Yoga Nidra an ancient healing practice rooted in the Tantra yoga tradition. Yoga nidra is done while resting the body in a yoga posture called, Savasana.
During yoga nidra, the senses draw within and yet the connection with one’s environment remains -- however, the arousal-producing effects of the environment are diminished.
Key aspects of a yoga nidra practice include intention-setting following by a guided body scan with rotation of awareness and breathing and mental imagery techniques.
The result is a deeply relaxed state of consciousness.
In essence, yoga nidra is a practice of stillness, faith and surrender.
The gifts of yoga nidra are many. Including better sleep, improved mood and well-being, and greater resiliency. This practice of yogic sleep can also strengthen your intuition and imagination over time by connecting you more fully to the sensations of the emotional body and the expanding the vision of the mind’s eye through the process of visualization. Most simply, yoga nidra is designed to untangle and reduce stress and anxiety and calm the nerves over time.
Yoga nidra is a practice of internal strength training.
I don't know about you, but some days it feels like we live in a whirlwind of sensory overload. We're bombarded by emails, texts, information, marketing, work demands, and a whole laundry list of to-do's, should's, judgements and expectations. The result? We end up either entirely depleted or living in a state of tired but wired. I know this feeling well -- it's what led me to discover yoga nidra and restorative yoga.
The ability to self-soothe and to manage your nervous system is a gift--and it's a skill to be learned and practiced just like any other skill.
I consider yoga nidra as strength training for the nervous system and in particular the parasympathetic nervous system -- your INNATE relaxation response. In yoga nidra, we first and foremost relax the physical body to settle and quiet the conscious mind—essentially entering a sleep-like state. In this deeply relaxed state of being, the practitioner is then able to connect to the deeper layers of the subconscious and unconscious mind allowing for a state of integration and healing at all levels of being, including physically, mentally and emotionally.
Rather than doing the meditation, the practitioner opens oneself to receive the meditation.
At its core, yoga nidra is an expression of grace, self-love and compassion.
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