Learn about Yoga Nidra from Experts: Powerful Relaxation Meditation

Yoga Nidra is a technique from the great yoga adept Swami Satyananda Saraswati of the Bihar School of Yoga, India.

The word yoga means conscious connection to Self. Nidra means sleep. Yoga Nidra is a yoga meditation technique that allows us to relax, recharge, rejuvenate and awaken higher consciousness.

(Note: Yogi nidra is a Sanskrit term that means the light, wakeful sleep of an accomplished practitioner of yoga and meditation.)

Yoga Nidra is a powerful meditation technique where the mind remains conscious during the normally “unconscious” state associated with deep sleep.

Practiced in the lying position, it is one of the most popular yoga meditation techniques because it induces a profoundly deep state of rest. It is effortless, enjoyable, soothing and recuperative.

As it is practiced today, Yoga Nidra is a technique that carries awareness deep into you, layer by layer. This process is called introversion, or?pratyahara?in Sanskrit. The pratyahara of Yoga Nidra induces deep relaxation.

Thousands of People Use Yoga Nidra Scripts to Relax and Meditate

Yoga Nidra takes your awareness deep into parts of you that you normally cannot access because of tensions.?You systematically relax each part of your physical body and then move your awareness to the more subtle layers, your emotions and deeper mind, in order to relax those parts.

Many people find that sleep is not completely restful. They are unable to resolve tensions, or they are unaware of how much tension they are holding and carry these tensions into their sleep. Over time these tensions and stresses travel deep into the body-mind and become the seed of physical and psychological illness.

Disturbed sleep, sleep deprivation and sleep disorders such as insomnia have reached epidemic proportions in recent years. Chronic sleep deprivation has been shown to greatly increase the risk of chronic degenerative illnesses, such as heart disease, diabetes, depression and obesity, and of premature death. (See the research article on heart disease at the end of this page for more details)

More than 30% of the population suffers from insomnia.More than 60% of people over the age of 60 suffer from insomnia.30% of people suffer from some form of insomnia during their lifetime.More than half of Americans lose sleep due to stress and/or anxiety.Approximately 30 million people in the U.S. (10% of the population) use prescription sleeping medication.

Many people try to sleep with their mind still switched on. Over-thinking is a symptom of stress and worry. Unchecked, it can become an unconscious habit that undermines our health and happiness.

Learning how to turn off excessive thinking and worry is the key to getting deep restful sleep. One of the easiest ways to do this is by practicing Yoga Nidra.

Yoga Nidra is a practice that enables you to gain deep rest so that you can recharge and rejuvenate yourself. In removing deep-seated tensions and improves your capacity to sleep peacefully.

Although it does not replace normal sleep, 30 minutes of Yoga Nidra is the equivalent of 3 to 4 hours of sleep.

30 minutes of ?Yoga Nidra is the equivalent of 3 to 4 hours of sleep

Tensions block awareness and energy.?Yoga Nidra releases blocked energy that is trapped within the body-mind, often frozen by anxiety and worry. The release of energy during relaxation rebalances and harmonizes the body and the deeper mind. Energy that is released can be used for healing and positive growth.

Removing tensions allows you to penetrate your awareness into the unconscious areas of yourself. You become aware of and can connect to your inner abilities and potential. This expands your sense of self by expanding your awareness of the deeper and subtler parts of you.

Yoga Nidra is a yoga meditation technique that can be used in therapy settings to enable people to recuperate from exhaustion and illness. It can be applied as both a primary therapeutic tool and as an adjunctive treatment for many acute and chronic physical and psychological disease conditions.

Deep relaxation liberates the energy trapped within tensions.

Author: Dr Swami Shankardev Saraswati with Jayne Stevenson | Copyright Big Shakti 2011

Learn authentic practices with this guided Mp3 or CD?Meditation and Yoga Nidra

Read the book?by the originator of this technique, Swami Satyananda Saraswati?Yoga Nidra

Origin of Yoga Nidra

Insufficient Rest and Poor Sleep Causes Heart Disease

View the original article here