What's the BEST stress buster for mental balance and grounding? For me, it's my Yoga Nidra meditation practice. And contrary to popular belief, Yoga Nidra is NOT just about helping you sleep. It's a meditative practice that can help you find mental balance and grounding... which makes it the perfect STRESS BUSTER!

I break down what Yoga Nidra really is all about - including the science and research behind it, the different stages of sleep and consciousness, and the best length of time for you to take an enhanced nap in your Yoga Nidra practice, in order to relieve some of the stress during your busy day.

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TIMESTAMPS:

00:00 Intro
01:38 What to Prioritise When Busy?
02:53 Science on Yoga Nidra
03:20 Stages of Falling Asleep
03:37 The Hypnagogic State
05:18 Reflections on My Yoga Nidra Practice
06:16 What If You Fall Asleep During Yoga Nidra?
07:08 Yoga Nidra and “Sankalpa”
07:55 What’s the Best Duration for a Yoga Nidra?
09:00 What’s Next?

SOME YOGA NIDRA RESEARCH PAPERS:

○ Effectiveness of a short Yoga Nidra meditation on stress, sleep, and well-being
○ iRest yoga-nidra on the college campus: changes in stress, depression, worry, and mindfulness:

WATCH NEXT:

○ Liforme vs. Manduka Yoga Mat Reviews: https://youtu.be/WJw8245xT4c
○ 15-minute Yoga Nidra Meditation for Deep Relaxation: https://youtu.be/jDKWBVLNBlM
○ 30-minute Yoga Nidra for Deep Sleep: https://youtu.be/JeiJM23wFI0

TRANSCRIPT:

Hi, and welcome back to my channel. If you’re going through a high-stress period in life right now - perhaps feeling exhausted all the time, energetically low, maybe even strung out and on the edge a lot… I’ve got one technique to help you get through this difficult time. It’s called Yoga Nidra - and contrary to popular belief, yoga nidra is not just about helping you sleep. It is a great relaxation tool which is why it’s used for deep sleep… but it’s also a meditative practice that can help you find mental balance and grounding.

What We’ll Cover:

In this video, we’ll go into the researched science of Yoga Nidra - what’s really happening with your brain waves in the different levels of sleep and consciousness and how you can use this as your life hack to get deep rest. Stick around till the end coz I’ll also tell you what the optimal length of a yoga nidra should be if you’re using it as a stress buster. Hint: it doesn’t need to be long - so that you make the best use of the little time you’ve got in your busy day.

Who Am I?

If we haven’t met yet, Hi! I’m Jaime Tan at Enlightened Spoon, feeding your mind, body soul. On this channel you’ll get lifestyle design and easy hacks you can squeeze into your busy day just like today’s… and other times you’ll get nutrition, yoga and meditation videos… all tools to help you stress less, yet accomplish more. So hit that Like button and subscribe if you want more like this.

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Now, I’m a wellness coach trained in nutrition, yoga and meditation, but I’m also an Executive Producer in one of the world’s top creative agencies frequently shooting with celebrities and pro-athletes… so I know what it’s like navigating a busy, full-on life. Since the start of the year, I’ve been on a 19-day production spanning 4 continents, shooting remotely from home… because global pandemic - which means shooting at odd hours sometimes from 1am-1pm, or sometimes working 19-hour days. Of course it’s not ideal to be working those hours, but if you’re in a similar situation: recognise it’s not forever, and while you’re in the middle of the storm, you need to change up your daily rituals to help support your present moment. Make sleep, or rest, your priority.

What to Prioritise When Busy?

So… what do I do in these hyper-stressed, sleep-deprived times, when there’s no time for that either?

I give myself 15 - 30 minute yoga nidra breaks during the day. It’s like taking a souped up nap, almost equivalent to the rest you’ll get from 2-3 hours of deep sleep. And in this state, you can also reprogram your unconscious thoughts and emotions. From this deeper state of consciousness, we can safely explore, meet and greet some of the deeper layers of ourselves, if you really wanna go deep with this. Otherwise, you can simply use this as your enhanced form of conscious napping.

The Science of Yoga Nidra

Turning to some of the science on Yoga Nidra: I practice and teach in the iRest tradition which has been researched to help with stress, anxiety, depression even PTSD… it’s so effective and backed by science that it’s even used in the US military and prisons. This stuff works!

The Stages of Falling Asleep

Yoga Nidra literally translated means the “yoga of conscious sleep”... so what the heck does “conscious sleep” mean?

