Yoga's Best Kept Secret
Yoga’s best kept secret is without doubt yoga nidra or sleep yoga. I practiced yoga for 15 years before I ever found out what yoga nidra was. Once I discovered it I was obsessed. Sleep yoga is a deeply meditative state in which you enter into an alpha brain wave state that is deeply healing and transformative. More and more research is coming out about this type of yoga and what it means for health.
Probably my favorite part of yoga since I started learning at age 19 was shivasana. This is what’s also known as corpse pose. I loved the laying down part where I could just rest and relax after pushing my body. Yoga nidra for me is like an extended sivasana with extra amazing benefits for my brain. An important aspect of this type of yoga is setting your intention, or sankalpa, in order to influence the subconscious mind. This intentions is set in the present tense, as though it is already happening to you. My favorite one is, “I am vibrantly healthy in body, mind and spirit.” You repeat your sankalpa three times in order to anchor it in the mind. The teacher then guides you the entire time through a systematic relaxation of the body, a guided meditative journey with lots of imagery and a gentle return to our everyday consciousness. This yogic sleep is a deep relaxaion that occurs while we are aware. It is an incredible journey that helps not only relieve stress and combat pain, it helps to retrain our brains by creating new neural hormonal pathways. Retraining our neurohormonal pathways can have profound effects on our physical well being from cardiovascular health improvements to less anxiety and depression. Managing our mental health is vital to managing physical health and yoga nidra can help you with both.
It is always a good idea to do some gentle poses before laying down for yoga nidra. My favorite poses to do before I start my own nidra practice is child’s pose, cat/cow and gentle twists. These help me to calm my nervous system and prepare my mind to relax. You can do yoga nidra from 15 minutes to 60 minutes. I prefer to do a 30 minute nidra. I find that if they are too short I can not fall deeply in to the practice and if it’s too long I get too relaxed and fall asleep. While falling asleep is ok, it’s helpful to try to stay awake in order to gain the full benefits. I often fall asleep during my nidras so now I try to do them in the morning after I’ve been up for about an hour so that my body is alert but still capable of relaxing. Play around with the time of day and how long you do your nidra practice for and see what works best for you. Finding your own unique practice will bring you greater well being.