Imagine not needing a cup of chai or coffee to fully wake up in the morning – what if your everyday sleep assured you a relaxation far beyond a temporary caffeine high? Imagine if you were fully aware of your surroundings while also feeling deeply relaxed. You would no longer wake up confused and tired, checking if your alarm went off at the right time and not an hour or two earlier than you set it! But how? Only two words – Yoga Nidra.
On hearing these two words together, you must be on high alert! – the curious part of your brain probably wants to know everything about it, from what Yoga Nidra is? to Yoga Nidra benefits, to how to do Yoga Nidra?… the list goes on. Fortunately, you’ve come to the right article, because here you’ll find the cure to your insomnia, reduce your anxiety levels, manage your stress, and attain a higher state of consciousness.
What is Yoga Nidra?
Yoga Nidra is a guided meditation also called as ‘yogic sleep.’ This yogic sleep is often used to enable a state of deep relaxation in the practitioner. This conscious sleep not only calms the mind and body, but it also rejuvenates the senses and energizes your whole body. Though the mind is calm, it stays alert and conscious of the body’s surroundings as the body lies relaxed. Yoga Nidra is also extremely restorative – one hour of yogic sleep can be considered equally relaxing as four hours of conventional sleep.
How to do Yoga Nidra?
Let’s start with the basics and explore this energizing Yoga exercise. The flow of this asana is easy to follow; you only need to lie down in a comfortable position and follow a guided meditation to energize each cell of your body. This process puts you in a halfway state of consciousness and benefits you by reducing insomnia, enhancing your sleep quality, and even reducing stress. However, that’s not all! Yoga Nidra is more than relaxation and being mentally alert, which we’ll explore later in the article.
Benefits of Yoga Nidra
Yoga Nidra benefits extend beyond providing deep relaxation and energizing your whole body. Other benefits include:
- Stress and Anxiety Reduction – Yoga Nidra enables full body relaxation, lowering stress levels and reducing anxiety in its practitioner. Practicing it daily can enable these benefits in the long term. It can also enable you to manage your stress properly to improve your emotional health.
- Reduces Insomnia and Enhances Mood – With Yoga Nidra, you fall asleep with ease and achieve deeper sleep. This can help cure your insomnia and give you better, more relaxing sleep daily. Practising Yoga Nidra daily also improves your mood and overall well-being by letting you relax deeply, every day.
- Spiritual Connection and Improved Creativity – Lord Vishnu himself practiced Yoga Nidra in the Mahabharata to achieve deep sleep under spiritual meditation and dreamt of the creation of the universe. With Habuild’s 14-day yoga challenge, you can also begin your self-discovery journey to fuel your creativity and attain higher levels of consciousness.
In the verses of the Upanishads, you’ll find yourselves parallel to the holy sages and moksha seekers trying to solidify their connection to their innermost selves. In Habuild’s 14-day free yoga challenge, you find yourselves parallel to a community of like-minded explorers looking to enhance their overall well-being. Not even being fully awake can weaken the link to the depths and divinity of the universe that the practice of Yoga Nidra with Habuild creates. - Pain Relief – Yoga Nidra promotes relaxation of the whole body by reducing tensions in it. It is useful to reduce symptoms of pain, inflammation, and discomfort in the practitioner and can effectively manage chronic pain conditions.
Turiya – the True Self
Yoga Nidra is a roadmap to the fourth state of consciousness or turiya; the ultimate reality or pure consciousness. Turiya transcends the other three stages and is the state of being active throughout all stages of consciousness. You might assume that a halfway state of being awake and asleep is not quite relaxing but even more exhausting. However, you can rest assured (and simultaneously aware of your surroundings), that Yoga Nidra brings about a new and energized state of being in its practitioner. This midway state of being is also called the hypnagogic state and quiets your conscious mind, which makes it easier for you to accept affirmations and absorb positive information.
Yoga Nidra at Habuild
At the core of Habuild lies the philosophy of developing good habits that benefit us and help us grow physically, emotionally, and mentally. The practice of yoga nidra perfectly aligns with our ideology, as its impact on our lives multiplies as we regularly practice it. Yoga Nidra meditation has a profound effect on our waking lives and is significantly more effective at lowering anxiety levels than traditional forms of meditation. It also has positive effects on maintaining normal blood pressure and hormonal balance.
Your brain must be thinking “Oh look, here’s another yoga exercise I don’t have the equipment or expertise to practice.” The best feature of Yoga Nidra is the ease of access, which anyone can practice daily, without requiring equipment or physical exertion. Anyone, including young children to experienced or inexperienced adults (yes, you!) can use Yoga Nidra to relieve stress and achieve relaxation like never before.
All you need to enter the divine hypnagogic state is a bed and a Sankalpa, or positive intention and just the combination of these two will produce richly relaxing results and cause each cell of yours to be energized. This is the yogic technique to use when you need to feel renewed and refreshed from within.
No Time? No Problem!
You might be thinking “I barely even have time to get 7-8 hours of sleep, how will I find time to practice yoga AND sleep?” Yoga Nidra is a practice with a highly flexible and easily followed schedule. For added benefits, one guided Yoga Nidra session can range from five minutes to over an hour; it’s one exercise you may easily fit into the most hectic of schedules and find them become not-so-hectic anymore.
Now you’re probably questioning how powerful Yoga Nidra is at reducing anxiety and stress levels. Consider the fact that Yoga Nidra was used by the US Army to emotionally heal soldiers who suffered from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder or PTSD. Reports state that it instilled a sense of calm and peace within them, despite their circumstances or past. So it would be safe to conclude that it can overcome the stress of modern living.
Yoga Nidra – The Full Process
The essence of Yoga Nidra lies in the guided meditation you follow after lying down in Savasana or the corpse pose, with your palms facing upwards. Next, you launch on your rejuvenating journey with the setting of a resolution or intention, a goal, to understand what you aim to achieve after this practice. This intention is also called a Sankalpa and will help guide you throughout this enlightening journey.
Keeping the intention as the central focus of your practice, give special attention to different parts of your body, one at a time. This step promotes relaxation in every part of your body. Next, you zoom in on your breath, paying attention to every inhale and exhale; following this instills an even deeper sense of calm within you.
Being mindful of your breathing, you may also visualize a mental image of tranquil sceneries, to improve relaxation and help in emotional release. After mindfully carrying out all these steps, you then return to your initial intention and reaffirm your resolution with a more absorptive state of mind.
Renewal with Yoga Nidra
When relaxation radiates through every part of your body and you emerge after feeling more connected than ever to the present moment, you find every cell of your body energized to the fullest and charged enough to overcome your previous exhaustion and welcome the present moment with open arms.
The power to fix your sleep schedule and overcome your insomnia lies in your hands with Habuild’s Online Yoga Classes, led by a Guinness World Record holder. Join today and learn how to fall asleep quickly and wake up fully refreshed.
