Yoga Nidra to Feel Relaxed

Students practicing yoga nidra while laying down in a circle.

Yoga Nidra helps you slow down to find stillness.

When we think of yoga, we tend to picture the shaking of our muscles as we hold a posture and the beads of sweat dripping down our foreheads. We imagine the satisfaction of contorting ourselves into a new pose and the energy rush following a challenging flow. What we rarely call to mind, though, is the relief and the relaxation that we feel as we cool down from our physical practices – the comfort that we experience as our heart rates lower and we are left with nothing to focus on other than our breath. It is this aspect of yoga – the one we almost never think that we crave – that serves as the most rewarding and rejuvenating benefit of the practice. 

Our lives are never still, our minds constantly move from task to task and our bodies obediently follow. We are externally focused. As a result, we can’t consider our gravitation towards movement surprising. In this context, our yoga practices become a spillover of our busy and hectic days. What we tend to forget, then, is that yoga can also be used as a break from reality – an element of our beings rather than an extension of our daily lives.  

You’ll dream while awake in a yoga nidra class.

Yoga nidra is marked by the dreamlike state between consciousness and sleep. The body rests and the inner world is called to consciousness. Yoga nidra will take you through a complete internal scan through breath awareness and sense withdrawal. Oftentimes, people use their nidra practice to release bottled emotions, coming into contact with their internal state without letting it drive their subsequent thoughts or behaviors – the goal is simply awareness. Other practitioners crave no more than the space to relax, reducing stress and promoting better health. Regardless of your experience or intention, yoga nidra can serve as a pathway to freedom and lightness. Your instructor will guide you to uncover your samskaras – the repetitive habits that can cause negative thoughts and prevent complete unification of the koshas – your internal layers. Once you become aware of your samskaras through your nidra practice, you will be ready to let them go and find complete liberation.