What is Yoga Nidra

Yoga Nidra explained

Loosely translated as ‘yogic sleep’, yoga Nidra targets assisting you to reach a state of insight and stillness which will ultimately lead you to a state of self-discovery and pure inner awareness. It is a basic practice that everyone of all different ages and phases can do.

In our hectic lives, our minds and bodies are constantly tightened, loaded with stress and anxiety, and worry. What yoga Nidra does is supply a method to let go of all that tension and give up to your true inner self. This inner self, which we tend to ignore for an entire number of factors, is made up of a cluster of elements set together.

You acknowledge that they are indeed part of a whole once you accept all of these aspects and absorb them as one. Only then will you reach a state of true inner peace, with a much better understanding of yourself and the world around you.

Serene awareness

Yoga Nidra is a reclined practice that is fundamentally a state of serene awareness, someplace in between being awake and going to sleep. It is throughout this stage that your body is completely relaxed, so much so that it is referred to as being the deepest kinds of relaxation.

This is because it permits the individual to totally release and relax physically, mentally, and emotionally which brings you closer to paying close attention to your inner self.

Four of your five senses are taught to tune in more with a sense of awareness and attention to detail while focusing inward through audio directions that assist you to reach a state and concentrate of inner calm at the same time.

This is the main factor why you ought to practice yoga Nidra with a skilled yoga instructor who excels at providing verbal directions in a tranquil, soothing manner, if not face to face, then pick trustworthy audio recordings that make you feel serene.

Although you stay mindful of your bodily processes, lots of yoga Nidra practitioners are primarily knowledgeable about the dream environment and their thoughts at a subconscious level, while losing cognizance of their actual surroundings.

In real sleep, you misplace yourself, of time and place. In Yoga Nidra, you remain conscious of the outer world with just a trace of awareness, albeit faintly, and focus more on inner lucidity and effortlessness while you experience deep rest.

yoga nidra

Meditation Versus Yoga Nidra

Numerous may refer to Yoga Nidra as a kind of meditation, which is partially true. What identifies yoga Nidra from conventional meditation is your point of focus.

Yoga Nidra is various in this viewpoint because its primary objective is to focus not on just one thing, however a number of things in a certain, laid-out pattern.
Yoga Nidra heightens all your senses and brings inner peace and a palpable sense of awareness of your real self.

However, despite their differences, they do share one typical goal: reaching a state of extreme concentration and spiritual consciousness called samadhi.

History Of Yoga Nidra

The name “yoga Nidra” stems from Sanskrit; yoga means a one-way pointed awareness and Nidra mean sleeping. This type of yoga was pioneered by Swami Satyananda Saraswati from Bihar school of yoga in the 1960s.

The goal of Yoga Nidra 

is to rejuvenate the harmonious impact of your subconscious.
When Swami started studying the tantric scriptures, he began building a system of repose and serenity. 

Yet the principle itself started lots of years back in ancient Indian customs, such as Hinduism and Buddhism. Its main objective is to teach us how to quieten the over-active conscious mind and reach a state of ‘supreme consistency’ where brain waves decrease. 

Swami elaborated on an ancient concept, polished it, and put it in the spotlight for everybody to appreciate and experience it.
In the ancient yoga text of Mandukya Upanishads, there is a recommendation for four stages of Yoga Nidra.


Swami did some research and decided it required to be simplified for today’s day and age, so he divided it into eight phases
:
1. Internalization.
2. Sankalpa (the solemn intent in the heart and mind).
3. Rotation of awareness.
4. Breath awareness.
5. Manifestation of revers.
6. Produce visualization.
7. Sankalpa.
8. Externalization.
meditation versus yoga nidra

Benefits For Health And Wellness

Through regular practice with an audio recording, you can reach a state of recovery and energy. It is thought that half an hour of practicing yoga Nidra has the same health advantages as a number of hours of sleep.

Many recordings last thirty minutes usually, and despite the fact that thirty minutes might 
sound like a lot to some, you simply need to alter your viewpoint to concentrate on what is more crucial and fully realize that there is no better way to make use of those thirty minutes.

A study showed that there was greater effectiveness of the Yoga Nidra intervention than seated meditation regarding anxiety. Yoga Nidra represented an effective tool in reducing both cognitive and physiological symptoms of anxiety.

You 
have to start by realizing and acknowledging that taking half an hour to do yoga Nidra is not a wild-goose chase; it is a way to re-energize, re-charge, and re-align your soul, mind, and body.

