The Process of Yoga Nidra takes us into a very deep state of relaxation. As we know, deep relaxation is an excellent remedy for stress, anxiety, work pressures, and emotional upheavals.
Although it’s mentioned in old tantric texts, Yoga Nidra was rediscovered about 20 years ago in eastern India by Swami Satyananda Saraswati. He translates Yoga Nidra as psychic sleep and describes it is a systematic method of inducing complete physical, mental, and emotional relaxation, while maintaining awareness at the deeper levels.
There is a purpose of each phase of this practice, a study of neurophysiology teaches us that each part of the body has a different control center in the brain ——small ones such as the fingers claim a large brain area. Moving awareness through different part of the body not only relaxes them, but also clears nerve pathways to the brain.
The suggestions to alternate opposite sensations such as heat and cold, heaviness and lightness improve the body’s ability to regain balance and brings the related involuntary functions under conscious control.
Visualization uses symbols or images as a catalyst to provoke a reaction in the subconscious mind. But since no time is given in this process for the conscious mind to react, you remain detached and the ego becomes temporarily inactive. This phase helps to resolve suppressed conflicts, desires, memories and sanskaras, the deep impressions that are the driving force behind Karma.
In each session, you also repeat a sankalpa or resolve. Simply make a short statement, phrased in positive language and in the present tense. For example, your resolve could be: “I love myself completely.” The resolve gets embedded in the subconscious , effectively shifting your current reality.
Yoga Nidra accesses subconscious level of the mind that’s underneath even the processing, fantasizing, and imaging level of the mind.
In my researchI learned that Meditation and Yoga Nidra work together, as companion practices, to purify the deepest levels of the mind, and expand conscious states to include what was previously buried in the subconscious. Finally, the expansion includes the realization of the pure consciousness that permeates all of the levels.
I will be recording a Yoga Nidra process very soon so that you may experience the benefits of this practice.
Namaste
