Modern Westerners, who have set out in pursuit of success and a high standard of living, are in constant tension. Continuous racing is not only exhausting, but also leads to numerous problems such as overexertion. When an overworked person finally manages to take a break, he simply cannot relax. Then you have to turn to a psychotherapist for help, who will first of all offer a traditional set of tranquilizers, antidepressants and other medications, which often not only do not solve problems, but also create others, no less serious. Meetings with a psychoanalyst are a good thing, but they can last for years without leading to any result. So modern people, more than ever, need simple, effective and safe means of mental restoration. It is precisely this kind of remedy – a specific relaxation technique – that we will talk about. The method of deep relaxation - yoga nidra - was created by Swami Satyananda, the founder of the Bihar School of Yoga. In one of the ancient lines of Vedic development of yoga, described in Rigvidhana, there was a ritual of sacrifice to the god Vishnu. At the beginning of the ritual, it was necessary to imagine the deity (visualize it), and then project certain letters of the Sanskrit alphabet and sacred symbols - sixteen verses of the ninetieth hymn of the Rigveda "Purushasukta" - onto his imaginary organs. Then imagine your body and project the images of the mantras onto it. Thus, the body of the practitioner became like the body of a deity and acquired its properties - siddhi. A similar practice - ritual projection - was called "nyasa" (literal translation - "putting the mind on a point"), was performed in a sitting position and was quite complex.
Satyananda's Yoga Nidra is a modification of Nyasa in which, instead of imposing mantras, attention is moved throughout the body. Yoga Nidra brings consciousness to the borderline state between sleep and wakefulness. The practitioner follows the voice of the leader, who determines the sequence of movement. It is known that suggestion is possible only because the brain is in a state of “partial inhibition” (in Tibetan Buddhism this is called mi-lam bardo - “being between”). Between sleep and wakefulness, consciousness goes through several phases of inhibition:

• waking consciousness: normal tone; excitation is proportional to inhibition;
• equalizing phase: weak and strong stimuli cause the same reactions;
• transitional, or paradoxical - weak stimuli cause a strong reaction or no reaction occurs at all;
• ultraparadoxical - positive stimuli do not evoke a response at all, and negative ones - the response is positive;
• narcotic phase - an equally weakened reaction to any influence;
• complete inhibition - deep sleep.

With the help of yoga nidra, you can achieve a state where consciousness turns into attention. It seems that the person is sleeping, but he is not. If nidra is an ordinary dream, then yoga nidra is a short shutdown of consciousness when internal tension is released.
Information transmitted to consciousness during deep relaxation is absorbed much better than usual. This state in the West is called hypnotic - internal censorship is removed and the mind is extremely receptive. A hypnotized person can be given various settings (sankalpas) - this is, according to Satyananda, the main secret of the extraordinary abilities of great yogis.

Full immersion

What kind of practice is yoga nidra? Everything is very simple: the presenter determines the pattern of movement of attention throughout the body and dictates instructions, and the listener follows his instructions while staying in Shavasana. Yoga Nidra can include a sankalpa, but one must remember that introducing attitudes into the subconscious is very dangerous.
During the performance of the standard version of yoga nidra (without sankalpa), a monotonous rhythmic movement of attention occurs throughout the body. The listener does not think about the instructions, his attitude towards them, does not try to follow them exactly, does not expect any result, etc., and his consciousness seems to “slow down”.

When yoga nidra is performed for the first time, the reaction may be as follows:

• consciousness turns off completely, sleep sets in;
• the practitioner remembers the instructor's speech from beginning to end;
• the practitioner either hears the instructor’s voice or not, the perception is dotted.

