What Is Yoga Nidra?

So, flowing and holding poses in a heated room isn’t your factor.

Fair sufficient.

But don’t quit on yoga fairly but. Did you realize that there’s a method of yoga that simply entails enjoyable on a mat, blanket and even your mattress?

Interested now? We’ll preserve going.

And the perfect half about this model of yoga is {that a} 45-minute session may depart you feeling such as you indulged in a peaceable three-hour nap.

If you’re prepared for a simple, pose-free technique to decelerate and get better from the stressors in your life, learn on to find how yoga nidra might be the reply.

How yoga nidra differs from meditation

Yoga nidra entails slowing down and chilling out. So does meditation. While some folks are likely to lump them collectively, they are surely two completely different practices.

“Yoga nidra is like meditation, but yet it’s not,” says yoga therapist and yoga program supervisor, Judi Bar. “There are overlaps, but there also are key differences. With yoga nidra, you are lying down and the goal is to move into a deep state of conscious awareness sleep, which is a deeper state of relaxation with awareness. This state involves moving from consciousness while awake to dreaming and then to not-dreaming while remaining awake — going past the unconscious to the conscious.” Bar says that this observe is guided like some meditation practices, however it’s very structured.

“With meditation, you’re sitting and in a waking state of consciousness while focusing the mind and allowing thoughts to come and go. Meditation makes it possible for us to get to the theta state — the state we go through to get to the delta state, which is the place of the deepest sleep cycle. The delta state is a deep healing state. That’s where we’re trying to get through yoga nidra. In this state, the body and mind rest and the consciousness is awake.”

Benefits of yoga nidra

Bar says that yoga nidra works with the autonomic nervous system. The autonomic nervous system regulates processes of the physique that happen with no acutely aware effort (heartbeat, respiration, digestion and blood circulation). This system additionally contains the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous programs.

Meditation helps us calm the sympathetic nervous system; primarily, our fight-or-flight response, explains Bar. “We do a meditation practice to basically calm the sympathetic, or fight-or-flight and activate the parasympathetic more. There’s such a benefit when those are balanced overall for immunity, digestion and stress management. But in this deeper relaxation, the pineal gland is activated and that releases the hormone melatonin.”

Melatonin is a robust antioxidant. It may assist handle immune operate, blood strain, cortisol ranges and induce restful sleep.

A recent study showed that whereas meditation and yoga nidra have been each efficient in decreasing nervousness and stress, yoga nidra gave the impression to be more practical in decreasing nervousness. The research additionally recommended that yoga nidra could be a useful gizmo in decreasing each cognitive and physiological signs of tension.

10 steps of a yoga nidra observe

Some yoga studios supply yoga nidra, however you can too do it at residence with the assistance of YouTube or a meditation app. You don’t want fancy tools both. You can lie flat in your again on a yoga mat or a blanket with a bolster or pillow supporting your decrease again, backbone and your head. You may even put a blanket or pillow beneath your knees.

Bar says there are 10 levels of a yoga nidra observe. These steps are outlined by Richard Miller in his “10 Stages of Yoga Nidra.”

1. Connect to your coronary heart’s deepest want. Focus on a lifelong purpose or one thing that pertains to your well being. Visualize reaching this purpose and really feel the enjoyment that comes with carrying out it.
2. Set an intention. Think about why you’re working towards — to get centered, to place some self-care on the schedule — regardless of the motive, preserve it on the forefront of the yoga nidra observe.
3. Find your inside useful resource. This entails tapping right into a secure house inside the physique so you possibly can really feel safe and comfy when you observe.
4. Scan your physique. During a physique scan, you’ll be requested to deal with sure elements or sensations all through the physique. The purpose of that is to assist cut back pressure so you possibly can chill out.
5. Become conscious of your breath. Pay consideration to how air is flowing out and in of your physique. Take observe of the way it is available in your nostrils and the way your stomach rises and falls. This might help you decelerate and breathe evenly.
6. Welcome your emotions. If you had a tough day, embrace it. You don’t need to ignore the powerful stuff, however in recognizing it, you can too take into consideration the other of no matter emotion you’re feeling to steadiness issues out.
7. Witness your ideas. Similar to step six, you wish to observe your ideas within the second with out judging or attempting to dam them out. Should any unfavourable ideas about your self floor, take into consideration the constructive aspect of issues to ease pressure.
8. Experience pleasure. If you begin to really feel blissed out, embrace it and let it wrap round your physique.
9. Observe your “self.” Be conscious of your character and the way you may be feeling. In different phrases, your sense of “I-ness.” Then, contemplate your self an observing witness. This will show you how to get up extra conscious and in tune together with your emotions.
10. Reflect in your observe. When you end, take into consideration how you are feeling and what you have been capable of faucet into throughout your session. Then, take into consideration how one can convey the peace or pleasure you may be feeling into day by day life whether or not occasions are good or unhealthy. Don’t rush out of your observe. Take a couple of minutes to transition again into the waking state of life.

Other tips for working towards yoga nidra

While yoga nidra might sound a lot simpler than conventional yoga, Bar says you continue to need to observe, particularly in case you’re not used to meditation or quieting your thoughts. She recommends working towards away from distractions and in a darker room. You can use a sleep masks to dam out mild if it’s worthwhile to. Bar additionally recommends masking up with a blanket because the physique tends to chill down when it’s at relaxation.

If mendacity on the ground for some time wouldn’t be snug for you, you possibly can observe yoga nidra in a recliner and even in mattress. And you don’t have to begin with an extended session. Start with 15 or 20 minutes and work your means up. You additionally don’t need to do yoga nidra in the course of the day. A nighttime observe might help you sleep tight by means of a lot of the night time.

And like with most issues, don’t quit in case you battle together with your first session. Quieting your thoughts and never doing something is way more durable than you suppose. So give yoga nidra a number of tries. You’ll get the hold of it very quickly — particularly when your thoughts and physique want time to relaxation and get better.