Yoga Nidra a meditation to relax you deeply

I am a big believer in sleep and I’m lucky enough to get the recommended 7 to 8 hours of sleep. If I don’t sleep well, or enough, I can’t  properly function. Not only I get cranky, but I am also too tired to exercise, I am unable to focus and I crave carbs and sugar. All things I surely want to avoid. 

A few days ago I was talking to a friend over dinner, and due to her line of work, she wakes up in the wee hours of the morning and feels like she is constantly jetlagged. She doesn’t fly to different time zones, but her circadian rhythm is off balance like if she did. As a result she gained a lot of weight. She doesn’t have the energy to exercise and she constantly craves carbs: a truly bad combo for anyone’s health.

I recommended her two things: one, taking a couple of capsules of ashwagandha, a powerful adaptogen, which helps relax and sleep more soundly; two, practicing a sleep-inducing yoga technique, yoga nidra. 

Why Yoga Nidra?

It’s a meditative technique done laying down, on a mat or a bed, in Savasana (a corpse-like pose with both arms and legs slightly open), ideally with a blanket to allow for some warmth when the body temperature drops. 

Yoga nidra works in fascinating ways. First, by using repeated stimuli it creates a response that results in what is called habituation. In other words, by bringing attention to the body we are able to forget about the surrounding world which helps us to get completely inwards. Second, it leverages brain plasticity by making us focus on our emotions and memories, reinforcing new brain pathways that replace negative habits with positive ones. 

Yoga Nidra works by reinforcing new brain pathways creating more positive habits.

The yoga instructor guides the practitioner through the so-called five phases of being to reach a restful state while being conscious, although you may find yourself asleep halfway through the practice. If you didn’t completely fall asleep, once awake, you will feel at least refreshed and energized, but also grateful and happy. 

The technique incorporates guided breathing exercises and a body scan that resets the nervous system making us inwardly aware and deeply interconnected.

It is particularly good if you are stressed or in a cortisol feedback loop (as it is the case of my friend) where you cannot fall asleep anymore because your body keeps producing adrenaline even when it’s time to rest. Usually, thankfully rarely, this happens to me after two consecutive nights of poor sleep. 

Because of the brain plasticity mechanism that we have seen earlier, yoga nidra is highly recommended to treat anxiety and depression, and to relieve from trauma and other mental health issues which, once solved, can lead to blissful sleeping.

Now that you know about this powerful technique, it’s time to grab your mat or lay on your bed and give it a shot. 

I’ve been using a platform called glo for more than ten years, they have many yoga nidra classes, but if you want to get an idea here is a simple one you can use as well. 

I usually follow my practice with a Calming Latte from Tusol that contains both ashwagandha and cacao the best ingredients for calm and relaxation.

Try it and let us know how you feel!