Awaken with Yoga Nidra
The practice that has been most transformative and life changing for me, that continuously brings me into the realm of the sacred, is Yoga Nidra. Yogic Sleep.
Yoga Nidra is derived from the ancient Tantric Scriptures, reintroduced in the 1960’s by Swami Satyananda Saraswati. I hold great reverence for the lineage and traditions that have kept these teachings alive and passed on to humanity. My main guide and teacher, Tanis Fishman, has supported my direct knowing of the 5 Koshas, beyond intellectual concept, as a multidimensional framework that contains all experience. I hold in my heart infinite appreciation for this inspirational and loving guidance. The healing and awakenings I have received are beyond words.
Yoga = Union with Universal Consciousness
Nidra = physical sleep
Yoga Nidra is a systematic method that induces relaxation on a physical, mental, and emotional level. This state of harmony creates an expansion of consciousness where you can experience connection with your true essence and Oneness with the Universal field of life. Underneath all the activity of the body mind system, there exists a deeper presence. A force of awareness that is always there, even through the different states of waking, dreaming and sleeping consciousness. That presence is your most natural state of Being. Contact with this pure awareness becomes easily accessible in a Yoga Nidra practice.
During the practice of Yoga Nidra, your body enters a sleep like state while you remain awake and aware. When this happens, you are experiencing a Yoga Nidra state of consciousness.
Yoga Nidra is the practice of systematically internalising the senses, called Pratyahara. The word in Sanskrit translates as – moving away from the food that nourishes the senses.
Only the sense of hearing, the most subtle form of our senses will be active. Listening with a yogic state of mind, a non reactive awareness, to the guided instructions, will put the body into relaxation and possibly even into sleep. The brainwaves will slow down into a state of deep sleep, while the mind remains awake and aware.
The guided journey will travel through the Five Koshas (the veils that covers our conscious awareness from our Soul, our Truth). You will pass from the foodbody – Annamaya Kosha, to the energy body – Pranamayakosha, to the lower mind & emotional body Manomaya Kosha, to the higher mind, the wisdom body – Vijanamaya Kosha, to the Blissbody – Anandamaya Kosha.
When you turn your attention away from the engagement of the outer world of form and redirect the flow of awareness inward to the spacious formless field, the journey towards the Atman (Soul) begins…this is the science of meditation.
The more isolated the awareness becomes from the forms of consciousness, the more sensitive and receptive one becomes to the absolute nature of the true Self as pure awareness itself.
From this state, the personification with the ego mind will be able to dissolve into that state of Oneness with all that Is, your truest nature. This state is the optimal field for healing, inspiration, transformation, rejuvenation and even liberation.
It is in this state that placing a Sankalpa will be the most fruitful field for manifestation.
A Sankalpa is the subtlest form of intention that represents a vow or deep desire to move in the direction towards your Supreme Consciousness.
The Sankalpa becomes most potent and effective when placed in the ripe inner conditions of a relaxed body, quiet mind and grateful heart. The seed of intent grows from the bed of the mind through all the layers of manifestation until it becomes an unshakable truth in waking state.
From this most expanded thoughtless place you can formulate the Sankalpa to be in total alignment with purest truth; in alignment with the cosmic law. In this connected and creative state, the Universal Energies will be most optimal in supporting and alchemising your intention into manifested realisation.
Tracking time in this state of conscious relaxation has so many benefits. In the body, the natural healing capacity of the autonomic nervous system is activated and deep healing becomes possible. In the mind, the quietude of the thinking process can lead you to the direct experience of true inner peace. The spiritual benefit of remaining conscious while the body and mind reside in relaxation is that connection with the infinite spacious field of awareness can be realised.
During a Yoga Nidra session you are held and guided by my voice into the realm between wakefulness and deep sleep. It is a journey of staying present as the brain activity slows down and the deeper mind becomes available and brought into awareness. The posture that best supports this process is lying on your back with as much or as little of support that is required to maintain stillness.
It is a form of meditation that is both deep and authentic. Ultimately leading to the doorstep of true Silence.
Science has shown that the restorative power of 1 hour of Yoga Nidra is equivalent to 4 hours of healthy sleep. Deep relaxation relieves tensions and stress that can become crystallised into the muscles and tissues of the body. Relaxation becomes the gateway to total receptivity of mind, enhanced creativity, and connection to bliss states. The practice becomes especially transformative when the Sankalpa is incorporated.
A regular Yoga Nidra practice has many supportive benefits:
~ A homecoming to the Silence inside yourself ; that which is connected with all that Is.
~ Quiets the mental activity associated with fear based thinking and stress. This allows the nervous system to calm down and for the body to find safety in letting go. Tensions dissolve.
~ Blood pressure decreases
~ Cell renewal ( by optimising the metabolism )
~ Being more resilient in life
~ Relaxes the entire Physio-psychological system
~ The parasympathetic nervous system is activated, which is the system that is programmed to heal, restore, and rebalance the body.
~ Recognition of the True Self becomes possible when the mind settles into silence.
Hari Om Tat Sat
‘Hari’ represents the manifested universe and life
‘Om’ represents the unmanifest reality, the invisible,
uncreated aspect of the Absolute
‘Tat Sat’ That is truth
— The unseen and the seen are both one —
“Your greatest awakening comes, when you
are aware about your infinite nature”
– Amit Ray
“Asato mā sadgamaya,
Tamaso mā jyotirgamaya,
Mṛtyormā’mṛtaṃ gamaya.
Om shanti shanti shanti”
“Lead me from the unreal to the real,
Lead me from darkness to light,
Lead me from death to immortality,
OM, Peace, Peace, Peace”
“A little heaven on earth, where body, mind and soul are healed. So grateful, Barbara.”
– Inge