The Powerful Practice of Yoga Nidra: A meditation that could change your life

What’s YOGA NIDRA anyway?

Based on tantric practices thousands of years old, yoga nidra is an accessible and powerful framework of guided meditation. In his 1976 book titled, Yoga Nidra, Swami Satyananda Saraswati shares ancient practices that he morphed into a modernized method of guided meditation. Yoga nidra is easy to practice and is impactful enough to change your life.

I know this from experience because it has changed mine.

In the book mentioned above, the swami states, “Yoga nidra is a systematic method of inducing complete physical, mental and emotional relaxation. The term yoga nidra is derived from two sanskrit words, Yoga meaning union or one-pointed awareness and nidra, which means sleep. During the practice of yoga nidra, one appears to be asleep, but the consciousness is functioning at a deeper level of awareness. For this reason, yoga nidra is often referred to as psychic sleep or deep relaxation with inner awareness. In this threshold state between sleep and wakefulness, contact with the subconscious and unconscious dimensions occur spontaneously.” 

Yoga nidra increases alpha, theta and delta brainwaves and has been shown to have incredible healing benefits for physical, mental, and emotional disturbances. The practice of yoga nidra can help with insomnia, managing stress, working through emotions and trauma in the body, healing addiction, relieving pain and deeply relaxing the body and mind. When studied, it was even shown to positively impact high cholesterol and high blood pressure! Amazing.

From my own experience, I’d add that yoga nidra has helped me move through grief with more peace and grace, though I suppose that was covered under the benefit of healing emotional disturbances.

It is said that one hour of yoga nidra is equal to the rest of a four hour nap! Only you don’t feel groggy and grumpy when you come out of it. The opposite in fact, you come out feeling relaxed, refreshed and renewed.

My FREE yoga nidra especially for you is around 20 minutes long, so that’s about equivalent to a 45 minute nap that leaves you feeling completely refreshed! Sign me up, am I right?!

Yoga nidra is usually practiced lying down in savasana (on your back with limbs relaxed and palms facing up). If pregnancy or any other reason prevents you from lying on your back then use props to comfortably lie on one side. You could even practice yoga nidra sitting up if needed. This flexibility is part of why yoga nidra is extremely accessible to people of all different levels and abilities. The only real requirement to practice is that you can hear the meditation. Play the recording at a comfortable volume that’s soft and not startling.

Because yoga nidra is a guided meditation, all you need to do is listen to the voice and do your best to stay awake as you allow your body to release tension and completely relax. If you fall asleep, join back in whenever you hear the voice again, and don’t worry about what you missed, you are still receiving benefits. Practice in the morning, before bed, or instead of an afternoon nap. Practice daily or as often as you’re willing and able and watch your life transform.

Yoga nidra is a form of pratyahara. Pratyahara, in Patanjali’s raja yoga, is a state of awareness when one is withdrawn from the senses and fully in the present moment. Pratyahara is the practice of withdrawing from the senses and focusing attention inward. It is said to increase concentration and meditation abilities. Yoga nidra helps us learn how to completely let go, surrender, and in the letting go, we transform. 

My first experience of yoga nidra was at my yoga teacher training in north India in 2016. My mind was blown by that first experience of the practice and I was immediately obsessed. After my teacher training in India, I later completed an additional training all about yoga nidra and how to guide it using the traditional structure.

A few things to note before you practice… it is common, especially at the beginning of your yoga nidra journey, for your body to involuntarily convulse during the practice. This could be as small as an involuntary finger twitch, or something greater. In my case, When I started this meditation method in India, I once had my entire body convulse and basically jump off of the floor completely involuntarily. This of course startled me and freaked me out a bit, until my teachers assured me that this is normal and should be viewed as a strong release! So that tension, that anguish, that trauma, it may work its way out of the body through those involuntary movements. As you practice more frequently and experience more healing, these twitches may lessen or stop completely. 

Secondly, I want to mention that people can have different experiences or resistance to the practice. During my first session I felt afraid at one point that I was paralyzed. My body was so completely relaxed and surrendered that I felt extremely heavy and had the scary thought that I’d never be able to move again. If you experience that, don’t worry, you’re not paralyzed and you can gently wiggle a finger to remind yourself that you will indeed be able to move again. 

Lastly, not everyone is able to visualize images in their mind. Yoga nidra does include a visualization portion. So if you can’t visualize images, don’t worry, just lean into the feelings that come up around the visualization. Instead of seeing what the voice is describing, trying feeling what it might be like to be transported into that alternate reality.

Through teaching yoga nidra at my in-person and online events I’ve heard incredible and varying stories about what people experience during the practice. I’ve had people tell me about experiencing visions, meeting old friends in the astral plane and having important conversations, getting divine downloads, feeling balls of light in their hands or emanating from their hearts, and more... Some people experience very vivid and real-feeling dreams once they dive into this practice.

Be aware that each person may experience yoga nidra in a unique way, and there’s no right or wrong experience here. Let us trust that what needs to flow to us and through us will do so and may we open to new experiences and new understandings.

If you are ready to employ this transformational life tool, download my free recording by joining the email list and get ready for some serious uplevels in your life. Thanks for reading, and please do reach out to me with any questions or reflections about your yoga nidra practice.