When a practitioner assimilates only part of the information, this indicates that his mental state is satisfactory. When everything is remembered verbatim, it means that the person has serious internal problems.
The procedure is best performed in loose clothing and preferably on an empty stomach. A blindfold is put on the closed eyes. In the room where yoga nidra is performed, complete silence should be maintained, and the practitioner should not freeze. After completing the procedure, hypotensive patients may feel a slight chill. To remove it, you need to make several vigorous movements.
When complete relaxation occurs, internal tension is released in a completely unpredictable way, and autogenic discharges arise - unusual images, twitching of limbs, the illusion of changing the size and shape of the body, a feeling of flying, falling, etc. There is no need to be afraid of this, it is very useful. There should only be no nausea and a feeling of tipping over, somersaulting back over your head. This reaction indicates problems with the central nervous system.
After the practitioner masters the technique of deep relaxation, the unconscious begins to free itself from everything previously repressed into it. There is a process of unloading, cleansing and restoring the original integrity of the psyche. If during practice the consciousness turns off, this is not a dream - the unconscious gradually begins to regenerate, hiding behind the screen of sleep.

No harassment

The full version of yoga nidra includes not only deep relaxation. Satyananda in his work “Yoga Nidra” describes eight stages of mastering the practice. One of them is awareness of sankalpa. Satyananda gives it the following definition: “Sankalpa is a short positive mental statement (in no case a denial, at least a question), formulated in the present tense.” The fact is that denial is the main obstacle that interferes with perception. Therefore, practice will only be beneficial if you can clearly formulate what you want, and not what you refuse.

Unlike other methods of influence, when someone outside influences personality change (hypnosis, NLP, etc.), the right to choose a sankalpa remains with the practitioner himself. The one who reads the text knows nothing about it. Practice, built competently, makes it possible to make decisions and make the necessary changes, prompted by a person’s own subconscious.
Every person by the age of thirty, or even earlier, accumulates a significant baggage of problems that distort perception (aberrations). These distortions are caused by various kinds of negative factors: difficult family conditions, overload, stress, failures in life and health problems. All this leads to the displacement into the unconscious of a huge amount of negative information, which consciousness cannot cope with. Problems do not bury a person just because he ceases to be aware of them. But the price of relative comfort is a general system imbalance.
Thus, all conclusions and conclusions of a person in a darkened consciousness become flawed. How can such a person choose the right path - the very sankalpa that Satyananda recommends using almost from the very beginning of mastering nidra? The answer is simple: such a sankalpa does not exist! Any installation, even an impeccably logically constructed one, without first clearing away what was previously repressed will be erroneous and will only aggravate the problems. You need to perform yoga nidra as normal relaxation until:

• deep relaxation will not be mastered;
• all previously accumulated negativity will not be unloaded.

If after this the problem is not resolved or cleared up, you should use sankalpa in the form of a question: “What do I not understand in my life?” And when the answer comes in some form, the problem will be completely resolved or the assessment of the situation can be used to correctly formulate sankalpas! This is a very difficult task, the competent solution of which requires the help of an experienced specialist.

At my command

What is the effect of sankalpa based on? In yoga nidra, the practitioner’s consciousness relies solely on the perception of the voice. All other sources of information are blocked. This allows you to stay on the edge of sleep and wakefulness, where the current censorship is removed. A person listening to instructions does not need to fight with himself and change the usual rating system. Sankalpa, both given from the outside and accepted by the subject himself after many repetitions, penetrates the unconscious and becomes its active element. From this moment on, all system resources are directed in one way or another to perform this installation. And if suddenly she turns out to be unfaithful...
Let's say I want to quit smoking. It would seem that everything is simple and the sankalpa is unambiguous: “I no longer feel the urge to smoke.” After 2–3 months of practice, I really don’t touch tobacco anymore. But suddenly insomnia develops, from which no sleeping pill can save you. I'm starting to realize that I made a mistake somewhere...
However, if you approach the practice of yoga nidra correctly, no unwanted side effects will arise. The first repetition of the sankalpa at the beginning of practice is compared to planting a seed in prepared soil, the second - with watering it. It is forbidden to change the sequence, the solution should not be adjusted - down to the smallest detail - until it is completed. But in any case, it is advisable to use yoga nidra only as a method of deep relaxation, without any installations, because these games are very dangerous.
Forty minutes of deep relaxation practice is equivalent to four hours of good sleep. Satyananda claims that the ability to sleep, dream and at the same time remain conscious, acquired during the practice of yoga nidra, is unique and only a few have mastered it so far.
The ancients said: “Only a free person does not make mistakes.” The ability to perceive and comprehend the truth arises only when we are not dependent on the past and we have peace in our souls.

