How to do Yoga Nidra
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Tamsin Astor-Jack has a BS/BSc in Psychology and a PhD in Cognitive Neuroscience, where she studied the relationship between intention and reactivity in the brain.
Yoga Nidra is yogic sleep or sleep awareness. It is a practice that allows for total and systematic relaxation. The goal is to leave the waking state, go through the dream state and into the deep sleep state, while remaining awake.
This lofty goal is tough for most of us! It is very difficult to let go completely. We live in an overstimulated world where are our attention is split between many things which makes it harder to let go.
Ideally it is best to give yourself 45 minutes, following a restorative yoga practice. However, it is tough to find the time – believe me, I know – and it is not a practice that is taught everywhere. We live a strong, busy, hectic lifestyle and many of us feel that our exercise and yoga should be strong, busy and hectic too!
Creating new habits that are sustainable is best done by linking your new habit to one that always occurs – so for example, here, make this new Yoga Nidra practice something that you always do after brushing your teeth and putting on your pjs. Making the new practice short is also key to making it maintainable.
I want you to find a way to add this practice to your day because research has shown that Yoga Nidra helps with menstrual problems, managing glucose levels in diabetic patients, lowering blood pressure and managing the symptoms of PTSD.
How to do Yoga Nidra
1) Start by setting up your space. If you can, create a warm room, with a mat and blanket on the floor, lights dimmed and perhaps some lavender or vanilla essential oils.
2) Have comfy clothes on and lie down, in savasana (corpse or relaxation pose).
3) Turn on the following recording and get a little taste of complete relaxation!
Go ahead – give yourself a chance to deeply relax!
Check out this blog post for more info on creating new habits: http://www.yogabrained.com/blog/2-ways-to-create-habit-changes/
