Introduction
Yoga nidra or commonly known as yogic sleep is an immense powerful meditation technique and one of the easiest yoga pose to attain goals. It is very easy to practice, as you just need to rest comfortably in corpse pose and take yourself to the pancha maya kosh (five self-layers) through systematic meditation leaving yourself with a sense of wholeness.
Release stress and tension by learning yoga nidra is time worthy. Yoga nidra is a proven antidote to anxiety. It has been adopted by veterans, recovering addicts and by average stressed-out people. The Technique of relaxation is an ancient but less popular yoga practice, which is gaining popularity now in both fields of meditation and mind-body therapy. This yoga technique helps to restore all senses of our body.
There is proven evidence that yoga nidra is very beneficial for all types of body. Yoga nidra is a type of consciousness between walking and sleeping like “going-to-sleep” stage. It is technique where our body is completely relaxed so it can help us to calm down ourselves first before anything.
It is a little different from meditation as it involves concentration on a single focus. After the completion of this practice, it results in conscious awareness of deep-sleep state.
History of Yoga Nidra
The history of nidra relaxation is old as yoga itself. It was originated in India and its roots traced all over the world now. Swami Satyananda Saraswati (founder of Bihar school of yoga) invented this modern relaxation technique known as yoga nidra. Apart from it, he mastered variety of ancient yoga practices and modified them into his own yoga system.
Swami satyananda saraswati recognized that complex and ancient had great potential but they need to be modernized a little for its more effectiveness. After a lot of research and practices, he finally developed the technique of yoga nidra.
Some people still do not consider Swarswati as the founder of this relaxation technique in yoga. They believe that this should be much older practice. The Bihar school of yoga has also made no claim in this topic.
If you put a glance in yoga history, relaxation is not a concept from yoga tradition. The whole concept of relaxation is missing in pre-modern yoga. This is the concept born with western phycology.
It works for everyone
Anyone from any background can perform this Relaxation technique in yoga. Other yoga may hold not for everyone but yoga nidra is made for all sort of people’s. It can be practiced from children’s to seniors, rich to poor and by healthy to non-healthy people.
All you need to do is lie down on the floor and relax your mind, body and soul. It is very easy to incorporate in our daily life so yoga nidra has become very popular among people. This is an ultimate meditation and relaxation techniques all need to practice atleast once.
Benefits of Yoga Nidra
- It offers the opportunity to learn about yourself intimately.
- It is a simple way to reduce stress.
- Helps to explore what our body and mind needs at a time.
- It releases negative emotions and thought patterns.
- This technique improves our sleep and reduces insomnia.
- It reduces chronic pains.
Conclusion
Yoga nidra is also used in military base for rehabilitating soldiers in pain and to make them spiritually aligned. It is also used in veterans’ clinics, homeless shelters and Montessori. Yoga nidra meditation is associated with increased endogenous dopamine release in brain.
It improves heart rate, balance in autonomic nervous system and so on. The regular practice of yoga relaxation has found to reduce tension and anxiety. It helps people suffering from headache, chest pain, abdominal pain, sore muscles, and giddiness and so on. It is also used to cope posttraumatic stress disorder (PSD).