Nidra (yogic sleep). Yoga Nidra is a very simple and enjoyable technique for deep relaxation of the mind and body, but to achieve the best results it is useful to know a few secrets.

Yoga Nidra is called an effortless relaxation technique. This technique is the perfect ending to an intense yogic workout. While physical practice warms up the body, yoga nidra cools it down, restoring the balance of activity and rest.

Yoga nidra allows you to eliminate habitual pressures and tensions, free yourself from suppressed emotions and experiences. This accessible technique often becomes a link for the transition to more serious practices of pranayama and meditation.

After practicing asanas, yoga nidra

• cools the body after intense exercise,
• relaxes tense muscles,
• allows the nervous system to effectively use the results of asana practice.

Proper preparation for yoga nidra

1. It is not recommended to practice yoga nidra immediately after eating. It is advisable that the stomach is empty.
2. Comfortable and calm environment. Nothing should distract you. It is advisable to turn off phones, close windows and warn family members so that they do not distract you during practice. If you have pets, leave them outside the room.
3. Even on a warm day, you can feel cold during yoga nidra. It is better to cover yourself with a light blanket in advance.

Independently and in a group

If you practice on your own, select the audio recording you like in advance. It can take some time. The voice should be pleasant to you and evoke a feeling of trust and respect. There is an opinion that women prefer to listen to a man’s voice in yoga nidra, and men prefer to listen to a woman’s voice. The gender of the master in this case is secondary, the main thing is that the sound of the voice allows the practitioner’s consciousness to relax, letting go of the usual control. It is preferable to use a professional studio version rather than recording a live group session, which may contain extraneous noise and interference.

Practicing in a group with an instructor can be more effective. The special atmosphere of the hall and the presence of other practitioners makes it easier for the mind to tune in to the practice and become more deeply immersed in the process. Before starting the lesson, choose a comfortable place, take an extra mat for softness and a light blanket. During winter, you may need several blankets.

Secrets of successful yoga nidra

• The practice of yoga nidra ideally completes the practice of asanas and any physical activity. Intense training allows you to release accumulated stress, concentrate and calm the mind.
• Eating before yoga nidra is not recommended. Having had a hearty lunch, many people risk sleeping through the entire nidra session. But feeling hungry can also prevent you from relaxing. A good solution can be a light, soothing snack, such as a sweet fruit in the summer and tea with milk and spices in the winter.
• The place to practice should be calm, pleasant and clean. When performing yoga nidra, it is better to lie on the floor with a mat or blanket. The softness of the bed is usually not suitable for deep relaxation of the spine and sets practitioners up for normal sleep.
• Take care of your comfort. If you experience discomfort in the lumbar region while lying in shavasana, place a small cushion under your knees. This will allow cramped muscles to relax. Many people find it helpful to place a blanket under the back of their head. If you practice at home, make sure that you are not wearing any restrictive accessories (watches, rings), and that your clothes do not squeeze your body anywhere.
• Yoga Nidra is a practice of conscious relaxation rather than conscious effort. What does this mean? For example, the moment you hear the word apple, an image of an apple spontaneously appears in your head. You don't put any effort into making it big, small, red, green or whatever. The same thing happens in yoga nidra. Hearing a voice pronounce the names of body parts does not involve thinking, concentrating, analyzing, trying to imagine or move those areas. Attention moves throughout the body naturally, following the voice of the leader. In yoga nidra, the practitioner has no tasks (as our mind understands them), this is not a technique for self-discipline, not work in the usual sense of the word. On the contrary, yoga nidra is non-doing, it is absolute presence.
• If you are distracted by extraneous thoughts during yoga nidra, this is completely normal. Don't try to suppress them. Just observe it without analyzing it and return your attention to the voice.
• If you constantly fall asleep during yoga nidra, continue your regular practice and don't feel guilty. Falling asleep indicates that the body needs rest. After some time, the body will make up for the lack of sleep and you will be able to keep your mind awake.
• Quiet meditative music is not a necessary condition for yoga nidra, but it helps many people relax more easily and tune in to the practice.
• After practice, allow yourself to lie on your right side for a while. This activates breathing through the left nostril and allows the body to remain in a state of calm longer.

