Yoga Nidra – Top Guided Sleep For Reforming The Personality And For Deep Relaxation

How To Do Yoga Nidra & Yoga Nidra Benefits

The technique of Yoga nidra, also called the psychic sleep has been given to the world in a scientific manner by Swami Satyananda Saraswati and is the best way to get relief from physical, mental and emotional stress. It is an efficient and effective form of psychic and physiological rest. The total systematic and deep relaxation by a yoga nidra session is equivalent to hours of ordinary sleep. Through the practice of Yoga Nidra, we are not only relaxing but restructuring and reforming our whole personality from within.

How To Practice Yoga Nidra

The practice of Yog Nidra generally lasts for twenty to forty minutes. Separate techniques are used for different people depending upon their requirements. As some people need Yog Nidra for treatment while some may need it for spiritual upliftment and even some may need it to change their habits.

Two basic requirements of Yoga Nidra

1. The practitioner should refrain from sleep.
2. The practitioner should be fully aware of the instructions given and should follow them mentally without concentrating on them.

Preparation for Yoga Nidra

• Yoga Nidra is performed while lying in Shavasana.
• Light and lose clothes should be worn.
• Fingertips are kept away floor by turning the palms upwards.
• Sight stimuli are eliminated by closing the eyes.
• The mind is directed to the external sounds, moving from one sound to the other with an attitude of a witness. This result in mind losing interest in the external world and hence become quiet.

Resolve In Yoga Nidra

Resolve or the Sankalpa is a seed that a practitioner create and sow in his subconscious mind. It needs to planted with strong willpower and feeling. If he knows what he wants to achieve in life, the Sankalpa or the resolution can be the creator of his destiny. The purpose of resolve is to influence and transform whole life pattern physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. It should be a clear, short, simple and positive statement. For example :

• I will achieve total health.
• I will be successful in all that I undertake.
• I will awaken my spiritual potential, etc.

Chose only one resolution and do not change it.

Swami Satyananda Saraswati said that anything in the life can fail you, but not the resolve made during the Yoga Nidra.

Rotation Of Consciousness Yoga Nidra

• Rotation of awareness through different parts of the body is not the practice of concentration.
• It requires the practitioner to move his mind rapidly according to the instructions.
• When the instructor takes the name of any part of the body, repeat the name mentally and think of that part and move on.
• The whole process takes place in the subconscious mind.
• The practice of Yog Nidra is very systematic and the rotation of awareness proceeds in a definite sequence.

Awareness Of Breathing In Yoga Nidra

• Physical relaxation is taken to a higher level by drawing attention to the breath and being simply aware of it.
• One can observe the breathing either in chest, or nostrils or navel or even in the passage between the navel and the throat.
• The awareness of the breath promotes relaxation and awakens higher energies which are further directed to every cell of the body.

Feelings And Sensations And Its Importance In Yoga Nidra

• Feelings that are intensely physical and emotional are awakened, then experienced fully and then removed.
• Pairs of opposite feelings are practiced such as heat and cold, pain and pleasure, joy and sorrow, love and hate etc.
• The pair of opposite feelings harmonizes the two hemispheres of the brain and controlling functions which are normally unconscious.
• Emotional relaxation is induced along with an increase of willpower at the emotional plane.

Visualization In Yoga Nidra

• This part of Yoga Nidra induces relaxation at the mental plane.
• The practitioner visualizes the images described by the instructor.
• The images so described by instructor have a universal significance and powerful association and help to bring the hidden contents of the deep unconscious mind into the conscious mind.
• The mind is purged of disturbing and painful material and is relaxed.
• The visualization practice is finished with an image that evokes a feeling of peace and calmness.

Ending the practice Of Yoga Nidra

• The unconscious mind becomes receptive to positive suggestions with the visualization practice.
• The practitioner is once again asked to repeat the same resolution that has been made in the beginning of the practice.
• This is like a direct order from the conscious mind to the unconscious mind to radically change the attitude, behavior and the destiny of the practitioner.
• The practice of Yoga Nidra is concluded by gradually bringing the mind back to waking state as the practitioner is asked to become aware of the physical body, breath, and the surroundings.
• Once wide awake, the practitioner is advised to take the left turn and get up by taking the support of both the hands and then slowly open the eyes.

 For better effect in Yog Nidra, follow it by either Kandharasana or Naukasana (Dronasana)