Yoga nidra is a very powerful discipline developed by Swami Satyananda Saraswati and has its origins in the tantra yoga tradition. It involves learning to relax consciously, releasing our creative abilities, and developing our inner potential.
Nidra is a physically passive practice performed lying down in a silent space. However, one of its essential conditions is to remain awake through the attitude of witness and active awareness.
Through yoga nidra, the mind reaches an unconscious state that is usually associated with deep sleep. In addition, a state of calm and tranquility is achieved that allows one to reach inner silence, Antar mouna in Sanskrit. Let’s delve deeper into this wonderful discipline.
What is yoga nidra?
The word yoga comes from Sanskrit and means ‘to bind together’, ‘effort’ or ‘union’. The aim of this broad discipline is to make us aware that we are unified with everything that exists in the universe and therefore, it helps us to change the way we perceive the world around us as well as our lifestyle.
Yoga nidra is one of the variants of this discipline and among other things, it helps us understand what the mind is. The term nidra means ‘sleep’ in Sanskrit. From the perspective of yoga nidra, we are asleep when we perceive that the world is made of solid and separate objects . Thus, when we dream, we take the images of dreams to be real. When we wake up, these dream objects are recognized as empty of substance and we realize that all along they were just fabrications of the mind.
During waking consciousness, we take our thought images and solid objects in the world to be as real as dream images when we sleep. Now, thoughts and objects that appear in the waking state are as empty as dream images . Thus, yoga nidra is a process that helps us explore this experience and above all, discover the truth of this fact.
What happens during yoga nidra practice
In doing yoga nidra, one carefully and systematically investigates the nature of the structures and beliefs that define one’s personal identity. These include the physical body, energy, sensation, emotions, thought and image bodies, and the personal ego identity .
We have typically come to believe that these elements are solid, real structures. During the practice of yoga nidra we investigate the reality of these beliefs in order to deeply examine each one. The goal is to develop a deep, first-hand experience of the structure of our real identity .
Furthermore, it also delves into the realm of consciousness , the realm from which all beliefs arise. Thus, this type of yoga is an investigation into the real substance and nature of which everything is made. Its aim is to answer the ultimate question about the essence of our intrinsic spiritual identity.
Yoga nidra asks, “ Are we separate or finite entities, or are we something that is infinite and eternal? And if we are, can we know ourselves as That, not intellectually, but as a fully embodied, real experience in every moment?”
The experience that occurs during yoga nidra inevitably leads to the deconstruction and disidentification of our basic beliefs about who we are . As these dissolve, we glimpse our essential nature as presence and come to the first-hand conviction that we are not the limited, finite creatures we mistakenly take ourselves to be. Instead, we find that we are an unfathomable vastness to the mind, a joyful being who is always present, even in the midst of the greatest difficulty.
Benefits of yoga nidra
Swami Digambarananda Saraswati (Danilo Hernandez), one of the most renowned yoga teachers in the world, explains some of the benefits of yoga nidra. They are as follows:
- It helps purify and dissolve mental blocks.
- Allows creativity to flow easily.
- Memory becomes clearer and stronger.
- Imagination develops along appropriate channels.
- Creativity and learning are enhanced.
- Intuition and deep knowledge are manifested.
- Consciousness has the opportunity to disidentify from the physical body and mind, as well as to immerse itself in the experience of being.
Furthermore, it is worth noting that, based on various studies and research with people who practice Yoga Nidra, it is known that this branch of Yoga has a series of physiological benefits. These are the following:
- Slowing of the body’s metabolism.
- Reduction in oxygen consumption.
- Increased skin resistance.
- Decreased heart rate.
- Increased alpha brain wave activity .
- Decrease in blood pressure.
- Increased blood flow through the body.
In addition, the practice of yoga nidra promotes and strengthens the connection with our internal organs and with our external muscles . This allows us to develop an increasingly defined perception of the state of each part of our body. In this way, we can have greater body awareness. This implies an increase in awareness of the self, which stimulates behaviors oriented, above all, to self-care .