Deep Yoga for Deep Tension: Yoga Nidra Explained

Yoga in English, Kreuzberg BerlinDepending on where you are from or how far you are in your own personal yoga practice, you may not yet be familiar with Yoga Nidra. But with all the stress going on in the world, and more specifically, in our everyday lives, finding ways to relieve deep tension in our bodies and minds is becoming increasingly important. At our English Yoga studio in Kreuzberg, what unites us as a collective is that we end every class no matter which style of yoga (Hatha Yoga, Vinyasa Flow and Tantric Yoga) with a guided relaxation using techniques inspired by Yoga Nidra. We also have an audio collection of recorded relaxations here on our website!

Yoga Nidra is the practice of conscious deep sleep.  It is a specific yoga in and of itself where we learn how to relax deeply by practicing pratyahara, or detachment, with the eventual goal of attaining a state of inner peace. When we practice Yoga Nidra we enter a state of very deep relaxation in which we travel through the layers of our conscious, subconscious and unconscious minds.

3 Types of Tensions
When you think about your life, you may think that there are a million kinds of tensions around every corner, just waiting to cause you stress. But the tensions that people experience could be divided into three basic categories:

  • Muscular
  • Emotional
  • Physical

Muscular tensions arise from the body itself, the nervous system and through endocrine imbalance. Emotional tensions arise from the duality of emotions such as love/hate, joy/sadness, success/failure, which we are not able to express freely. This inability to express our emotions means that they become repressed and get deeply rooted in our unconscious. Mental tension arises from excessive mental activity. The monkey mind can be a whirlpool of fantasies, confusions, and oscillations of thoughts which when uncontrolled can become a source of real discomfort and pain.

Techniques
Some of the techniques used in order to cleanse these tensions include the rotation of consciousness, concentration on different sounds, opposite sensations, rapid imagery and visualization. Through the practice of yoga Nidra the practitioner undergoes a cleansing of mental, emotional, and physical tensions.

focus is a technique used in yoga nidra

Rotation of Consciousness
The rotation of consciousness involves taking the practitioner’s awareness to different parts of the body. It is said that wherever we center our attention it becomes the place where we also center our energy. Bringing ones awareness to each part of the body increases the energy in that part and allows the participant to identify and relax tensions there.

Auditory Focus
Often in our Yoga Nidra class we concentrate on different sounds. This technique helps the students to withdraw from the other senses (vision, taste, feeling, smells) and only leave one channel, the auditory one, open. The idea is that the participant stays aware of the directions coming from the instructor, but practices detachment from all other stimuli. This focus can increase a feeling of inner peace because when the mind is not getting overwhelmed with input, it is less likely to create intense mental fluctuations and more likely to be calm.

Opposite Sensations
Students are asked to focus on experiencing opposite sensations in Yoga Nidra. For example heaviness/lightness, sadness/elation, cold/warm. As previously said, emotional tension arises from the duality of emotions. By asking the student to temporarily experience emotions that they are not presently feeling, and then to experience the opposite emotion, this technique is used to neutralize emotions. This often allows the practitioner to go into a deeper state of relaxation, one that lies beyond the limitations of their emotional world.

lucid dreaming often occurs with yoga nidra practiceRapid Imagery
Rapid imagery involves a number of different things being named in quick succession and the student being asked to visualize each of them, then let them go so that they can move on to the next one. Because the mind tends to wander on its own and create its own fluctuations, this practice can help regulate this activity. For example when the image “waves breaking on a deserted beach” is given, then one could start thinking of the last time they were on the beach. They then think of who they were with, the emotions this caused and then start analyzing that past situation. But before this can happen in Yoga Nidra practice, the next image is given, considered and then asked to be released. It is a method of learning how to guide the mind so that we can learn to visualize and to release images that produce subconscious reactions. This, taken into our everyday life, can decrease our levels of stress and help us to achieve a more consistent sense of wellbeing.

 

Coming Out of Yoga Nidra

Elegance and Shadows by Fern

Yoga Nidra is a powerful technique, evolved by Swami Satyananda Saraswati from ancient tantric scriptures. To those who have practiced it, Yoga Nidra is experienced as a deep relaxation. But, although this method induces complete physical, mental and emotional relaxation, it is much more than that.

In the Tantric tradition, Yoga Nidra is viewed as a Pratyahara method; a way to turn our awareness away from the external impressions. During the process, our consciousness is constantly moved through images, symbols, states, and different parts of ourselves. In this way we are led to fully and consciously experience these internal objects, making the mind more flexible and able to deal with impressions.

But due to the deep state of relaxation and meditation in which the mind is plunged during Yoga Nidra, it is important that we come out gradually from the practice. Passing too suddenly from the deep state to waking consciousness could temporarily jolt the mind and produce unpleasant feelings of irritation or even headaches.