Happy practice!

There is a practice in yoga that can give you a truly relaxing sleep. It will give strength, bring health, good mood, help solve problems, cope with stress.

Yoga Nidra, or yogi sleep, is a relaxation method in which consciousness is immersed in an intermediate state between dreams and reality. It will become a good helper against the stresses of the surrounding world and will help you to know yourself.

The author of this technique, Swami Satyananda Saraswati, noted that people of our era do not know how to sleep properly. The race for success forces him to live in constant tension. At night it is not sleep that comes to him, but oblivion. Problems and fears do not let go of an anxious mind, dreams and memories torment and do not allow you to relax and sleep. Such a dream is not rest for the body and soul, but only an imitation. And if a person realizes that he is unable to truly relax, he seeks help in antidepressants and other medications, which only worsens his crisis.

Physically and mentally exhausted people can find peace in yogic sleep. An hour of this practice will replace four hours of regular sleep. This is a safe and effective method to help the psyche. In the borderline state between sleep and wakefulness, the body heals naturally, without artificial intervention. A reboot occurs, like a computer, to fix a system failure.

In this state you can make contact with the subconscious. It is largely responsible for our unreasonable fears and obsessions. And then, alone with yourself, you can find solutions to personal problems, get rid of complexes and fears, and gain positive thinking.

Benefits for consciousness

Fatigue from life, loss of strength, fears and stress are familiar to many. Even when a person has become successful in the eyes of those around him, he is often dissatisfied with his life. It’s like there’s a block on just being happy. Everything that has accumulated in the subconscious: phobias, complexes, forgotten events of the past - secretly controls a person and suppresses him. Relaxing sleep yoga will help him find the way to himself and realize his personality. Understanding and accepting oneself will become his salvation.

This is not a dream that happens every night. During practice, a person relaxes so that his mind plunges into a borderline state between reality and a dream. But he is able to carry out conscious actions, to be aware of two worlds at once: around and inside himself. Consciousness does not sleep, but awakens.

• Yoga Nidra helps to overcome complexes, fears and stress. It restores self-confidence and eliminates shyness. Events and things appear in real light, without superficial surroundings. A person acquires a correct view of the world around him and learns to accept its changes.
• This technique successfully solves many psychological and mental illnesses. By practicing yogic sleep, a person is able to cope with neuroses, panic attacks, and depression.
• If your interest in life has faded, yoga nidra will awaken your numb mind. For people on a spiritual quest, it will open the opportunity to cleanse themselves, see a completely different world around them, and even change their destiny.

Benefits for the body

Yogi sleep is beneficial not only for the mind. The whole body experiences a relaxation that conventional methods cannot provide.

• Relaxation relieves old muscle tension, helps the body rejuvenate, and restores physical and emotional strength.
• Yoga Nidra has a positive effect on the human brain, giving him normal sleep. Acting like a tranquilizer, unlike the latter, it restores rather than undermines health. A person learns to truly relax, and not exist at the limit of physical strength.
• Insomnia stops bothering him, his health improves, and his whole body becomes stronger. An unusual, but such a pleasant lightness appears in the body.
• Yoga Nidra can be practiced in the treatment of psychosomatic diseases. By healing the consciousness, it relieves the physical manifestations of mental problems.
• The practice can help where traditional medicine is ineffective: with hypertension or hypotension, headaches, arthritis and diabetes.
• A yoga nidra session performed in the evening reduces the time of night sleep, making it better quality. After it, a person will wake up not broken and exhausted, as often happens, but cheerful, full of energy and strength.

