Yoga Nidra

It is a state of conscious deep sleep. During the practice of yoga nidra, one appears to be sleep, but the
consciousness is functioning at the deeper level of awareness. It is sleep with a trace of deep awareness. It is
state of mind in between wakefulness and dream. Normally when we sleep, we loose track of our self and
cannot utilize this capacity of mind. Yoga nidra enables the person to be conscious in this state and nurture
the seed of great will power, inspire the higher self, and enjoy the vitality of life.

The Holistic Technique for Relaxation

Most people think that relaxation is simply reclining and closing your eyes. When you are tired you simply go
to bed .But unless you are free from muscular, mental and emotional tensions, you are never relaxed. That is
the reason why many of wake up in the morning with a feeling of fatigue, restlessness and inadequate rest. In
order to relax completely, the inner tensions, emotions and mind must be released, This complete state of
relaxation can be achieved through yoga nidra.

Do you indulge in hobbies to get away from your routine?

But during each activity that restless mind keeps ticking away and muscles remain at work. Even listening to
music requires energy. Actual state of relaxation can be achieved through yoga nidra. This technique is more
efficient and effective form of physic and physiological rest and rejuvenation than conventional sleep.
Psychosomatic illness such as diabetes, hypertension, migraine, asthma, ulcers and digestive disorders-all
stem from tension.

Is your mind tense?

Then possibility is that your stomach is also tense. And if your stomach is tense, your circulatory system is
also tense. To save yourself from this vicious circle of events that causes muscular, emotional and mental
unrest, practice Yoga Nidra.

Secret of Transformation
Yoga nidra restructures and transforms our whole personality form within. With every session of yoga nidra
we are actually burning our old samskaras, habits and tendencies in order to be born anew. This process is
quicker than other systems that work on an external basis. In yoga nidra, sowing of seeds of change is found
in sankalpa, which you make for yourself during each practice. Sankalpa is a Sanskrit word, which can be
translated as resolve or resolution. It is the most powerful method for reshaping your personality.

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The sankalpa takes a form of a short mental statement, which is impressed on the subconscious mind when it
is receptive and sensitive to autosuggestion. Sankalpa is a determination to become someone or do something
in life. It thus has to be made when your mind is completely at rest or peace. Before and after the practice of
yoga nidra, should ideally be the time dedicated to Sankalpa.

SANKALPA IS A SEED WHICH YOU CREATE AND THEN SOW IN THE BED OF YOUR
MIND.
When the mind is clear, the seed of sankalpa grows very well. It will then become a powerful directive, for
sankalpa needs to be planted with strong willpower. Once the seed of sankalpa is planted deep in the
subconscious, it gathers the vast forces of the mind in order to bring about its manifestation.

NO PERSONALITY IS BEYOND REFORMATION, AND NO FEAR OR OBSESSION IS SO

DEEP ROOTED THAT IT CANNOT BE CHANGED.

Benefits of Yoga Nidra

Yoga nidra gives you profound experience of muscular, mental and emotional relaxation.
Yoga nidra transforms a victim of stress into a victor in life.
Yoga nidra improves the lives of people with chronic degenerative diseases.
Yoga nidra revives the dispersion of human energies at all levels.
Yoga nidra burns the old samskaaras, habits and tendencies in order to be born new.
Yoga nidra melts your mind so that you can cast good creative impressions on it thereby increasing
receptivity.
Yoga nidra plays a vital role in ensuring psychological health and well being of children.
Yoga nidra augments the capacity of receptivity and attention and awakens the joy of learning in young
students
Yoga nidra helps in regaining the point of balance and harmony in every sphere of existence.
Yoga nidra provides the perfect conditions for intra-uterine growth of the foetus.
Yoga nidra acts as an ideal antidote to preserve childs natural abilities and creative faculties in the most
effortless and spontaneous way.
Yoga nidra helps in combating diseases that have sprung up with new dimensions and reached a peak in the
last few decades

Yoga nidra decreases the requirements for analgesic, hypnotic and sedative drugs.

