What psychological picture does the phrase “yoga” conjure for you? Probably a spandex-clad particular person in downward canine or balancing on one leg in tree pose. Or perhaps they’re in a sophisticated full-body knot that requires 5 occasions extra flexibility than you’ve ever had? Does it appear like onerous work?
That’s actually one model of yoga, the sort that dominates the fashionable notion of yoga within the West, nevertheless it’s under no circumstances what we’re speaking about in the present day.
What if I informed you that there’s one other form of yoga, one by which you don’t transfer in any respect? You don’t even sit or stand; you lie down the entire time. That’s yoga nidra. “Yoga nidra” actually means “yogic sleep,” generally translated as “conscious sleep.” The objective of yoga nidra is to attain an altered state of consciousness the place you might be neither awake nor asleep however in a liminal house in between—or perhaps surpassing each. (Technically, the time period refers back to the state of consciousness past wakefulness or sleeping. That is, “yoga nidra” is the vacation spot, not the journey it takes to get there. But in widespread parlance, folks use it to imply all the observe.)
Yoga nidra provides the chance to step outdoors your physique, ideas, and feelings. It is a state of deep rest and, say proponents, of deep therapeutic the place your unconscious turns into extra open to studying and establishing new thought and conduct patterns, stress dissipates, and you progress in direction of bodily well being and homeostasis. “Equivalent to fours hours of deep sleep!” is a standard promoting level.
The latter could or might not be true, nevertheless it’s clear that yoga nidra has lots to supply by means of selling rest, higher sleep, and even restoration from main stress and trauma. There isn’t an individual working within the trendy world who couldn’t profit from slowing down and deliberately tapping into enjoyable, restorative practices. Is yoga nidra best for you?
A Brief History of Yoga Nidra
Modern yoga nidra practices have roots tracing again into many historical yoga and meditation traditions. In historical texts, yoga nidra or yoganidra generally referred to that non-sleep, non-waking stage of consciousness or to the goddess Yoga Nidra Shakti. Yoga nidra was usually described as a better state of being, one by which regular psychological and bodily actions ceased, and the yogi achieved a state of bliss.
The kind of yoga nidra observe you’re prone to encounter in the present day was most likely impressed by nineteenth and twentieth century “relaxationists” and hypnotists who had been concerned with harnessing the therapeutic energy of relaxation, in keeping with students, nevertheless it actually received its kickstart due to the teachings of Swami Satyananda Saraswati. Beginning within the Sixties and 70s, Satyananda devised a technique of utilizing respiration strategies and physique scans to attain progressive rest and faucet into yoga nidra. If you’re taking a yoga nidra class in the present day, there’s a very good likelihood you’ll be following his methodology, or one thing fairly prefer it.
Yoga nidra has since loved a surge in reputation, in addition to tutorial curiosity. In the 2000s, scientific psychologist and yoga scholar Dr. Richard Miller developed his iRest protocol—a model of yoga nidra—and institute of the identical title to assist folks coping with points starting from “normal” stress to extreme PTSD, sleep disturbances, and continual well being points. More lately, Stanford neuroscientist Dr. Andrew Huberman coined the time period “non-sleep deep rest” (NSDR) to embody practices that may promote stress launch, neuroplasticity, extra environment friendly studying, and higher sleep, amongst different advantages. Huberman counts yoga nidra, hypnosis or self-hypnosis, and napping as kinds of NSDR.
What Happens During a Yoga Nidra Practice?
Yoga nidra entails a guided, meditative observe designed to attain a deep state of rest the place you transcend waking, sleeping, and dreaming states to reach at a deeper stage of consciousness. You stay conscious of the surface world (in contrast to if you’re asleep), however you might be completely indifferent from it. You are conscious however probably not awake. There however not-there. In a real state of yoga nidra, you reportedly expertise not solely profound rest however a way of interconnectedness with the universe.
This is the place yoga nidra differs from conventional meditation in an essential approach. With meditation, you might be often sitting up and cultivating intense focus, generally on the breath, a chant, or a psychological picture. You are very a lot awake, and your aware consciousness could be very a lot “on.” In yoga nidra, aware thought is “turned off,” changed by an consciousness that’s neither targeted nor intentional. As yoga students Dr. Stephen Parker and Swami Veda Bharati describe it, “Neither thoughts nor images are present, and the practitioner experiences conscious, deep, dreamless sleep, possessing awareness of the surroundings but neither thinking about them nor interacting with them.”
