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Yoga @
"New Body and
Mind" Retreats.
Daily
Yoga Classes
We offer daily professional yoga classes
at no additional cost. Additional private yoga classes are available
to accommodate personal requirements and levels. Our Yoga teachers are
all qualified and certified and have years of experience teaching both
on individual level as on class level. For more info click here or
email us at yoga@newbodyandmind.com .
Yoga Nidra: Its Advantages and
Applications
Siddhartha Bhushan*
 In the modern scenario, human life has become very
fast, hectic and demanding. The present lifestyle demands adjustment
on the part of the individual. Each of us, as per our coping
resources, tries to adjust in this changing world. Some adjust by
becoming overactive and others by withdrawing from the situation.
When we fail to make a proper adjustment according to the demands of
the situation, a state of negative stress or distress develops in
our personality, which gives rise to mental or psychological
problems. In most people the mind always remains in a state of
arousal and tension. Yoga nidra, as a technique of pratyahara, not
only provides relaxation to the body and mind but also has a number
of benefits.
Yoga nidra is one of the practices of
pratyahara
where the awareness is internalized. Literally, yoga nidra
means 'psychic sleep' i.e. sleep with full awareness. In the
practice of yoga nidra the body sleeps but the mind remains awake
listening to the instructions. In psychology, the state achieved in
yoga nidra is termed the hypnogogic state, a state between sleep and
wakefulness. Yoga nidra has its origin in the ancient tantric
practice called nyasa. It was Swami Satyananda Saraswati
(1998) who adapted and presented the practice of yoga nidra in a
systematic and scientific way in the 1960s.
Stages of yoga nidra
The practice of yoga nidra is divided
into the following stages:
-
Preparation: Yoga
nidra is performed in the posture of shavasana, with the eyes
closed. In this stage, initial relaxation of the body and mind is
induced by the awareness of stillness, comfort, posture, position,
breath, and listening to the external sounds with the attitude of a
witness.
-
Sankalpa: When
the body and mind are relaxed, then the practitioner is instructed
to take a resolve according to his or her own wish. The sankalpa
should be short, clear and positive. The practitioner repeats the
selected sankalpa three times mentally, with full determination,
conviction and confidence.
-
Rotation of consciousness:
In the third stage, the awareness is rotated around the
different body parts in a systematic and organized manner. The
practitioner is instructed to remain aware, to listen to the
instructions and to move the mind very rapidly according to the
instructions without making any physical movements. The rotation of
awareness in yoga nidra follows a definite sequence: right side of
the body, beginning with the right hand thumb and ending with the
little toe of the right foot; left side of the body, from the left
hand thumb to the little toe of the left foot; back of the body,
from the heels to the back of the head; and lastly the front of the
body, from the forehead and individual facial features to the legs.
-
 Breath awareness:
In this stage, one simply becomes aware of the natural breath
without making an attempt to change the flow of the breath. One may
become aware of the breath by watching it in the nostrils, chest,
and abdomen, or in the passage between the navel and the throat. The
practitioner becomes aware of each incoming and outgoing breath by
counting them mentally.
-
Opposite feelings and sensations:
In this stage, the physical or emotional sensations are recalled,
intensified and experienced fully. Usually this is practised with
pairs of opposite feelings or sensations like heat and cold,
heaviness and lightness, pain and pleasure, love and hate, and so
on.
-
Visualization: In
the stage of visualization, the awareness is taken to the dark space
in front of the closed eyes, referred to as chidakasha in
yogic terminology. The practitioner is then instructed to visualize
some objects, stories or situations in the chidakasha.
-
Sankalpa: Once
again the sankalpa, taken in stage two, is repeated mentally three
times in this stage with full dedication, faith and optimism.
-
Ending the practice:
Before ending the session of yoga nidra, slowly the awareness is
externalized by asking the practitioner to become aware of the
external sounds, objects and persons. They are asked then to slowly
move the body parts and to stretch the body.
Benefits of yoga nidra
The practice of yoga nidra has a number of benefits.
Important among them are as follows.
 Minimizes
tension:
In the modern world the international problem is not poverty,
drugs or fear of war; it is tension and only tension. A high
percentage of people remain in a state of tension and frustration.
This continuous level of tension in the body, mind and emotions
predisposes the individual towards psychological and psychosomatic
disorders. Modern psychology as well as yogic philosophy believes in
three kinds of tension - muscular tensions, emotional tensions and
mental tensions - which can be progressively released through
the systematic and regular practice of yoga nidra. Muscular tension
results from nervous and endocrinal imbalances. It manifests in the
form of stiffness and rigidity in the physical body. In the practice
of yoga nidra the body is progressively relaxed, which in turn
releases the accumulated muscular tensions.
In day to day life individuals fail to express their
emotions freely and openly. As a result, the emotions are repressed
and manifest in the form of emotional tension. In the practice of yoga
nidra, the practitioner slowly moves towards the deeper realms of the
mind where he or she confronts the deep-rooted emotional tensions.
When the practitioner recognizes these emotional tensions with full
awareness and a witnessing attitude
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