Deep Meditation: Yoga Nidra
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Above photo via Lululemon. Below photo via Lisa Morson on Flickr.
Next up in this week's posts on meditation, let's talk about yoga nidra. This a deep form of yogic meditation involving sleep-like relaxation in savasana. By withdrawing from the senses, and placing the brain in a state between waking and sleep, this practice can allow you to explore your subconscious, and the link between your body and mind.
Yoga nidra has many benefits:
- It invites deep relaxation on all levels – physical, mental and emotional.
- Yoga nidra can help you sleep better, work more effectively, and remove stress.
- Yoga nidra can be used to promote positive thinking in your life.
- Yoga nidra can help lessen symptoms of insomnia, hypertension, depression, asthma, digestive disorders, migraine headaches and ulcers.
Here are some resources where you can learn more about yoga nidra:
- Reflections on Kripalu's website from Richard Miller on the positive effects of a regular yoga nidra practice on active duty soldiers suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. The results are amazing!
- Wonderful yoga nidra CDs from iRest which you can use for an at-home practice.
- Richard Miller's book, Yoga Nidra: A Meditative Practice for Deep Relaxation and Healing, for a full understanding of finding deep relaxation. I'm definitely going to purchase this book in the near future (keep an eye out for a review on Alive in the Fire!)
Finally, a little poem by yours truly about the wonder of yoga nidra. Enjoy!
Above photo via Lululemon.
also known as yogic sleep.
Welcome to the body.
Attention, a call to the small delicate parts
contemplative energy
thumb-index finger joined energy circuiting in the body
Where is the index finger of my right hand?
abounding energy comes falling
into the room
How can I experience it?
The voice moves quickly on
to other areas
deserving rest
right side of the chest
waist
hip,
lower leg.
Following is not the object falling is
here, we arrive at the center
The whole body
Sense the whole body.
Bright sound surfaces
in the background of this space,
time energy light
arriving into the limbs the right side the left side
of the body
a deep sense of falling
into the self, core being
the center between the eyebrows,
soles of the feet,
heart center
awake with clarity, pure light.
Hover above
your own body
you are the stream of awareness luminosity
within the stillness
no body
you are only your own mind.
Going inward, letting
go
relax the heart
lungs, esophagus
night rustling outside the window
belly, endocrine system,
digestive organs, reproductive organs
softness
moving inward creates the
freedom relaxation
you used to know fear and can no longer name it,
possession, anger, sensation, knowing,
you have lost
the very essence of suffering.
You are not replaced.
You are not replaced.
But here
body flat heart beating lungs breathing
a voice will walk you through yourself,
retracing steps
until spacious presence
all that you are in this room
faraway, mysterious problems
looking back at you