Most of your Berlin yoga classes include some Yoga Nidra at the end of each practice. We feel that this is a great way to end a class filled with active asanas, breathing and other meditative techniques. But it is very important to closely follow the instructions for ending the practice; gradually moving the awareness outwards and opening to the sense stimuli. We recommend listening to the sounds, feeling the tact of the floor or clothes against your skin and opening your eyes very slowly before you look around. Before you do anything else, it’s good to experience your surroundings: the room, sounds, light, people, objects; everything around you, as a whole. This will ensure that you receive the maximum benefits from the practice and are able to transition back into the rest of your day.

Confused About Yoga Nidra: a Personal Story

Blue door to yoga in kreuzbergFifteen years ago I moved back to Greece for a two year stay. I had been practicing Hatha Yoga in England and wanted to continue, so I joined the nearest studio to my house that I could find.

When I arrived for my first class, the teacher told me that this type of yoga was called Yoga Nidra but didn’t really explain what that meant. At this point in my yoga journey, I understood that there were many types of yoga. I had heard that the main differences had to do with the way the sun salutation is taught in different schools. But this didn’t bother me as it seemed a pretty small deviation.

Little did I know that Yoga Nidra meant that more than half of the class was to be spent in “shavasana” practicing relaxation! Every time the teacher would say it was time to go into the dead man’s pose I would think to myself, “already?.. but we hardy did any yoga!”. I hadn’t understood that practicing the relaxation was “doing the yoga”. It was the mind doing the yoga rather than the body.

Concious deep sleep yoga in Berlin

As soon as she would start talking, my mind would slip to another place. It felt as if I was not there at all but I could not tell you where I had gone either. It wasn’t that I was thinking of thousands of thoughts, on the contrary, I couldn’t remember a single thought! But I also knew that I had not been present since I couldn’t remember anything the teacher had said. It was a very strange experience. When I asked her if I should be concerned about this phenomenon, she told me not to worry because my subconscious had registered it all. But I wasn’t convinced.

I guess what was even stranger is that I kept on going back every week, for a year! Each time not able to grasp a single word my teacher had said!

It wasn’t until years later, while reading a book about Yoga Nidra, that I realized that during this period of my life I had started having my first lucid dreams. This means I was able to realize that I was dreaming while I was dreaming and could, as a result, be in control of my dream. Although this is not the objective of Yoga Nidra and a practitioner should not waste energy trying to achieve this state, the book said that it was a side effect that comes from practicing this kind of yoga.

yoga nidra dreamingWhen I made this realization it became obvious to me that this course had not been a waste of my time. My subconscious had actually registered everything after all! I started wondering: if lucid dreaming, (which I consider to be a beautiful and empowering experience) is only a side effect of yoga Nidra, then how powerful can the direct effects of yoga Nidra be?!

 

Without further thought, I returned to my mat and started practicing again.

If you are interested in trying out this enlightening style of yoga, join English Yoga Berlin in our Kreuzberg Yoga studio on Tuesday nights at 8pm.

Deep Yoga for Deep Tension: Intro to Yoga Nidra

Berlin Yoga Nidra in EnglishDepending on where you are from or how far you are in your own personal yoga practice, you may not yet be familiar with Yoga Nidra. But with all the stress going on in the world, and more specifically, in our everyday lives, finding ways to relieve deep tension in our bodies and minds is becoming increasingly important.  We have been practicing Yoga Nidra but have never offered classes in our English Yoga studio in Kreuzberg.  In September, we decided it was time to begin.

Yoga Nidra is the practice of conscious deep sleep.  It is a specific yoga in and of itself where we learn how to relax deeply by practicing pratyahara, or detachment, with the eventual goal of attaining a state of inner peace. When we practice Yoga Nidra we enter a state of very deep relaxation in which we travel through the layers of our conscious, subconscious and unconscious minds.

3 Types of Tensions
When you think about your life, you may think that there are a million kinds of tensions around every corner, just waiting to cause you stress. But the tensions that people experience could be divided into three basic categories:

  • Muscular
  • Emotional
  • Physical

Muscular tensions arise from the body itself, the nervous system and through endocrine imbalance.  Emotional tensions arise from the duality of emotions such as love/hate, joy/sadness, success/failure, which we are not able to express freely. This inability to express our emotions means that they become repressed and get deeply rooted in our unconscious.  Mental tension arises from excessive mental activity. The monkey mind can be a whirlpool of fantasies, confusions, and oscillations of thoughts which when uncontrolled can become a source of real discomfort and pain.

Some of the techniques used in order to cleanse these tensions include the rotation of consciousness, concentration on different sounds, opposite sensations, rapid imagery and visualization.  Through the practice of yoga Nidra the practitioner undergoes a cleansing of mental, emotional, and physical tensions.

To experience this practice for yourself, check out our newest Yoga Nidra class in Kreuzberg.