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🧘 Yoga Nidra
Literally meaning "Yogic Sleep," Yoga Nidra is not actually sleep but a yogic practice that helps us lower stress and better our ⭐️ Sleep. It’s spiritually connective, almost shamanic, hypnotic, and helps us connect with our subconscious.
Yoga Nidra is two pieces:
- 🛠 Progressive Muscle Relaxation comes from Yoga Nidra but has been independently studied and is proven beneficial. It’s used to enter a "hypnoyogic" state (possibly by softening 🛡️ Somatic Emotional Armoring). 🕯️ Tension & Trauma Release Exercises (TRE) may also do this.
- In this state, anything we repeat to ourselves (like a 🕯️ Sankalpas) apparently gets implanted into our mind. This way we don’t have to use willpower to change our natural impulses — we just change the natural impulse.
The practice of Yoga Nidra is best done at the beginning with audio guidance. The goal is to sequentially tighten and then relax a particular set of muscles. We’ll start with one muscle group, then add another, and another. With each successive round, we’ll be contracting and relaxing more of our body until we encompass the whole body.
Yoga Nidra can be triggering for people who don’t feel safe in their ⭐️ Body or who have somatic Trauma. It may be safer to try a 🧘 Body Scan first. If the practice does give rise to ⭐️ Emotions that start to feel overwhelming, stop the practice and move to 🕯️ Self-Regulation.
There’s a good chance of falling asleep during this meditation. Folks tend to fall asleep during a practice for one of two reasons:
- The practice is bringing us close to something that a protective parts of us doesn’t feel safe letting us get close to, so they make us sleepy to pull us away from it.
- We actually are tired and need the sleep, but are so stimulated and have enough 🛡️ Emotional Armoring that we often can’t feel how tired we are. In that case, we might be wise to just let the sleep happen, to ⭐️ rest until we feel rested. When we’re reseted, we have more inner resources and more access to Presence.
Step 1: Lay down on the floor
Notice the points of contact between your ⭐️ Body and the ground.
As you breathe, notice how your body rises and falls.
With each inhale, notice that your body rises.
With each exhale, let your body relax into the ground.
Try to sink and fully relax into it.
Step 2: Progressive Muscle Relaxation (PMR)
Each round of contraction and relaxation is accompanied by a full breath.
We tighten on the inhale, relax on the exhale.
- Start by inhaling and contracting your toes.
- Then exhale and relax.
- Inhale and tighten your ankles + toes.
- Again, exhale and relax
- Then inhale and tighten your calves + ankles + toes
- Exhale and relax
- Inhale and tighten your thighs + all the previous muscle groups
- Exhale and relax
- Inhale and tighten your whole leg
- Exhale and relax
- Take a break, a long, slow breath
Continue taking pauses and breaths as needed, while adding:
- Fists
- Forearms
- Biceps
- Whole Arm
- Buttocks/Hips
- Abdomen
- Chest
- Back/Shoulder blades
- Whole body from the neck down
- Neck
- Jaw
- Face
- Eyes
- Forehead
- Whole body
Step 3: 🕯️ Sankalpas & Hypnoyogic State
After the progressive muscle relaxation phase, sit in this hypnoyogic state
- Feel the residual sensations in your body
- Notice the calmness of your mind
- Float
If you have one, recite a 🕯️ Sankalpas.
- If you don’t, you can chant “Om” (aah-ooo-mmh) or try the 💨 Voo Breath.
- Something about yourself you want to grow and support. “I will be” “I am” “I deserve” something bigger and important. “I deserve to be whole”
Lengthening Practice
To lengthen the practice over time we want to increase the specificity of the 🛠 Progressive Muscle Relaxation phase. We can focus on the left foot and right foot instead of both feet at once. Eventually we can get even more specific – each toe, each finger.