If chaturangas, vinyasas and hot rooms aren’t your thing, understandable. But don’t give up on yoga yet: Yoga Nidra may be just your thing.
You barely need a mat in this style of yoga, never mind a spiky towel to soak up your sweat. In fact, the main props include blankets, pillows and maybe your bed. It’s all about relaxation and ultimately, sleep.
“Nidra translates from Sanskrit to English as ‘sleep,’” says Raye Lynn Rath-Rondeau, who has been teaching yoga for almost three decades. She’s the former owner of The Yoga Institute, considered a senior yoga and meditation instructor, and in many circles, and she’s known “the teacher’s teacher.” Yoga Nidra is one of her specialties.
At least a quarter of Americans have trouble sleeping. Yoga Nidra can be a useful tool, and the benefits go well beyond better rest.
“[The practice] uses specific body and breath relaxation techniques designed to effortlessly lead you into a state of complete non-doing,” she explains.
There’s a framework to the practice — a specific order — that Rath-Rondeau says follows our natural process of falling asleep. It’s basically a progressive letting go in mind and body to deliberately and incrementally enter rest.
Learning and being able to do this is a skill that also lends itself to less stress and anxiety, greater mental clarity, and more energy, to name a few perks.
The practice is done lying down in a quiet and private spot, with props to support fully releasing and relaxing (think pillow under knees, washcloth over eyes, flat pillow beneath head, etc.). Comfort is key, so if the floor isn’t ideal, a recliner, couch or bed all work, too.
The aim is to move into the space between wakefulness and sleep, then move back and forth over that line.
“You will disappear, then become aware again, then drop back down. It’s a wave,” she explains. “If you come back and are aware of my voice, you’re not really asleep. You’re in that twilight phase.”
“Here, there is a great peace, calm, and stillness.”
It’s so relaxing, Rath-Rondeau says 45 minutes of Yoga Nidra is equivalent to 3 hours of sleep. I can personally attest — it feels absolutely amazing.
But this isn’t the kind of practice I can write you through, and Rath-Rondeau adds that we can’t lead ourselves through it, either. We need someone else — ideally someone who has been specifically trained —to manage the process and take the lead so we’re fully able to surrender and let go.
“It’s one of the oldest and most powerful practices of meditation you can do,” Rath-Rondeau says. Someone who has studied the art and science of “yogic sleep” can offer a deeply restful and nourishing experience.
“You can find a Yoga Nidra facilitator locally, and you can also get recorded Yoga Nidra practices online, on YouTube and on apps like Insight Timer and online subscriptions like Glo,” she says.
Rath-Rondeau has a workshop called The Yoga of Vibration coming up at The Woodlands Yoga Studio next month. She also offers private Yoga Nidra sessions, often over Zoom. Otherwise, her only online presence at the moment is occasionally Facebook and her email: awakeningpresence.raye@gmail.com.
Whether you dabble in the practice with Rath-Rondeau, or with someone else, I hope Yoga Nidra might offer you more peaceful nights.
And days, too.
The Yoga of Vibration
Sunday, Nov. 13
11:30 – 3:00
Early bird tuition – $75; after Nov. 7 – $85.
TheWoodlandsYogaStudio.com