Like all types of yoga or meditation, the particulars of your observe will depend upon who’s guiding you. Depending on how your information or instructor was skilled, they could observe a script or they could faucet right into a extra intuitive move throughout the session. Either approach, it should most likely contain an analogous collection of steps, one thing like this:
- You start by mendacity in your again in savasana, or corpse pose.
- Set an intention, or sankalpa, for the observe. This is likely to be one thing easy like “I am going to relax,” or it may very well be one thing larger you are attempting to attain like, “I will sleep well at night” or “I will stop drinking alcohol.”
- Next comes a collection of visualization and respiration workouts. The objective is to maneuver you thru totally different layers of the self towards a state of yoga nidra. Typically you’d begin with a physique scan, shifting your consciousness to totally different factors round your physique, adopted by directions to deliver consciousness to your respiration, your senses, and your ideas, usually with particular visualization cues. Ultimately, you arrive within the desired state of deep rest.
- Finally, you reaffirm your intention or sankalpa earlier than returning to a waking state.
Benefits of Yoga Nidra
According to conventional knowledge, yoga nidra is a deeply therapeutic state. Yoga nidra is particularly touted as an efficient option to alleviate stress, sleep higher, and enhance total well-being. And there are many research to assist these assertions, for instance:
- Yoga nidra diminished stress and anxiousness amongst school college students, nursing college students, and professors.
- Adults with continual insomnia had been randomly assigned to obtain cognitive behavioral remedy or do yoga nidra at dwelling (utilizing a recording) for 5 weeks. Both teams’ whole sleep time and sleep effectivity improved, however yoga nidra outperformed CBT by way of adjustments in slow-wave sleep and whole insomnia severity.
- Four weeks of yoga nidra was more practical than progressive muscle rest for enhancing sleep high quality in male athletes (although each had been useful).
- Two research discovered that melancholy and anxiousness decreased, and psychological well-being improved, amongst ladies with menstrual well being issues after six months of yoga nidra. (Interestingly,yoga nidra additionally appears to have an effect on reproductive hormone ranges.)
- Yoga nidra could also be an efficient software for serving to veterans (and probably others) deal with PTSD signs. The U.S. Army Surgeon General has endorsed yoga nidra as an efficient technique for ache administration.
Scientific research (small although they’re) present some proof concerning the physiological results underlying sthe psychological and bodily well being advantages practitioners observe.
- According to at least one examine, for instance, yoga nidra can activate the parasympathetic, rest-and-digest nervous system, as evidenced by greater coronary heart price variability (HRV).
- Another set of researchers put eight skilled yoga academics in a PET scan and had them do a yoga nidra observe, throughout which they confirmed a 65 p.c improve in dopamine launch within the mind.
- Other research counsel {that a} common yoga nidra observe can cut back blood stress, irritation as measured by CRP, and blood glucose ranges.
Getting Started
There’s no query that every one types of yoga and meditation can supply super bodily, psychological, and even religious advantages for individuals who observe repeatedly. However, different types of yoga have obstacles to entry—issues that you simply won’t be sturdy sufficient or versatile sufficient, for instance—that may scare folks away. And lots of people quit on meditation as a result of they discover it too onerous to quiet the monkey thoughts and obtain the specified focus (though that does get simpler with time).
The fantastic thing about yoga nidra is that it may be practiced anyplace by anyone. No particular tools nor bodily health capabilities are required. There are a number of free yoga nidra workouts on-line, and plenty of yoga studios supply in-person lessons. Some are as brief as 10 minutes, that are nice when you should take a fast break. To actually faucet into the advantages, although, most yoga nidra practices will final 30 to 45 minutes or so.
If the concept of disconnecting from the aware thoughts whereas nonetheless retaining consciousness, of “surfing the interface between sleeping and waking consciousness” (a standard tag line of yoga nidra) feels a bit too summary for you, I’d encourage you to offer it a strive however. All it’s a must to do is lie nonetheless and take heed to the instructor’s voice. Consider it a observe of deep rest to start out. Who couldn’t profit from that?
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