The process of yogic sleep

A yoga nidra session consists of listening to the instructor's voice as he directs attention to different parts of the body. The purpose of the practice is relaxation and mental movement throughout the body following voice commands. You need to relax as much as possible, but not doze off. If you fall asleep during class, the desired state will not be achieved. Such a dream is much less useful.

To correctly perform the yogic sleep technique, you should take a comfortable position in which a person can freeze for half an hour, or even an hour. The most commonly used pose is shavasana.

A yoga mat or rug is laid on the floor. The person lies on his back, straightens his legs and stretches his arms along his body. Palms facing up. You can put a flat pillow under your head or do without it. You should try to relax as much as possible. The eyes close, the head is directed straight, breathing becomes slow and shallow. This pose is called the "corpse pose."

Some people find it more comfortable to lie on their stomach rather than their back. This is not forbidden. You can cover yourself with a blanket.

Yoga Nidra for Beginners

Beginners to yoga nidra may react differently to the monotonous movements of attention throughout the body.

Some people just fall asleep for real. Others remember every word the instructor says. Still others sometimes hear the voice that controls them, sometimes they don’t. The psyche of the third group is in a satisfactory state. The second group has serious internal problems.

To be successful, a number of requirements must be met.

• Prepare yourself. Choose loose, comfortable clothes. Avoid food within a couple of hours. To make it more comfortable, you can wear a blindfold over your eyes.
• The practice goes smoothly, even monotonously. When moving your attention after the voice, do not think about what you heard, do not try to interpret the instructions. Don't strain to follow the instructor's commands exactly.
• The yoga room should be quiet.
• The air temperature should not be too low to prevent the body from freezing. Hypotonic people may feel chills after practice. In this case, you need to move vigorously.

If during exercise your limbs begin to twitch a little on their own, this is not scary, it’s even useful. As does the feeling of flying or falling. But nausea or a feeling of complete somersault is an alarming sign. It means that the central nervous system is not in order.

Deep relaxation

Negativity is often repressed into the subconscious: fears, complexes, stress, unpleasant memories. This burden does not disappear anywhere, but accumulates and secretly controls a person. The deep relaxation technique gradually affects the subconscious. And it tells a person the right decisions leading to the chosen goal.

When deep relaxation has been mastered, you can move on to sankalpas. These are attitudes, the conviction of which a person tries to cultivate in the subconscious. The right technique leads to visualization and gradually the words become reality.

Conditions for translating intentions into reality:

• Desires must be very significant: get rid of a bad habit, change your personal life, improve your health.
• The Sankalpa is mentally pronounced three times in a confident, positive tone. Don't use negation. Name not what you want to get rid of, but what you want to receive.
• The chosen goal should not be imposed by someone from the outside. Everyone determines it for themselves.

With yoga nidra you can not only get the long-awaited relaxation, but also change your life for the better.

Yoga Nidra is the best relaxation practice known today. It makes it easier to solve numerous problems and even has the power to change a person’s destiny. You will learn more about the features of yoga nidra from this material.

Modern man, in his desire to achieve success and a higher social position, is in a state of constant tension. The process of continuous racing is not only mentally draining, but also provokes various health problems, for example, overwork. And when a person, overwhelmed with work, finally gets the opportunity to relax, he is simply physically unable to relax.

Then psychotherapy, tranquilizers and other medications come to the rescue. As a rule, they cannot solve your problem, but only mask it, creating a whole “bouquet” of additional health problems. Of course, a visit to a psychoanalyst is also sometimes necessary, but such “dates” can last a very long time, and for some reason a positive result is not achieved from them.