Yoga Nidra as a Process of Releasing

The mind is not directed here and there during yoga nidra. There is no guided imagery, no explanation and no
effort whatsoever to be aware of any object, or part of body or being. Rather you go into state of deep
releasing and letting-go. You invite your attention to go deep into the stillness and silence, in the space
between the breasts. As you move deep into the state of yoga nidra, you want to release and release. There
are thoughts in the dreaming mind but we go past that in yoga nidra..Your attention has also left the dreaming
state of mind, and gone further inward. Here, you completely let go of any words, thoughts, images,
impressions or pictures. It is this emptying which takes you to yoga nidra.

The State of Receptivity & Creativity

In the yoga nidra state, the mind is exceptionally receptive. Languages and other subjects can be learned
rapidly. Suggestions given at this time are successful in removing unwanted habits and tendencies. Just as you
melt iron and cast it into a particular mould, the same way there is a phase when the mind is melting and at
the same time you can cast good and creative impression on it. Receptivity of mind can be awakened only
when the dissipations are annihilated and in Yoga Nidra we do this by awakening the emotional structure of
the mind. Being emotionally receptive to everything that we need to assimilate, we need to withdraw
distractions so that mind can flow on one smooth level. Then whatever is impressed upon the mind, becomes
the directive, the destiny. Yoga Nidra mind is obedient and hence more receptive.
Man is weak because he is depending merely on his intellect and the information of his senses. But once the
doors to the deeper mind is opened, you are at the root of creativity. The practice of Yoga Nidra enables one
to receive intuitions from the unconscious mind. This is the secret of the extraordinary accomplishments and
the fount of artistic and poetic inspiration.

Yoga Nidra Enhances Learning Capabilities

Modern educational methods, which make use of this state are producing spectacular results. Educational
innovators such as Dr Georgi Lozanov, a Bulgarian psychologist and the founder-director of the institute of
Suggestopedy in Sofia, are now utilizing yoga nidra to create an atmosphere in which knowledge is gained
without effort. Dr Georgi Lozanov, recognizing that the state of active and relaxed awareness in students
awakens the desire to learn, improves memory and reduces inhibition, has devised methods for
teaching/learning of foreign languages that are three to five times faster, with the use of relaxation and music.
As the class proceeds, the students effortlessly assimilate an enormous amount of knowledge, which, under
conventional classroom conditions, would surely precipitate strain, tiredness and loss of concentration.
Yoga nidra is being tapped internationally as a means of improving conscious recall thereby increasing
memory function. Yoga nidra is a promising technique that will revolutionize the teaching procedures in the
future by enabling students to assimilate knowledge without much effort. There are students who want to
learn, but their conscious mind is weak or unreceptive. Such children with learning disabilities can benefit
from yoga nidra by absorbing knowledge through the subconscious mind. Such children can be taught by
transmitting symbolic forms directly into his subconscious.

Yoga Nidra for Stress Relief

Mental stress is the penalty the man is paying today for becoming civilized. It is true that some people are
more prone to suffer from the effect of stress, but no one is immune to it. Only the threshold varies. It has
been seen that urban population have higher blood pressure levels. The higher standard of living, higher
education, higher incomes and more skilled occupations are associated with higher level of stress. Executives,
professionals and people working on jobs with deadlines are under stress most of the time. It has been noted
by Russek & Zohman in a study of coronary patients and an equal number of controls, that job stresses
accounted for greater differences between the groups than other risk factors like diet, heredity, obesity,
smoking or exercise.