You know that moment when your head hits the pillow… just as you’re drifting off to sleep… for some of us that’s 1 minute, 5 minutes, 10 minutes… and sometimes you might be aware that you’re drifting in and out of sleep, when you’re in that very light stage of sleep. This is called the hypnagogic state… that transition between wakefulness and sleep. Alpha waves in the brain are decreasing, but it’s just before you go into the first stage of sleep.

Yoga Nidra helps you shift consciousness between this hypnagogic state and the first and second stages of light sleep. You’re dancing between the Alpha and Theta brain waves.

The Hypnagogic State

This hypnagogic state is a highly creative and inspired state to be in. It’s said Einstein used to take naps during the day sitting up with a pencil in his hand… and right around that time when he’d nod off... You know how your head jerks you up again when you fall asleep sitting up… so he’d jerk back up again, and often a flash of insight would hit him in these moments, where he’d write his theories or equations down.

So that’s part of the yoga nidra practice - to get you in this hypnagogic state where your mind and senses are wide open, and open to receiving any messages from the subconscious mind, whatever might be lurking under the surface, or perhaps a flash of personal insight. It’s a similar state you’re in under hypnosis, but yoga nidra goes deeper because you’re in control of your experience. The yoga nidra teacher like me, is there to facilitate and suggest - but you decide where you want to take your practice and what you want to work on that day.

It’s in this state of consciousness, this transitional state of “Being” between wakefulness and sleep where we can meet and greet any difficult aspects of ourselves or life, and use this as an exploratory tool for personal growth.

Reflections On My Yoga Nidra Practice

I’ve had deep personal insights, realisations, understanding, acceptance of myself, the people around me… and generally just connecting with the overall feeling that even if things don’t start off feeling comfortable, eventually I recognise that hey, actually it’s all good. Life is good. Everything is exactly as it’s meant to be.

And sometimes - we need to just feel that in our being, rather than just be told that. And the iRest yoga nidra tradition I’m trained in is a very somatic form of meditation that gets you to sense and feel into the physical sensations - somatically. So it takes you out of the cerebral, thinking mind and really into the felt sense in the body. Which adds another layer of relaxation.

Do you practice yoga nidra and is this part of your experience too? Let me know in the comments below. And if you’re enjoying this, do hit that like button and subscribe to my channel for more like this!

What Happens If You Fall Asleep During Yoga Nidra?

Now because we’re drifting between this hypnagogic state and the first and second stages of sleep, we can sometimes just fall asleep, and that’s why yoga nidra is often used as a sleep meditation. But if you’re doing a yoga nidra to work with specific themes in your life, like your heartfelt desires, challenging emotions or limiting beliefs you might have… sometimes especially if we’re new to this practice, you might simply nod off and fall asleep without staying awake and conscious. And if that happens, that’s perfectly alright. Maybe we’re just really tired and needed to take that nap. So if you fall asleep, it’s all good. Perhaps you needed that nap.

As with all things, with time and practice, you’ll learn to stay in this delicious transitional moment between the sleeping and waking states.

Yoga Nidra + “Sankalpa”

Most yoga nidra sessions almost always start off with setting an intention and opening into your heartfelt desire, also known as the Sanskrit term of “sankalpa”. This is where the juiciness lies, but it’s a whole different topic for a different video - which I go into more detail about in this month’s email - I send out 5 Good Things to Share! Every first Sunday of the month and February 2021 is all about living with intention. Connecting with your purpose in life also known as your “dharma code” and you can sign up for it in the link in description below. If you’re watching this after February 2021 but want a link to this sankalpa edition - let me know in the comments below, or you can send me a message on Instagram.

What’s the Best Length of Time for a Yoga Nidra?

So you’ve stuck around up til here which means you probably wanna know - what is the optimal length of a yoga nidra? The answer is: it depends! If you’re using yoga nidra as your stress buster, and only want this to be an enhanced form of napping during your busy day, I suggest sticking to a 15 - 30 minute practice as this should keep you between the hypnagogic and stages 1 - 2 of light sleep. You’ll come out of the practice feeling refreshed and energised. And the bonus is: you wouldn’t have spent that much time on it.

If you go into a longer than 30 minute practice, this is when you’ll start falling into the deeper stages of sleep. And the danger of coming out of a practice when you’ve fallen into deep sleep and got out of it before the end of that sleep cycle is you’ll come out of it feeling groggy, tired and not refreshed.

Which also means: if you’re using yoga nidra as your sleep meditation - anything longer than 30 or 35 minutes is great… just relax and drift away.

Try my 15-minute yoga nidra to help calm your mind during the day here, or my 30-minute yoga nidra for deep sleep over here… In my next video I’ll go into more on how to get most comfy in your yoga nidra, so smash like and subscribe… I hope this helps you flow through your busy life with more grace, ease and flow… and I’ll see you in the next one!

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