It turns out that modern man vitally needs simple, effective and safe means that would help restore his psyche. It is about one such remedy - a rather unusual relaxation technique that we will talk about further.

The method of deep relaxation - yoga nidra was created by Swami Satyananda, who founded the Bihar School of Yoga. Yoga Nidra is designed to bring consciousness to the borderline phase of the state on the verge of sleep and wakefulness. In this case, the participant in the practice listens to the voice of the leader, who establishes the sequence of movement.

Suggestion becomes possible solely due to the fact that the brain is in a phase of “partial inhibition” (Tibetan Buddhism calls this state “being between”). In general, between the phases of sleep and wakefulness, human consciousness goes through various stages of inhibition:

• consciousness is awake: at the same time, the tone remains normal, the indicators of excitation are the same as inhibition;
• equalizing phase: under the influence of weak and powerful stimuli the same reactions are provoked;
• transition phase (also known as paradoxical) – mild stimuli provoke a strong reaction or there is no reaction at all;
• ultraparadoscal - a positive stimulus does not receive a response, but a negative stimulus will receive a positive response;
• narcotic stage - the reaction remains equally weakened to any type of influence;
• phase of complete inhibition - or deep sleep.

The practice of yoga nidra allows you to achieve a state where consciousness becomes attention. From the outside it looks as if the person has fallen asleep, but in reality everything is completely different. If nidra is an ordinary dream, then yoga nidra involves the presence of short blackouts of consciousness, during which internal tension is eliminated.

At the same time, the assimilation of information received by the consciousness in the phase of deep relaxation is significantly improved. In Western countries, this state is known as hypnotic - when internal censorship is eliminated and the mind is maximally receptive. Then the hypnotized person receives different attitudes and can get rid of the blocks of his consciousness.

What will yoga nidra give you?

• will allow you to fully relax the muscles of the body;
• will help get rid of psycho-emotional stress, bring the mind into a harmonious state;
• minimizes stress levels and reduces its negative impact on you;
• will allow you to quickly restore strength and energy;
• is a wonderful way to quickly and efficiently relax;
• eliminates insomnia, has a positive effect on the quality of sleep, increasing its duration;
• will trigger the body’s self-healing, normalize blood pressure, help cope with heart pathologies, asthma, migraines, skin and nervous pathologies, and so on;
• yoga nidra will be the best way to consolidate positive attitudes in the subconscious;
• will help change the habit of thinking and reacting in a negative context, which will ultimately develop positive thinking.

Yoga Nidra is a unique technique that came to us from ancient times, which can even save a person by improving his life, health and mental state.

How does a yoga nidra session work?

In practice, this will look like this: the practitioner lies down in the corpse pose (Shavasana), closes his eyes (in some cases, they use special blindfolds for yoga nidra) and follows the voice of his teacher, moving his attention around the body or consciously changing the sensations in his body.

Medical benefits of nidra yoga

Psychotherapists from all over the world are strenuously trying to force people to eliminate from their subconscious the negative attitudes that are firmly entrenched in it and learn to live a calm and happy life, to finally allow themselves health, wealth and creativity.

The complexity of this process is due to the fact that the revelation of the depths of the subconscious occurs during sleep, and when awake, mental activity is blocked by the ability to understand the subconscious.

With the help of yoga nidra, a person gets a unique opportunity to fall asleep while remaining in a conscious state of consciousness. In this case, the student is immersed in a twilight state, bordering between wakefulness and falling asleep. Remaining conscious, the practitioner can travel through his body, his sensations, memories, habits, complexes, fears, anxieties and joys and successfully eliminate them.

A person begins to realize the true reasons for his life difficulties (illnesses, conflicts, failures in a specific area of ​​life) and gradually frees himself from them. This is the most important thing in the practice of nidra yoga - to understand and free yourself from unnecessary things!

