Do you really relax when you go to sleep every night?
Yoga Nidra, the art of conscious relaxation
Most of us spend at least six to eight hours a night sleeping, trying to relax and restore the body and the mind. But once in a while, or maybe even more often, when we wake up from a full night of sleep, not only do we not feel refreshed, we experience tensions and even anxieties.
Yogis recognize that as soon as we have a body and a mind, tension happens. From the grossest physical body to the more subtle layer (kosha), we store so much in us, and sleeping alone does not always help us to release the tension, as we are not in the relaxation state when we are sleeping deeply.
And that’s when Yoga Nidra helps. Nidra means sleep, Yoga Nidra is a practice that helps us to put the physical body to sleep while keeping the mind awake. Instead of being conscious (like when we are awake), or drop into the subconscious (dream sleep) or unconscious (deep sleep), we get to access the super consciousness. We get to experience true relaxation while the brain wave drops to the alpha state, and even have access to the spiritual world.
Naturally, every night when we go to sleep, our brain waves drop from the active beta state all the way towards the deep sleep, delta state, some times in the theta state while we dream, but we only stay in the alpha (turiya) state for 3-5 mins. And the alpha state is where we find relaxation.
When we practice Yoga Nidra, with a set of specific techniques that are connected to the lineage which can be traced all the way back to Vishnu, we consciously tap into the alpha state, and naturally, as we stay in that space for longer and longer, we start to experience true relaxation, and the body, mind start to heal.
Yoga Nidra is such a powerful, blissful practice. Whether you are looking to heal, to spiritually evolve, or simply relax, it’s the perfect meditation for everyone.
They say one hour of Yoga Nidra equals four hours of deep sleep. So even just to feel more energized, why not give it a try?
Come join a themed healing session every third Saturday at the Bhakti Center. (on Feb 15 we will talk about higher love while healing together: http://bhakticenter.org/conscious-healing-yoga-nidra-with-susan-hu/)
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