Sometimes the simplest things are the most powerful.
I love Yoga Nidra Meditation (“the yoga of sleep”) and here are a few reasons why you should too.
1. All you got to do is lie down and listen to the voice
The instructions are like a lullaby and the mind goes in and out of the conscious state. It feels like napping, although you are not really sleeping.
As we enter this borderline state, the brain produces alpha waves — associated with the restorative mode where the body heals and the mind produces new patterns (a.k.a neuroplasticity).
2. Keeping your cool is the whole point
In Yoga, we often stretch and twist and focus on our postures and breathing, etc. But we can also just let it go and learn to relax. Sometimes doing nothing is incredibly hard because we are so used to having to “DO SOMETHING”. Keeping your cool or developing the habits of relaxation is the whole point of Yoga
3. Yoga Nidra is so effective at developing the relaxation of mind and body, that ...
...it is given to patients, at Yoga Therapy clinics in India, to help them mitigate the anxiety of going through sickness and to help their recovery. An upgrade from the “stay in bed” we know from doctors in the West.
4. Yoga Nidra is a Productivity Hack
Those in the know say that 30 minutes of Yoga Nidra can feel as restoring as 3 hours of actual sleep — a true power nap!
5. Giving is as good as receiving For the one giving Yoga Nidra, it works as a great preparation to guide meditation — it forces you to work on your pace, tone, compassion (I used to pretend I was putting babies to sleep) and it’s great for getting used to feeling irrelevant. It’s never about you, it’s about the words in the scripts and the experience of the practitioners.
I would love you to try it.
You can join my Yoga Nidra Meditation sessions on Wednesdays 6pm BST here.
The class comes with a free recording for self-practice.
About Rio Otoya Rio guides Yoga, Meditation, and Breathwork. He formerly worked at Google, leading startup programs, and pioneering mindfulness initiatives. Rio uses his facilitator experience to create intimate spaces for the practice. He combines modern and traditional practices through his training in traditional Indian Yoga, healing Breathwork, and scientific Mindfulness from Google’s gPause.
Follow Rio on Instagram @rio.otoya | riootoya.com/workshops