Being more easy-going

Incorporating this type of relaxed awareness allows you to end up being more easy-going and better proficient at handling demanding circumstances since when you purposely unwinded, you turn off the supportive worried system. This is our flight-or-fight mode of self-preservation, which kicks in whenever we are confronted with a difficult situation.

When we switch it off, our bodies turn on the parasympathetic anxious system, which is accountable for causing a state of relaxation by slowing the heart rate, respiration, and glandular activity.

Slows down your heart rate

On the physical front, yoga Nidra slows down your heart rate and breathing, and with it, your blood pressure too. Furthermore, when the body is relaxed, capillary dilate and blood circulation increases.

Relief for hurting muscles

Following intense yoga postures, or really any type of extreme physical activity, your body is most likely to feel tense and tired as following heavy physical activity calcium ions seep into muscle cells resulting in muscle contractions and discomforts. 

Doing yoga Nidra right after a yoga session or extreme physical exercise helps to flush these chemical deposits through the bloodstream providing relief for hurting muscles.

Unwinding and accepting your true self, opening up to who you truly train the mind to end up being more concentrated and in tune. Yoga Nidra helps release seated stress and anxieties in the mind and lowers tension levels.

Spiritual advantages

There are also spiritual advantages that you gain from yoga Nidra. We go through our day-to-day activities as simple observers, passive and out of touch. 

Yoga Nidra helps you connect deeper and more intentionally with your true being and self, giving you the flexibility to live your life as who you truly are, while connecting your inner you with everything that goes on around you, and be really there in the minute.

Healing practices

like yoga Nidra is very efficient in relieving depression, tension, anxiety and fixing the body to bring back calm and balance. By activating the parasympathetic nerve system, which manages relaxation responses in the body, it produces a state of complete relaxation.

Yogic sleep as yoga Nidra just might be the very best natural option to taking prescription medication for sleeping disorders triggered by tension and to considerably enhance your tension reaction profile.

YOga Nidra and your health

Here are simply a few of the important things practicing yoga Nidra can assist relieve:

– Boosts immunity
– Improves anxiety
– Alleviates anxiety
– Insomnia.
– Chronic discomfort.
– Chemical reliance.
– PTSD in veterans.
– Calms the nerve system.
– Improves digestive process.
– Releases unfavorable feelings and believed patterns.
– Improves sleep quality.
– Can recover mental injuries.
– Gives a sense of pleasure and wellness.
– Deep relaxation for very effective tension relief and management.
– Spiritual awakening.
– Dealing with and healing from worry, anger, and sorrow.
– More efficient and stimulated sleep.
– Improves concentration, memory, and how the brain processes info.

Perhaps the very best benefit of yoga Nidra is the capability you get to control your mindset, and how you view things around you. You can teach your mind to think in a particular way, and with it, modify your whole outlook on life for the better.

Yoga Nidra

How To Do Yoga Nidra

Many people deal with yoga as a routine physical exercise routine when in truth yoga sessions offer deep remediation to both body and mind alike. To even more make your session more effective, attempt ending it with a yoga Nidra session.

Think about your body like an engine. After a long drive, an engine needs to rest and cool off– it is the same with our bodies.

After working out, yoga presents, or other types of workouts, 
we need to cool down our bodies by doing yoga Nidra to assist support and combine all the energy gained from all the yoga poses.

Through guided audio consistency, awareness, and meditation, understanding and inner-discovery, yoga Nidra deals with cultivating layered levels of well-being.


The assisted audio is the finest part about this kind of yoga due to the fact that just then can you truly let focus and go without getting frustrated and dissuaded. Yoga Nidra 
sessions can last anywhere from five minutes to one hour, depending upon your choice.

In addition, due to the fact that all you require is a quiet space, then discovering the correct time and location is simply as simple.


Some individuals find that practicing yoga Nidra at night helps them wander into sleep considering that you are already resting in your bed anyhow. Others discover it more advantageous 
if they do it after their yoga sessions.

Now that we have actually selected the time and place, let’s get begun.

A usual yoga Nidra session includes a yoga instructor, or trainer, directing the practitioners through several levels, or stages.

1. The first phase is stating your objective for the session and, ultimately, your life.
2. Then the teacher will tell you to concentrate on your breathing, how you are feeling, and what you are believing.
3. Very slowly, you will be asked to just let go by engaging your power of surrender, which may not be as simple as it may sound.

