I have been practising yoga for many years (thanks to Yoga With Adrienne on YouTube) but, having been on and off the band wagon many times over these years, and also considering my current level of strength and flexibility, I don’t consider myself even intermediate. Some intermediate poses and modifications I can do while some basics poses I struggle with.
However I have been aware of many types of yoga (yoga yin, yoga hatha...) but I have never really known the differences between them. I just do whatever videos I feel attracted to on YouTube. I had come across the term Yoga Nidra and assumed it was another type of yoga (ie. movement/“workout”).
As you might be aware if you have been reading my blog articles for some time, I am a big fan of the app Insight Timer (and have recently stopped resisting and ended up subscribing!). I came across the term Yoga Nidra many times as titles for meditations and that really puzzled me so I decided to try one - and realised what Yoga Nidra really is.
Yoga Nidra is also referred to as yogic sleep and is a state of consciousness between waking and sleeping. This state refers to reaching a theta and delta brain waves/frequencies state. The yoga nidra meditation, by inducing this state, calms our autonomic nervous system and is often used to reduce stress of all kinds and anxiety.
By following the guided meditation verbal instructions you come from an awareness of what is around you to your thoughts, then to your body and inner world.
Primarily used for improving the quality of sleep, Yoga Nidra can also be used for intentions and manifestation as intentions/messages can be easily imprinted into the subconscious when in a theta state (dream state) and/or delta state (deep sleep).
For a more detailed explanation of Yoga Nidra’s benefits, steps and the science behind it, I highly recommend this article on Yoga Nidra on DoYouYoga’s website: here
MY EXPERIENCE OF YOGA NIDRA
My sleep in the last few months had been quite disrupted before I tried Yoga Nidra. I was falling asleep more or less well, depending on events of the day - I always did a Ziva meditation in the evening so that always helped shake off a lot of the tension - but I was waking up 3 or 4 times each night, so when I was waking up and getting up in the morning, I would feel really tired, like I had barely slept. I would have at least one intense nightmare in early morning (between 2am and 4am) pretty much every day.
Bumping into Giovanni Dienstmann’s Yoga Nidra meditation audio on Insight Timer was the Universe sending me a life line! Giovanni is one of the many teachers on my Favourites Insight Timer list and I have been following his weekly Sunday evening (in the UK) live sessions on Mindful Self-Discipline for more than 15 weeks now. So I had full confidence in the quality of this meditation before I started. I just stayed open and followed Giovanni’s instructions. For quite a few nights at first, I was falling asleep so quickly that I would rarely hear the end of the meditation! That’s good, right?! I have been listening to the meditation at bedtime every night for the last 3 weeks now and, yes I can now listen to the whole meditation and do it, but, more importantly, I sleep much better, very occasionally wake up during the night (only once if I do) and my nightmares have now become quite infrequent. Obviously it’s not magic and that’s it, I’ll never wake up in the night or have nightmares ever again. Like many things in life, it takes practice and maintenance to build stable foundations and to keep things improving.
If you are an Insight Timer enthusiast like I am, you can find the meditation Effortless Sleep With Yoga Nidra on Giovanni Dienstmann’s Insight Timer teacher profile. It is free access, you do not need to pay a subscription.
If you are an Insight Timer subscriber and have access to the courses, teacher Dr Patty Hlava from AwakenPeace Healing has just released a 10 day course called Journey Through Consciousness With Yoga Nidra only a few days ago. It explores more how to use Yoga Nidra and its principles/techniques in your conscious state (including intention setting as we mentioned at the beginning of the article).
Are you ready for Yoga Nidra to improve your life? Take the plunge and enjoy ❤️ There are so many benefits to this practice that you literally have nothing to lose and everything to gain.
Happy sleep and peaceful life ❤️❤️❤️🙏🙏🙏
Credit for photo above: https://www.freepik.com/photos/people People photo created by yanalya - www.freepik.com - thank you❤️
No comments:
Post a Comment