep state while the mind remains lucid. At this point the logical, analytical aspect of the mind is suspended allowing your unconscious to open up to new ways of thinking, healing, and fulfilling your conscious intentions. In this state of deep relaxation, your heart beat and breathing slow down, and your body and mind become deeply calm.

 

There are different approaches to teaching and practicing yoga nidra, but most include several stages to relax the body, mind and emotions. These include

  • Setting an intention

  • Creating body awareness

  • Focussing on breath awareness

  • Building emotional awareness

  • Visualization

  • Emerging and re-integration

Each step is intended to take you into and then safely out of the state between sleep and wakefulness.

Whether you want to try yoga nidra to help you relax, release stress and improve your sleep, or you want to gain access to creating real positive changes in your life, the practice can have powerful benefits.

 

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