Through traditional techniques of relaxation and meditation at the same time interacting, the directed audio applies language that is easily accessible and guides the specialists to the supreme goal of yoga Nidra; reaching an internal awareness of one’s real self.

According to, Rod Stryker, the creator 
of Para-Yoga, and author The Four Desires, the practice of yoga Nidra reaches the most extensive levels of relaxation possible and allows the practitioner to see him or herself in the most favorable light.

The audio guidelines 
in yoga Nidra guide the practitioners assisted to consciously concentrate on different parts of their body, which promotes the nerves in those locations of the body and helps with the unification of yoga postures into our system.

yoga nidra

The technique that makes yoga Nidra unique

Yoga Nidra motivates the mind to shift from the waking state into the dream and deep sleep states. The technique that makes yoga Nidra so unique is that this transition is done knowingly, utilizing the tools of stillness, managed to breathe, and letting go. This state of awareness helps the practitioner access layers of the subconscious mind with clarity and real objective.

A short variation 
is practiced in less than 10 minutes, which can be a quick release for those looking for a fast recharge. If you have a tight schedule, it is an excellent way to discover relaxation and rejuvenation even.


Below are 10 actions to quickly 
help you start your yoga Nidra session.

These steps are created to awaken the subconscious and conscious mind while unwinding the body. This focuses on assisting the specialist release the emotional and physical stress pent up in the body.

Establishing your area is essential 
to staying comfortable and warm. Place a mat on the flooring and place a pillow for your head, make sure it quickly supports your neck. You can also add cushions for your knees and lower back for additional assistance. 

Having a light blanket is likewise beneficial due to the fact that when you reach a relaxed state, your body temperature level cools down, and your toes and fingers tend to get a bit cold.

Dim the lights and have the room as peaceful as possible. Close your eyes and unwind.
Take a couple of deep breaths in and out. Keep in mind to take slow, controlled, and relaxed breaths.

1. Focus on What You Really Want 

Think of something you really desire; inner peace, lots of cash, prestige, a prominent career, love, health. Feel it as if it were true.

2. Reflect on Your intention

 Your intention can be to find inner peace, to unwind, and to reach some emotion or belief. Whatever it might be, the important part is to welcome your intent and accept it with clarity and purpose.

3. Discover your Safe Haven

 Any location or individual that makes you feel safe and at peace is your safe sanctuary; your Inner Resource. You can re-capture that sensation of security during the session, or even at any time, you feel overcome with stress and stress and anxiety. It will help you feel safe and secure and at ease, while restoring your inner confidence and buoyancy..

4. Be aware of your body

Your awareness is something you can control. Slowly move your hands over your body, focusing your senses on each part. Feel your torso and pelvis. Sence your whole body and picture it as a force field of energy radiating vigor and vitality.

5. Be Aware of How you Breathe

Picture your body breathing on its own. Picture how the air streams in and out as it passes through your nose, throat, lungs, and diaphragm. Sense the rhythmic motion of your abdominal area fluctuating as each breath enters and out. Most importantly, feel how your breathing provides your body energy and life.

6. Accept your Emotions 

One of the most liberating aspects of yoga Nidra is that it offers you the sensation of freedom from all the pressures of everyday life to accomplish inner peace. Welcome all experiences within you, great and bad.

Without changing anything or considering what others may think or say, appreciating all your emotions and providing the affirmation that they carry out in fact come from you will leave you with a sense of inner tranquility and composure.

7. Make your Thoughts Come to Life

Just as you embrace your emotions, it is simply as important to welcome your ideas, which include your memories and mental images that present themselves in your mind. Even short-lived ideas are crucial and leave some sort of mark on your subconscious. In addition, simply as you refrained from judging your emotions, you shouldn’t judge your thoughts or overthink them.

8. Experience your Self 

Be conscious of your unique self. This is your own personality. This identity that just you have to need to get affirmation that you own it with pride and awareness. When you have accepted your identity, then it becomes easier to deal with demanding situations that may develop in your life due to the fact that you know who you are and what your worths are.

Accepting your character as is suggests you have actually likewise accepted your ideas, concepts, memories, emotions– present and past. This is the very first action in reaching serenity, poise, and confidence.

9. Think of your Intention

As you complete your practice, let your thoughts wander over what you have simply gone through. You should complete your yoga Nidra session knowing full well that this newly found sense of awareness belongs to your identity, and that it is always present within you. This feeling of equanimity and composure will now be integrated into your daily life.

