Add Yoga Nidra To Your Yoga Toolbox
Have you ever gone to a Yoga Nidra Practice? You might want to dip your toe into the wonderful, warm water of Yoga Nidra. Look for a group class at your local yoga studio or find one online. I returned to Yoga Nidra as a powerful tool to support Karma Healing. You might ask what this practice is and what it does.
Yoga Nidra is a systematic method of inducing complete physical, mental and emotional relaxation. ………….During the practice of Yoga Nidra one appears to be asleep, but the consciousness is functioning at a deeper level of awareness.
Yoga Nidra by Swami Saryanada Saraswati, Yoga Publications Trust, 1998, p.1.
If you have practiced, you know this is a fabulous experience, very different than asana. Long-time practitioner or newbie, optimize your Yoga Nidra experience by doing a little prep work before you show up for class. Think about your mental preparedness, the environment you’ll be practicing in, your physical comfort during practice, your Sankalpa or intention, and your post-practice plans.
Mental Preparedness for Your Yoga Nidra Experience
In Yoga Nidra, you are lying still for about an hour. Will that amount of time work for you? Being awake and still for that long may not.
I remember once going to a meditation with no idea how long it would be. It turned into about 50 minutes of guided silence. It freaked out a couple of classmates. They had never explored seated or supine stillness for that long and were completely overwhelmed. Overwhelm is not the emotion Yoga Nidra is meant to evoke, so it is important to understand what you will be doing.
Can you rest in stillness? Conscious voluntary immobility facilitates deeper exploration. But there is an adjustment to find comfort in stillness for some. Why is this important?
When you move, your awareness instinctively shifts to the physicality of your movement. This is a protective response that takes care of you in the world. But in Yoga Nidra, this same response takes you off the path you are on, which flows from physical to mental, emotional, and subtle-body exploration and directs you back to the physical as you cough, twitch, scratch, or stretch.
Still up for the practice? Now we’re going to look at five things: Preparation, practice environment, physical comfort, Sankalpa, and post practice choices.
Environment.
What do you need in your environment to have a “successful” experience that really lets you relax and enjoy your Yoga Nidra?
You want a quiet, low-light environment with a place to lie down, and minimal interruptions, no to minimal interruptions. Please turn off your phone notifications so that you can just listen to the guidance.
Physical Comfort
Second, you want to take care of your physical comfort. Comfy clothes are key. Also you want to go to the bathroom before practice so you don’t have to go during practice. Have a drink so your throat is nice and easy. If you have a scratchy throat and you’re recovering from a cold, it can be helpful to, you know, use a cough drop or a simple lozenge. That’s totally up to you. Ideally, you don’t want to think about your throat unless you are guided to do so during a rotation of consciousness exercise.
You want to be able to lie down on a supportive surface. So that’s a bed, a couch, or a mat on the floor, a supportive surface. Bring some pillows and props to be really comfortable. So here, I’ll give you examples. A bed pillow or bolster or two you can use for your head or under your knees, or a covering for your eyes. These are great tools for Yoga Nidra. Add a blanket to put on top of you. You’re going to lie on your back, face up. So, you do what you need to be at ease.
All of that is for your physical comfort. Blankets, pillows, a supportive surface, a bed, a couch, or a mat on the floor, comfy clothes, go to the bathroom and have a drink of water.
Sankalpa
Not all Yoga Nidra classes include Sankalpa but many do. A light body intention, a Sankalpa, is your homework before class. Now, a Sankalpa is one of the benefits of this practice: to cultivate intention at a high spiritual level and to embed, cultivate, and activate it within you.
So that’s what a Sankalpa does: it focuses desire as a light-body intention. Present tense active and simple wording is best. You can have intentions at many layers of your being, so how do you choose?
- So the physical layer, I am well as an example. I heal myself daily. But make sure your example is about and for you. It can be very specific.
- Strong flexible joints move me through my day with ease. Make your intention important for your growth, in the present tense and specific to you. You want the intention to resonate with you.
- An emotional intention. I love. I receive love. I give love. I am peace. I give peace. I receive peace.
- A mental intention. I relax my mind so I think clearly.
- A spiritual intention. I am aware. I am the silent witness.
- And then a light body or soul intention. My karma dissolves away. I live my life in continuity with my spiritual nature.
All of these intentions can work, but think about what you want, what you’re trying to work on for yourself. Write that down on a piece of paper and have it ready for your practice. You may want to work on a specific intention for longer than one class, so you want to remember your thinking and choice of intention.
In Karma healing we work together to clear samskara to make space for light body intention and move you forward on your spiritual path. Yoga Nidra supports this effort by inner exploration and identifying important spiritual intentions.
Yummy Post Practice
You are always free to go on with your day, whatever it holds after practice. Best not to have run to a series of stressful events. Ideally, make the time directly after Yoga Nidra yummy and easy, so you can journal, relax, or rest as you desire.
Listen, I hope this info helps you decide to try Yoga Nidra. I wish you joyful inner exploration in the practice. Look for my live online practices under the community events section. I love Yoga Nidra, and I’m delighted to share ways to make it more accessible.