After all, the majority of people throughout their lives try to eliminate their own shortcomings - obesity, envy, greed, illness, and so on. But if you accept the necessity of this internal battle, then a person agrees that he is imperfect. And he continues to live according to the same attitudes about himself! He believes that he is poor, sick, sinful, and so on, and thinking this way, he begins to act and feel exactly the same.

Today, many different healers and psychologists are trying to convince people that they should just think in a positive context and then everything will be resolved by itself. But in practice, doing this is quite problematic. It is difficult to imagine yourself as absolutely healthy if you are seriously ill, or rich if you have a financial deficit.

And trying to do violence to yourself means once again admitting your own imperfection and coming to terms with it.

The practice of yoga nidra invites you to stop fighting with your mind, give it complete relaxation, but while maintaining active consciousness - the ability to observe and remember, but without eternal analysis. But yoga nidra is not hypnosis. The main difference is that the practitioner does not lose his free will. And if he doesn’t like something during the practice, he may well stop it.

Who should/shouldn't do yoga nidra

This practice has no physiological contraindications, since it does not involve strength exercises. But there is a risk that a beginner without appropriate preparation may simply fall asleep (after all, the brain is accustomed to the fact that if you lie down and close your eyes, it means you need to fall asleep). Sleep is, of course, also very useful, but the effect from it will not be what you need.

For this reason, before performing yoga nidra practices, one must actively practice hatha yoga. This will help you relax better, but remain fully aware.

Now you know what yoga nidra is and how to properly prepare for it. We recommend that you watch the video with the basic complex of this technique further:

In my opinion, yoga - nidra, is the most mysterious branch of modern yogic practices. Many people I asked what they had heard about yoga nidra answered that it was something related to sleep, some talked about yogic sleep. In general, that was where the conversations ended. But in fact, yoga nidra is not related to sleep in our usual understanding of sleep, it is a very interesting technique of relaxation and relaxation, immersion within oneself and solving many internal problems. But first things first.

History of yoga - nidra

This practice was revealed to the world in the seventies of the last century by the famous Indian yogi Swami Satyananda Saraswati. As Swami himself stated, this technique is based on ancient tantric scriptures written at the beginning of our era. He supplemented it on the basis of his knowledge, as well as facts already studied in detail in the twentieth century about the physiology of the brain, psychological processes, and the study of the unconscious.

Swami Satyananda Saraswati

Tantra and yoga teacher. He was born in India, in a village at the foot of the Himalayas and lived a long, eventful life. He began his path of a conscious personality very early: already at an early age he experienced his first spiritual experience, and from that time on, the worldly interested him little. As a young man, he met a wandering yogini, a tantra teacher, who taught him a lot and lifted the veil of ancient knowledge. She also said that his path is that of a disciple and he must seek his guru. Satyananda left home when he was not even twenty years old. In Rishikesh, he met Swami Sivananda (the famous yogi, teacher, known and revered all over the world) and realized that he had found what he was looking for, here he was his teacher. For a very long time he devoted himself to the service of his guru. In 1947, he accepted sannyas from him and became a wandering ascetic: he traveled for a long time to the holy places of India, Pakistan, and Nepal. In the sixties, he founded a large yoga school in India on the banks of the Ganges (Bihar School). Everyone who wanted to learn yoga came there not only from India, but also from abroad. Gradually he became known outside India, and began to systematically travel to Western countries.

Yoga - Nidra as it is

What is the main scourge of today? Why do people get sick, become depressed, hide in offices and behind a bottle? It's all about stress. It is very difficult for a person, essentially a creature born from nature, to live in a state of constant tension and stress in modern cities, poor ecology, loans, and long hours of work. This is all wrong, and, of course, our consciousness, and even more so the unconscious, absorbs, accumulates and produces all this in the form of strange manifestations: insomnia, depression, depressed state of consciousness, panic attacks, alcohol.

