Yoga nidra is a state of consciousness between waking and sleeping. The art of relaxation also called yogic sleep. A powerful technique for controlling your body's relaxation response.

Yoga nidra can be as restorative as sleep while remaining fully concious. Cultivating conscious relaxation assists with easing ongoing stress, anxiety, and stressors you might be feeling in your body.

How does it work?

Yoga nidra is a form of relaxation which systematically changes and cycles through brain nerve states. Lowering beta and increasing alpha, theta, and delta. For better yoga nidra changes the function of the mind by slowing down brain wave frequency.

Biological sleep refreshes the body-mind but does not promote self-realization as yoga nidra does. Feelings of meditative expansiveness, are the objective biological facts that can be measured in DNA, Neurotransmitters, brainwaves, and more. 

Human brain waves explained:

• Gamma 32 - 100 Hz: heightened awareness, problem-solving and conciouss processing
• Beta 13 - 32 Hz: awake, alert consciousness, thinking, excitement
• Alpha 8 - 13 Hz: physically and mentally relaxed 
• Theta 4 - 8 Hz: creativity, deep states, dreams, deep meditation, and reduced conciousness 
• Delta 0.5 - 4 Hz: deep (dreamless) sleep, loss of bodily awareness, repair 

What to expect in a yoga nidra course: 

In a yoga nidra course, we typically begin with gentle movement and breathwork to release the body of tension we might be holding onto from our day's activities. After the gentle movement and breathwork, we settle into a comfortable position, either seated upright against a wall or in a meditation chair. We may also lie down on our matt in a comfortable position with our feet separated and falling out to the side, our arms alongside our bodies with our palms facing up. We may have a blanket to keep us warm and anything else we might need to ensure we are comfortable during the duration of the Yoga Nidra which can be anything from 10 - 45 min.

If you are lying down you might want to make use of an eye pillow too. Falling asleep is quite common in the beginning so don't be too hard on yourself if this is the case for you, when you awaken again to the sound of my voice merely bring your awareness to what I am saying to bring you back into a yoga nidra state/yogic sleep.

Enjoy, please comment below, and don't forget to check in on yourself before you start the practice, write down your findings of how you are feeling mentally, physically, and emotionally and do so again at the end of the course and compare the two.

Let me know how you do, would love to hear from you.

Namaste, Nicole Lovme