Yoga Nidra is one of those practices that are becoming more and more popular, and for very good reason. It is a practice that practically anyone can do – you don’t need any special equipment or clothes. You just need to get comfortable and listen.
Despite being so easy and so accessible it’s also very deep and powerful. It has many far-reaching benefits, here are some of them…
It can increase self-compassion: A study done at the Massachusetts General Hospital found that just tuning in and sensing the body as it is, without trying to change anything, had a specific effect on the brain and people reported feeling increased self-compassion. This is huge. It seems that feeling anxious and “not good enough” is a modern epidemic. The way we’re treated as children by our parents and the education system often is not helpful in engendering self-esteem. The advertising industry (which is worth nearly $500 billion worldwide according to Wikipedia) includes some of the most creative and talented people and is aimed solely at making us believe that we are not enough as we are. Often that external message of “you are not good enough” is internalized and our inner critic goes un-checked. We often don’t even notice it’s there, it’s such an insidious part of our background mental noise.
It can improve memory: Part of our brain called the Hippocampus is key in memory formation. It acts a bit like a USB stick – all our impressions get stored there. Then when we sleep we go into certain brainwave states (theta and delta) where memories are transferred to our long term storage. We can experience these same brain waves during a Yoga Nidra practice. So for example if you need to do some studying doing a Nidra practice before the study will “clear” the hippocampus so you can take more in, and doing another Nidra after will transfer your new knowledge into long-term storage.
It can improve Creativity. Time spent in the Yoga Nidra place – the Alpha/Theta boundary can have a hugely beneficial effect on our creativity. When we are relaxed, the logical part of the brain is quieter (the Pre-frontal Cortex), and the brain can structure and integrate our experiences. It compares new impressions with old memories and puts things together in new ways to see how it works – like it does when we’re dreaming. This way we can think outside the box and come up with new connections and ideas.
It can improve sleep. Having problems getting off to sleep at night is very common. Yoga Nidra can help us fall asleep by fully relaxing the body-mind and gradually bringing the senses inside. It can also give a busy mind something to do. Some people can fall asleep ok but wake up during the night and can’t get back to sleep. Yoga Nidra can help us to “navigate” these wakeful parts of the night. We naturally go through cycles during the night. We dive down into deep sleep then we come back up towards the surface several times during the night. It’s often during these periods of shallow sleep that we wake up. If our Yoga Nidra practice can help us to be in shallow sleep without fully waking up we can dive back down to deep sleep more easily. And finally if we wake up and can’t drop off again Yoga Nidra can give us something positive to do.
It can help with stress and worry. During the Yoga Nidra practice we often focus on holding pairs of opposites. For example, we feel warm, then cool, then warm again. Then we hold both at the same time. The idea here is that we can learn to flow with everything life throws at us. If we can feel anger and love at the same time - we don’t get caught up in one. The problem isn’t feeling the anger, the problem is getting stuck in it: falling out of the flow. Yoga Nidra can help us to flow with all our emotions and feelings positive and negative.
It can improve self-connection. As well as our regular 5 senses we have another sense called “interoception”. This is our ability to feel our own body, so that we can feel when we’re hungry, thirsty or tired, so we can care for ourselves well. In the Nidra practice we breathe slow and deep and become more relaxed and we “drop down” out of the head and into the body. When this happens the mind tends to slow down and we can feel what’s there more clearly. The body scan where we feel the body is practicing this sense so we can tune into our needs more.
It can help with emotional regulation: This is our ability not to have a tantrum! During everyday life things will always happen to knock us off our centre. If we can breathe and feel the body and have some space between our reaction and our response we can sometimes choose not to lash out or lose our temper we can choose how to respond.
It can build a bridge between the conscious and unconscious: When we are in the Yoga Nidra space, at the Alpha/Theta boundary, in the Hypnogogic state the brain is functioning in a different way. Normally when we’re awake our pre-fontal cortex is the logical voice of reason, but at the Alpha/Theta boundary its voice is often quieter so we can think more freely. During the “Images” section of the Nidra, we send images to our unconscious (which is sometimes said not to communicate in language but in images). Then in the “Free Flow” section at the end, our unconscious can let images surface, a rare space for images and memories to float freely.
It can Pick you up after a bad night’s sleep: Yoga Nidra can include brain wave states we normally only experience when we’re asleep such as Delta and Theta waves states. It’s here that our body heals and rejuvenates and it’s here that we get our ability to think clearly and remember things. If you wake up with a foggy mind despite having been asleep it could be because you didn’t have your deep Delta sleep (alcohol for example can block this). So practicing Yoga Nidra can give you a much needed boost and help you feel refreshed and clear minded.