Sri Swami Satyananda Saraswati, a yoga master in India and the West who founded schools in the 1950s and 1960s, developed yoga nidra from a traditional meditation practice. Yoga nidra, which means "yoga sleep," focuses on relaxing the mind and body while maintaining full awareness. A regular practice of yoga nidra can relax your nervous system, uplift your mood, relieve anxiety, reduce pain and help with insomnia.
Yoga Nidra Posture
To practice yoga nidra, take a class or follow along with a CD or a podcast. The posture of yoga nidra is savasana, also called Corpse pose. You simply lie on your back with your eyes closed. Your arms are at your sides, slightly away from your body, and your palms face upward with your fingers curled naturally. Separate your legs slightly and let your feet fall out to the side. Physically, this is all you do in yoga nidra.
Sankalpa
After getting comfortable in savasana, you set a sankalpa. In Sanskrit, "san" means "the highest truth" and "kalpa" means "vow." So, sankalpa invites you to bring attention to the desire within your heart and to live your deepest truth. This can be anything from wishing for world peace to achieving a specific goal in your life. By focusing on your sankalpa throughout your yoga nidra practice, you develop conscious awareness of what you most value. In your class or on the recording, the teacher talks you through how to word your sankalpa in your mind to best align with your desire.
61 Points
A body scan through 61 points -- on your right side, on your left side and throughout your center -- connects you with your body and occupies your mind. Timing is important, as moving through the 61 points too quickly makes the exercise too rote and moving too slowly may cause your mind to wander. The idea is not to concentrate but to stay alert through the practice.
Breath Awareness
Focus on your breath, noticing the flow of your inhalations and exhalations. To stay alert, you count your breath backwards from 27 to one. To yourself, you say something like "27, navel rising, 27 navel falling, 26 navel rising, 26 navel falling," etc., until you reach one. If you lose count, you start again from 27 and work your way back down.
Visualization
The instructor quickly names images for you to visualize. These can include a mountain, river, temple, flower and a kitten, to name a few. Yoga nidra ends with a revisit to your sankalpa. This time, you fully feel its effect on your mind and your body.
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