Yoga - nidra is a special mental technique for relaxing and removing internal (deeply internal) blocks. Experiences and stress, unresolved problems, childhood complexes and traumas, everything can be “groped,” released and worked through with the help of this technique, on the one hand it is very easy, and on the other hand it is not so easy to master. Because, as experience shows, it is very difficult for a modern Western person to relax completely, even in sleep. You have to make incredible efforts to get into a state of conscious relaxation.

Most often, classes and seminars are conducted by an experienced instructor, who also “leads” a person through all the intermediate stages of this path. However, if there are none in your city, and this technique is generally unknown, there are now audio recordings of yoga nidra seminars online.

Execution technique

To begin with, the person assumes the corpse pose (shavasana). This is a must. In all yogic treatises, this particular pose is described as the best for relaxation. You need to lie down as comfortably as possible, since it is very important that there is no feeling of discomfort anywhere, not in one part of the body; you can put a pillow on it or cover yourself with a blanket. Many people mistakenly think that yoga - nidra - sleep yoga, you need to fall into sleep. However, the opposite is true - you should never sleep! Just listen and follow the instructor's instructions, and don't sleep. Focus on the voice, instructions, try to follow them without thinking.

Stages of performing yoga nidra

As I said, it's simple: follow the instructor's instructions and don't sleep. However, it is very important to really follow all the recommendations given in order to achieve the desired effect.

The first stage is to collect and voice your internal intention - sankalpa.. This is a short, clear, decisive definition, a formula, of what you want to achieve at this stage. It was not for nothing that I used the term “intention”, because, as it seems to me, the technique of yoga - nidra is very close to the technique of lucid dreaming - the sleep of magicians, the main element in the practice and teaching of Carlos Castaneda, which was allegedly revealed to him by a representative of the ancient branch of the Toltecs - Indians of Central America. Intention or sankalpa is a very important condition for the technique; you must clearly formulate: what interests you most at this stage of life, what is your goal, why did you come here, come to this practice? Masters believe that sankalpa is a serious thing, and beginners should not joke with it; at first, it may be a more generalized desire - to relax, surrender into the hands of the Almighty, and get rid of negativity. Because the concentration of intention on any specific object, or negative influence, experience, can emerge from an unprepared person in completely bizarre forms. You may want to get rid of a bad habit, stress, or some problem. In general, formulating a sankalpa is the first stage of entering yoga nidra.

The second stage is the so-called rotation of thought, consciousness. The instructor guides the person, and listening to his instructions, the person begins to move his attention to each part of the body, relaxing it as much as possible, as if rotating the consciousness around each area, from head to fingertips. The main thing is not to fall asleep and be as concentrated as possible on each part of the body, gradually relaxing the whole body.

The third stage is awareness of breathing. After becoming aware of the whole body and relaxing it, a person comes to conscious breathing, tracking each inhalation and exhalation. We must try to preserve this state as much as possible.

The fourth stage - concentration on internal images. After relaxing and distracting the mind, you begin to concentrate on internal images. These could be experiences from the past, samskaras from past lives. Your elaborations and your work begin at this stage. It is very important to maintain a calm mind and self-control. This stage will teach you to control your emotions, experiences, cope with negative memories and stress. This is a moment of regression - a concept often used in psychology - immersion in the past.

The fifth and final stage is visualization on certain symbols and images.. Listening to the instructions of the instructor, you concentrate on certain universal symbols and images given to you (these can be different universal global symbols: Om, Christ, Buddha, light, Peace). The main thing here is to follow the leader’s instructions. It is important to try to consciously go through all the stages and complete the practice correctly. You return to your sankalpa again: the goal is more clear. You achieve the desired installation.

Conclusion

The practice of yoga nidra can really help a person solve internal problems, tasks that have been unattainable for many years. This is akin to a session of psychotherapy or hypnosis (very often yoga-nidra is compared with hypnosis, but they have nothing in common in their techniques). And most importantly, this technique will teach you to relax, to truly learn to control your body and mind, to be the master of your emotions, habits, and desires.