Finishing your Session 

Take your time to move from your dream state to your waking life. Your body needs time to re-calibrate itself, so gradually open your eyes, and slowly sit up.
Yoga Nidra

Incorporating Guided Meditation with Yoga Nidra

Yoga Nidra is a systematic set of relaxation strategies that play a crucial function in preparing the body and mind to enter a state of deep meditation.

It may take a little time to get used to its techniques and practices, however as soon as you start getting better at it, you improve the meditation process through relaxation and awareness at the same time, because when you are conscious, things are done better and much faster, and with more focus.

This type of relaxed awareness is great to do year-round, but especially in the winter when it is more natural for the body to be in a more rested state because the weather condition’s colder and the day is shorter. Additionally, given that it reinforces the body’s immune system, it is a fantastic way to protect the body against any cases of flu and colds.

The Meditative Heart of Yoga

Without meditation, yoga Nidra would merely be falling asleep. It is the meditating that yields a sense of well-being and deeper gratitude of lining up the body with the mind and soul. Only then, can we value the profundity of this practice and of our inner happiness and calm.

Yoga Nidra Richard Miller

The author of many yoga books and CDs, consisting of Yoga Nidra: The Meditative Heart of Yoga“, psychologist Richard Miller advises that yoga Nidra can be performed in fast sessions in 10 to fifteen-minute increments or in longer sessions, lasting 30 minutes or more.

Miller who is at the leading edge of the motion 
to teach yoga Nidra advises that while most individuals aim to alter themselves, yoga Nidra takes the viewpoint of inviting themselves as they remain in the here and the now. Consequently, that moment of real welcoming permits extensive improvement to happen.

Yoga Nidra: Salvation For Our Stressful and hectic Modern World

One thing holds true, the modern world is stressful, overly stimulating, and just plain demanding. Tension-associated complaints account for more than 60% of physician checkouts and HMOs report that tension decrease, through practices like meditation plays a considerable function in patient’s health and wellness.

There are 4 main objectives of yoga Nidra:

1. Create an unwinded environment so that your senses are heightened and your mind and body are relaxed
2. Decrease and loosen up
3. Nurture mind, soul, and body
4. Boost imagination, spontaneity, and awareness

Rebalance the mind, spirit, and body

The very best feature of yoga Nidra is that it relieves the body and helps release the confusion and anxiety that problem us on a day-to-day basis. Since of its relaxing and renewing facilities, it is a fantastic method to rebalance the mind, spirit, and body.

According 
to the American Psychological Association, our high tension levels are, in large, due to a lack of efficient coping systems on a social level that is engrained in our culture and perpetuates unhealthy lifestyles and behaviors in future generations.

The majority of us seem like there are inadequate 
hours in the day to do everything on our list, whether it is work, kids, or other duties.

We are constantly 
trying to do too much because we are always trying to get ahead. This results in an everyday grind that is impossible to leave. We don’t have time to lay back, unwind, and unwind, and when we do, we are so wired up; we do not understand how to unwind.

Flight-or-fight modes

Our worried systems are stuck in our flight-or-fight modes that we have actually lost the capability to shut it off. Our mental and emotional patterns continue non-stop, even after a full night’s sleep. We get up lethargic and out-of-focus, as though we had not slept at all.

The great news is that after a yoga Nidra session …
You feel refreshed and re-energized.
You begin believing favorably.
You have a brand-new outlook on life, and you begin going about your day with a lot more drive than before.
This is why yoga Nidra is so practical for those with hectic schedules.

Considering that it is a kind of directed relaxation, it eventually assists you to unwind tense muscles, reducing high blood pressure, slowing down the heart rate, and control breathing– all without moving a muscle.

Yoga Nidra

Final Thoughts

Everyone needs to learn how to relax. It has actually been proven that there are extremely couple of people who in fact know how to fully loosen up, let go and practice the deliberate art of relaxation. This practice is crucial for our general health, health, and subsequently our quality of life.

We all like kicking back and relaxing, no doubt about it, and this is where yoga Nidra comes in. Because relaxing doesn’t come naturally to us and we require somebody to teach us how to do it, and yoga Nidra’s assisted audio instructions are perfect because of sense.

Yoga Nidra is simple, cheap, and pain-free.
It can be done basically anywhere.
It can last for just five minutes, or for as long as an hour.

The primary objective of this spiritual practice is to promote our real natures and be in touch with our inner selves in a remarkable, powerful, and motivating way– which yoga Nidra accomplishes with every single session.

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