Other than keeping stress out of their lives, yoga nidra can make corporate
employees more efficient by enhancing their creativity, receptivity of knowledge
and problem solving skills.
The research done by Dr. K.N Udupa of Banaras University suggests that stress-related disorders evolve
gradually through four recognizable stages. Firstly psychological changes such as anxiety, irritability and
insomnia arise due to over stimulation of the sympathetic nervous system. In the second stage symptoms
such as high blood pressure, elevated heart rate and increased intestinal motility surface. In the third stage, a
more profound physical or biochemical imbalance sets in, while in the final fourth stage, irreversible
symptoms that often requires surgical or long term management appears.
Yoga Nidra is increasingly becoming popular and is now being prescribed by doctors in many countries as a
preventive and curative therapy in earlier three stages of stress related diseases. In addition, yoga nidra is
effective in management of psychosomatic disorders that have progressed to an irreversible stage by
providing effective symptomatic relief, treating depression and deep rooted anxiety and evolving the best
possible outlook of the sufferer towards the disease. Yoga nidra being subjectively oriented and internally
directed, comes as a great savior for them. The ultimate objective of yog nidra goes far beyond rectifying the
imbalances created in the body by poor stress management. It lies in actually teaching the sufferer to thrive
on the same difficulties, anguish and tensions and positively utilizing tension as a stepping stone to greater
awareness.

Yoga Nidra and Hypnosis

Yoga Nidra and Hypnosis brings about a state of sensory withdrawal,
but they are two very different sciences.
Although they may start at the same point of relaxation and receptivity, Yoga Nidra proceeds in one direction
and Hypnosis in another.
When the mind is dissociated from the sensory knowledge, it passes through a hypnotic state but the state of
mind achieved in yoga nidra is far beyond hypnosis.
The aim of yoga nidra is to take consciousness as far as you can lead it. When you are transcending up to a
certain point, you are actually passing through the range of hypnosis.

During yoga nidra, the brain is completely awake and it receives a higher quality of stimuli and develops a
different type of awareness. However in hypnosis, the subject is led into a deep sleep in which the brain is
completely shut down. The consciousness in hypnotic state is very limited and confined to a very small area.
This is tamasic condition, while yoga nidra creates a sattvic condition.
According to Yoga, there are three important nadis or energy channels in the physical body known as ida,
pingala and sushumna. Ida conveys the mental force, Pingala the vital force and sushumna the spiritual force.
Throughout our lives, Ida and Pingala Nadis are continually feeding the brain with the necessary stimuli
which enable it to cognize an object, a sound, an idea. If you close off Ida and pingala, then brain is isolated.
That is hypnosis. But in yoga nidra, the sushumna nadi is activated and provides the necessary energy and
stimuli to the brain. Because of sushumna activation, the brain receives a higher quality of stimuli and a
different type of knowledge.

Yoga Nidra and Curing Diseases

Yoga nidra has widespread application in the management of diseases of all kinds, and promises to play a far
greater role in the future. Yoga nidra can be utilized either by itself or in conjunction with other conventional
forms of medical therapy. It has been found useful in both acute and chronic conditions, especially in
degenerative and stress related conditions such as hypertension, heart diseases and arthritis. Diseases with
high psychosomatic component such as asthma, peptic ulcer and migraine headache respond favourably by
yoga nidra. Yoga nidra can be really helpful in psychiatric treatment especially in cases, which are
unresponsive to routine psychotherapy.
The practice of yogic relaxation has been found to effectively reduce tension and improve psychological well
being of people suffering from anxiety. The autonomic symptoms of high anxiety such as headache, giddiness,
chest pain, palpitations, sweating, abdominal pain respond exceptionally well to yoga nidra. Practising yoga
nidra successfully decreases the time required to fall asleep, thereby curing insomnia.
It is a wonderful aid in curbing excessive consumption of coffee, cigarettes and alcohol and drugs by reducing
deep seated conflicts and tensions. Its influence in removing pain by stimulating the pituitary gland to release
its own potent pain suppressing compounds is remarkable. If all this is not enough, yoga nidra if practiced
regularly in pregnancy creates the most favourable conditions for intra uterine growth. This divine practice is
also recommended for cancer patients in conjunction with meditation therapy. In this way crucial balance
between concentration and relaxation is established, While meditation involves relaxation, surrender and
letting go, yoga nidra is emerging as an excellent preventive and curative procedure in cardiovascular
management because it works by inducing a more relaxed mental attitude and emotional climate.

Courtesy of Buddham Yoga

Yoga & Meditation Research Institute